EMERICH DE, an eminent jurist, was the son of a Protestant minister, and was born at Couret, in the principality of Neuchâtel, in the month of April 1714. His academical studies he prosecuted at Basle and Geneva. During his early years his favourite pursuit was philosophy; and having carefully examined the works of Leibnitz and Wolf, he exhibited a specimen of his talents for metaphysical investigation by publishing a defence of Leibnitz's system against Crousaz. It was printed in 1741, and in the course of the same year he repaired to Berlin in the hope of obtaining some public employment from the king; but this hope was so long deferred, that in 1743 he proceeded to Dresden with similar views, and experienced a very favourable reception from Count Bruhl. Some private affairs required his presence in his native country; but he returned to the court of Saxony in 1746, and obtained from the elector, Augustus the Third, the title of counsellor of embassy, accompanied with a pension. He was sent to Berne in the capacity of the elector's minister to that republic; and as his diplomatic functions did not require constant residence, he passed some portion of his time with his own family. Much of his leisure was devoted to literature and jurisprudence. Among other works he published Mélanges de Littérature, de Morale, et de Politique, and Loisirs Philosophiques. But his best efforts were directed to a more elaborate work, on which his reputation is chiefly founded. It appeared under the title of Droit des Gens; ou, Principes de la Loi Naturelle appliqués à la Conduite et aux Affaires des Nations et des Souverains, Neuchâtel, 1758, 2 tom. 4to. During the same year, having been recalled from Switzerland, he was employed in the cabinet of Dresden, and was soon afterwards honoured with the title of privy-counsellor. Although his constitution had originally been robust, his labours now became so intense as to exhaust his strength. Having tried the effects of relaxation and of his native air, he thought himself sufficiently recovered to resume his place in the cabinet. He accordingly returned to Dresden in 1766; but his renewed exertions soon produced a relapse, and he made another excursion to Neuchâtel, where he died on the 20th of December 1767, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. He left a son, who was recently a member of the council of that principality. The last of his literary labours was a work entitled Questions de Droit Naturel; ou, Observations sur le Traité du Droit de la Nature, par Wolf. Vattel's Droit des Gens continues to be studied and quoted as a book of authority. It has passed through many editions, and has been translated into various languages. An English translation was published in the year 1760.