literary assistance were offered on every side. He returns thanks in the most earnest manner to many of his friends; to the respectable Bodmer and Breitinger; to the learned Schinz, author of the History of the Commerce of Zurich; to John Henry Füseli, who imparted to him the contents of his library and of his own writings, like a brother; and to Theophilus Emanuel Haller, son of the great Haller, who placed at his disposal, with unexampled kindness, the collection of documents and of authentic acts which he had himself formed with great expense of labour, time, and money; a collection composed of forty-five folio volumes in MS. and twenty-four quarto MSS. During eight or nine years, MULLER was occupied in these researches; of which period he passed only about eighteen months under his paternal roof. The more knowlege he gained, the more he was impressed with a high idea of the quàlities of an historian. At this time he became acquainted with Charles Victor Bonstetten; a learned and ingenious young native of Berne, (some years his senior,) with whom he maintained the closest intimacy for twelve years; and whose friendship, although difference of employment and of situation rendered it less active latterly, he ever remembered with undiminished feeling. Awakened to new energy by this congenial friend, he more ardently than ever devoted himself to history and to politics. The persevering tenderness of his mother, who alone understood the state of his mind *, and who never despaired of the success of a laudable project, at last prevailed in obtaining for him the consent of his father that he should devote himself to a literary life. He obtained also the encouragement of the magistrates of Schafhausen; and they gave him a flattering proof of their approbation, by allowing him to hold his place of professor for several years while the duties of it were performed by another. The We must be comparatively brief in our account of the remainder of this historian's life. He visited Geneva, and became known to the counsellor James Tronchin, of whose children he undertook the care; although, as he confesses, he had little taste and little skill for discharging the duties of a tutor. father, however, was an intelligent man; and in his conversation MULLER was repaid, by a full exercise of his own intellectual powers, for the contraction and studied deterioration of intellect which are necessary for the performance of the task of a schoolmaster. Here also he was introduced to the celebrated Charles Bonnet and his lady; and to a young native of South Carolina, named Francis Kinloch, with whom he is said to have *Poets have not made sufficient use of this sweetest of natural feelings, the love of a son for his mother. What a field it opens ! passed some of the happiest hours of his life. They took a house in the country near Chambeisy; and although their habitation was not very splendid, it commanded a view of the Alps, of the lake of Geneva, and of the richly cultivated tract of land on its lovely borders. In this sweet residence they passed nearly a year and a half; enjoying the noblest compositions of human genius. Their mornings were dedicated to the social perusal of Tacitus and of Montesquieu; and when, in the afternoon, Kinloch employed himself in the study of Blackstone, or any other English writer, MULLER augmented his stores of knowlege concerning the history of his country: their leisure hours were divided between the pleasures of society, and the perusal of Latin, French, and English classics. Mr. Kinloch's guardian, Thomas Boone, a man of rare character, formerly governor of South Carolina, and afterward one of the comptrollers of the customs in England, added to this pleasant party; which was also occasionally enlivened by the company of Bonnet, of Mr. Fitzherbert, (now Lord St. Helen's,) and of Voltaire. Subsequently to the time passed in this delightful retreat, MULLER paid a visit to Geneva, and there formed an intimacy with the Procurer-general Tronchin, the elder brother of his former friend. He seems to have derived considerable advantages from this acquaintance; and he now conceived the project of giving public lectures on history at Geneva. One of his auditors, when he carried this plan into execution, was Mr. Charles Abbot, now Speaker of the British House of Commons.After having finished his second course of lectures, he published at Berne, in the year 1780, the first part of his history of Swisserland. His style was critized severely; and he was reproached with affecting the brevity of Tacitus. He denies the accusation, but allows the justice of another objection; namely, that he had omitted to quote his authorities. For this omission, however, he afterward made ample amends; when, in republishing and continuing his work, he cast it into a form entirely new, and greatly added to the reputation which it had from the first acquired for its author. In fact this history has almost superseded every other account of the interesting country of which it records the destinies; and it has placed M. MULLER in the very first class of German writers. About the time just mentioned, the author visited Berlin, anxious to see the court of that celebrated monarch whose weight in the scale of European power was then so sensibly felt. His friend Gleim had the less difficulty on this account in persuading him to seek some honourable employment at Berlin; and he was introduced to the great Frederic. The King received him with that courtesy for which he could be remarkable, and and gave him strong assurances of his esteem, but gave him nothing more. The idea of creating a new place for a stranger ought to have been suggested by the monarch himself, if suggested at all but MULLER seems to think that the ill offices of some jealous courtiers (among whom the Abbé Duval is mentioned,) adroitly prevented Frederic from forming such an intention. The troubles at Geneva, those first sparks of the fire which, after having covered with ruins the fairest portion of Europe, concluded by destroying the happy liberty of that city herself *, now recalled MULLER to his country: but on his way thither he was stopped at Cassel, by the news of the triumph of the popular party, who were offended with him for a work which he had lately published in a Collection of Historical Essays, printed at Berlin; and by the advice of his friends, who did not then encourage him to return to Swisserland. Through the interest of the Baron De Schlieffen, then minister, he procured the place of professor at Cassel: but, shortly afterward revisiting his native country, he made a tour through the cantons, collecting fresh materials for his history; and, about this time, he repeated his lectures at Berne. A mere accident now brought on a correspondence between MULLER and the Elector of Mayence, which ended in his accepting a place in the Elector's court; and this he did with the less reluctance, as it would certainly have been easy for the inhabitants of Berne to have detained him in his own country. In fact, they sent him offers of patronage and support if he would stay: but the generosity and kindness of the Elector had so won his regard, that he determined to devote his life to the service of that Prince. Frederic Charles Joseph, Elector of Mayence, seems to have been a man who deserved to flourish in better times. He resisted as well as he could the growth of those seeds of disunion which now began to increase every day throughout the Germanic body, and to prepare the way for that dismemberment which followed. At eighty years of age, he met with tranquillity the storm which overwhelmed him, and, retiring to Eichsfeld, was there joined by his privy counsellor MULLER. By the desire of this Prince, MULLER now accorded with the express wishes of the Emperor, and repaired to Vienna to fill the office of Aulic Counsellor. After a stay of seven years at *If the French editors had dared to give us the whole of M. MULLER's remarks on the breaking out and progress of the Revolution, we have no doubt that we should have seen him among the most ardent enemies of the sanguinary anarchists who have desolated Europe. Indeed, enough appears to prove his indignation against France. Mayence, therefore, during which he had analyzed one hundred and twenty historical authorities, he took up his abode in the capital of the empire; where, in the course of twelve years, he was enabled to examine seven hundred additional records. Indeed, he found his time completely at his own disposal, and in consequence bestowed it on his literary pursuits. The abuse of the name of liberty, which the French had made a pretext for the grossest excesses, rendered any thing like freedom of opinion dangerous at Vienna; and the historian of Swisserland was doubtless not considered as likely to be a political adviser courtly and servile enough for the feelings of the times. MULLER, in a word, among the alarmed parasites of Vienna, must have been regarded as every Whig was in the Tory-reign of terror about the same time in England. Appointed chief superintendant of the Imperial library, (the most magnificent and rich perhaps in the world,) he occupied above a year in correcting the catalogue of this collection; and it is to be hoped that in the subsequent scenes of confusion his labours have not been lost.-The blind alarm of the court was now at its height; and, among other absurd measures by which enfeebled power endeavoured to prop its authority, was an edict levelled against the liberty of the press: which forbade the publication of the second part of MULLER's history, with that of many other works equally innocent. He was also refused a place in the library, on which he had the greatest claims; and these repeated indignities having at length seemed to dissolve his bonds of duty to the Emperor, he retired from Vienna. The remainder of his biography only informs us that he returned to Berlin, where he continued to prosecute his studies *; and we learn from the superscription of his Will that he died at Cassel, on the 29th of May 1809, aged 57. It is impossible to read this simple and sincere document, the Will of MULLER, without much emotion. After all his literary labours, and all the distinguished offices which he filled, (the signature to his Will implies that he was Counsellor of State to the King of Westphalia in the year 1808,) he dies so poor that his possessions, as he anxiously fears, will scarcely pay his debts! His library, his letters, and his manuscripts, *The editors mention several of MULLER's minor performances, all tending to the same object, the illustration of points in history or the establishment of sound principles of government and political economy. His leading maxim was moderate and gradual reform in the different governments of Europe; for each of which, as best adapted to the genius of the country in which it was established, he had a wise respect. are are all his wealth. These he bequeaths to his executor and brother John George Muller, to be sold and applied to the laudable purpose above mentioned; and, after having directed the publication of his MSS., and given some other orders, all for the same end, (to satisfy his creditors,) he adds, "I make all these arrangements out of pure necessity." We know not that we could select from the volume a passage that does more credit to the author's head and heart, than the concluding paragraph of this interesting memorial: "How, in these last moments of anxiety, has my heart glowed with the desire of addressing those for whom especially I have lived, and who have always been my dearest objects! You, my countrymen! confederates of the cities and cantons of Swisserland! How should I have exulted to chuse you for my heirs; to rest on the antient generosity of your governments, and on the noble character of the rising generation, my confident hope that you would accept the inheritance of your historian and your friend, and that you would listen to his prayers!-but that which could scarcely be expected from the wealthy England, how could I ask that of my exhausted country? Your image, at least, illustrious Berne! and your's, Zurich! good and wise, and beloved Cantons, Waldstetten of ye, the Alps, and all ye dwellers of the mountain or the plain, in whom I have recognized and honoured the true Helvetic virtues! your images shall yet follow me to the region beyond the grave; and if there be a habitation reserved for those heroes, the glory of antient times*, I will go thither, and will communicate to our ancestors that their memory is yet living among their descendants !” - We may conjecture with what agitated and unhappy feelings the writer of this address must have heard, from time to time, the presaging sounds of that tempest which overwhelmed his country! While describing the antient struggles of Helvetia which ended in the establishment of her freedom, he was awefully summoned away from his task, to listen to those unavailing efforts which only for a short time indeed retarded her downfall. Long before his death, all his hopes of her recovery must have been extinguished. Having devoted so much space to the life of M. Muller, we can present our readers with a very few extracts from his epistolary correspondence. The letters which relate to public affairs are so much mutilated by the French editors, that we can catch but occasional glimpses of the indignant patriotism of the writer. Besides,' (as they urge,) the opinions of twenty or even ten years ago may not affect the present gene * Si quis piorum manibus locus est," &c. &c. Throughout the volume, we see the influence of his classical studies on the author's mind; and especially that of his favoured Tacitus. ration ;' |