He was a celebrated draughtsman and engraver. His engravings after Rubens and Paul Veronese are now of great value. He also drew and engraved the portraits of great and distinguished men. LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT. Born in Paris, 1743; guillotined, May 8, 1794. The founder of modern chemistry. His father, a wealthy merchant, gave him an excellent education, but from his early youth he showed a precocious taste for science, and when only twenty-one he received the prize that the Academy of Science had offered “for discovering the best manner of lighting the streets of great towns.” In 1768 he was elected Academician. Turgot, in 1776, gave to this great chemist the direction of the manufacture of gunpowder and saltpetre. In the course of the next ten years Lavoisier made innumerable useful scientific discoveries. Elected Deputy to the National Assembly in 1789; in 1791 he was named Commissionary of the Treasury, and propounded a scheme which, had it been carried out, would have been of immense economical service to France. He took an active part in the construction of the new system of weights and measures, and constructed in the gardens of the arsenal apparatus for experiments to aid this purpose. In 1793 he measured the base of the new meridian; as Treasurer of the Academy he put in order the whole of the accounts of that body; and was able to discover funds which no one was aware the Academy possessed. In 1769 he had received a post as _Fermier-Général_ from the Crown; and although such offices had long ceased to exist Robespierre caused his arrest in 1794, and, on the sole plea that it was the will of the people that no _Fermier-Général’s_ life should be spared, the head of this great citizen fell upon the scaffold: four other former _Fermier-Généraux_, including his father-in-law, M. Poulze, perished the same day. LE BRUN, DUC DE PLAISANCE, CHARLES FRANÇOIS. Born, March 19, 1739; died, June 16, 1824. In early life he showed an extraordinary disposition for learning languages, and he resolved to perfect this talent by travelling in foreign countries. He went to England, where he spent some time. He was delighted with the country, its inhabitants and its liberty, notwithstanding its aristocracy and monarchy. After his return to France he became a lawyer. In 1768 he was appointed Inspector-General of the Crown Lands. He was Chief Secretary to Maupeau, the Chancellor, whose speeches he composed. In 1774, after the accession to the throne of Louis XVI., when Maupeau shared the fate of all the favourites of Louis XV., and had to deliver up his seals of office, le Brun lost his place too; he continued to practise his profession till the outbreak of the Revolution; he was Deputy to the States-General, and spoke in that assembly in favour of the reform of all abuses. In the Constitutional Assembly he opposed the issue of paper money and the creation of public lotteries.