Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/237

 , and acting as actuary of the Bury Savings Bank.

Just was elected lecturer on botany at the Pine Street (afterwards the Royal Manchester) School of Medicine and Surgery in September 1833, and lectured annually from 1834 to 1852. On 22 Jan. 1839 he was chosen a corresponding member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. In October 1848 he was appointed honorary professor of botany at the Royal Manchester Institution, and delivered three courses of lectures there, 1849–51. He closely studied chemistry and its application to the analysis of soils and manures. Three of his agricultural essays are printed in the ‘Transactions’ of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, namely, ‘On the Philosophy of Farming’ (1845, vii. 574), ‘On the Maturation of Grain and Farming Produce’ (ib. viii. 297), and ‘On Faults in Farming’ (ib. ix. 93). On 27 Sept. 1850 he delivered before the Bury Agricultural Society ‘A Lecture on the Value and Properties of Lime for Agricultural Purposes,’ which was printed as a pamphlet. He acquired a good knowledge of ancient and modern languages, and specially studied Anglo-Saxon. For the ‘Transactions’ of the Manchester society he wrote on ‘Certain Anglo-Saxon Roots nearly obsolete in the English Language’ (1843, vii. 391), on ‘Anglo-Saxon Patronymics’ (ib. vii. 440), and on the ‘Self-acquirement of Languages’ (ib. 16 April 1850), not printed. His latest essay, contributed to a local society called ‘The Rosicrucians,’ on 6 Sept. 1852, was on ‘The Derivation of Local Names.’ He left unpublished four quarto manuscript volumes, an unfinished dictionary or lexicon of English words and their derivations, with similar words of similar meanings in cognate and kindred languages; and compiled ‘A Glossary of the Westmoreland Dialect as spoken in the neighbourhood of Kendal.’ He succeeded in deciphering the Runic inscriptions in the Isle of Man (printed in Joseph Tain's ‘History of the Isle of Man’). His knowledge of the Roman roads which traverse Lancashire—the subject of many of his papers for learned societies—led to his temporary connection with the officers of the ordnance during their survey of the county. On the congress of the British Archæological Association being held at Manchester and Lancaster in August 1850, Just superintended excavations at Ribchester which resulted in the discovery of interesting Roman remains, which are described in the ‘Journal’ of the association (vi. 229–51). He died at Bury on 14 Oct. 1852, aged 55, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard on 20 Oct.

[Memoirs of Literary and Philosophical Soc. of Manchester, 1854, xi. 91–121, by J. Harland; Gent. Mag. December 1852, pp. 652–3; Journal of British Archæological Association, 1854, ix. 105–11.]  JUSTEL, HENRI (1620–1693), librarian, born in Paris in 1620, was the son of Christophe Justel, a learned protestant and canonist. He succeeded his father in the office of secretary to Louis XIV. He possessed a good library, containing many rare manuscripts, and his social qualities and powers of conversation attracted many eminent men to his house. Leibnitz visited him and esteemed him highly (, Mémoires, &c. p. xxix), and Locke frequently saw him in Paris (, Life of Locke, London, 1706, p. 10;, Life of Locke, 1830, pp. 134, 155, 158, 160). He was on good terms with several Roman catholic scholars, and endeavoured to bring about a non-sectarian translation of the Bible, a project which gave offence to Bossuet (Lettres choisies de M. Simon, 1730, i. 37). In 1675 he presented through George Hickes [q. v.] to the Bodleian Library at Oxford three precious manuscripts of the seventh century in uncial characters containing the acts of the council of Ephesus, &c. (Bodl. MSS. e Mus. 100–2). In acknowledgment of the gift Justel was on 23 June 1675 made a D.C.L. by the university of Oxford. To Dr. Hickes, Justel had confided his opinion, some time before the revocation of the edict of Nantes, that the protestants would be driven out of France, and in 1681 he sold his library on advantageous terms, and set out for England (Lettres choisies de M. Simon, i. 37). He was appointed by Charles II keeper of the king's library at St. James's, with a salary of 200l. a year, a post which he retained through the reign of James II. Evelyn, who calls him ‘that great and knowing virtuoso,’ says, under date 13 March 1691, that he had put the manuscripts into excellent order. According to the ‘Biog. Brit.’ he drew up a catalogue of books and manuscripts; but Hearne, on 24 Sept. 1710 (Collections, ed. Doble, iii. 54), says that the library was useless for want of a catalogue, and that Justel ‘was a very ingenious man, but far from being learned.’ Wood designates him ‘most noted and learned’ (Fasti, ed. Bliss, ii. 350). Other contemporaries, from Bayle downwards (Nouvelles de la République des Lettres for March 1684), express a high opinion of his learning. Justel died on 24 Sept. 1693, according to Moreri, and is said to be buried at Eton; the date, however, seems doubtful. There is an indifferent portrait of him in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for March 1788. 