Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/640

622 Napoleon s Brilliant victories, he suddenly enlisted _ as quartermaster in a dragoon regiment. In a month s time lie was made sub-lieutenant, and for about a year and a half acted as aide-de-camp to General Michaud. But the routine of garrison life, to which he was soon afterwards condemned, made him heartily tired of a military career. On the conclusion of the peace of Amiens (1802) he threw up his commission, and went to reside with his family at Grenoble. From them he obtained means to take up his abode in Paris, where for some time he continued to devote himself to study and literary work. In 1805 he suddenly accepted a situation as clerk in a mercantile house at Marseilles, and remained there nearly a year, in fact, till the actress, for whose sake he had taken this curious step, married a wealthy Russian. In the following year he again accompanied M. Daru into Germany, and was appointed to superintend the possessions of the emperor in Brunswick. Whatever German he learnt there was afterwards completely forgotten. In his official capacity as connected with the commissariat he took part in the ill-fated Eussian campaign of 1812, and remained loyal to the fallen emperor. He declined to lay himself out for emploj-ment under the new regime, and retired to Milan, where he resided till 1821. His early works, chiefly on painting and music, date from this period of his life. The Lettres ecrites de Vienne rur Haydn, suivies d une Vie de Mozart, dec., which appeared in 1814 under the pseudonym of Alexandre Cesar Bombet, were mainly plagiarized from Carpani. With some slight alterations the work was reproduced in 1817 as Vies de Haydn, Mozart, et Metastase. In the same year he published, under various assumed names, Histoire de la Peinture en Italic, which contains some good but unsystematic criticism, and Rome, Naples, et Florence en 1817. In 1821 he was compelled to return to France, an unfounded suspicion that he was a French spy having somehow arisen at Milan. During the following nine years he resided at Paris, and gradually began to acquire his high reputation as an accomplished litterateur and man of the world. He was an admirable talker and full of anecdote, which in his opinion ought to form the staple of conversa tion. His fine analytic powers were displayed to full advantage in the curious work, De I Amour, which he published in 1 822, but the book did not find an appreciative audience. The Vie de Rossini, which followed, was more successful ; and the pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare did good service for the cause of Romanticism in its struggle with the rigid classical canons of older French literature. In 1829 appeared his Promenades dans Rome, full of informa tion, criticism, and original observation, but somewhat chaotic in form. He was appointed consul at Trieste in 1830, and three years later he quitted that place with the greatest joy for a similar post at Civita Vecchia. There he remained till 1841, with frequent absences, one extending from 1836 to 1839, during which he paid a short visit to London. In 1841 his health gave way, and he returned to Paris, where he died on the 22d March 1842.

1em  BEYROUT,, or , the most important seaport town of Syria, on the coast of the Mediterranean, in the pashalic of Acre, 57 miles W.N.W. of Damascus. It is situated on rising ground on the northern side of the promontory of the Jebel-er-Rosheh, which forms the spacious bay of St George s, a short distance to the west of the mouth of a stream to which it gives its name Nahr- Beirut, the ancient Magoras. The surrounding hills consist of reddish sand, interspersed with rocks, and covered with a light soil. The roadstead to the N.E. of the town is sheltered from the S.W. wind, but is exposed to the W. and the N.W. The ancient harbour is now choked up, and all that remains of the artificial erections is a pier or causeway at the N.W. extremity of the town, at which boats can discharge. It is supported on arches of unequal size, and is partly constructed of ancient marble columns, many of which still stand along its front, and are used for mooring the lesser vessels. In 1874 the authorities determined to construct a small harbour, and 10,000 was allotted for the purpose. The city proper is an irregular square, open towards the sea, and surrounded on the land sides by a substantial tower-flanked wall, built by Djezzar Pasha. At the N.W. corner arc two castellated buildings, built on the rocks. The streets are wider than is usual in Syrian towns, and are paved with large stones ; the houses are for the most part lofty and spacious. Formerly, there were deep channels of water flowing down the middle of the streets, but these have been removed. The suburbs of the city, which extend around it with a radius of a milo and a half, are beautifully situated, interspersed with gardens, and planted with fruit trees. During the hot season the wealthier inhabitants remove inland to the villages of Beit-Miry, Brumanah, or Shemlin, on the lower slopes of the Lebanon. Besides the mosques, bazaars, and other native buildings with which it is provided, the city of Beyrout possesses numerous European edifices and institutions. There are six Roman Catholic convents or monasteries, with churches and schools attached, and the sisters of charity maintain an orphanage and hospital. The Prussians support a well-organized school, under the management of a Protestant sisterhood, and the American missionaries have, among other establishments, a hospital and medical school. A girl s school was begun in I860 by Mrs Thompson, and a ragged school in 1863. A native Christian community has been for some time in existence ; and in 1847 a native society of arts and sciences was established. Formerly regarded as the port of Damascus, Beyrout has now become by far the more important of the two cities. It is the seat of various consular establish ments, and possesses a quarantine, a custom-house, and post-offices. It exports silk, wool, bitumen, rags, sponges, and skins, and imports European goods for a large part of Syria. In 1871 the value of the exports, which were destined chiefly for France and England, was 530,000 ; while that of the imports, which were mainly from Eng land and Germany, amounted to 1,240,000. The coasting trade, earned on by small native craft, consists principally of timber, firewood, charcoal, and straw. A lighthouse, 98 feet high, was erected in 1864 on the neighbouring cape of Ras Beyront. A carriage road was constructed by a French company about 1863, connect ing Beyrout with Damascus. An English company com- 