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1em  COURAYER, (1681-1776), a Roman Catholic theological writer, was born at Vernon, in Normandy, in 1681. While canon regular and librarian of the abbey of St Genevieve at Paris, he conducted a correspondence with Archbishop Wake on the subject of Episcopal succession in England, which supplied him with material for his work On the Validity of English Ordina tions, published in Holland in 1727, in which he tries to prove that there has been no break in the line of ordination from the apostles to the English clergy. His opinions, however, having exposed him to a prosecution in his native country, he took refuge in England, where he was presented by the university of Oxford with a doctor s degree. In 1736 he published a French translation of Father Paul Sarpi s History of the Council of Trent, and dedicated it to Queen Caroline, from whom he received a pension of 200 a year. Besides this he translated Sleidan s History of the Reformation, and wrote several theological works. Courayer died in 1776, after two days illness, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, In his will, dated two years before his death, he declared himself still a member of the Catholic Church, although dissenting from many of its opinions.  COURIER, (1773-1825), French Hellenist and political and miscellaneous writer, was born at Paris, January 4, 1773. His father, Jean Paul Courier, was owner of the estate of Mere&quot; in Touraine, to which he retired when, in consequence of a serious quarrel with a duke, ho was compelled to leave Paris. The son, still in his child hood, imbibed a bitter aversion to the nobility, which seemed to strengthen with time. He would never take the name &quot; de Me re ,&quot; to which he was entitled, lest he should be thought a nobleman. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Paris to complete his education ; and there he studied chiefly mathematics and Greek. For Greek literature ho had a passionate fondness, and attained in it so remarkable a proficiency that he was complimented by German scholars. Destined by his father for the army, he entered the school of artillery at Chalons, and received his appointment as sub lieutenant in September 1792. He served in various cam paigns of the Revolutionary wars, especially in those of Italy in 1798-1799 and 1806-1807, and in the German campaign of 1809. He attained the rank of chef d escadron in 1803. Meanwhile, whenever circumstances left him at leisure, he devoted himself to his favourite studies. He made his first appearance as an author in 1802, when he contributed to the Magasin Encycloptdique a critique on Schweighauser s edition of Athenscus. In the following year appeared his Eloge d Hclene, a free imitation rather than a translation from Isocrates, which he had sketched in 1798. Courier quitted the army after the battle of Wagram (1809), the savage independence of his nature rendering subordination and obedience irksome and intoler able to him ; while his superiors found it hard to bear the chastisement of his satirical humour, which he freely indulged without respect of persons. After leaving the army he went to Florence, and was fortunate enough to discover in the laurentian Library a complete manuscript of Longus s Daphnis and Chloe, an edition of which he pub lished in 1810. In consequence of a misadventure blot ting the mr iiscript he was involved in a quarrel with tl: a librarian, and was compelled by the Government to leave Tuscany. He retired to his estate at Veretz (Indre-et- Loire), but frequently visited Paris, and divided his atten tion between literature and his farm. After the second restoration of the Bourbons the career of Courier as political pamphleteer began. He had before this time waged war against local wrongs in his own district, and had been the adviser and helpful friend of his neighbours. He now carried the war into a larger field, and by his letters and pamphlets made himself one of the most dreaded opponents of the Government of the Restoration. In 181 7 he was a candidate for a vacant seat in the Institute ; ai:d failing, e took hie revenge by publishing a bitter Lettre a Messieurs de V Academic des Inscriptions et Bdles-Lettrcs (1819). This was followed (1819-1820) by a series of letters published in Le Censeur, which by the extraordinary power displayed in them gives him a place in literature only second to the author of the Lettres Provinciales. The proposal, in 1821, to purchase the estate of Chambord for the duke of Bordeaux called forth from Courier the Simple Discours, one of his most powerful and successful pieces. For this he was tried and condemned to suffer a short im prisonment and to pay a fine. Before he went to prison he published a Compte Rendu of his trial, which had a still larger circulation than the Discours itself. In 1823 appeared the Livret de Paid Louis, the Gazette de Village, and other pieces, which were followed in 1824 by his famous Pamphlet des Pamphlets, called by his biographer, Armand Carrel, his swan-rong. Courier projected a trans lation of Herodotus, and published a specimen, in which he attempted to imitate archaic French ; but he did not live to carry out his plan. In the spring of 1825, on a Sunday afternoon (April 10), Courier was found shot in a wood near hh house. The murderers remained undis covered for five years. The writings of Courier, dealing with the facts and events of his own time, are valuable sources of information as to the condition of France before, during, and after the Revolution. Their literary merits are thus set forth in the Edinburgh Review (vol. xlix.):—

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