124 A CHECKERED CAREER.

vegetables into his country.* At an early period
of the Revolution he was appointed one of the ad-
ministrators of the Department de la Mcurthe ;
but being deprived of this office by St Just, and
reduced to poverty on account of his noble birth,
he employed himself in arranging and publishing
the materials collected in his travels. He also un-
dertook to superintend a new edition of Butfon’s
“ Histoire Naturelle,’ to which he contributed
thirteen volumes, and one volume of Cetacea; and,
conjointly with Latreille, four volumes of heptiles.
From these valuable literary labours he was taken
by Fourcroy, then Director-General of Public In-
struction, who placed him at the head of the College
of Vienne, in the Department of the Isére. It had
formerly enjoyed a high reputation, and Sonnini
endeavoured, by enforcing order and discipline, to
restore it to its former estate. But he was frustrated
in all his efforts, and so thwarted and annoyed, that
at the end of two years he relinquished the post
which his real talents and the confidence of Govern-
ment had procured him. He then returned to his
literary labours, which he was compelled to prose-
cute for a livelihood.

* During the disastrous results of the tempest of July 18, 1788,
by which a large part of the agricultural districts of France was
laid waste, Sonnini published a valuable pamphlet, entitled, The

Vow of an Agriculturist.” He also produced, from time to time,
similar uscful and practical essays.