Art. 3.-THE CARNOT FAMILY.

1. Address of Professor H. L. Callendar to the British Association (Physical Section) at Dundee, September, 1912. London: Murray, 1913.

2. Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu. Par Sadi N. L. Carnot (facsimile reissue). Paris: Hermann,

1912.

3. Mémoires sur Lazare Carnot. Par Hippolyte Carnot. Illustrated edition. Paris: Hachette, 1912.

4. Carnot, Comte L. N. M. Correspondance générale. Par E. Charavay. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1892-1912. IT is a coincidence that, at the moment when Prof. Callendar was expounding to the British Association in September, 1912, the daring originality of Sadi Carnot's speculations on the theory of heat, there was issuing from the press of the Librairie Hermann a facsimile repriit of the little duodecimo of 1824 in which the young lieutenant summarised his researches. And, as if to remind us that Sadi was not the only one of his race who perished untimely, comes a reprint of the 'Éloge' which M. Poincaré pronounced before the monument erected to President Sadi Carnot, who fell at Lyons in 1894. Half consciously one looks back a hundred years to find yet another Carnot, the great Lazare, organising victory in four campaigns at once, and with the civil power at his disposal if only he had chosen to assume the dictatorship. Here surely, in this direct succession of capacity, is something worthy of closer study. The family name of Carnot has now been borne by four generations of pre-eminently capable men. It is a record which few if any other families can equal. Perhaps the Bernoullis approach nearest to it; for nearly a hundred years they were never without a representative of original mathematical talent. But the Carnot mind, while decidedly of a mathematical bent, was much wider in scope. It proved itself capable of displaying its powers in the battlefield, in the council chamber, on the platform, in the laboratory, and in the work of legislative construction.

The family had been settled since the 15th century at Nolay, in Burgundy, that terrestrial paradise

which gave to man the vintages of Vougeot and Chambertin. In this fruitful spot one observes without surprise their pedigree adorned with families of ten, twelve, and fourteen members; and here, between the years 1750 and 1770, Margaret, the wife of Claude Carnot, gave birth to fourteen children. As each child came into the world its birth was recorded on the blank leaf at the end of a Summary of the Institutes of Justinian. As the entries grew in number the handwriting diminished in size, but the record stretched to the cover of the volume, and there was barely room for the grandson to record in 1836 the death of his last uncle.

Claude Carnot was by profession an advocate and notary. His grandson Hippolyte, describing him as he appeared in his seventy-ninth year, says he looked like a man of forty, walking erect with firm step and reading without glasses, his mind as alert and vigorous as his body. Margaret, his wife, died at the age of sixty-two, so suddenly that only one of her children was able to say good-bye to her. There was, however, no constitutional defect to account for this early death; doubtless the frame was worn out. To the last she appeared to her children graceful, stately, tender and loving.

Of her fourteen children, six sons and one daughter attained maturity; and they all bore the mark of distinction. Without exception they seem to have combined the physical vigour and the mental capacity of the father with the personal beauty and grace of the mother. The eldest surviving daughter, Jeanne Pierette, was for fifty-two years Lady Superior of the Hospital of Charity at Nolay. Her sister Marguerite, dying young, had bequeathed to her the title 'mère des pauvres,' which she worthily sustained till it was inscribed on her tombstone. After the mother's death all her younger brothers seem to have looked up to Jeanne as to their mother, and she called them by the pet names they had borne in the nursery. Little as she sympathised with the republicanism of her brothers, there was no breach in the family affection. When Lazare had voted for the death of the king and organised the levée en masse, she still addressed him as 'le gentil,' the name he had borne in childhood.

Of the six brothers all, with the exception of Lazare, attained the age of eighty. It is greatly to be regretted

that we have no detailed account of the manner of education of these sons. It was conducted by the father up to the point when it became specialised, two boys being destined for a military career and four for the law. That the training they received from their parents was impressive and efficient is shown by the strong intellectual likeness and the close personal sympathy which subsisted between the brothers. They had all learned the vital lesson of interesting themselves in everything-politics and business, nature and science, literature and art.

There is one little incident related of the childhood of Lazare which illustrates the kind of mind that was developing. He was ten years old when his mother took him for the first time to the theatre at Dijon. One scene represented the siege of a walled town, the besieging forces approaching with their artillery. Young Lazare followed the action closely and with growing excitement, until suddenly he rose from his seat and shouted to the commander, Move your guns, they are badly placed; don't you see the gunners will all be killed by the first shot from the fort? I can see them getting ready to fire. Put the gunners behind that rock.' Doubtless Madame Carnot suffered agonies of shame from the uproarious mirth of pit and gallery, but she may well have reflected afterwards that there was probably something in a boy who could thus clearly realise the defective points of a situation and thus intensely desire to put them right. Something also is to be learned from a family incident of the year 1769, when Claude would have been about fourteen years old. Thinking he had something to complain of, he announced his intention of leaving home. The parents suffered him to go without protest, and the boy remained away a whole month. When he returned and took his place quietly at the supper-table, the conversation went on as though nothing had happened. He was never reproached for his escapade, nor was any reference ever made to it.

Of the four brothers who were destined for the law, one became a judge of the Court of Cassation and published a Commentary on the Penal Code and on the Procedure in the Court of Final Appeal which remained for long the standard authority. Two attained the position of Judge and Procureur of Departments, and one

continued the notarial practice of his father. History concerns itself mainly with the two brothers Lazare and Claude Marie-Feulint, who were destined to a career in the Corps du Génie, Vauban's creation for the maintenance of a highly trained body of officers devoted to the scientific attack and defence of fortified places.

Of all the brothers Feulint appears to have reproduced most completely the physical vigour of his father with the beauty of his mother. He is described as graceful and charming in demeanour, and of singularly beautiful countenance. His social qualities were such as to make him the idol of Parisian salons, while his oratory captivated the Convention. His bodily constitution enabled him to endure labours which would have worn out others, and then to enjoy a healthy and vigorous old age. His military exploits, both in organisation and in the field, were so closely connected with those of Lazare that chroniclers of the time constantly confound the two. Sometimes he stands out separately, as in his courageous indictment of Lafayette, and in his strenuous opposition to Napoleon during his brother's retirement; but in the main his work was directed to the task of reorganising the army, reconstructing the staff, and preventing friction between the civil power and the military. His reports to the National Assembly in 1791, on the reconstitution of the Royal Guard and of the gendarmerie, were published, and his recommendations were adopted. It was largely through his exertions that there arose that superb army which was to raise Napoleon to

power.

Feulint would have been better known to history but for the more brilliant career of his brother Lazare, through whom the mental endowments of old Claude of Nolay were to be transmitted to future generations. Before the death of the gentle Marguerite in 1788, she was already assured that Lazare's childish outburst in the theatre had really meant something. At that time his Éloge on Vauban had been crowned by the Academy of Dijon and had procured from Prince Henry of Prussia an offer of high rank in the army of the great Frederick. Thirteen years later, when Claude followed his wife to the grave, he had seen all his children occupying positions of dignity and influence; two of them were regarded as

the Saviours of the Republic, and one had been offered and had refused the sole supreme rule in the State.

Lazare's career best illustrates the quality of the family intellect which he inherited and transmitted. His conduct at the battle of Wattignies was the action which most strongly impressed his contemporaries. He won the battle in an outburst of enthusiasm like that by which he petrified the theatrical audience. He had given instructions to Jourdan to attempt the impossible, and he went himself to the front as Commissioner to see his plan carried out. By a rapid concentration of troops from north and south he confronted Coburg's army before Maubeuge. The first day's engagement was indecisive. Then in the night under cover of fog he concentrated all his forces on the extreme right and placed the artillery under his brother Feulint in position to turn Coburg's flank. At daybreak he directed Jourdan to advance. The recruits, exhausted by three days' marching and a sleepless night, were scarcely a match for Coburg's troops. The Gratien brigade wavered and began to fall back. Seeing this, Lazare galloped to the head of the brigade, superseded Gratien in the face of the troops, leaped from his horse, reformed the lines and led the brigade himself. At this moment, Feulint opened fire with his battery of twelve guns on the flank of the Austrian cavalry. His fire was accurate and overwhelming in its effect; the horse were thrown into confusion; demoralisation spread to the main body of the troops; and the Austrian retreat ended in a rout. On the following day the fortress of Maubeuge was relieved, and the tide of the revolutionary war was turned. Napoleon, who had carefully studied the early campaigns of the French revolutionary forces, long afterwards at St Helena spoke of Wattignies as the finest victory of all, and added, 'Do you know who did this? It was Carnot.'

So far as appears from this episode, it might seem that the mind of Lazare Carnot was essentially the mind of a brilliant officer of brigade. As a fact that was merely a small part of his mental activity. He was much more a strategist than a soldier, and the unknown voice from the gallery which acclaimed him as 'Organisateur de la Victoire' justly estimated his work in that capacity. One of his colleagues on the Committee of Public Safety