COLBERT, JOI1N BAFrisTE, Marquis Sagnclai, an eminent statesman of France, whose family was originally from Scotland, was born at Rheims, in 1619. Ile dis played, at a very early age, an uncommon partiality for commercial and financial speculations. Ile read with avidity all the ablest works on these favourite subjects, and made a tour through the provinces of France, with a view of acquiring an accurate knowledge of the state of its manufactures and its trade. His distin guished talents as a flounder procured him the favour of the Cardinal Mazarine. who honoured bins with his unlimited confidence, entrusted to his management the most important concerns, and during his last illness, not only appointed him one of the executors to his will, but recommended him to his sovereign, as a person entitled, by his worth and qualifications, to the highest offices in the state. In compliance with the recommendation of his distinguished minister, Louis XIV. appointed Col bert intendant of the finances. His exertions, in this important situation, were highly judicious and beneficial. By abolishing those useless places, which individuals, been crea not for public utility, but to favour ndividuals, by restoring order in the receipts and payments of the chequer, and by a rigid regard to economy, lie ly improved the treasury, while he diminished the load i of taxes which his predecessors had imposed upon the people. He effected another equally important, and more difficult reformation, by establishing a court of justice to examine and decide on all financial concerns. By means of this court lie recovered many alienations of the revenue, and suppressed many unjustly acquired an nuities, the original of which lie caused to be repaid. Nor was he less active as superintendant of the pub lic buildings, to which situation lie was appointed in 1664. Ambitious to give to the palaces and buildings of Paris a splendour suitable to the grandeur of the French monarchy, he invited from all the countries of Europe architects, sculptors, and other artists of distin guished eminence, whom he employed on the most libe ral terms, in their embellishment. His principal atten tion, however, was occupied by the grander project of promoting the commercial importance of his country. As a preparatory step to the completion of his magnifi cent designs, lie increased the royal navy far beyond its former strength ; and having thus secured protection for future adventurers in trade, he determined, notwithstand ing all the misfortunes and failures of his predecessors, to revive the French East India Company. For this purpose it was necessary, not only to acquire an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of every thing requisite to ensure the success of his project, but to give a new impulse to the public mind, discouraged by so many disappointments. Having procured, therefore, the neces sary information from those mercantile people who were most conversant with East India affairs, he employed the pens of the most able academicians to explain and recommend his views, and thus to engage the hopes and energies of the nation in their promotion. By these exertions he completely succeeded, and had the honour of accomplishing an object which had baffled the most strenuous efforts, and disappointed the most sanguine hopes of some of the ablest politicians of France. The
establishment of the East India Company, was followed by that of the West India and African Companies, from which many important advantages accrued to his coun try. While thus occupied in the extension of its com merce, lie did not overlook its internal manufactures : and scarcely a year of his ministry pas,,d without the introduction of sonic new manufacture, or of some im provement in those previously established, to employ the industry of his countrymen, and to ameliorate their con dition. Perhaps nothing contributed more essentially to these important ends, than the grand canal of Langue doc, by which lie united the two seas that bound the opposite coasts of France. This magnificent undertak ing, which was completed in fourteen years, will entitle Colbert to the perpetual gratitude of the French nation. By his zealous encouragement of literature and the arts, he has established as indisputable a claim to the grati tude and admiration of the learned in every country, and to the latest posterity. Ile established the French acade ol painting ; the institution of the academy of science was owing in a great measure to his patronage and his exertions ; and the academy of inscriptions took its rise from an assembly of some literati in his house, for the purpose of furnishing designs for the king's medals. On the theological student he has conferred an important favour, by the collection of those manuscripts of the Greek Testament, which are known by the name of Codices Colbertini, and arc now in the royal library of Paris. Five of these MSS. containing the four gospels, of which two arc referred to the I Ith century, were collated by Simon, and their readings noted in the margin of Curcellmus's edition of the Greek Testament. Mill, in his edition of the Greek Testament, has given a variety of readings from seven other Colbert MSS ; made very superficially by Larroque, and communicat ed by A fix. One of these, divided by Mill into three separate MSS. contains the whole New Testament, ex cept the book of Revelation, and was supposed, in Mill's time, to be 600 years old. Griesbach, in his Symbolx, defends this MS. against the suspicion of its having been altered from the Latin, assures us that its readings har monize with those of Origen, refers it to the eleventh or twelfth century, and esteems it a MS. of great value. \Vetstein collated, in 1715, twelve other Codlces Colber tini, which are merely lectionaria of the four gospels.
Colbert, after a life of extensive usefulness, and after having filled many important situations in the state, died in September 1683, in the 65th year of his age, leaving behind him few equals for uncorrupted integrity, grand views, and extensive knowledge as a politician, with a zeal and perseverance before which the most formida ble obstacles were compelled to yield. See Voltaire's Age of Louis XIV. Histoire de France. Univ. Hist. A•ou vellc Dietionaire Historique. For an account of the Codices Colbertini, the reader may consult Bibliotheca Colbertina, Parisiis, 1728 ; INIontfaucon's Bibliothecarum, torn. ii. ; the second volume of the Catalogue MSS. Bibliothecce Regix ; and Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, by Marsh, vol ii. iii. (k)