DUPONCEAU, PETER S., LL.D., was born in the ile de 1h4, in France, about 1760. He went early to the United States of North America, served in the army, and afterwards in the office of the secretary of state. He subsequently practised for some years at the bar, but quitted the law for literature. Ho was a member of several literary societiee, and in 1828 became president of the American Philosophical Society. In 1835 ho gained the Volney prize at the Institute of France by a '314moire sur le Systeme Grammatical des Leagues de quelques Nations Indiennes de l'Amdrique du Nord,' which was printed in 8vo at Paris, in 1838, under the care of M. J. B. B. Eyries. This' Ildmoire' contains an account and examination of the languages of what the author denominates the Algonquin races, or the tribes calling themselves the Chippeways, or Ojibbeways. Among the other works of Duponeeau are :—'A Dissertation ou the Nature and Extent of the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States,' 8vo, Philadelphia, 1834; ' A Brief View of the Constitution of the United States,' 8vo, Philadelphia, 1831 ; and A Dissertation on the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing,' 8vo, Phil adelphia, 1838. The object of this last work is to refute the common
notion that the Chinese written characters do not in any sense repre sent words, but only ideas, and tho inference thence deduced, that they may be read and made use of by other nations who do not understand the Chinese spoken language—as for instance by the Japanese and Careens. This able man, whose works are all, as far as we have examined them, marked by careful research and sound information, as well as by just and independent thinking, died at Philadelphia on the 2nd of April 1844.