man, he was nevertheless prompt and brilliant in conversation, and that his pastoral letters as bishop of Fréjus are models of simple eloquence.—W. M—l.
FLEURY, Claude, chiefly known by his writings on ecclesiastical subjects, and especially ecclesiastical history, was born at Paris on the 6th December, 1640. He was the son of an advocate, was educated by the jesuits, and adopted the profession of his father. This career he pursued till the age of thirty, when, partly from pious inclination, and partly through the attractions of retirement and study, he exchanged the gown of the barrister for that of the priest. Among the illustrious men whose friendship the Abbé Fleury enjoyed were Bourdaloue and Bossuet. Of the latter he might be considered the disciple and the imitator, though he was of a much milder and less imperious character. He was first preceptor of the prince de Conti, and then, through Bossuet's influence, of the count de Vermandois. For his pupils, he wrote a series of elementary works, which had an extensive and lasting popularity. In the so-called missions to the protestants, with which Louis XIV. followed up the revocation of the edict of Nantes, Fleury, as the companion of Fénélon, took part. He was associated likewise with Fénélon in the education of the dukes of Burgundy, of Anjou, and of Berry, the grandsons of the king. From the two chief controversies which agitated France at the close of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth—that between Jansenism and Jesuitism, and that between Quietism and the more unbending orthodoxy of the catholic church—Fleury stood aloof. On account of the moderation of his views, and the amenity of his nature, Fleury was, in 1716, appointed confessor of Louis XV. by the duke of Orleans, the regent of France. This situation the burden of years in 1722 induced him to resign. A man of the highest integrity, and the most incorruptible disinterestedness, Fleury never sought, but seemed always anxious to avoid promotion, and refused a bishopric. He died on the 14th July, 1723. There have been few more diligent students or more voluminous writers. The first edition of his principal work, "The Ecclesiastical History," occupied twenty quarto volumes. Voltaire said that it was the best history of the church which had ever appeared. This praise has been pronounced hyperbolical, but without doubt it was deserved enough in Voltaire's time. Ecclesiastical history, however, more than any other species of history, has undergone a total revolution. After the memorable productions of Neander, and others, Fleury's book has ceased to hold the foremost place, though still worthy of being consulted. His miscellaneous works were published in 1781, in 5 vols. octavo.—W. M—l.
FLEURY DE CHABOULON, Pierre Alexandre Edouard, born in 1779; died in 1835. When Bonaparte came into power Fleury was employed in the finances, and was afterwards sous-préfet of Chateau-Salins. On the emperor's abdication Fleury retired into private life, and passed his time in travelling through Italy. On Bonaparte's return from Elba Fleury joined him at Lyons, and was employed in negotiations with Austria, which were put an end to by the battle of Waterloo. In 1819 he published a work on the life of Napoleon, chiefly relative to the Hundred Days. The revolution of 1830 restored him to public life; he became a member of the council of state. In 1834 he was elected deputy for Chateau-Salins.—J. A., D.
FLEXMAN, Roger, D.D., an eminent dissenting minister, was born in Devonshire in 1708. After receiving an education in the dissenters' academy, Tiverton, he was in 1730 ordained at Modbury. He was subsequently pastor of various churches; and in 1747 he came to London, and became minister of a congregation in Rotherhithe, where he continued for more than thirty years. He died in 1795, but had been for several years previous unfit for the regular discharge of ministerial duty. Flexman was remarkable for his knowledge of English history, and his memory was such that he could refer readily to dates and other minute circumstances without using notes; and he was frequently consulted regarding historical facts by persons in high political position. In the year 1770 he was appointed one of the compilers of the General Index to the Journals of the House of Commons, and he superintended a valuable edition of Burnet's History of his own Times, published in 1753. Flexman's original works were unimportant, consisting of some sermons and tracts.—J. B. J.
FLINDERS, Matthew, a distinguished member of the British navy, and one whose name is truly illustrious in connection with Australian discovery, was born at Donington in Lincolnshire in 1760. Early in life he went to sea in the merchant service, but afterwards entered the royal navy, in which he held in 1795 the place of midshipman. In that year he accompanied Captain Hunter, then newly appointed governor of New South Wales, in his outward voyage. On board the ship in which Flinders sailed was Mr. Bass, who filled the post of surgeon, and who shared his own ardour in the cause of maritime adventure. The spirit by which Flinders and Bass were actuated speedily found means of development on their arrival in the colony, then dating only seven years from the period of its first establishment. Their earliest service, jointly undertaken from their own resources, was a coasting voyage to the southward of Port-Jackson, in an open boat eight feet long, which they named the Tom Thumb. This enterprise was renewed in the following year, and a further excursion made by Flinders to the group of the Furneaux islands. In 1797, a voyage to Norfolk Island, at the instance of the colonial government, engaged the attention of Flinders. During his employment on this service, Mr. Bass discovered the channel which divides Van Diemen's Land from the Australian mainland, the well-known Bass Strait of our charts, through which channel he and Flinders sailed in the following year. (See Bass, George.) In 1799, Flinders, then promoted to the rank of lieutenant, rendered like service upon portions of the coast lying to the northward of Port-Jackson. He afterwards returned to England, where his recognized ability insured his further promotion. He was appointed to the command of the Investigator, a barque of three hundred and thirty-four tons, fitted out expressly for the purpose of prosecuting surveys upon the Australian coasts, the greater portion of which were then unknown. Sailing from England in July, 1801, and reaching first the south-western extremity of the Australian continent. Flinders explored the whole southern coast-line of that vast region, discovering the two extensive gulfs upon which he bestowed the names of Spencer and St. Vincent, and beside the shores of which, thirty-four years later, the colony of South Australia was planted. To the eastward of these gulfs he fell in with a French surveying-vessel, the Geographe, commanded by Baudin, and gave the name of Encounter Bay to the locality. Further to the eastward. Flinders entered the fine land-inclosed harbour of Port-Phillip, which, however, had been discovered and named ten weeks before the time of his visit by Lieutenant Murray, an officer in the service of the colonial government of New South Wales. From a hill on the south-eastern shore of this extensive inlet, surrounded at the present day by the various works which bear testimony to the active enterprise of the Melbourne colonists. Flinders saw "marks of natives, such as deserted fireplaces and heaps of oyster-shells;" but the only visible living inhabitants were the kangaroo and the emu. After a brief visit to Port-Jackson for the purpose of refitment, Flinders proceeded northward, to explore the Gulf of Carpentaria, as his instructions expressly directed—a service in which portions of the years 1802 and 1803 were occupied. But the unsound condition of his ship compelled his return to Port-Jackson in July of the latter year. Thence he determined to return to England, in order to solicit a better vessel in which to prosecute his survey, and embarked for the purpose in a small colonial brig, the Porpoise. He sailed from Port-Jackson in company with the Cato and the Bridgewater, two merchant ships. This voyage was to Flinders the commencement of disasters. Both the Porpoise and the Cato were wrecked upon the coral reefs which render the north-eastern shores of Australia so perilous to navigators, and the commander of the third vessel lent them no aid, heartlessly abandoning them to their fate. But the courage and skilful resources of Flinders proved the means of safety to all. The crew preserved themselves on a sand-bank, while Flinders, in a cutter saved from one of the wrecks, went to Port-Jackson for aid. He accomplished a voyage of two hundred and fifty leagues in an open boat in the short space of thirteen days, and brought the necessary relief to the expectant sufferers within six weeks from the time of his leaving them. Resuming his voyage to England in the Cumberland, a schooner of twenty-nine tons. Flinders, after crossing the Indian Ocean, was compelled by the unserviceable condition of his ship to put in to the island of Mauritius, at that time a French possession. There he was treated as a spy by the governor of the island,
