to the General Advertiser was disclosed, and he received an engagement on that paper. In 1782 he founded the European Magazine, and in 1783 became editor of the Gazetteer. Perry was a staunch whig and admirer of Charles James Fox. Keeping up in London his connection with debating societies, his ability as a speaker attracted the notice of Mr. Pitt, who sometimes visited them, and who is said to have offered him a seat in parliament, an offer which on principle Perry declined. About 1792, in conjunction with a countryman, Mr. Gray, he bought the Morning Chronicle, and conducted it as a whig organ with great spirit, success, and consistency, till his death in 1821. He was the first to give on the following morning a fair report of the parliamentary proceedings of the previous night, by employing relays of reporters. He encouraged talent, and during his management of it, lyrics by Thomas Campbell, squibs by Moore, criticisms by Hazlitt, jests by Charles Lamb, were contributed to the Morning Chronicle, of which the late Lord-chancellor Campbell was so late as 1810 the theatrical critic. Perry was liberal as an editor and generous as a man. Charles Lamb describes him as "a pleasant gentlemanly man, with a dash of the courtier." He was much trusted by the chiefs of his party, of whom he was both a frequent guest and a frequent host. Perry, in short, was one of the first to raise the social status of the London newspaper editor.—F. E.
PERRY, John, a British engineer and traveller, was born about 1670 at Rodborough in Gloucestershire, and died at Spalding on the 11th of February, 1733. During the earlier part of his life he served in the British navy, in which he rose to the rank of captain; and on his becoming known to Peter the Great in 1698, that sovereign engaged his services to carry out various works of improvement in Russia. He superintended the execution of various docks and harbours, and was the originator of the project for connecting the Black Sea with the Caspian by means of a canal between the rivers Don and Volga. Being disgusted by the conduct of the Russian government in withholding from him the payment which they had originally agreed to give for his services, he left Russia in 1712 and returned to England, where he carried on the business of a civil engineer for the remainder of his life. He published, in 1716, an interesting and useful book, entitled "The State of Russia under the present Czar."—W. J. M. R.
PERSEUS, king of Macedonia, was the son and successor of Philip V. So early as 200 b.c. he held high command in the wars of his father against the Illyrians; and in 199 b.c. he conducted the siege of Amphilochia in Epirus. Soon after this he entered into a series of intrigues which resulted in the death of his younger brother, Demetrius, who while ambassador at Rome had been in high favour with the senate, and whom Perseus suspected of a design to supplant him in the succession to the throne. In 179 b.c. Philip died, and Perseus took the reins of government. The first years of his reign he spent in forming alliances with foreign powers, and in strengthening the internal resources of his kingdom. These proceedings were viewed with suspicion by the Romans, who were afraid of the formation of a league against themselves; and after various disputes war was declared against Macedonia in 171 b.c. Perseus marched into Thessaly and defeated the consul Licinius; but he neglected to follow up his advantage. The two ensuing campaigns of 170 b.c. and 169 b.c. were also more or less favourable to the Macedonians; but in 168 b.c. they were utterly routed by L. Æmilius Paulus, and Perseus was compelled to take refuge in Samothrace. He was afterwards captured by the consul, and in 167 b.c. he was led in triumph through the Roman streets. He died at Alba about 163 b.c. Many of the misfortunes of Perseus were occasioned by his avarice; for he would rather run the risk of defeat than employ mercenary troops. He was of a weak and cowardly disposition, and his conduct towards his brother is proof that he was both suspicious and cruel.—D. M.
PERSIGNY, Jean-Gilbert-Victor, Count de, French minister of the interior, was born in 1808. His father, whose name was Fialin, was a soldier of the first Napoleon's, and was killed at the battle of Salamanca. The young Fialin entered the army at seventeen, and was dismissed from it for insubordination in 1833. He became a journalist, assumed, with some slight hereditary claims to both, the title and name of the Vicomte de Persigny, and in 1834 started a Bonapartist journal L'Occident Français, which introduced him to Louis Napoleon, ex-emperor of the French. He was principal mover in the affair of Strasbourg, and made one of the party which accompanied Prince Louis Napoleon to Boulogne. Captured in this last expedition, he was tried and condemned to an imprisonment much longer than the one which he actually suffered. After the revolution of 1848, M. de Persigny was very active in promoting the election and other interests of Louis Napoleon, whose régime he continued to support till shortly before the capture of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war. He succeeded M. de Morny as minister of the interior in January, 1852; in May, 1855, was appointed French ambassador in London; was replaced by Marshal Pelissier in 1858, but returned in the same capacity to England in May, 1859; and in 1860 became once more minister of the interior. He died on the 12th of January, 1872.—F. E.
PERSIUS (Aulus Persius Flaccus), the Latin satirist, was born at Volaterræ in Etruria on the 4th of December, a.d. 34. The circumstances of his brief and uneventful life are related at length in the contemporary memoir by the grammarian Valerius Probus, usually prefixed to his writings. His family seems to have been ancient and wealthy, and he was connected with various distinguished persons, among whom were Thrasea Pætus, and Arria, to whom probably his inclination to stoicism may have been orginally owing. At an early age he was placed under the care of Annæus Cornutus, the stoic philosopher, who opened up to him the first principles of mental science, and speedily impressed upon his plastic mind the stamp which gave a character to his subsequent life. To this master, who proved in very truth the guide, philosopher, and friend of his future days, he attached himself so closely that he seldom quitted his side, and the warmest reciprocal attachment was cherished to the last by the instructor and his disciple. While yet a youth, he was on familiar terms with Lucan, with Cæsius Bassus, the lyric poet, and other persons of literary eminence; in process of time he became acquainted with Seneca also, but never entertained any warm approbation for his character. The moral conduct of Persius was exemplary in all the relations of life. He died at the early age of twenty-seven, leaving a handsome legacy, along with his cherished library of seven hundred volumes, to his friend Cornutus. It is pleasant to read that the latter accepted the books, but declined to receive the money. The writings of Persius, consisting of six short satires, were edited after his death by his friends, and speedily attained a wide popularity. Indeed, from their publication down to the present time, they have been read with pleasure by persons of the most various character. Quintilian and Martial, Augustine and Jerome, have alike accorded them their warmest approval. Nor is this praise undeserved. The philosophy of the Porch was never so persuasively recommended as by the charming verses in which Persius sings of the influence Cornutus exercised on his youthful feelings, and the perfect harmony which subsisted in heart and soul between the master and the pupil, into whose purged ear he had instilled the fruitful seed of Cleanthes. The satires are indeed mainly to be regarded as a poetical exposition of the principles of stoicism. Their object is to inquire into the purpose of man's being, to teach the art of skilful driving in the chariot-race of life, to point out the ordained position of each individual in the social system, to limit the desire of wealth, and to inculcate its expenditure on unselfish objects. Here we perceive a higher ethical tone than in the satires of Horace. The latter shoots folly as it flies; his bolts are either flung at random for his own amusement, or have a covert political object; he shows neither love of truth, nor indignation at vice, nor a generous scorn of baseness, nor an earnest wish to amend error; he is merely an accomplished man of the world, amusing himself with his fellow-creatures. Persius, on the contrary, was animated by a sincere desire for the improvement of mankind; he warns them in solemn tones of the fatal consequences of vice and folly, and tries to awaken in their breasts the slumbering voice of conscience and reason. No passage in Roman literature conveys a more striking moral lesson than the commencement of the third satire, where the youthful idler is at first depicted by a series of light touches—snoring in broad noon while the harvest is baking in the fields, and the cattle are reposing in the shade; then starting up and calling for his books, only to quarrel with them; and afterwards, as we go farther, the scene darkens, and we see the figure of the lost profligate blotting the background, and catch an intimation of yet more fearful punishment in store for those who will not be warned in time—punishment dire as any which the oppressors of mankind have suffered or devised—the beholding of virtue in her
