Benzel De Sternau, Anselm Francis De

, a privy counsellor of the electorate of Meritz, was born Aug. 28, 1738, and arrived at the dignity of counsellor when only nineteen years of age. The emperor invited him to Vienna, but he refused this honourable offer, and remained at Mentz, where having attained the rank of chancellor of state, he applied his attention to the reformation of the schools, and the regulation and diminution of the convents. He was one of the chief promoters of the union of the German bishops against the court of Rome. The death of the |

elector Emmerick Joseph, in 1774, interrupted his pursuits but he was soon recalled, and in 1782, appointed to the guardianship of the universities of the electorate, and distinguished himself by many humane and enlightened regulations. He died May 7, 1784. We have only from his pen, the plan of a “New organization of the University of Mentz,” 1734, 8vo.¹