Tobias Lear, an American diplomatist, born in Portsmouth, N. II., Sept. 19, 1762, died in Washington, D. C, Oct. 11, 1816. He graduated at Harvard college in 1783, and in 1785 became private secretary to Gen. Washington, by whom he was always treated with great courtesy and regard. For several years he attended to the details of Washington's domestic affairs, and was most liberally remembered by him in his will. In 1802 he was consul general at Santo Domingo, and afterward consul general at Algiers and commissioner to conclude a peace with Tripoli. He discharged this latter duty in 1805 in a manner which gave umbrage to Gen. Eaton, who in concert with Hamet Caramelli, the deposed bey, had gained important advantages over the reigning bey. It was thought that to accept terms of peace at this juncture was to throw away the fruits of hardly earned success; but Mr. Lear's conduct was approved by his government, though much blamed by a portion of the public. He returned shortly after to the United States, and at the time of his death was employed in Washington as accountant of the war department.