Part 25

His liberal opinions were already well known by a book he had published, entitled “Regeneration of the Jews.” This book was in 1788 crowned by the Academy of Metz.

At Versailles the Abbé Grégoire soon became intimate with the leading members of the _Tiers État_. He exercised an ever-increasing influence over those among the clerical members of the Assembly who, like himself, were drawn from the ranks of the people.

At the very moment when the attack upon the Bastille was proceeding, and when a large proportion of the Deputies expressed apprehension, fear and alarm, Grégoire delivered a vehement oration in the Assembly in favour of the Revolution.

His influence in the Constitutional Assembly was invariably directed towards the advancement of those reforms by which he hoped the enfranchisement of the people might be accelerated. He took an active part in the abolition of the privileges possessed by the nobility and clergy, voted against the law of primogeniture, and demanded that Jews and negroes should have equal civil rights with Christians and white men.

When the Clerical Constitution was promulgated, Grégoire was the first priest who took the oath; and he accepted the Bishopric of Blois under the new _régime_. He represented the Department Loir et Cher (in which his episcopal see is situated) in the Convention, and on September 22 brought forward a motion in favour of the total abolition of Royalty and the proclamation of a Republic; his favourite axiom being, “The history of kings is the martyrology of the people.”

He was not present at the trial of Louis XVI., but wrote from Chambery to the Convention, declaring his opposition to a death sentence upon the King.

Grégoire became a prominent member of the Committee of Public Instruction, and by his efforts the _Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers_ was established.

He persuaded the Assembly to vote for the political and civil emancipation of the Hebrew race in France, and to pass a law abolishing negro slavery in the French colonies.

Grégoire continued to be an earnest and ardent Christian throughout the bitter religious persecutions of “the Terror,” and constantly proclaimed the sincerity of his religious beliefs. He had, indeed, been first attracted towards the Revolution because he imagined it would bring the adoption of Gospel principles into ordinary life. Bourdon de l’Oise accused him in the Jacobin Club of a design to Christianise the Revolution. Grégoire, in reply, declared this his earnest desire.

After the closing of the Convention, Grégoire joined the Council of the five hundred; in 1798 he became a Member of the _Corps Législatif_ to the Presidency, of which he was soon after elected. He did not hold this post many weeks. His intense Republicanism was distasteful to the new Government, while his faith in Christianity aroused against him the animosity of the Radical party.

Grégoire became a senator in 1801, and retained his senatorship during Napoleon’s reign. He was opposed to the Imperial policy, protesting against the occupation of the Papal States and the divorce and re-marriage of Napoleon. After the Restoration Grégoire suffered considerable persecution. The Government deprived him of his pension as a Senator and of his membership in the Academy and Institute. He was reduced to such a depth of poverty as to be compelled to sell his library in order to support existence.

The next fifteen years of his life were spent in complete retirement; he carried out during this period a vast amount of literary work, and kept up a very extensive correspondence with eminent and learned men belonging to various European countries.

His situation was not improved by the Revolution of 1830. Louis Philippe obliged him to resign his commandership of the Legion of Honour, and when, a few months later, he was upon his death bed, the last sacraments were refused him, by the express order of the Archbishop of Paris. A courageous priest, the Abbé Gallon, did, however, administer the viaticum to the dying ex-bishop.

HAMILTON, WILLIAM RICHARD.

William Richard Hamilton was born in London in 1777. In 1799 he accompanied Lord Elgin to Constantinople as private secretary, and was employed by that nobleman (British Ambassador to the Porte) to bring from Rome those artists who assisted him in his selection of certain statues and friezes, known as the Elgin Marbles, which are now in the British Museum. These marbles were placed on the _Mentor_, this ship being wrecked in September 1803, near the Island of Cos. Hamilton, who was on board, saved most of these priceless relics of antiquity by his presence of mind and intelligence.

He travelled shortly afterwards in Egypt, and published in 1809 a book, “Egyptian Monuments,” which was the first work of any importance on that subject since the days of Herodotus.

Mr. Hamilton was permanent Under Secretary at the English Foreign Office from 1809 to 1822; British Minister to the Court of Naples from 1822 to 1829, and President of the Geographical Society in London from 1837 to 1841.

HAUTERIVE, COUNT BLANC DE LANAUTTE (ALEXANDRE MAURICE).

Born in 1754 at Aspres, in Dauphiné; died in Paris, 1830.

He was the thirteenth child of noble born but poor parents.

One of his uncles, a priest, adopted him, and he was intended for the Church, and educated at an Oratorian College. He refused to take orders, and became a lay professor in the University of Tours.

When the Duke de Choiseul visited this College, young Hauterive composed and delivered the discourse of welcome. The great nobleman was so well satisfied that he invited the youthful professor to Chanteloup. Here he found the Count de Choiseul de Gauffier, who was about to depart as Ambassador to Constantinople. Hauterive was offered and accepted the post of private secretary to this Minister, whom he accompanied to the Levant in 1784.

When he reached Constantinople he was appointed French secretary to the Hospodar of Moldavia, an important and highly paid situation.

Four years later he returned to Paris and married a rich and handsome widow. When the Revolution broke out he refused to emigrate, and remained in France a faithful servant to the house of Choiseul. He was in consequence totally ruined.

In 1792 he was given the French Consulship at New York, but he soon lost this appointment on account of his anti-Republican views. He was at last reduced to great poverty, and worked for a time as a day labourer. While in America he was joined by Talleyrand, who, however, soon returned to France. In 1798 Hauterive ventured back to Paris, and obtained a clerkship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire (November 1799) Bonaparte, who required an intelligent individual capable of composing a general manifesto to the nations of Europe, was recommended by Talleyrand to employ Hauterive.

In six weeks the work appeared under the title of “The Condition of France at the End of the Year VIII.” Napoleon was greatly pleased, and Hauterive became one of his most trusted councillors. He was the principal factor in the diplomatic work of France during the Consulate. The most important of his achievements was the Concordat. His ancient theological studies among the Oratorians fitted him well for his task, and, as he had never taken holy orders, he was not, like Talleyrand, under the stigma of being a renegade priest. All through the Empire Hauterive continued to act as diplomatic adviser and agent for Napoleon all over Europe; he was also the guardian of the archives of France. In 1809 he received the title of Count of the Empire.

In 1814 he retired into private life. During “the Hundred Days” he refused to join the Ministry, and only solicited the restitution of his position as “Director and Guardian of the Archives of France.”

When the Bourbons returned, Hauterive was restored in this position by the Duke of Richelieu, the Prime Minister.

Hauterive exercised great influence during the reign of Louis XVIII., who had an immense respect for him. His literary work during the fifteen years of the Restoration was colossal. He died in 1830, aged seventy-six.

HOUDON, JEAN ANTOINE.

Born at Versailles, 1740; died, July 16, 1828.

He gained at the age of nineteen the “Grand Prix” of Sculpture, and immediately departed for Rome. He was in Italy when Herculaneum and Pompeii were discovered. He remained for ten years in the Italian Peninsula, and executed the colossal statue of St. Bruno, founder of the Cistercian order, which still stands in the Portico of Santa Maria dei Angeli in Rome.

After his return to France he attained great celebrity, and “L’Ecorché,” the well-known study of a man’s body after the skin has been removed, showing all the sinews and muscles, was his work. This model is still used in all Art Academies.

The United States having decreed that a statue of Washington should be erected, Houdon was invited to America that he might undertake the commission. He accompanied Franklin to Philadelphia on the return of the latter from his embassy in France. Washington gave him many sittings, and the statue in question is now in the City Hall of Richmond, Virginia.

Many of his later works are well known, particularly the seated figure of Voltaire in the foyer of the Théâtre Français.

KOSCIUZKO (THADDEUS OF WARSAW).

Born in Poland, February 12, 1746; died in Switzerland, in 1817.

A member of an ancient and noble family belonging to Lithuanian Poland. Being disappointed in love, he left his native country in 1775, for America, offering his services to Washington as a volunteer. During the War of Independence he became the intimate friend of Lafayette. He served with great distinction throughout the long campaign, and, on the conclusion of peace in 1783, was awarded a considerable share in those pecuniary gifts decreed by Congress for those who aided the cause of Freedom; he received the rank of Brigadier-General, and the order of Cincinnatus. He returned to Poland, and proceeded to take a considerable and active part in the politics of his native country.

When, after the first treaty of partition, the Russians occupied Poland under various pretexts, Kosciuzko acted successfully as General-in-Chief of the Polish Army and repulsed the enemy; but the pusillanimous King Stanislaus commanded his troops to lay down their arms. The Russians entered Warsaw in 1792, and from that moment the independence of Poland virtually terminated.

Kosciuzko headed an insurrection against the Russians in 1794, and after many successes was defeated, seriously wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Maciejovice, while Warsaw and Praga were brutally sacked by Suwaroff. The patriot Pole was thrown into a dungeon, where he remained until the death of Catherine II. in 1796.

Paul I. reversed his mother’s policy and released Kosciuzko, who proceeded first to France and then to England. In both countries he was received with the greatest honour and respect; the former granted him the title of CITOYEN FRANÇAIS. Napoleon, as First Consul, favoured the Polish general, and employed him in hopes of obtaining redress for his country’s wrong; the latter was ready to serve and did serve either Napoleon or Alexander I., but his hopes were always frustrated, and after the peace of 1815, when the Duchy of Warsaw was finally united to the Russian Empire, he retired into voluntary exile and died at Solenme in Switzerland in 1817. His body was eventually removed to Cracow in Austrian Poland, and his coffin placed in the cathedral of that city between those of John Sobieski and Joseph Poniotowski.

LAFAYETTE, MARIE PAUL MOTIER, MARQUIS DE.

Born, 1757; died, May 19, 1834.

Lafayette’s father fell at Minden a few months before his son’s birth, his mother died when he was an infant. Lafayette inherited a large fortune, and at the age of seventeen married an heiress, Mdlle. de Novilles.

Refusing brilliant offers to Court appointments, and regardless of the entreaties of his young wife and other relatives, he insisted, when but twenty years of age, in fitting out a ship at his own expense and offered his sword to Washington in aid of American independence. He fought for two years in the War of Secession, was wounded at the battle of Brandy-Wine, and assisted in the retreat of Barren Hill, where he showed much courage and tactical skill.

On hearing there was a likelihood of war breaking out between England and France, he returned to Europe. He succeeded in persuading Louis XVI. to send out 4000 troops under the joint command of Count Rochambeau and himself to assist Washington, and this reinforcement was mainly instrumental in obtaining the American final successes.

Lafayette defended Virginia against Lord Cornwallis, and it was he who was the principal means of causing that commander to capitulate at York Town.

Lafayette returned to France in 1785 with a glorious reputation.

When the States-General assembled, Lafayette was member for Auvergne. He was elected Vice-President of the Assembly; was in Paris during the taking of the Bastille, and used every effort in his power to produce moderation in the Revolutionary party, of which he was a member. When the mob attacked Versailles his presence of mind and influence over the crowd were the means of saving the lives of the Queen and the whole Royal Family. During their terrible drive to Paris, Lafayette rode the whole way by the side of their carriage, and saved them from as much outrage as possible.

His popularity declined after the flight to Varennes, which he was suspected to have assisted. He was given the command of the army on the frontier, and succeeded in putting these irregular troops into some kind of order and discipline. He fell into disgrace and was deprived of his command, owing to the fact that he dared to report unfavourably of the Jacobin Club; forced to fly from France, arrested in Austria, and imprisoned for five years at Olmutz.

His wife and daughters having escaped after fifteen months’ captivity in the dungeons of Robespierre, joined him in his exile.

When at last released the Directorate forbade his return to France, which he did not re-enter until after the events of 18 Brumaire. Napoleon received him with favour, made him a Counsellor, and offered him a Senatorship. He voted against the Life Consulate and the Empire, and retired from public life until the end of the Napoleonic _régime_.

After Waterloo he took part in the Provisionary Government which held the reins of power until the Allies re-entered Paris. He met with little favour from the Government of the Restoration, his opinions were too liberal, and he was suspected of Republicanism.

In 1824 he returned to the United States, where he was received with unbounded enthusiasm. In recognition of his services that Government voted him in land and money a sum equivalent to £30,000.

He took a leading part in the Revolution of 1830, and greatly assisted Louis Philippe in obtaining the sovereignty of France; for in his opinion a constitutional monarchy was the best of republics.

He died in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven.

LARCHER, PIERRE HENRI.

Born, 1726; died, 1812.

One of the greatest Greek scholars of modern times. He translated Herodotus and innumerable Greek plays and poems. His writings are very numerous.

During the Revolution, although his religious convictions were well known, he escaped persecution and was allotted a pension of 3000 francs a year by the Directory. He was one of the founders of the Institut, and was nominated Professor of Greek when aged eighty-four. Notwithstanding his great age he carried out his duties in this capacity satisfactorily until his death three years later.

L’ASNE, MICHEL.

Born in Paris, 1594; died, 1667.

He was a celebrated draughtsman and engraver. His engravings after Rubens and Paul Veronese are now of great value. He also drew and engraved the portraits of great and distinguished men.

LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT.

Born in Paris, 1743; guillotined, May 8, 1794.

The founder of modern chemistry. His father, a wealthy merchant, gave him an excellent education, but from his early youth he showed a precocious taste for science, and when only twenty-one he received the prize that the Academy of Science had offered “for discovering the best manner of lighting the streets of great towns.” In 1768 he was elected Academician. Turgot, in 1776, gave to this great chemist the direction of the manufacture of gunpowder and saltpetre. In the course of the next ten years Lavoisier made innumerable useful scientific discoveries.

Elected Deputy to the National Assembly in 1789; in 1791 he was named Commissionary of the Treasury, and propounded a scheme which, had it been carried out, would have been of immense economical service to France. He took an active part in the construction of the new system of weights and measures, and constructed in the gardens of the arsenal apparatus for experiments to aid this purpose.

In 1793 he measured the base of the new meridian; as Treasurer of the Academy he put in order the whole of the accounts of that body; and was able to discover funds which no one was aware the Academy possessed. In 1769 he had received a post as _Fermier-Général_ from the Crown; and although such offices had long ceased to exist Robespierre caused his arrest in 1794, and, on the sole plea that it was the will of the people that no _Fermier-Général’s_ life should be spared, the head of this great citizen fell upon the scaffold: four other former _Fermier-Généraux_, including his father-in-law, M. Poulze, perished the same day.

LE BRUN, DUC DE PLAISANCE, CHARLES FRANÇOIS.

Born, March 19, 1739; died, June 16, 1824.

In early life he showed an extraordinary disposition for learning languages, and he resolved to perfect this talent by travelling in foreign countries. He went to England, where he spent some time. He was delighted with the country, its inhabitants and its liberty, notwithstanding its aristocracy and monarchy.

After his return to France he became a lawyer. In 1768 he was appointed Inspector-General of the Crown Lands. He was Chief Secretary to Maupeau, the Chancellor, whose speeches he composed. In 1774, after the accession to the throne of Louis XVI., when Maupeau shared the fate of all the favourites of Louis XV., and had to deliver up his seals of office, le Brun lost his place too; he continued to practise his profession till the outbreak of the Revolution; he was Deputy to the States-General, and spoke in that assembly in favour of the reform of all abuses. In the Constitutional Assembly he opposed the issue of paper money and the creation of public lotteries.

He was the editor and reporter of the new financial laws. Le Brun was named President of the Directorate of Seine and Oise. In 1792, riots having occurred in his Department, he put them down by energetic measures.

After August 10 he threw up all his employments and retired into private life; he was shortly afterwards arrested and imprisoned at Versailles, but, under the _surveillance_ of a gaoler, he was allowed to visit his friends and relatives. When Robespierre attained supreme power, le Brun’s captivity became severe; but for the events of the 9th Thermidor he would certainly have perished upon the scaffold.

Le Brun re-entered public life in 1795. In December 1799, Bonaparte appointed him Third Consul, with control of the Finance Department, and, after the establishment of the Empire, Arch-Treasurer of France.

Notwithstanding le Brun’s objection to hereditary titles, the Emperor insisted on creating him Duc de Plaisance.

To le Brun France owes the establishment of the Cour des Comptes.

In 1805 the Republic of Genoa was annexed to France. Napoleon despatched le Brun as Governor-General. He remained a year in Genoa, and showed both ability and moderation there. On his return to Paris he had the courage to remonstrate with the Emperor upon the proposed abolition of the “Tribunal,” and resigning his Arch-Treasurership, retired into private life.

In 1810 Napoleon, who respected his honesty and valued his intellectual powers, commanded le Brun to undertake the Governorship of Holland, the throne of that country being vacant owing to the abdication of Louis Bonaparte. Le Brun was now seventy-one years of age, yet he undertook this arduous task with the vigour of a young man, and in fifteen months completely reorganised the little kingdom. He was called “the good Stadtholder” by the Dutch.

In the disastrous Russian retreat the second son of le Brun perished, and after the battle of Leipzig the Cossacks invaded Holland. The Dutch, anxious to regain their independence, rose against the French. Their respect for the Viceroy was, however, so great that they conducted him to the frontier with an honourable escort and every possible courtesy.

During the events of the first two months of 1814, le Brun assisted the Imperial Government to the best of his power, and vigorously opposed the departure from Paris of the Empress Marie Louise.

He accepted, in the “Hundred Days,” the Grand Mastership of the University of Paris. After the Second Restoration his name was erased from the list of peers of France. It was restored in 1819, after which date, though eighty years of age, he made many important speeches in the House of Peers, and occupied himself with literary as well as political work until his death in 1824, aged eighty-five.

He was not only a great statesman, but a distinguished author, and besides writing many important works, translated Tasso’s _Jerusalem Delivered_ and the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ of Homer.

LE CLERC, JEAN BAPTISTE.

Born, 1756; died, 1826.

A philosopher of the school of Jean Jacques Rousseau, he led until the outbreak of the Revolution, a secluded and studious life, devoted to literature, music and philosophy, in his native town of Angers.

Elected to the States-General as a representative of Anjou he embraced extreme revolutionary views, and, becoming later a member of the Assembly, invariably voted with the majority: as a member of the Convention he voted for the immediate death of the King. He was suspected of favouring the principles of the Girondins, and arrested and imprisoned, but released after the fall of Robespierre.

When on the Council of the Five Hundred he created the French Conservatoire of Music.

In 1801 Le Clerc was elected President of the _Corps Législatif_, but only retained this office for a year. He then retired to Chalonnes, refusing all honours from Napoleon.

The act of 1816 banished Le Clerc as a regicide.

Some years before his death he was permitted to return to France.

He wrote books upon history, philosophy and music, besides much poetry and many moral tales.

LEGENDRE, JEAN SEBASTIAN.

Born, 1755; died, 1794. Until 1789 he was a butcher in Paris.

He headed that procession which on July 13, 1789, carried round Paris busts of the Duke of Orleans and Necker. On the following day he conducted the mob to the Invalides, where they plundered the armoury, previous to attacking the Bastille. He soon became one of the principal revolutionary leaders, and was instrumental in forming the _Club des Cordeliers_. He it was who, when the crowd invaded the Tuileries upon June 20, 1792, forced the red cap upon Louis XVI. On August 10 he took a prominent part in the attack upon the Palace.