GARAT, DOMINIQUE JOSEPH French writer and politician, was born at Bayonne on Sept. 8, 1749. After practising as an advocate at Bordeaux, he came to Paris, and became a contributor to the Encyclopedie methodique and the Mercure de France. He gained a reputation by an eloge on Michel de L'Hbpital in 1778, and was three times crowned by the Academy for eloges on Suger, Montausier and Fontenelle. In 1785 he became professor at the Lycee. When deputy to the states-general in 1789, he served the popular cause by his nar rative of the proceedings of the Assembly contributed to the Journal de Paris. He played an undignified part in politics, and became a tool in the hands of others. Danton made him minister of justice on Oct. 9, 1792, and entrusted to him what he called the commisison a ff reuse of communicating to Louis XVI. his sen tence of death. In 1793 Garat became minister of the interior. Though himself uncorrupt, he acquiesced in corruption in his subordinates. At last, disgusted with the excesses which he was unable to control, he resigned (Aug. 15, 1793 ). On Oct. 2 he was arrested for Girondist sympathies but soon released. He escaped further molestation owing to the friendship of Robes pierre, whose literary amour-propre he had flattered. On the 9th Thermidor, however, he took sides against Robespierre, and on Sept. 12, 1794 he was named by the Convention as a member of the executive committee of public instruction. In 1798 he was appointed ambassador to Naples, and in 1799 became a member, then president, of the Council of the Ancients. After the revolu tion of the 18th Brumaire he was chosen a senator by Napoleon and created a count. During the Hundred Days he was a member of the chamber of representatives. He was a member of the Institute of France from 1803 until the restoration of Louis XVIII. He died at Ustaritz near Bayonne on April 25, 1833. His elder brother Dominique was also a deputy to the states-general.
The works of Garat include, besides those already mentioned, Con siderations sur la Revolution Francaise (1792) ; Memoires sur la Revolution, on exposé de ma conduite (1795) ; Memoires sur la vie de M. Suard, sur ses ecrits, et sur le XVIIIC siecle (1820). For the history of Garat's tenure of the ministry, see police reports of Dutard, in W. A. Schmidt's Tableaux de la Revolution Francaise (3 vols., Leipzig, 1867-70).