BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE, ANTOINE JACQUES CLAUDE JOSEPH, COMTE (1761-184o), French politician and magistrate, son of an agricultural labourer, was born at Chamousey (Vosges) Feb. 19, 1761, and died in Paris Feb. 4, 184o. Called to the bar at Nancy in 1783, he presently went to Paris, where he rapidly acquired a reputation as a lawyer and a speaker. He fought at Valmy (179 2) and Wissembourg ) in the republican army, but his moderate principles forced him, during the Terror, to go into hiding. He represented La Meurthe in the Council of Five Hundred, of which he was twice president, but his views steadily became more conservative. He became an active member of the plot for the overthrow of the Directory in Nov. 1799. He was rewarded by the presidency of the legislative commission formed by Napoleon to draw up the new constitution; and as president of the legislative section of the council of state he revised the draft of the civil code. As director of a special land commission he settled the titles of land acquired by the French nation at the Revolution, and placed on an unassailable basis the rights of the new proprietors. After Waterloo he tried to obtain the recognition of the duke of Reichstadt. In 1815 he was proscribed and spent four years in exile, and though he was allowed to return to France in 1819, took no 'further active part in politics. Boulay published two books on English history Essai sur les causes qui, en 1619, amenerent en Angleterre l'etablissement de la republique (1799), and Tableau politique des regnes de Charles II. et Jacques II., derniers rois de la maison de Stuart (The Hague, 1818 )—which contained much indirect criticism of the Directory and the Restoration governments. His memoirs, with the exception of a fragment on the Theorie con stitutionnelle de Sieyes 0836), remained unpublished.
His elder son, Comte HENRI GEORGES BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE (1797-1858), was a constant Bonapartist, and after the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency, was named (Jan. vice-president of the republic. He zealously promoted popular education.