BARBE-MARBOIS, FRANcOIS, MARQUIS DE (1 i45 French politician, was born at Metz. He began his public career as intendant of San Domingo under the old regime. At the close of 1789 he returned to France, and served the revolutionary government. He was twice arrested as a suspect and in 1797 was transported to French Guiana. Transferred to Oleron in 1799, he owed his liberty to Napoleon, after the 18th Brumaire. In 18o1 he became councillor of state and director of the public treasury, and in 1802 a senator. In 1803 he negotiated the treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and was rewarded by the First Consul with a gift of 15 2,00o fr. He changed his polit ical colour with successive governments. Napoleon had made him president of the cour des comptes, and he retained his office under Louis XV III.: he was minister of justice for a short time at the restoration after Waterloo, and then went into retirement. He was again president of the cour des comptes under Louis Philippe. He died on Feb. 12, 1837. He wrote: Re flexions sur la colonie de Saint-Domingue (1794), De la Guyane, etc. (1822), Histoire de la Louisiane et la cession de cette colonie par la France aux Etats-Unis, etc. (1828), and the story of his transportation after the i8th Fructidor in Journal d'un deporte non juge