CABET, ETIENNE (1788-1856), French Socialist, was born at Dijon in 1788, the son of a cooper. He practised at the bar in Dijon until 1820, and then settled in Paris, where he became director of the "Vente Supreme," the local association of Car bonari. After the revolution of 183o, he was made procureur general in Corsica ; but was dismissed for an attack on the Gov ernment in his Histoire de la revolution de 183o. Elected for Dijon to the chamber of deputies, he was prosecuted for his bitter criticism of the Government, and went into exile in England in 1834, where he became an ardent disciple of Robert Owen. On the amnesty of 1839 he returned to France, and wrote his Histoire de la Revolution francaise (1840), and published his Voyage en Icarie (184o), which he had written in London after reading the Utopia of Sir Thomas More. The Voyage en Icarie contains his theories on progressive taxation, on compulsion to work, old age pensions, and the division of the products of industry. Like Owen, he sought to realize his ideas in practice. By negotiations in England favoured by Owen, he bought a tract of land on the Red river, Texas, and drew up a scheme for the intended colony, community of property being the distinctive principle of the society. In 5848 an expedition of 1,5oo "Icarians" sailed to America; but unexpected difficulties arose and the complaints of the disenchanted settlers soon reached Europe. Cabet went out in 1849, but on his arrival, finding that the Mormons had been expelled from their city Nauvoo, in Illinois, he transferred his settlement there. With the exception of a journey to France, where he returned to defend himself successfully before the tribunals he remained at Nauvoo, the dictator of his little society. After a time dissensions arose and Cabet, with some 200 of the community left Nauvoo to form a new settlement. He died at St. Louis (Mo.), on Nov. 8, 1856. He placed his Socialism on a religious basis, and wrote a book entitled Le vrai christianisme de Jesus Christ See Nordhoff, Communistic Societies of the United States (1875) Felix Bonnaud, Cabet et son oeuvre, appel a tons les socialistes (1900) ; J. Prudhommeaux, Icaria and its Founder, Etienne Cabet (1907) .