DARU, PIERRE ANTOINE, COUNT (1767-1829), French soldier, was born at Montpellier on Jan. 12, I 767. He was a great army administrator, and served as commissary to the army of de fence of the Breton coast 0793), in Massena's army in Switzer land 0799), in Berthier's army in Italy (1799), and again on the Breton coast (1803). He enjoyed the complete confidence of Na poleon, who employed him as chief commissary of the Grand Army in 1805, and made him intendant of his military household. In the campaigns of 1806-07 he served, in his usual capacity, in the army which overthrew the forces of Russia and Prussia; and he had a share in drawing up the treaty of Tilsit (July 7, 1807). After this he supervised the administrative and financial duties in connection with the French army which occupied the principal fortresses of Prussia. At the congress of Erfurt, Daru was present at the inter view between Goethe and Napoleon, and interposed tactful refer ences to the works of the great poet. Daru served again as com missary in the campaign of 1809 against Austria, and late in the year 1813 he took up the portfolio of military affairs. After the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Daru retired into private life, but aided Napoleon during the Hundred Days. After the second Restoration he became a member of the Chamber of Peers, in which he defended the cause of popular liberty against the ultra-royalists. He died at Meulan on Sept. 5, 1829.
Few men of the Napoleonic empire have been more generally admired and respected than Daru. On one occasion when he ex pressed a fear that he lacked all the gifts of a courtier, Napoleon replied, "Courtiers! They are common enough about me; I shall never be in want of them. What I want is an enlightened, firm and vigilant administrator; and that is why I have chosen you." At another time Napoleon said, "Daru is good on all sides; he has , good judgment, a good intellect, a great power for work, and a body and mind of iron." Among Daru's literary works are his Histoire de Venise (7 vols., 1819); Histoire de Bretagne (3 vols., 1826); a poetical translation of Horace; Discours en vers sur les facultes de l'homme (1825), and Astronomie, a didactic poem in six -cantos (1820).
See the "Notice" by Viennet prefixed to the fourth edition of Daru's Histoire de la republique de Venise (9 vols., 1853) and three articles by Sainte-Beuve in Causeries du lundi, vol. ix. For the many letters of Napoleon to Daru see the Correspondance de Napoleon ler (32 VO1S., 1858-70).
His son, NAPOLiON DARU (1807-1890), created count in 1832, was a liberal member of the National Assembly in 1848, and of the Legislative Assembly (1869) and foreign minister in 187o. He sat as a conservative in the National Assembly (1871-76), and in the senate from 1876 to 1879.