Mr De Fourcroy's political life, though not unsuc cessful, seems to have contributed less materially to his happiness, than his scientific career. He was chosen a supplementary member of the National Convention, and entered on the functions of the of fice in the dreadful period of 1793. He had, how ever, the wisdom to refrain from employing the elo quence that he possessed under circumstances so dangerous, and he almost entirely confined his exer. tions to some attempts to soften the cruel tyranny of the times. Darcet was one of the destined victims that he had the good fortune to save; but he soon found it too dangerous to persist in such interferen ces. Mr Cuvier, however, very fully acquits him of any approbation of the judicial murders that were committed, and of any connivance at such proceed ings as it might have been possible for him to avert ; declaring, that if, upon the strictest inquiry, he could have discovered that there was the least foundation for charging him with having been indifferent to the fate of his great rival Lavoisier, no consideration on earth could have induced him to become the biogra pher of a person so contemptible. It was at a later period, that Fourcroy acquired some little influence as a director of the public instruction; and in this capacity he had great scope for the exertion of his talents, in the re-establishment of the many public institutions connected with science, which the mad ness of the revolution had destroyed. The Ecole de Medecine was one of the first that was restored, but the name of Medecin seeming to carry with it too much of respect and authority for the levelling spirit of the day, the new institution was at first called Ecole de Sante. M. de Fourcroy was also very es sentially concerned in the organization of the Ecde Polytechnique, as well as of the central schools of the departments, and of the stioraza/ schools of Paris; nor was he an indifferent spectator of the establish ment of the Institute, which was at first intended to be as much immediately subservient to public in struction, as to making known the results of private study. He had also considerable influence in obtain ing the adoption of a law, calculated greatly to faci litate the formation of a Museum of Natural History of a magnificent extent. If, in the pursuit of these objects, he sometimes appeared to forget the dignity of language most appropriate to his subject, it most be remembered, that he lived in times when the choice of expressions was by no means at the option of the speaker. He was once denounced by the Jacobins, merely for his silence in the Assembly; but he ex cused himself, by pleading the absolute necessity of applying himself to chemical pursuits for the support of his family.
In 1798 his duties as a senator were terminated, but he was made a counsellor of state under the con sular government, and again employed in the depart ment of public instruction, with less liberty to pur sue his own ideas than before, but with. more effec tual means of attaining the objects of his appoint ment. • In this capacity he directed, in the course of five years, the establishment of 12 schools of law, and of more than 30 lyceums, now called Royal Col leges, and 300 elementary schools ; exhibiting, in the performance of this laborious duty, the greatest possible judgment and attention, in overcoming the local difficulties which perpetually occurred in the details of the undertaking, and depending 011 DOW but himself for the whole of the required arrange ments : he conducted himself with great impartiali ty in his choice of the persons to be employed, though he sometimes found himself obliged to pay a certain degree of deference to the arbitrary power under which he acted, or even to his own political connexions. Remembering the difficulties which
he had himself encountered in the early part of his career, he was particularly kind and benevolent in his intercourse with those young men, to whom he was the dispenser of the public munificence, in ad mitting them to a gratuitous education.
The great number and extent of Mr de Fourcroy's scientific labours may be considered as paramount to a more immediate participation, in the discovery of some of the new facts, which changed the aspect of the science of chemistry. His ideas were, how ever, often rather enlarged than profound, and he was not uncommonly somewhat too precipitate in his conclusions ; but he was generally methodical in the mode of conducting his researches, and clear in relating their results. His pursuits and projects were sometimes varied a little capriciously, though he prosecuted them all with equal warmth and equal eloquence. He was too much the slave of public opinion for his own comfort, and even the slightest expression of censure that occurred in private so ciety, or the most unimportant criticism that appear ed in a periodical work, became a heavy misfortune to him, and deprived him of his tranquillity for a con siderable time. But the desire of universal appro bation acted upon him as a strong incentive to con tinued exertion ; and among all his political and his official labours, he continued his experiments, his memoirs, and his lectures, with as much eagerness as if they had constituted his whole occupation. His nerves seem ultimately to have suffered by his unremitting application, and he became subject to palpitations, which, as he was well aware, render ed the duration of his life extremely precarious. At last, on the 16th December 1809, at the age of 54, as he was signing some dispatches, he exclaimed suddenly, " I am dead ;" and his words were true. It happened, that on that day his family were about to assemble for the celebration of an anniversary, in which they were particularly interested ; the as sembly actually met, though only to mourn his loss: and their disappointment was rendered the greater, upon the receipt of some distinguished marks of the imperial favour, which arrived too late to be of any use to his spirits or to his health, but which would have been of the more value to him, as he bad be fore been passed over, when some of his collegues had received considerable gratifications. He had, however, been made a Count of the Empire, and a Commander of the Legion of Honour, in addition to his various literary and scientific titles ; and he must have had the heartfelt satisfaction of reflecting, that he had been of use to the promotion of knowledge by his experiments and his writings ; to his country by the public institutions which he had established ; and to many deserving individuals by the benefits which he had bestowed on them, without the re morse of having done injury to any one.