LAMETH, ALEXANDRE THEODORE VICTOR, COMTE DE (176o-1829), French soldier and politician, was born in Paris on Oct. 20, I760. He served in the American War of Inde pendence, and in 1789 was elected to the States General. In the Constituent Assembly he formed with Barnave and Adrien Duport an association called the "Triumvirate," which controlled a group of about forty deputies forming the advanced left of the Assem bly. He presented a famous report in the Constituent Assembly on the organization of the army, but is better known by his speech on Feb. 28, 1791, at the Jacobin Club, against his personal enemy, Mirabeau, whose relations with the court were beginning to be suspected. After the flight of the king to Varennes, Lameth be came reconciled with the court. He served in the army as mare chal-de-camp under Luckner and Lafayette, but was accused of treason on Aug. 15, 1792, fled the country, and was imprisoned by the Austrians. Returning to France under the Empire he was made prefect successively in several departments and created a baron (181o). In 1814 he attached himself to the Bourbons, and
under the Restoration was appointed prefect of Somme, deputy for Seine-Inferieure and finally led the Liberal opposition as deputy for Seine-et-Oise. He died in Paris on March 18, 1829. He was the author of an important History of the Constituent Assembly (2 vols., 1828-1829).
Of his two brothers, THEODORE LAMETH (1756-1854) served in the American war, sat in the Legislative Assembly as deputy from the department of Jura, and became marechal-de-camp; and CHARLES MALO FRANCOIS LAMETH (1757-1832), who also served in America, was deputy to the States General of 1789, but emigrated early in the Revolution, returned to France under the Consulate, and was appointed governor of Wiirzburg under the Empire. Like Alexandre, Charles joined the Bourbons, suc ceeding Alexandre as deputy in 1829.
See F. A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de l'Assemblee Constituante (19o5) ; also M. Tourneux, Bibliog. de l'histoire de Paris (vol. iv., 1906, s.v. "Lameth").