RAYNAL, GUILLAUME THOMAS FRANcOIS' (1713-1796), French writer, was born at Saint Geniez, Rouergue, on April 12, 1713. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Pezenas, and received priest's orders, but he was dismissed for unexplained reasons from the parish of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, to which he was at tached, and thenceforward he devoted him self to society and literature. The Abbe Raynal wrote for the Mercure de France, and compiled a series of popular but super ficial works, which he published and sold himself. These—L'His toire du stathouderat (The Hague, 1748), L'Histoire du parle ment d'Angleterre (London, 1748), Anecdotes historiques (Am sterdam, 3 vols., i753)—gained for him access to the salons of Mme. Geoffrin, Helvetius, and the baron d'Holbach. He had the assistance of various members of the philosophe coteries in his most important work, L'Histoire philosophique et politique des etablissements et du commerce des Europeens dans les deux Indes (Amsterdam, 4 vols., 177o). Diderot indeed is credited with a third of this work, which was characterized by Voltaire as "du rechauffe avec de la declamation." The other chief collaborators were Pechmeja, Holbach, Paulze, the farmer-general of taxes, the Abbe Martin, and Alexandre Deleyre. The "philosophic" declamations constituted its chief interest for the general public, and its significance as a contribution to democratic propaganda. The Histoire went through many editions, being revised and aug mented from time to time by Raynal; it was translated into the principal European languages, and appeared in various abridg ments. Its introduction into France was forbidden in 1779; the book was burned by the public executioner, and an order was given for the arrest of the author, whose name had not appeared in the first edition, but was printed on the title page of the Geneva edition of 1780. Raynal escaped to Spa, and thence to
Berlin, where he was coolly received by Frederick the Great, in spite of his connection with the philosophe party. At St. Peters burg he met with a more cordial reception from Catherine II., and in 1787 he was permitted to return to France, though not to Paris. He was elected by Marseilles to the States-general, but refused to sit on the score of age. Raynal now realized the im possibility of a peaceful revolution, and, in terror of the proceed ings for which the writings of himself and his friends had prepared the way, he sent to the Constituent Assembly an address, which was read on May 31, 1791, deprecating the violence of its reforms. This address is said by Sainte-Beuve (Nouveaux lundis, xi.) to have been composed chiefly by Clermont Tonnerre and Pierre V. Malouet, and it was regarded, even by moderate men, as ill-timed. The published Lettre de l'abbe Raynal h l'AssembMe nationale (Dec. 179o) was really the work of the comte de Guibert. During the Terror Raynal lived in retirement at Passy and at Montlhery. On the establishment of the Directory in 1795 he be came a member of the newly organized Institute of France. He died in the next year on March 6, at Chaillot.
A detailed bibliography of his works and of those falsely attributed to him will be found in Querard's La France litteraire, and the same author's Supercheries devoilies. See also the anonymous Raynal demasque (1791); B. Lunet, Biographie de l'abbe Raynal (Rodez, 1866) ; and J. Morley, Diderot (1891).