ROYER-COLLARD, PIERRE PAUL (1763-1845), French statesman and philosopher, was born on June 21, 1763, at Sompuis, near Vitry le Francais (Marne), the son of Antoine Royer, a small proprietor. He was sent to the college of Chau mont of which his uncle, Father Paul Collard, was director. He followed his uncle to Saint-Omer, where he studied mathematics. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was practising at the Parisian bar. He was returned by the Island of Saint Louis to the Commune, of which he was secretary from 1790 to 1792. After the revolution of Aug. 1792, he was replaced by J. L. Tallien. His sympathies were now with the Gironde, and after the insur rection of the 12th Prairial (May 31, 1793) he was in danger of his life. He returned to Sompuis, and was saved from arrest possibly by the protection of Danton. In 1797 he was returned by his department (Marne) to the Council of the Five Hundred. He made one great speech in the council in defence of the prin ciples of religious liberty, but retired into private life at the coup d'Otat of Fructidor (Sept. 4, From that time until the Restoration Royer-Collard devoted himself to the study of philosophy. His opposition to the philoso phy of Condillac arose from the study of Descartes and his followers, and from his early veneration for the fathers of Port Royal. He desired to establish a system which should provide a moral and political education consonant with his view of the needs of France. From 1811 to 1814 he lectured at the Sorbonne.
Royer-Collard was the moving spirit of the "Doctrinaires," led by Guizot, P. F. H. Serre, Camille Jordan and Charles de Remusat, who met at the house of the comte de Ste. Aulaire and in the salon of the duchesse de Broglie. In 182o Royer-Collard was ex cluded from the council of State by a decree signed by his former ally Serre. In 1827 he was again elected; in 1828 he became president of the chamber, and fought against the reactionary policy which precipitated the Revolution of July. In March 183o he presented the address of the 221. From that time he took no active part in politics, although he retained his seat in the chamber until 1839. He died at his estate of Chateauvieux, near Vitry, on Sept. 2, 1845. He had been a member of the Academy since 1827.
Fragments of Royer-Collard's philosophical work are included in Jouffroy's translation of the works of Thomas Reid. The standard life of Royer-Collard is by his friend Prosper de Barante, Vie politique de M. Royer Collard, ses discours et ses icrits (2 vols., 1861). There are also biographies by M. A. Philippe (1857), L. Vingtain (1858), E. Spuller (1895) , in Grands ecrivains francais. See E. Faguet, Politique et morale du xixe siecle (1891) ; H. Taine, Les Philosophes francais du xixe siecle (1857) ; L. Seche, Les Derniers Jansenistes (1891) ; and Lady Blennerhasset, "The Doctrinaires" in the Cambridge Modern History (vol. x. chap. ii., 1907).