' REMUSAT, CHARLES, Comte de, a French philosopher and politician, son of Auguste Laurent comte de Remnsat, a Provencal gentleman of some note, who held various public offices during the first empire and after the restoration, was b. at Paris, Mar. 14, 1797, and studied with brilliant success at the lycee Napoleon. He made his political debut in 1818 as a doctrinaire journalist, himself closely with Guizot, who, he confessed, had exercised a greater influence on the formation of his opinions than any other; but he subsequently withdrew from this connection, and became more independently liberal, though he always remained temperate and prudent in his views. Among has earlier political essays, the most important are Sur la Responsabilte des Iffinisteres; Sur la Liberte de la Presse; Sur la Procedure par Jures en ffatiere Criminate (1820); and Sur lea Amendo meats d la Loi, des Elections (1820). On the establishment of the Globe in 1824, Remusat became one of its most indefatigable contributors, and his name appears in the list of journalists who signed the protest against the fatal " ordonnances" of the minister Poliguac, which brought about the July revolution. After 1830 Remusat entered the French chambers as deputy of Muret in the Haute•Garonne, representing it till 1848.
He supported the ministry of Casimir Perier, was for a brief period under-secretary of state (1836) in that of comte Mole; and in 1840, when the government passed into the hands of Thiers, Remusat was made minister of the interior, but soon resigned the office. After the flight of Louis Philippe, he continued a member of the constituent and legis lative assemblies, and was a warm supporter of the party of order. He was exiled after the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon, but subsequently received permission to return to France. He devoted himself to literary and scientific studies, till, in Aug.,-1871, M. Thiers called him to hold the portfolio of foreign affairs, which he retained till .1873. He died June 6, 1875. He was long a well-known contributor to the _Revue des Deux Mondes. Among his writings are his Essais de Philos ophie (Paris, 2 vols., 1842); Abelard (2 1845); Passe at Present (2 vols., 1847); Angleterre au XV1JJe. Siècle (1856); Bacon (1858); Hartley (1874); Histoire de to Philosophie Anglaise de Bacon a Locke (1875), and his philosophical drama, Abelard (1877).