RECLUS, JRAN JACQUES ELIsEE, b. 1830 in the Gironde; son of a Protestant pastor. and early noted for his devotion to republican principles. After the coup d'atat of Louis Napoleon in 1851, forced to leave France, he traveled in Great Britain, the United States, and South America, and remained for several years in New Granada. Returned to France in 1837, he became editor of the Rnue des Deux 31ondes and of the Tour do ..lfonde, etc. On the breaking out of the war cf secession in the United States, his arti cles were of conspicuous value in giving a clear view of the nature of the struggle, and directing public sympathy to the administration of Lincoln; for which the American minister in Paris thanked him. He aided in the production of the Guides Joanne, remarkable for their accuracy of information and charm of style; and is conspicuous for his popularization of scientific studies for youth. His repugnance to the Napoleonic reign induced him•to join the internationals in 1869. During the siege of Paris in 1871
he served as common soldier; was author of the Ori du Peuple published in March of that year; a soldier of the commune, in the balloon service, taken prisoner by the troops of the government, and banished from France. Charles Darwin and other distinguished scientists united in a petition to the French government for his recall, on the ground of the services which he had rendered to science and popular edtication, and the value of his continuance of similar service; but Reclus, who had established himself in Switzer land, refused to return except under a general amnesty to all the members of the com mune government. He was made a member of the central committee of the geograph ical society of Paris in 1869. Among his numerous works, La ?erre, in 2 vols., beauti fully illustrated, published 1S67-68, is the most elaborate, though his baoks of travel were the basis of his reputation.