ROYER-COLLARD, PIERRE-PAUL, a French statesman, b. June 21, 1703, at Som puis ()fame). The childhood of Royer-Collard was spent at his father's house, under the severe surveillance of his mother, who belonged to a family ardently devoted to Jansenism. He was sent to college at Chaumont, and afterward at Saint-Omer, which was superintended by one of his uncles, the abbe Collard. Having passed as advocate at an early age, he pleaded several times before the old parliament; but from the first days of the revolution he was involved in the events of that, time, having been elected one of the representatives of the commune of Paris. From 1790 to 1792 he acted as joint-secretary of the municipality. It was then that he was connected with Potion and Danton. The events of May 31 obliged him to remove from Paris. He then returned to Sompuis. and lived in obscurity during the whole time of the reign of terror, studying and following the plow himself, to evade the suspicions of the Jacobins. Three years afterward, in 1797, the electors of this department chose him to represent them in the council of the five hundred. Royer-Collard took an active part in the work of that assembly. He was one of those honest men who, preferring monarchy, but fearing a violent counter-revolution, consented to try the republic with moderate gov ernment, cherishing the hope, in the mean time, of an ultimate restoration. The 18th Fructidor completely opened his eyes and dispelled his illusions. It was then that he turned his thoughts to what he believed to be the only hope of France, and that he began a correspondence with Louis XVIII., which, however, ceased toward the epoch of the establishment of the empire. For some years afterward he ceased to have anything to do with politics, and entered on another career. He was offered the chair of philoso phy (1809) by Napoleon in the recently created university of France, which he accepted after great hesitation. Applying himself vigorously to study for it, he was soon highly qualified to fulfill his duties. In the few years he occupied this chair, he exercised an immense influence on the philosophy of France. Rejecting the purely sensuous sys tem of Condillac, he proceeded eclectically, giving special prominence to the principles of the Scottish school of Reid and Stewart. He originated the " Doctrinaire!' school, of which Joulfroy and Cousin were the chief representatives.
The restoration deprived the cause of education of the services of Royer-Collard. The Bourbons did not overlook the man who had not ceased, since 1798, to maintain their cause; but Royer-Collard, who had all along dreamed of the union of hereditary monarchy with an enlightened liberty, was ill-fitted to act with the royalist fanatics now dominant in France.
Royer-Collard was appointed president of the commission of public instruction (Aug. 15, 1815), which office he held, with the title of councilor of state, till July, 1820. He gave in his resignation at that time, not wishing to associate himself with the politics of the ministry. In 1815 the electors of Marne chose him to represent them in the famous " Chambre Introuvable" (q.v.). He took part in all the business of the cham ber, remaining steadfastly attached to the king, but energetically opposing the ultra party. In the next parliament he rejected with great energy the idea of confiding
public instruction'to the clergy. " The.university," he exclaimed, " has the monopoly of education, nearly as much as the courts have that of justice, and the army that of the public force." At. the end of the session 1817 Royer-Collard for the first time withdrew from the government, at least from the course pursued by the ministry. He once more supported it in a new discussion against the predominance of the Catholic church; but dating from 1819 the rupture was complete. He presented then the singular spectacle of a devoted royalist seconding the efforts of the liberals. The French academy opened its doors to him in 1827; and in 1828 he was named president of the chamber of repre sentatives. As president Royer-Collard had to present the famous address of the 221 deputies (March, 1830), their support to the government, which the king refused to hear read. Next day the chamber was prorogued. Royer-Collard departed for Chtiteativieux, his country-seat, where he went to conceal fears and regrets which the revolution of July was to justify. lie was re-elected in..Jnne, 1830, and he accepted this mandate. In 184.2 he withdrew from parliamentary life, and after that lived in great retirement.
Although Royer Collard had a considerable fortune, he never departed from the greatest simplicity, excepting for three things—the purchase of books, charity, and the receptions which his official position imposed on him. He received with politeness, but with a certain coldness which lie could never lay aside. His salon was very much fre quented by the political world. Every Sunday the principal leaders of the moderate opposition assembled there: it was a large room, as a study, the walls of which were hidden from top to bottom by shelves loaded with books; not a single ornament— no fine furniture—what was strictly necessary, and no more. There assembled Cousin, the most eminent of his pupils; Guizot, the duke de Broglie, Casimir Perier, De Barante, Villemain, Ampere, Andral, De Remusat, Dc Barthelemy, Gabriel, and many others. There was little conversation, properly so called; the slow and sonorous voice of Royer-Collard was dominant in the room. The subjects were almost always the politi cal events and the debates in parliament; the acts of the government were not spared. This salon was the echo of the liberal world.
From 1842 Royer-Collard had completely withdrawn from public life, his health, in fact, not allowing him to occupy himself with public matters. He spent only the winter in Paris, returning in summer to his estate of Chfiteauvieux, where he died Sept. 4, 1845.
Royer-Collard is undoubtedly one of the most noted men of the 19th century. He exercised on his contemporaries a powerful influence, owing more, perhap's, to the uprightness, firmness, and extreme earnestness of his character, than to intellectual power or genius. Excepting his political speeches, published in the lroniteur, Royer Collard left few published works. A lecture on external perception appeared in 1813; some of his minor articles are given in Jduffroy's translation of Reid. See the biogra phies by Philippe (1857), and Barante (new ed. 1878).