BOULAY DE LA NEURTHE, ANTOINE JACQUES CLAUDE JOSEPIT, Count, a statesman of the French empire, was b. in 1761 at Chanmousey, a village in the Vosges. He espoused the cause of the revolution, but held moderate principles. In 1797, he was elected to the council of five hundred, in which he became the declared opponent both of Jacobinism and of the despotism of the directory. He supported the coup d'art of the 18th Brumaire. Under the empire, he accepted the post of president of the legisla tive section of the council of state, in which capacity he had an important part in the preparation of the Code Civil. He afterwards labored with extraordinary zeal and energy in the administration of the national domains, which he regarded as affording the basis for a regeneration of France. He adhered to the cause of Napoleon with remarkable fidelity. After the second restoration, he was conveyed by the Russians into Germany. He received permission to return to France in 1819, and lived in com plete retirement till his death, which took place at Paris, 2d Feb., 1840. Napoleon had elevated him to the rank of a count of the empire. In 1799, he published an Es-say on the Causes which led to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in England in 1649, a work which had an extraordinary circulation, and did much to prepare men's minds for the revolution of the 18th _Brumaire. He prosecuted the same general subject in his
cal picture of the reigns of Charles 11. and JameS II. (Tableau Politique, etc., 2 vols., Brussels, 1818). He wrote also Bourrienne and his errors, voluntary and involuntary (//ourrienne et sea Erreura, etc., 2 vols., Par. 1830), a work not without value in reference to the history of Napoleon.
his son, IIENIIY BOCLAY DE LA MErnTIIE, was b, at Paris in 1797. IIe took an a . ctiye par! the revolution of 1630. hut became an opponent also of the government of lie devoted great attention to questions of social economy, con tributing much to promote the establishment of houses of refuge (sollts &tulle). th; exten mon of elementary education, and many improvements in the condition of the laboring classes. In the national assembly of 1848, lie associated himself with the republicans, and in Jan., 1849, was elected vice-president of the republic. Nevertheless, lie tacitly acquiesced in the coup ditat of Dec., 1S31, and became a member of the imperial senate. Ile d. at Paris, 24th Nov., 183S.