BRISSOT, JEAN PIERRE, one of the first movers in the outbreak of the French revo lution, and afterwards numbered among its victims, was b. at Chartres in 1734, and educated for the bar. After completing his studies at Paris, he went into the office of a procurator, but quickly abandoned the legal profession for the more congenial one of authorship. From his earliest years he had devoted himself with passionate eagerness to literary studies, especially history, economy, and politics, and, among the other lingual accomplishments, acquired a thorough mastery of English. Ilis first work, TNorie des Lois Criminelles (1780), gained the approbation of Voltaire and D'Alembert, and was followed by his Bibliothegue des Lois Criminelles, which established his reputation as a jurist. Having removed to London, he there started a learned journal, under the title Lyceum, for which, however, he found no adequate support. Ile therefore returned to Paris, and soon afterwards was imprisoned in the Bastile, on a charge of having written against the queen a brochure, which, in fact, was penned by the marquis de Pelleport. After four months in the Bastile, he was liberated through the intervention of Madame de Genlis and the duke of Orleans. B. continued to write tracts on finance, etc., but his love of freedom and vehement hatred of despotism again involved lain in danger, and, to escape from a lettre-de-cachet, he was once more compelled to retire to England. He afterwards visited North America, as representative of the Societe des A11118 des Noirs. On his return to France, he zealously assisted in the outbreak of the revolution, and was in consequence elected by the citizens of Paris their representative in the constituent assembly, where he exercised a predominant influence over all the early movements of the revolution. He also established a journal, called Le Patriots Francais, which became
the recognized organ of the earliest republicans; and, through his superior knowledge of politics and the usages of constitutional countries, he gathered round him all the young men of talent and spirit who were opposed to the court-theory of absolute sovereignty. It thus happened that, without his being formally considered the head of a party, all the movements of the early revolutionists were profoundly influenced by hitn, and lie incurred the bitter hatred of the court reactionists, who affixed the nickname of Brissotins to all the advocates of reform. Afterwards, the Brissotins formed the Girondist party. In the convention, B. was representative of the department Eure-et-Loir. Here his moderation made him suspected as a friend of royalty, as he opposed the "men of Sep tember" and the trial and condemnation of the king. When Louis XVI. heard his doom pronounced, he exclaimed: " I believed that Brissot would have saved mel" But B. was weak enough to imagine that the best way to save the king would be to vote first for his death, and then appeal to the nation. 13. and his party, which was perhaps the purest in principle and the weakest in action, ultimately fell before the fierce accusations of the Mountain, or Jacobin party. which believed, or at least pretended to believe, that the virtuous B. had received money from the court to employ against the revolution. With 20 other Girondists, B. suffered death under the guillotine, Oct. 30, 1793.