CARNOT, LAZARE NICOLAS MARGUERITE, b. May 13, 1753, at Noisy, in the depart ment of Cede d' Or, Burgundy, gained distinction at an early period by his talents in mathematical science and military engineering. In 1791, he became a member of the legislative assembly, and, in the convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI. After taking the command of the army of the north, and gaining the victory of Wattignies, he was elected into the committee of public safety, in which he was intrusted with the chief direction of military affairs, and greatly contributed to the successes of the French army. Though he endeavored to restrict the power of Robespierre, he was accused, with others, after the reign of terror; but the charge was dismissed. In 1797, having opposed the extreme measures of Barras, his colleague in the directory, C.. as a suspected royalist, was sentenced to deportation. He escaped into Germany. where he wrote his -defense, which conduced to the overthrow of his colleagues in 1799. The 18th Brumaire brought him back to Paris, where he was made minister of war, 1800; and by his energy, skill, and fertility of administrative resource, helped to achieve the brilliant results of the Italian and Rhenish campaigns. He retired, however, from his office when lie understood the ambitious plans of the emperor, but hastened, when he witnessed the reverses of the empire, to offer his services to Napoleon, who gave him the command of Antwerp in 1814, which he heroically defended. During the hundred days. he held
office as minister of the interior; and after the second restoration, retired first to Warsaw, and next to Magdeburg, where he died, Aug. 2, 1823. Among C.'s numerous writings on mathematics and military tactics, etc., we may notice his Essai sur les _Machines en. General (1786); Refiexions sur la Metaphysigue du Caleul Infinitesimal (1797); and the Grfcometrie de Position, (1813).—His son, LAZARE HIPPOLYTE CARNOT, b. at St. Omer, April 6, 1801, one of the leaders of the French democracy, was in early life a disciple of St. Simon, but, like others, left that school on account of the lax morals advocated by Enfantin—protesting against " the organization of adultery "—and devoted himself to the inculcation of a more orthodox and virtuous socialism in various periodicals. In 1847, he declared himself a republican in his brochure. Les Radicaux et la Marie; and, after the Feb. revolution, was appointed minister of public instruction, but not finding him self in sufficient rapport with his colleagues, lie resigned. In 1863, he entered the corps legislatif, and the national assembly in 1871. He has written an Expose of St. Simonianism and ifemoires of Henri Gregoire and of Barrere. a.th