CONSTANT DE REBEQUE, HENRI BENJAMTN, one of the most distinguished political writers and orators of France, was b. at Lausanne on the 25th Oct., 1767. Educated in a German college, he afterwards spent some time at Edinburgh university, and here he is supposed to have imbibed those ideas of political freedom which guided him through life. In 179G, lie published in Paris a pamphlet on the government then existing, which brought him into note; and three years later, be was placed on the " tribunat " by Napoleon, who, however, two years after, dismissed and banished him for the spirit he displayed in resisting the first consul's encroachments on liberty. During his banish ment, he traveled for some time with Madame de Stan, and afterwards settled iu Germany. In 1813, he published his celebrated pamphlet, On the Spirit of COliqUe8i, and Usurpation. In 1814. he returned to Paris, where he wrote several pamphlets in favor of constitutional liberty, which lie maintained was enjoyed under Louis XVI1I. Napoleon's government lie described as a "government of Mamelukes," and the emperor himself as "a Genghis khan." Yet during the hundred days he became a councillor of state, and assisted In framing the Acte Addition:lel. In 1819, he was elected a deputy, be
Came ultimately leader of the opposition, and in this capacity gained unbounded popu larity. C. de R. was a true patriot. He loved liberty better than monarchies or mobs, and therefore, while he opposed the despotic measures of the government of Charles X., be deplored the revolution of July, 1830. He died Dec., 1830. As a public speaker, C. de R. was in his day the clearest and most persuasive advocate of constitutional princi ples in France. As a political writer, he was even fully more effective than as a speaker. Among his works may be mentioned Discours Prononces ci la Chambre des :Deputes (2 vols., Par. 1828); the Lours de Politique Constitutionnelle (4 vols., Par. 1817-20, 2d ed., 1833), in which are collected his minor works on representative government. Among his most ambitious works are -41enzoires stir les Cent Jours (Par. 1820); De la Religion consideree dans sa Source, sea Formes, et sesDereloppements (5 vols., Par., 1824-31), to which posthumous work his Da Polgtheisnie Romain, consichire dam. ses 1?apports arec in Philosophic Grape et In Religion Chretienne, forms a kind of supplement.