FAUCHER, LEON, a French publicist and statesman, was b. at Limoges, 8th Sept., 1803; studied at first philology and archteology, in which branches of knowledge he acquired some reputation; but about the period of the July revolution (1830), betook himself, with genuine enthusiasm, to journalism and political economy. He became successively editor of the Temps, Constautionncl, and the Courrier Francais. These functions occupied him from 1830 to 1842, during which period he published many arti cles on. questions of political economy. In 1843, he began to write for the Revue des Deux Mondes a series of articles on the industrial condition of England. The whole were collected into two volumes, which appeared in 1845, under the title of Etudes tar l'Angleterre, and constitute the most weighty and substantial of all his productions, though Englishmen reckon the author greatly in error in many points. At the general elections of 1846, he was elected for the manufacturing city of Rheims, where his opin ions on tariffs were highly appreciated. In the chain her of deputies, lie voted with the
dynastic opposition. A ready but by no means brilliant speaker, lie came forward as one of the leading advocates of free trade, and published in the &Cele, and in the Revue des Deux Mondes, a number of essays on national economy, characterized by their vigor ous and spirited argumentation. After the revolution of 1848, he sat both in the con stituent and legislative assemblies for the department of Maine. When Louis Napoleon was chosen president, F. became first minister of public works, and subsequently min ister of the interior; but when the president proposed to appeal to universal suffrage. F. gave in his resignation, and after the coup Waal, he withdrew from political life. F. died 14th Dec., 1854. A large number of his most valuable contributions to the science of politics will be found in the collection of the Econemistes et Publicistes Contemporains, and in the Eibliothepe des Sciences Morales et Politiques.