GIRARDIN, EMILE DE, a French journalist and politician, the illegitimate son of the royalist general Alexandre de Girardin and Madame Dupuy, was b. in Switzerland in 1802, educated in Paris, and in 1823 was appointed general secretary of the royal museums. After the July revolution, Girardin established the Journal des Connaissances utiles, for which he secured 120,000 subscribers; iu 1832 the Nusee des Families; and in 1834, the Almanach de France. He also published an Atlas de France and an Atlas Universel. The whole of these publications were set forth as emanating from a Societg Nationale pour l' emancipation intellectuel le, and were not without a considerable influence on the progress of public instruction in France. In 1836 he founded the Press°, as an organ of political conservatism, and soon found himself entangled in violent controversies. One of the unfortunate results of these was his duel with Armand Carrel, editor of the National, in which the latter fell. From this time onward to the revolution of 1848, he was ardently occupied with politics both as a journalist and deputy; and from being a defen der of Guizot and moderate liberalism, he became a decided republican.
Girardin was the first to propose Louis Napoleon as a candidate for the president ship, but only four weeks after the triumph of the latter, he opposed him with the greatest virulence—the reason generally given, being that the president had shown him self unwilling to agree to the political scheme submitted to him by his advocate. Girardin now threw himself into the arms of the socialists. In 1856, he sold his share of the Pr6886, but became editor of it in 1862, eventually abandoning it for the direction of La Libertg which lie continued till 1870. In 1874 he became editor of the Journal La Fiance. Girardin has written a few pieces for the stage. He is very fertile and original in his political ideas, which he has given to the world in a host of brochures.— MADAME DE Gruanonv, wife of the preceding, whose maiden name was Delphine Gay (born 1804, died 1855), enjoyed during her lifetime a brilliant reputation as a poetess, novelist, and play-writer. Her best known work is her Lettres Parisiennes, which appeared in her husband's periodical La Praise, under the pseudonym of Vicomte de Launay.