MALESHERBES, CILEETIEN GUILLAUME DE LAMOIGNON DE, ft distinguished French statesman, was b. at Paris, Dec. 6, 1721, and educated at the Jesuits' college; he became counselor to the parliament of Paris in 1744, and succeeded his father as president of the court of Aids in 1750, where his clear judgment, strict integrity, and humane disposition enabled him to be of gTeat service to his country. A quiet but determined opponent of government rapacity and tyranny, he watched the ministry with a jealous eye, and was indefatigable in his efforts to prevent the people from being plundered. About the same time (1750) he was appointed censor of the press. This was a most unsuitable office for him, but he appears to have accepted it lest it should fall into the hands of some mere bigot or court hireling; and so tolerant was he that French authors pronounce the period of his censorship " the golden age of letters." To 31alesherbes we owe, among other things, the publication of the famous Encyclopedie. In 1771 his bold remonstrances against the abuses of law which Louis XV. was perpetrating, led to his banishment to one of his estates. At the accession of Louis XVI. (1774), who esteemed Malesherbes. he
was recalled, and entered Paris in triumph. In 1776 he resigned, on the dismissal of Turgot, all official employment, and, from this period on to the revolution, spent his time in travel or in the improvement of his estates. The first storms of that wild period passed by and left him unscathed; but when he heard that the unfortunate king, who had always neglected to profit by his advice, was about to be tried by the conven tion, he magnanimously left his retreat and offered to defend his old master. The con vention granted permission, but from that day Malesherbes was himself a doomed man.
He was arrested in the beginning of December, 1793, and guillotined April 22, 1794 along with his daughter and her husband, 31. de Chateaubriand brother of the famout, author of that name. Malesherbe,s was a tnember of the French academy, an able writei on political, legal, and financial questions, and one of the most virtuous and high-minded statesmen of the 18th century.