LOUVET DE COUVRAY, JEAN BAPTISTE, 1760-97; b. Paris; son of a paper mer chant; of moderate education. Before the revolution of 1789 he achieved a reputation by the publication of a. licentious romance, the fashion of its time. He entered with ardor as a satirical writer into the polities of the revolution. His Revue des Armees blanche et n,oir, 'a satire on the nobles and clergy, has survived. That was followed by a romance, entitled Emilie de Vermont, as remarkable for its purity as his first work for the contrary. In 1790 he published a pamphlet entitled Paris Justifie in reply to strictures of the French emigres on the excesses of the revolution. He then became a member of the Jacobin club, where he was conspicuous as an orator, and edited the journal of the Jacobins. He had the boldness to attack Robespierre in the club in 1792, and his name was striken from the list of members by that despot. He joined the Girondists in the
convention, and his speeches at this stage of the revolution were remarkable for elo quence and daring defiance. of the Jacobins. His apostrophe of accusation against Robespierre in the convention is considered the masterpiece of. that exciting session. Mme. Roland classes it with the great efforts of Cicero. But the Robespierre party triumphed; Louvet was doomed to the guillotine, escaped, and hid in the mountains-R tracked like a bea-st. After the fall of Robespierre he returned to the convention, was made president of the subsequent assembly, and membei of the committee of public safety. The last year of his life was irnbittered by.the slanders of the party of reaction, and his own principles were modified by the desire to promote the speedy repose of France.