BARRAS (bar-al, PAUL FRANCOIS JEAN NICOLAS, COMTE DE, a French Jacobin, born in Provence, in 1755; served as second lieutenant in the regi ment of Languedoc until 1775. He made a voyage to the Isle-de-France, and en tered into the garrison of Pondicherry. On his return, he led a dissipated life and squandered his fortune. When the Revolution broke out he opposed the Court, had a seat in the while his brother sat with the nobility. July 14, 1789, he took part in the attack upon the Bastille, and Aug. 10, 1792, upon the Tuileries. In 1792 he was elected a member of the National Con vention, and voted for the unconditional death of Louis XVI. He was sent, in 1793, to the south of France, and com manded the left wing of the besieging army under Dugommier, and it was here that he first met Napoleon Bonaparte, then captain of artillery. Robespierre was no friend of his, and often wished to arrest him. Barras, knowing this, be
came one of the principal actors of the 9th Thermidor, and put himself at the head of the troops which surrounded Robespierre at the Hate] de Ville. In 1794 he was named one of the Commit tee of Public Safety. In February, 1795, he was elected President of the Conven tion, and, in that capacity, declared Paris in a state of siege, when the As sembly was attacked by the populace. Afterward, when the Convention was as sailed, Bonaparte, by Barras' advice, was appointed to command the artillery; and that general, on the 13th Vendemiaire (Oct. 5, 1795), decisively repressed the royalist movement. For his services, Barras was now named one of the Di rectory. Napoleon's coup d'aat, on the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), overthrew the power of Barras and his colleagues. He died in Paris, Jan. 29, 1829.