THIERS (te-ar'), LOUIS ADOLPHE, a French statesman; born in Marseilles, France, April 16, 1797. He studied law and at the age of 22 was admitted advo cate. He soon relinquished law, however, for literature and politics (1821). After a long struggle with poverty in Paris, he won a high reputation as a political writer for the "Constitutionalist" and other journals. He took part with Armand Carrel and Mignet in the foun dation of the "National" (1830) which aided in the downfall of the Bourbons; and during the July revolution of 1830, the office of the "National" was the head quarters of the revolutionary party. In the government of Louis Philippe, Thiers held several offices, till (1840) he found himself at the head of the ministry for a few months, and then retired into private life. After the revolution of 1848 he was elected deputy to the Assembly, and voted for the presidency of Louis Napoleon, but was ever after one of his fiercest opponents; and at the coup d'etat (Dec.
2, 1851) he was arrested and banished. Returning to France in the following year, he remained in comparative retire ment till 1863, when he was elected one of the deputies for Paris.
During the terrible crisis of 1870-1871 he came to the front as the one supreme man in France. After the fall of Paris
he was returned to the National Assem bly, and on Feb. 17, 1871, he was declared chief of the executive power. The first duty imposed on him as such was to assist in drawing up the treaty of peace, whereby France lost Alsace and Lorraine and agreed to pay an enormous in demnity; his second was to suppress the Communist insurrection. This done, his next task was to free the soil of the invaders by the payment of the ransom, which was effected in an incredibly short snace of time. The Assembly in August, 1871, prolonged his tenure of office and changed his title to that of President. In November, 1872, Thiers declared him self in favor of the republic as a definitive form of government for France, and thus to some extent brought about the crisis which resulted in his being deprived of the presidency. He accepted his depo sition with dignity, and went quietly into retirement. M. Thiers' chief works are: "History of the French Revolution" (6 vols. 1823-1827), and "History of the Consulate and the Empire" (20 vols. 1845-1862). The latter obtained for him the academic prize of $4,000. He died near Paris, Sept. 3, 1877.