MABLY, Gabriel Bonnot de, liOn-ci de mi-ble, French ecclesiastic and pub licist: b. Grenoble, 14 March 1709; d. Paris, 23 April 1785. His family aame was Bonnot. Like his younger brother, the philosopher Condillac (q.v.), he was destined for the Church, and after studying at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris was ordained subdeacon. He showed little liking for theology, and for some time was secretly employed in affairs of state by his relative Cardinal de Tencin, minister of Louis XV, conducting the most difficult negotiations and writing elaborate reports with an ability for which the minister received all the credit. Later he applied himself to literature, and in 1748 published his 'Droit publique de l'Europe,> which achieved a remarkable success. It was followed by 'Observations sur les Grecs' (1749) ; 'Observations sur les Romaine (1751) ; 'Entretiens de Phocion' (1753) ; 'Ob servations sur l'histoire de France) (1755) ; 'Principes des negotiations' (1757) ; la maniere d'ecrire l'histoire) (1773); 'De la legislation> (1776) ; I'M& de l'histoire' (1778) ; and (Principes de morale (1784).
Having been requested by the government of Poland to prepare for them a code of laws, he visited that country in 1771, and published in 1781 a work Wu Gouvernement de la Pologne.' He was also consulted by the American Con gress in 1783 on the preparation of the Consti tution, and embodied his views in his 'Observa tions sur le gouvernement et les Lois des Etats-Unis (1784). In this work he foretold the speedy downfall of the United States. He was an idealiser of ancient Rome and was enamored of the socialistic state and the communism of wealth, and from his pessi mistic views on modern social organization was known as the °prophet of woe.° Consult Guervier, (L'Abbe Mably, moraliste et politi que' (1886) ; de la Serae, 'Mabylet les physaocrates' (1911).