CAMBACERIIS, Jean Jac ques Regis de, Duke of Parma, French states man: b. Montpellier, 18 Oct. 1753; d. Paris, 8 March 1824. His zeal and talents soon ob tained him distinction, and the office of a counsellor at the tour des comptes at Mont pellier. At the beginning of the Revolution he received several public offices, became in Sep tember 1792 a member of the Convention, and labored in the committees, particularly in the committee of legislation. On 12 Dec. 1792 he was commissioned to inquire of Louis XVI whom he desired for his counsel, and it was on his motion that the counsel was allowed to communicate freely with the King. In January 1793 he declared Louis guilty, but disputed the right of the Convention to judge him, and voted for his provisional arrest, and in case of a hos tile invasion, death. On 24 January he was chosen secretary of the Convention. As a mem ber of the Committee of Public Safety he re ported, in the session of 26 March, the treason of Dumouriez. In August and October 1793 he presented his first plan for a civil code, in which his democratical were displayed. Subsequently, as a member of the Council of the Five Hundred, he presented the Pro jet de Code Civil, 1796, which became the foundation of the Code Napoleon. On 20 May 1797 he left
his seat in the council. A year afterward he appeared among the electors of Paris; and after the revolution of the 30th Prairial, VII (19 June 1799), was made Minister of Justice. On the 18th Brumaire he was chosen second consul, and in that office made the administra tion of justice the chief object of his attention. After Napoleon had ascended the throne, Cambaceres was appointed arch-chancellor of the empire, and after obtaining many high dis tinctions, became in 1808 Duke of Parma. Dur ing the campaign against the allied powers in 1813, Cambaceres was made president of the council of regency. At the approach of the allies in 1814 he followed the government to Blois, and from that place sent his consent to the abdication of the Emperor. When Na poleon returned in 1815 Cambaceres was again made arch-chancellor and Minister of Justice, and subsequently president of the Chamber of Peers. After the second fall of Napoleon he was banished, as a regicide, but in 1818 was permitted to return.