CHATRAUBRIAND, FRAN(OIS RSNP., VISCOUNT DE, the most celebrated French writer of the Napoleon era, was born at St. Male on September 4th, 176S, being the youngest of ten children. He was at first intended for the church, but after a careful education for that calling, be entered the army as sub-lieutenant in 1786. After various adventures he appears to have visited Peri. shortly before the Revo lution, and to have witnessed the capture of the Bastille in 1789. His erratic disposition took him to America in 1791. to look for the North West passage. lie spent several months in the States, had an Inter view with Washington, shifted the falls of Niagara, and roamed through those virgin forests and wild scenes of primitive life which he has described so vividly in ' Rene' and 'Atals.' On his return home he joined the army of Conde for a short time in 1792, and the nest year he began a life of great misery as an emi grant In London, amhtet a group of exiled nobles, equally wretched. The picture of his sufferings and privations at this time, as he relates them in his ' Memoirs,' is almost incredible. Nevertheless he continued in England nearly eight years, maintaining himself by translating for the booksellers, and giving lessons in French and Latin. In 1797 he published in London his Essay on Revolutions,' a work full of acepti elate ; but the death of his mother in 1793 gave a now direction to his thoughts, and restored hi. faith.
In the spring of 1800 be went to Paris, and his excellent friend, NI. Pentanes, whose influence was already /strong, had been appointed one of the editors of the'Mercure, in the columns of which ' Atala' appeared for the first time. This romauco was followed by the ' Genie du Chridianiame ' in 1802, which made a deep impression on the public mind. The First Consul was so pleased with this work that he took the author into favour, and strove to bend hint to his service by two successive employments. Unfortunately the execution of the Duke titughien, on the 21st of March 1804, furnished the inflexible Breton with too just an excuse, and be resigned his appointment the urns day. Pentane., Madame Bacciochi, and even Josephine herself could scarcely prevent the consequences of this rash act from falling upon the riscount.
The reign of Napoleon, which lasted ten years (1804-14) was not favourable to literature, and during this period Chateaubriand pro duced nothing of note, save the in 1807, and the 'Itineraire k Jerusalem' in 1811: the latter wax the account of his own visit to the Iloly Land in the autumn of 1806. The fall of the empire in
1814 released his pen, and he produced him famous pamphlet, ' De Bonaparte et des Bourbons,' the influence of which in disposing the public mind to welcome the returned family was so powerful, that "it was equal," said Louis XVIII., "to an army of 100,000 men." The viscount was now received with great favour at the Tuileries, but he refused office as a colleague with Fouchd ; and other circumstances delayed his entrance into public life until 1822, when he was sent as ambassador to the British court, and most honourably greeted by all cheeses of people. The next year he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, which office he held during the war in Spain conducted by the Duke of Aogoulerne. In 1824 the minister Villele dismissed him rather abruptly. Theo, and for the next three years, Chateaubriand led the opposition against the government with merciless rancour both in pamphleta and newspapers, never desisting till it crumbled beneath his blows. In 1828 3L de Martiguac gave him the embassy to Rome; but no sooner had the Polly= ministry been formed (August 8) than he sent in his resignation.
In 1830, after the fall of the monarchy, which he had assisted to destroy, this inexplicable man, whom the people claimed as their leader, and followed with acclamations, deliberately resigned his titles, his offices, his very means of subsistence, to rally to that cause which had no other supporter. A singular change came over his spirit ; he sank into despondency, and a gloom, which deepened every year almost extinguished his noble mind. This ennui was le contagious that his most faithful friends shrank from it. This sad state of mind is very visible in the last of his works, which appeared about the time of his death—' lea Memoirs* d'Outre Tombe'—the reading of which is most painful. Ile died July 4, 1848. His character has been well summed up by a recent French writer :—" It was almost invariably the fate of M. de Chateaubriand to lad a party whose ruling principle was not his ; so that at the very time he was crushing his adversaries, he had no infinenos over ble friends." es' (Illassiru eraser( Towle; Biographic L'airersdle ; Diet. de Con eerie; ism.)