CONSTANT DE REBECQUE, HENRI BENJAMIN, was born at Lausanne, October 25, 1767. Whilst a mere youth his father carried him to England, and placed him at the University of Oxford; he was then eeat to a German college, and finished his atudies at Edinburgh. There he met with Erskine, Mackintosh, and other young men of liberal opinions, from whom he is supposed to have acquired those principles of political liberty which he retained through life. He was married in 1787 to his first wife, but the union was not auspicious, and he obtained a divorce two years after. Constant returned to France in 1795, after travelling some time in Germany, and the next year his pamphlet, On the Strength of the existing Governuaeut in France,' was produced. In 1799 the First Consul placed him on the Tribunat,' but the iedipendent spirit evinced by the young Swiss in resisting the encroachments of his power displeased Bonaparte, who consequently bani-hed him in 1801. Madame de Steel was ordered to leave the country about the same time. During his exile, Benjamin Constant visited most of the European courts, and in 1808, the authoress of Corinne ' having refused his hand, ho married Mademoiselle de Hardenberg. His famous brochure, On the Spirit of Conquest and Usurpation,' appeared in 1813.
In 1814 he returned to Paris, and wrote several pamphlets, in all of which he maintained the fundamental interests of constitutional liberty with that sound judgment and lucid exposition, which formed the leading characteri.sties of his talent. He also advocated the cause of Louis XVIII. in the 'Journal des Ddbats ' and other newspapers. It was in this journal that appeared, March 19, 1815, his vehement philippic against Napoleon, on the eve of the emperor's return to the Tuileries " Never will I crawl, like a base deserter, from power to power . . . under Louis XVIIL we enjoy a representative govern
ment . . . under Bonaparte wo endured a government of Mamelukes. He is an Attila, a Genie Khan. . . ." But, a few days after this bold denunciation, Constant became a councillor of state under this Attila, and assisted Count 31°16 in drawing up the Aete Additionnel.
The second fall of Napoleon restored Constant to France, and the department of La Sarthe elected him their deputy in 1819. For the next eleven years, he attached himself to the opposition party in the Chambers; became its leader after the death of General Fay, iu 1825, and was considered by many as the greatest debater France bad seen since the Revolution. His popularity was almost unrivalled. But for some time previous to the Revolntion of July he was observed to droop, and his friends heard him deplore "the too rapid advance of popular feelings." He openly condemned the insurrection of the Three Days. His health was declining fast, and after lingering a few months, be died on the 8th of December 1830, at the age of 63. M. Constant possessed remarkable facility of composition, and a very large number of political brochures proceeded from his pen, as well as various works in general literature, including a drama founded on Schiller's Wallenatein: One of the most ambitious of his later works, was a treatise, De la Religion consider& dans sa source, sea formes et see ddveloppements,' 5 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1824.31 ; and a sort of supplementary publication was his posthumous work, entitled, `Du Polytheisme remain conaiderd dana sea rapports avec la philosophie greeque et la religion Chretienne; 2 vole. 8vo, Paris, 1838.