FORTOUL, HIPPOLYTE, late Minister of Public Instruction in France, was born in 1811. lie commenced active life as a literary man by contributions to the ' National," L'Artiete,' and other periodicals. In the earlier part of his career he professed repub licanism and St,. Simonianism, and was befriended by B4ranger the poet, of whom, in 1830, he published a biography. lie was a contri butor to the 'Revue do Paris,' and was an unsuccessful competitor for the editorship of the 'Revue des Deux Mendes.' Meantime, by laborious private study, he step by step attained to university honours. lie was made Professor of Literature in the university of Toulouse, where ho distinguished himself as a lecturer, and was after wards recompensed for his services by being appointed Dean of the Faculty of Art. He was also admitted into the French Academy iu the section of Belles-Lettres. After the revolution of 1848 ho was elected a member of the French National Assembly, in which ho spoke frequently, and obtained the favour of the Prince President.
Immediately after the coup d'etat he was appointed, December 3, 1851, Ministre d'Instruction Publique et des Cultos, and was one of the six miuiatere who signed the decree for the confiscation of the estates of the house of Orleans. Ile made himself extremely unpopular with the literary classes of Franco by the decision and energy with which ho carried out the imperial system of restriction of the press. Ile had gone to Ems for the benefit of his health, when ho diod suddenly as ho was conversing with his colleague M. Hague, on the 7th of July 185G. By a decree of the emperor he was buried at the publio expense, with the firing of guns, processions, and other honours, on the 12th of July, in the church of St Thomas dAcquin, Paris.