FOUCHI%, JOSEPH, Duke of Otranto, was born in 1763 at notes, and educated in the college of the Peres de l'Oratoire. Beiug unable on account of his delicate constitution to follow the profession of his father, who was captain of a vessel, he applied himself to study, and after having completed his course at Paris he lectured in different towns of France on various philosophical subjects, till on his marriage he finally settled in his native town, and began to practise as an advocate. In 1792 he was returned by the department of the Loire Infdrieure as a member of the National Couveution, in which capacity he voted for the death of the king, and against the appeal to the natiou. In 1793 he was sent with Coliot d'Herboie on that mission which deluged Lyon with blood, but still he bad the courage to oppose some measures of his infamous colleague. On his returu to Paris he was elected (1794) president of the Jacobin Club, but be was soon expelled from it by the enmity of Robespierre. After the fall of Robespierre, Fonchd being ooneidered as a dangerous terrorist was arrested, but afterwards liberated under the proclamation for a general amnesty, on the 26th of October 1795. lie remained in private life till 1798, when he was employed in Italy, and after his return to Paris the Directory nominated him minister of the police of the republic. It was in this capacity that he displayed his great talents, which were united with an extraordinary degree of courage, firmness, and activity. He had the boldness to adopt vigorous measures for the suppression of popular assemblies. Having supported Bonaparte after his return from Egypt, he was confirmed in hie office upon the establishment of the consulate. He had the address to render himself necessary to all parties by tormenting Bonaparte on the one hand with rumours of conspiracies, sad on the other by screening from hie vengeance many royalist& Bonaparte however dismissed Fouchd in 1802 from his office, but on his accession to the throne he restored him to his former post. Fouchd's vigilance maintained the tranquillity of the empire while Napoleon L was occupied in foreign wars; and having the duties of minister of the interior added to those of his office, be greatly contributed by his arrangements to prevent the success of the English expedition against Holland in 1809. In the last-mentioned year he was created Duke of Otranto, but he fell out of favour for having used in his proclamation to the national guards the following expression " Let us prove that Napoleon's presence is not necessary in order to repel our enemies." In 1810 he was nominated governor of Rome on condition of delivering his correspondence to Napoleon, which baying refused to do, he was scut to Aix. lie was again recalled, but as his views did not coincide with those of the emperor, Fouchd retired into the country. In 1813 Fouch6 was made governor of the Illyrian provincea, but the progress of the allied troops compelled him to relinquish his post and to retire to Italy.
After the abdication of Napoleon I., Fouch6 again retired to his estates in the couutry, and refused to take any part in political in trigues. On Napoleon's return from Elba, he was suspected by the Bourbons, and an order was given for his arrest, but ho contrived to make his escape. Napoleon again nominated Fouchd minister of police, but he accepted the office only on the understanding that Austria and England secretly connived at Napoleon's return from Elba. As soon as he learned that the congress of Vienna had declared against Napoleon, he tried to persuade the emperor, in case his nego ciations should prove unsuccessful, to abdicate and retire to the United Statea of America. He strongly advocated the principles of liberty during the hundred days of Napoleon's second reign, and strongly urged the emperor to abdicate after the battle of Waterloo. Fondle being put at the head of the provisional government by the simm promoted the departure of Napoleon I., negotiated with the ied flowers, and by his intrigues baffled the scheme of Carnet and °tiler patriots to defend Paris. At tho beginning of the nego ciation he was not inclined to promote the second restoration of Louis XVIII., but notwithstanding this he was called by the king, immediately after the capitulation of Paris, and nominated minister of police. This circumstance gave rise to a general belief that be had deceived Napoleon I. all the time after his return from Elba, and that he constantly maintained a secret correspondence with the allied powers and the Bourbons. In his capacity of minister of police he presented to the king two reports on tbo state of France, which by their boldness excited the hatred of all parties. His advice to grant a general amnesty was not followed ; and he signed with his own hand, as minister of police, the ordonnance of Louis XVIII. of the 24th July 1815, by which many persons were excepted from the amnesty. Being driven by the hatred of the royalists to resign his office of minister of police, the king nominated him his ambassador to Dresden. The law of the 12th January 1816, by which all those who had voted for the death of Louis XVI. were banished from France and deprived of the estates which had been granted to them, was extended to Fouchd also, who that time lived in different parts of Austria. He died at Trieste in 1820. The Memoirs of Joseph Aut. Foochd, due d'Otranto,' which appeared at Paris, 1824, were declared by his sons to be a spurious production ; and their denuocia tion was maintained in a suit against the printer, who was condemned in heavy damages; but it is difficult to believe that they are wholly unauthentic. It is a known fact that Fouch6 dictated his memoirs to his secretary Deemarteau. A curious work was published at Paris in 1833, which throws great light on Fonclucs character, and on the system of the imperial administration in France, Tdmoignagea historiques, ou quinze AIM de haute Police sous Napoldon, par Des marets.'