FONTANES, LOUIS DE, was born at Niort, in the department of Deux Sevres, March 6, 1757. His father, a Protestant, having, though of noble rank, only the scanty income derived from his office of inspecteur de commerce, was under the necessity of sending him to a village school near Niort; but the extreme diligence of the boy en abled him to make much progress. He afterwards finished his educa tion with equal ardour, and better opportunities, at the college of his native town. At the age of sixteen Fontancs had written many fugitive verses, noticeable ouly fur the purity of their language aud their fluent versification.
In 1777, having had the misfortune to lose his father and n brother, whose tastes were akin to his own, he removed to Paris, and in the following year appeared for the first time as an author with his loom Forbt de Navarre,' which was well received, and procured bun several friends, particularly the tragic poet Duels. Ills trauslatiou of Pope's ' Essay ou Man' appeared in 17S3, and though the verses were not considered adequate to the subject, the preliminary discourse met with general approval. There are many portraits of eminent writers in this preface; those of Voltaire and Pascal have been especially admired. Le Verger,' another poem, was published in 17bS; and L'Essai aur l'Astrouomie' in 1789.
The revolution broke out in this year, and Foutanes feeling that the time was no longer suitable to poetry, became a journalist. About two years after, the animosity manifested against the nobles drove Fontanes from the capital. He took shelter in Lyon ; but the arrival of Collot d'Herboie in that city, in 1793, compelled him to fly from it, and to wander homeless and friendless from one place to another. But after the 9th Thcrmidor (July 2S, 1794), the Convention founded the Institute, and Fontaues was included in the list of its members. He was appointed Professor of 13elle.s.Lettres to the &oh] Ct.:Lamle des Quatre Nations in 1795. He still continued to write for tho newspapers, and assisted La 1 tarp°, iu 1796, in writing for the ' M6morial,' a literary and political paper, which took the side of the Bourbon family. His connection with this paper caused Lim to be sot down in the long roll of disaffected authors, which Barran and Bonaparte pressed Into the conspiracy of tho 18th Fructidor; his name was expunged from the Institute, and he was condemned to trans portation to Cayenne. lie however escaped to England, and in Loudou joined his old friend ChatestubriainL — After the 18th Brumaire (1799). Fuutanes ventured to return to
Paris, where he lived In great seclusion, until the First Consul, requir ing a competent author to write the globe on Washington, then recently deceased, alaret, his secretary, recommended Pentanes, who was commissioned to do it—hie name being withdrawn from the list of transports fur the purpose. He had but six days allowed him for this important task : it was completely successfat, aud became the turning point in his fortune. Ho was reinstated in the Institute, and made director of the Mercure de France.' His polished manners duced a favourable impression on Bonaparte, who made him a frequent guest at his table, and gave him one of the private cards, which entitled the bearer to immediate access to him. Fontanes likewise became a favourite with Lucien Bonaparte, and Eliza, Madame Bacciochi.
In February 1802 he was appointed a member of the Corps Legis latif, and became its president in 1804. Fontanee has been reproached with his subservieuey to Napoleon I. and has been charged with con stant adulation of his measures and acts. But it is well known that in private he often refused to sanction with his approbation the violent and arbitrary conduct of his benefactor. For two years after the execution of the Due d'Enghien, the emperor urged the courtier in vain to admit at least that the sacrifice was necessary ; and failing of that, removed him from his presidency of the Corps Legislatif, February 5, 1810, and created him a senator. He had already been installed as grandmaster of the university in September 1808, and created a count about the same time. On the 1st of April 1814, the Count de Fontanes voted for the dechdance, or forfeiture, of Napoleon I., gave in his adhesion to the Provisional Government on the 6th, and was confirmed in all his appointments.
During the Hundred Days, in 1815, the Count de Fontanes lived in retirement ; and after the return of Louis XVIII. he was made pre sident of the electoral college of the Deux Sevres. He died of apoplexy March 17, 1821, at the age of sixty-four. His name will remain associated with the reign of Napoleon I., but his famous addresses, annually delivered in reply to the speech from the throne, so much admired at the time for their eloquence and purity of style, are already passing into oblivion.
Besides the works already mentioned, M. de Fontanes was the author of La Chartreuse de Paris,' `Lea Livres Saints," Stances it M. de Chateaubriand," Le Retour d'un Exile,' &c.