FOY, MAXIMILIAN SEBASTIAN, one of the best of the political orators that have appeared 'in France since the establishment of a constitutional charter, was born in 1775, at Ham, in Picardy. His father, an old military officer, died when Foy was only five years old, and the education of his five children devolved on their mother, Eliza beth Wiabeck, who was a woman of English extraction, and of a superior character. Foy displayed from his earliest boyhood remark able talents and great application. At fourteen he completed his course of studies at the cull ge of Soissous, aft r which be passed to the military school of Lafere, and, at the end of 1790, entered the army as a second lieuteua ,t of artillery. lie served with great credit in Flanders during the beginning of the war of the hevolutiou. Having however frankly expressed his opinions alma the horrors perpetrated at I'aria, be was imprisoned at Cambray, but was released from his confinement by the events of the 9th Thermidor. He now re-entered the army, made two campaigns tinder Moreau, and rose to the rank of a chef d'escadroo, when the treaty of Campo Formic, suspended his military career. He took advantage of the short peace which followed that treaty to study public law under the celebrated Prof Baer Koch at Strasbourg. In 1798 be again joined the army, and served iu Italy, Switzerland, and on the Rhine, tilt the peace of Atnieus, when he returned to France with the rank of colonel. Foy was at Paris during the trial of Moran, and he expressed himself against that proceeding with so much animation, that be would have been arrated If he had not left the capital and joined the camp of Utrecht, where he refused to sign a congratulatory address to the first consul on the occasion of his escape from the conspirators' plot, Being a sincere republican, he voted against the election of Bonaparte to the imperial dignity. Not withstanding that circumstance, Napoleon I. employed Foy, but left hien a long time without promotion. In 1S07 be was commissioned by Napoleon I. to conduct 1200 French cannoniere to assist Sultan Selim 11. against Russia, but the revolution which took place at Con stantinople prevented their departure. Foy himself went however to Constantinople, where he assisted the Turks in making dispositions for the defence of the Dardanelles. From Constantinople be went to Portugal. distinguished himself in many battles, received several wounds, rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, and continued to serve during all the Peninsular war, till he received a severe wound at the battle of Orthes lie was employed at the Restoration by the Bour bons, but joined Napoleon after his landing from Elba, and fought bravely at Waterloo, where he was again wounded. From that time
ha retired from military service, and devoted himself entirely to the study of history, and political and military science, to which he bad previously applied all his leisure time. In 1819 Foy was chosen deputy of the department of Ain, and the talent. which he displayed in the new career now opened to him surpassed the moat sanguine expecta tions of his friend.. His debut in the parliamentary field was an eloquent defence of the rights of his old oompanione in arms, the veterans of the imperial army, whore the organs of the Restoration sought to deprive of their well-earned rewards. He vigorously attacked the lavish expenditure of public money for the maintenance of useless establishments*, and to support the instrnmente of an anti-national party ; but he was always a steady advocate of every expenditure which was requisite for the support of the power and dignity of a great nation. Foy had a hard battle to fight against the retrograde party, which sought to destroy the effects of the constitutional charter by introducing into the electoral body the privileges which the charter had abolished. Yet the efforts of Foy and of a patriotic minority were unavailing against the party, which, acoordiog to an expression of Foy himself, reckoned in the legislative chamber two members to one, and in the nation one individual in a thousand. Counter revolu tionary measures followed ono another; the elective franchise was restricted, the liberty of the press curtailed, independent writers pro mental, and the constitutional government of Spain overturned by a French expedition. Notwithstanding ell these defeats* of the liberal party, Foy never deserted the poet where he was placed by the con fidence of his countrymen, and ho castigated the unprincipled proceed ings above referred to with earnest eloquence.
In November 1825, Foy began to suffer from the symptoms of an aneurism : he felt his end approaching, but remained calm and col lected under the most severe suffering., till his death on the 28th of November. Ilia death was considered iu Franco as a national cala mity; his funeral was attended not only by his political friends, but even by his opponents, who no longer refused to pay the tribute of just admiration to a deceased adversary. As he left a family In rather etralteoed circumstances, one million of francs was raised for them by a national subscription. Foy loft two volumes of speeches, and a ' History of the Peninsular War,' a work which has been warmly eulogised in England as well as in France, by writers professing poli tical opinions completely opposed to those of General Foy; which he unfortunately, however, left Incomplete.