LA ROCHEFOUCAULD - LIANCOURT, lyfix'koor', FRANc•OIS ALEXANDRE Fat.otruc. Duke of (1747-1827). An eminent French philanthro pist. In the period preceding the outbreak of the French Revolution he devoted himself to the study and practice of benevolent works, founding on his estate near Clermont a model school for the education of the children of poor soldiers, He was a representative of the nobles of Clermont in the States-General, where he displayed remarkable activity in matters con cerning the amelioration of the condition of the poor and the defective. After the dissolution of the National Assembly he was made lieutenant general and placed in command of the depart ment of Normandy. He tied from the Terror to England (1792), and visited North America (1795-97), a journey on which he published Voy age dans les Etat.s-Cnis d'Anierique (S vols., 1798). He wrote also Lcs prisons de Philadeiphie (1796), in which lie advocated radical penological reforms and the abolition of capital punishment.
From 1799 La Rochefoneauld-Liancourt lived quietly in Paris, occupied only with the exten sion of vaccination and similar works of benevo lence. Napoleon restored to him his ducal title in 1809. After the Restoration he was made a peer, but soon gave offense to the Court by opposing its unconstitutional policy. lie founded the first savings bank in France.—His second son, ALEX ANDRE, Count of La Rochefoueauld (1767-1841), served tinder Lafayette in the early years of the Revolution, but fled the country at the same time as his father. Under Napoleon lie was diplomatic representative at the Saxon Court, at Vienna, and in Holland. After the fall of Napoleon III. he was a member repeatedly of the Chamber of Deputies and in 1833 was raised to the peerage.