MOLE, ni.V1V, Louts MArrnmu, Count (17A1 1835). A French lle was a de• seentlant of the famous French magistrate Mat thieu Mole (1584-1653), prominent at the time of the Fronde (q.v.). Ile was born in Paris, January 24, 1781. Ilis father, president of the Parliament of Paris, died by the guillotine in 1794. After spending his early life in exile, he returned to France, and first at tracted notice by his E.ssais de morale et de politique (1805), in which lie vindicated the Government of Napoleon on the ground of neces sity. The attention of the Emperor was then drawn to him; he was appointed to various offices in succession, and raised to the dignity of a count and to a place in the Cabinet (1813). After Napoleon's return from Elba he refused to sub scribe to the declaration of the Council of State banishing the Bourbons forever from France, and declined a seat in the Chamber of Peers. In
1815 Louis XVIII. made him a peer of France, and he voted for the death of Marshal Ney. In 1817 he was for a short time Minister of Marine, but afterwards acted independently of party, and was one of the principal orators in the Chamber of Peers. In 1S30 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Louis Philippe's first Cabinet, but re mained in office only a short time. From 1836 to 1839 he was Prime Minister as successor to niers. In 1840 he was chosen a mem ber of the French Academy. From that time he took little part in political affairs, but after the Revolution of 1848 exerted himself to rally and unite the party of order in the National Assembly, to which he had been elected. After the coup d'etat he retired to private life. He died November 25, 1855.