BROGLIE, brL'Iye'..1entw: CHARLES ',foxes: VICTOR, Due de (1785-1870). A French statesman.
Ile was born in Paris, November 28, 1785. The family was Piedmontese, but had won distinction in the armies of France, one of its members obtaining the rank of marshal under Louis XIV., and another holding the post of commander-in chief under Louis XV]. The father of Achille died iu 1704 on the guillotine, but left the in junction to his son to remain faithful to Liberty even though she was ungrateful and unjust. "Ilis father murdered, his mother in prison, his property confiscated and plundered, the young de Broglie first appears in life in wooden shoes and a red cap of liberty, begging an as signat." Early in life he was a member of Napoleon's Council of State. Broglie entered the House of Peers in 1815, just before he was thirty years old. At the trial of Marshal Ney, he alone had the courage to speak and vote for acquittal on the ground that the Marshal was not guilty of premeditated treason. During the Restoration he acted with the doctrinaires, of whom Guizot was the ablest representative. In 1816 be married Mine. de Stael's daughter Albertine. About the same time he became the ally of Clarkson and Wilberforce in the anti slavery cause. In Louis Philippe's first Cabi net he was Minister of Public Worship, and in 1832 succeeded Casimir Perier as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1835 he was the head of the
Cabinet. Riding beside the King when Fiesehi's attempt on the life of Louis Philippe was made, Broglie received one of the bullets through his coat collar. He retired permanently from pub lic life in 1836. Though not in office, Broglie preserved through life close personal and politi cal friendship with Guizot. The overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in 1848 was a severe blow to the Duke; but he consented to sit in the republican assemblies, and labored to counteract what be deemed to be the evils of universal suf frage and to avert the coup d'etat which he saw was impending. When it came Ile was conspicu ous as one of the bitterest enemies of the imperial regime, though he admitted that an empire was government which the poorer classes of France desired and the rich deserved.' Hi: last twenty years were devoted to philosophical and literary pursuits, as the result of which he pub lished Rents et diseours (Paris. 1863). With regard to the future he said, "I shall die a peni tent Christian and an impenitent Liberal." He was a member of the Academy and other so cieties. Be died in Paris January 25. 1870. Consult: Guizot, Le Due de Broglie (Paris, 1872) : Broglie, Personal Reminiscences of the Late Dec de Broglie, trans. and edited by Beau fort (London, 1888).