GIRARDIN, zhe'rar'daW, EMILE DE (1806 81) . A French legislator and publicist. He was born in Switzerland, an illegitimate son of Alex ander, Count Girardin. Until his twenty-first year he bore the name of Delainothe. After engaging in various journalistic enterprises, he was elected in 1834 a member of the Chamber of Deputies, in which he served for many years. As the founder and editor of the conservative and Royalist organ La Presse, he secured the pat ronage of the Court, and though compelled tem porarily to resign the editorship during his term in the Legislative Chamber, he again conducted the paper from 1851 to 1856 and in 1866, when he sold it to the banking house of Millaud & Co. In 1867 he acquired for 500,000 francs the jour nal La Liberte, in which he served the interests of the Empire, and which he converted into a violent anti-Prussian paper. This was followed in 1871 by L'Union Francaise. After conducting
various other papers, such as the Journal Officiel and La France, he retired in 1881, with a capital estimated at one million francs, after a long and conspicuous career as a journalist and legislator. In the former capacity he was probably, in some respects, the chief leader of his day. The his tory of his origin and early childhood is re counted in the first novel published by him, and entitled Emile (1827). His other writings in clude: La fille du millionnaire, a comedy in three acts (1858) ; Etudes politiques (2d ed. 1849) ; De l'instructicm publique en France (2d ed. 1842) ; La politique universelle, decrets de l'avenir (4th ed. 1854) ; L'homme et la femme (1872) ; Le supplice d'une femme, a comedy (1865), frequent ly republished and highly successful.