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GARAT, DOMINIQUE JOSEPH (1749-1833)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 456 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GARAT, DOMINIQUE See also:JOSEPH (1749-1833) , See also:French writer and politician, was See also:born at See also:Bayonne on the 8th of See also:September 1949. After receiving a See also:good See also:education under the direction of a relation who was a cure, and having been an See also:advocate at See also:Bordeaux, he came to See also:Paris, where he obtained introductions to the most distinguished writers of the See also:time, and became a contributor to the Encyclopedie methodique and the Mercure de See also:France. He gained considerable reputation by an eloge on See also:Michel de L'H6pital in 1978, and was afterwards three times crowned by the See also:Academy for eloges on See also:Suger, See also:Montausier and See also:Fontenelle. In 1785 he was named See also:professor of See also:history at the Lycee, where his lectures enjoyed an equal popularity with those of G. F. Laharpe on literature. Being chosen a See also:deputy to the states-See also:general in 1789, he rendered important service to the popular cause by his narrative of the proceedings of the See also:Assembly contributed to the See also:Journal de Paris. Possessing strongly optimist views, a mild and irresolute See also:character, and indefinite and changeable convictions, he played a somewhat undignified See also:part in the See also:great See also:political events of the time, and became a pliant See also:tool in carrying out the designs of others. See also:Danton had him named See also:minister of See also:justice in 1792, and in this capacity had entrusted to him what he called the See also:commission affreuse of communicating to See also:Louis XVI. his See also:sentence of See also:death. In 1793 he became minister of the interior. In this capacity he proved himself quite inefficient. Though himself uncorrupt, he winked at the most scandalous corruption in his subordinates, and in spite of the admirably organized detective service, which kept him accurately informed of every See also:movement in the See also:capital, he entirely failed to maintain See also:order, which might easily have been done by a moderate display of firmness.

At last, disgusted with the excesses which he had been unable to See also:

control, he resigned (See also:August 15, 1793). On the 2nd of See also:October he was arrested for Girondist sympathies but soon released, and he escaped further molestation owing to the friendship of See also:Barras and, more especially, of See also:Robespierre, whose See also:literary amour-propre he had been careful to flatter. On the 9th See also:Thermidor, however, he took sides against Robespierre, and on the 12th of September 1794 he was named by the See also:Convention as a member of the executive See also:committee of public instruction. In 1998 he was appointed See also:ambassador to See also:Naples, and in the following See also:year he became a. member, then See also:president, of the See also:Council of the Ancients. After the revolution of the 18th See also:Brumaire he was chosen a senator by See also:Napoleon and created a See also:count. During the See also:Hundred Days he was a member of the chamber of representatives. In 1803 he was chosen a member of the See also:Institute of France, but after the restoration of Louis XVIII. his name was, in 1816, deleted from the See also:list of members. After the revolution of 1830 he was named a member of the new Academy of Moral and Political See also:Science. He died at Ustaritz near Bayonne, See also:April 25, 1833. His writings are characterized by elegance, See also:grace and variety of See also:style, and by the highest See also:kind of rhetorical eloquence; but his grasp of his subject is superficial, and as his criticisms have no See also:root in fixed and philosophical principles they are not unfrequently whimsical and inconsistent. He must not be confounded with his See also:elder See also:brother Dominique (1735-1799), who was also a deputy to the states-general. The See also:works of Garat include, besides those already mentioned, Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise (Paris, 1792); Memoires sur la Revolution, ou expose de ma conduite (1795) ; Memoires sur la See also:vie de M.

Suard, sur ses ecrits, et sur le X VIII• siecle (182o) ; eloges on See also:

Joubert, Kleber and Desaix; several notices of distingguished persons; and a large number of articles in See also:periodicals. Valuable materials for the history of Garat's See also:tenure of the See also:ministry, notably the See also:police reports of Dutard, are given in W. A. See also:Schmidt's Tableaux de la Revolution Francaise (3 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1867-1870).

End of Article: GARAT, DOMINIQUE JOSEPH (1749-1833)

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