Guizot ,.I. Francois Pierre Guillanme, a French statesman and historian, born in Nimes, Oct. 4, 1787. His father, a Calvinist and a distinguished lawyer, having died on the scaffold in 1794, he was taken by his mother to Geneva, where he received a classical education. In 1805 he went to Paris with a view to the study of law, but soon became engrossed in literary pursuits. He began to contribute largely to journals and periodicals, and exhibited a strength and maturity of intellect which soon brought him into notice. In 1809 he published his first work, entitled Nouveau dictionnaire des synonymes francais (2 vols. 8vo), which was followed by Annates de l'edu-cation, De l'etat des beaux arts en France et du salon de 1810, an annotated translation (from various pens) of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vies des poetes francais du siecle de Louis XIV., etc. In 1812 he was appointed assistant professor of modern history in the Sorbonne. In the same year he married Mlle. Pauline de Meulan, whose relations with the royalist party opened for him a political career, on which he entered at the fall of Napoleon. He was appointed secretary general of the department of the interior in 1814, of justice in 1815, master of requests in 1810, and councillor of state in 1817. He upheld the principles of the constitutional party by his political essay Du gouvernement representatif et de l'etat actuel de la France (1810), and thus became the mouthpiece of those who at a later period were known under the name of doctrinaires.

Under the semi-liberal Decazes ministry he was director general of the communal and departmental administration, which post he resigned in February, 1820, on the fall of that cabinet. He now published his political pamphlet, Du gouverne-ment de la France depuis la restauration et du ministere actuel; and the following year, Des moyens de gouvernement et d'opposition dans l'etat actuel de la France (1821). His strictures on the government were followed by his removal from the council of state, and ultimately he was ordered to discontinue his lectures in the Sorbonne, which he had published previously under the title of Histoire du gouver-nement representatif (1821-,2). He then devoted his time to literary pursuits, producing in succession a remarkable introduction to a revised French translation of the works of Shakespeare; Essais sur l'histoire de France du cinquieme au dixieme siecle (1823), an appendix to Mably's Observations; biographical sketches and historical notes to the Collection des memoires relatifs d la revolution d'An-gleterre (20 vols., 1823 et seq.), translated from the English by various writers, and to the Collection des memoires relatifs d l'histoire de France, from its origin to the 13th century (31 vols., 1823 et seq.); the first two volumes of his Histoire de la revolution d'Angleterre, to the accession of Charles II. (1827-'8); and several essays and papers in periodicals.

In January, 1828, he established the Revue Francaise, which was published every two months, nearly on the plan of the English quarterlies. In 1827 he lost his wife, and in the following year he married her niece, Mlle. Elisa Dillon, who lived only till 1833. In 1828 the Marti-gnac ministry restored to him his chair at the Sorbonne and his seat in the council of state; and his eloquent lectures, which were delivered in conjunction with those of Cousin and Villemain, raised him to the highest popularity. They were published under the titles Histoire generale de la civilisation en Europe depuis la chute de 'empire romain jusqu a la revolution francaise (1828), and Histoire generale de la civilisation en France depuis la chute de l'empire romain (1830). He entered the chamber of deputies in January, 1830, taking his place among the opposition, bore a part in the parliamentary proceedings which brought about the revolution of July, and was minister of the interior in the first cabinet of Louis Philippe, He resumed his seat in the chamber of deputies on Nov. 3, opposed the Lafitte cabinet, and supported that headed by Casimir Perier. After the death of the latter he entered the coalition ministry formed Oct. 11, 1832, under the presidency of Marshal Soult, in which he was minister of ! public instruction.

After the dissolution of that ministry, Feb. 22, 1836, Guizot remained in comparative retirement for a few months. He resumed his post in the Mole cabinet, but soon quarrelled with his colleagues, resigned office, and joined the opposition. After the fall of Mole he was appointed ambassador to Great Britain, Feb. 9, 1840, being the first Protestant ambassador sent to that country by France since the time of Sully. He was recalled in October to succeed M. Thiers in the ministry of foreign affairs, in the last cabinet of Louis Philippe's reign. For more than seven years, in concert with the king, he upheld the system of peace at any price abroad, and of opposition to democratic reform at home, which eventually resulted in the overthrow of the Orleans dynasty. He succeeded in restoring the French government to a participation in the settlement of the eastern question, but the subordinate position in which England and Russia held France, and which the latter apparently did not resent, aroused a discontent that was not allayed by victories won in Algeria. Meanwhile the agitation for electoral reform was beginning in Paris, and propagating itself over the country.

Guizot, who in 1847 had succeeded Soult as head of the ministry, evinced his contempt for what he considered a trifling matter, and reluctantly consented to resign his office, Feb. 23, 1848, when the revolution had actually commenced. He fled to England, where he published, in January, 1849, a pamphlet entitled De la democratic en France. He returned after an absence of about a year, and was defeated in Calvados as a candidate for the chamber of deputies. In 1801 he declared himself in favor of the maintenance of the temporal power of the pope, which gave rise to much discussion both in France and in England. In 1870 he supported the ministry of Ollivier, and declared himself in favor of an affirmative vote on the plebiscite. Guizot is a member of three departments of the French institute, having been elected to the academy of moral and political sciences in 1832, to that of inscriptions and belles-lettres in 1833, and to the French academy in 1836. In 1872 he received from the academy the biennial prize of 20,000 francs. In the same year he resigned his membership in the Protestant synod.

In March, 1874, he objected to Ollivier's panegyric of Napoleon III. in the academy; and subsequently hearing that the latter had paid his son's debts, he insisted upon refunding the amount, and for that purpose sold for 120,000 francs a famous picture of Murillo which the queen of Spain had given him. His principal works, besides those already mentioned, are: Monk: Chute de la republique et retablisse-ment de la monarchie en Angletcrre en 16G0 (1850); Corneille et son temps, and Shakspeare et son temps (1852); Histoire de la republique d' Angleterre et du protectorat de Cromwell (2 vols., 1854); Histoire du protectorat de Richard Cromwell et du retablissement des Stuarts (2 vols., 1856); Sir Robert Peel: Etude d'histoire contemporaine (1856); Me-moires pour servir a l'histoire de mon temps (8 vols., 1858-'68); L Eglise et la societe chre-tienne en 1861 (1861); Discours academiques (1861); Histoire parlementaire de France, etc. (a collection of his speeches, 5 vols., 1863); Meditations sur l'essence de la religion chre-tienne (1864); Meditations sur l'etat actuel de la religion chretienne (1865); Melanges biogra-phiques et litteraires (1868); La France et la Prusse responsables devant l'Europe (1868); Histoire de France depuis les temps les plus recules jusquen 1789, racontee d mes petits-en-fants (1870 et seq.); Histoire de quatre grands Chretiens francais (2 vols., 1873-'4). For many years he has been writing a history of Spain, to be completed in 10 vols., of which 5 are now (1874) finished, He began to learn Spanish for this work at the age of 72. Among his editorial prefaces and memoirs, his admirable Etude sur Washington, prefixed originally to the Vie, correspondance et ecrits de Washington, is particularly worthy of mention.

Almost all his works have been translated into English, and all the more important ones into several other languages. II* Elisabeth Charlotte Pauline de Menlan, a French authoress, first wife of the preceding, born in Paris, Nov. 2, 1773, died there, Aug. 1, 1827. Her family was left in reduced circumstances by the death of her father in 1790, and she devoted herself to literature for support. In 1800 she published Les contradictions, a novel, and soon after La chapelle d' Ayton, partly an adaptation from the English. In 1801 she undertook the literary and artistic editorship of Le Publiciste, a periodical established by Suard. In 1807, being compelled to abandon her labors by ill health, she accepted the aid of an anonymous writer, who proved to be Guizot, then young and unknown. The intimacy arising from this incident ripened into love and ended in their marriage, April 12, 1812. Thenceforth she devoted herself principally to works for the moral improvement of the young, and published successively Les en-fants (1812); Le journal d'une mere (1813); L'Ecolier, ou Raoul et Victor (1821), to which the academy awarded the Montyon prize; Nou-veaux contes d l'usage de la jeunesse (1823); and Lettres de famille sur l'education (1826), which also gained a prize.

Several volumes of her essays and tales were published by her husband after her death. III. Marguerite Andree Elisa (Dillon), niece of the preceding and second wife of Francois Guizot, born in Paris in 1804, died in 1833. She also cultivated letters, and furnished to the Revue Francaise a number of articles and tales, which were collected in a volume and published in 1834. Of her children, Henriette, born in 1829, wife of Conrad de Witt, has published Edouard III. et les bourgeois de Calais, ou les Anglais en France (1854), Une famille a Paris (1863), and several books for children, and has translated a number of English works, including the life of Prince Albert, attributed to Queen Victoria, "China and Japan," by Laurence Oliphant, and " William Pitt and his Times," by Lord Stanhope. Pauline, born in 1831, wife of Cornelius de Witt, brother of her sister's husband, wrote Guillaume le Conquerant, ou l'Angletcrre sous les Normands (1854), and made translations from the English, including novels by Dickens and Miss Mulock, and, in collaboration with her sister, Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic." She died at Cannes, Feb. 28,1874. Maurice Guillaume, the only son, born in Paris, Jan. 11, 1833, received a prize from the French academy in 1853, for a work entitled Menandre, etude historique et litteraire sur la comedie et la societe grecques (1855). In 1866 he was appointed professor of the French language and literature in the college de France. He has also published Alfred le Grand, ou l'Angleterre sous les Anglo-Saxons (1856), and translations of Macaulay's essays.