Jean Lambert Tallien, a French revolutionist, born in Paris in 1769, died there in November, 1820. He was the son of the house steward of the marquis de Bercy, who gave him the means of a classical education. In 1791 he started a transient newspaper, L'Ami du Ci-toyen, and became a member of the Jacobin club, and in 1792 clerk of the commune of Paris and deputy to the convention from Seine-et-Oise. He took his seat among the monta-gnards, voted for the death of Louis XVL, and was one of the bitterest opponents of the Girondists. He was sent on a mission to Bordeaux in 1793, and became acquainted with Mme. de Fontenay, whom he married. (See Chimay.) At her instigation he denounced Robespierre and procured his execution,, which made him the leader of the Thermidorians. Through his influence Fouquier-Tinville, Carrier, and Lebon were doomed to punishment; and through his energy the revolutionary attempt of the 1st Prairial was baffled. As commissary of the convention with the army of the west in 1795, he ordered all the royalist prisoners made by Hoche on the Quiberon peninsula to be shot.

On the 13th Vendemiaire he Was among the defenders of the convention against the rebellious sections of Paris. After tht establishment of the directorial government he was a member of the council of 500, and shared in the republican coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor. In 1798 he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt as one of the committee of scientific men, and held there a high administrative office. While returning to France he was taken prisoner by the English, and welcomed to London by the whig party. In 1805 he was appointed consul to Alicante; but sickness obliged him to return to Paris, where he received a paltry pension from Napoleon, which he lost in 1811. Mme. Tallien, from whom he was divorced in 1802, had borne him four children.