Louis Fontanes, marquis de, a French writer, born in Niort, March 6, 1757, died in Paris, March 17, 1821. Going to Paris when still very young, he contributed some poetical pieces to the Mercure de France and the Almanack des muses, but his reputation began with his translation of Pope's Essay on Man," published in 1783. On the breaking out of the revolution he joined the moderate party, and in 1793 wrote the petition which the citizens of Lyons presented to the convention against the bloody tyranny of Collot d'Herbois. After the 9th Thermidor he became one of the contributors to the Moderateur, a newspaper in the royalist interest. After the 18th Fructidor he took refuge in England, where he met Chateaubriand, and a lasting friendship grew up between them. Allowed to return to France after the 18th Brumaire (November, 1799), he was appointed by the first consul to deliver a panegyric on Washington. He became a member of the legislative body in 1802, and was chosen its president in 1804. On the reestab-lishment of the French university in 1808, Napoleon placed him at its head with the title of grand master, and in 1810 appointed him senator. Fontanes, who had always been a royalist at heart, deserted his protector in 1814, voted against him in the senate, and joined the new king.

He thus secured the tenure of his offices and dignities, and was promoted to the peerage. During his later years he devoted his leisure hours to an epic, La Grecedelivree, which he did not complete. His adopted son having been killed in a duel, he died broken-hearted. His finished style of oratory and the purity and terse elegance of his poetry have given him the title of Racine's last descendant.1' A collection of his speeches was published in 1821, and his works were edited by Sainte-Beuve, with a biography (2 vols. 8vo, 1837).