ateral branches of the family
were: Francois (1629-1701), bishop of Noyon from 1661 until his death, a
member of the French Academy, notorious for his inordinate vanity;
Stanislas M. A., comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (q.v.); and Anne Antoine
Jules (1740-1830), cardinal and bishop of Chalons, who was a member of
the states-general in 1789, afterwards retiring into Germany, and after
the return of the Bourbons to France became archbishop of Toulouse.

CLERMONT-TONNERRE, STANISLAS MARIE ADELAIDE, COMTE DE (1757-1792),
French politican, was born at Pont-a-Mousson on the 10th of October
1757. At the beginning of the Revolution he was a colonel, with some
reputation as a freemason and a Liberal. He was elected to the
states-general of 1789 by the noblesse of Paris, and was the spokesman
of the minority of Liberal nobles who joined the Third Estate on the
25th of June. He desired to model the new constitution of France on that
of England. He was elected president of the Constituent Assembly on the
17th of August 1789; but on the rejection by the Assembly of the scheme
elaborated by the first constitutional committee, he attached himself to
the party of moderate royalists, known as _monarchiens_, led by P.V.
Malouet. His speech in favour of reserving to the crown the right of
absolute veto under the new constitution drew down upon him the wrath of
the advanced politicians of the Palais Royal; but in spite of threats
and abuse he continued to advocate a moderate liberal policy, especially
in the matter of removing the political disabilities of Jews and
Protestants and of extending the system of trial by jury. In January
1790 he collaborated with Malouet in founding the Club des Impartiaux
and the _Journal des Impartiaux_, the names of which were changed in
November to the Societe des Amis de la Constitution Monarchique and
_Journal de la Societe, &c._. in order to emphasize their opposition to
the Jacobins (Societe des Amis de la Constitution). This club was
denounced by Barnave in the Assembly (January 21st, 1791), and on the
28th of March it was attacked by a mob, whereupon it was closed by order
of the Assembly. Clermont-Tonnerre was murdered by the populace during
the rising of the 9th and 10th of August 1792. He was an excellent
orator, having acquired practice in speaking, before the Revolution, in
the masonic lodges. He is a good representative of the type of the
_grands seigneurs_ holding advanced and liberal ideas, wh