r himself, having been tried and
condemned _in absentia_ for treason, in October 1889 went to live in
Jersey, but nobody now paid much attention to his doings. The world was
startled, however, on the 30th of September 1891 by hearing that he had
committed suicide in a cemetery at Brussels by blowing out his brains on
the grave of his mistress, Madame de Bonnemains (_nee_ Marguerite
Crouzet), who had died in the preceding July.

See also the article FRANCE: History; and Verly, _Le General Boulanger
et la conspiration monarchique_ (Paris, 1893). (H. Ch.)

BOULAY DE LA MEURTHE, ANTOINE JACQUES CLAUDE JOSEPH, COMTE (1761-1840),
French politician and magistrate, son of an agricultural labourer, was
born at Chamousey (Vosges) on the 19th of February 1761. Called to the
bar at Nancy in 1783, he presently went to Paris, where he rapidly
acquired a reputation as a lawyer and a speaker. He supported the
revolutionary cause in Lorraine, and fought at Valmy (1792) and
Wissembourg (1793) in the republican army. But his moderate principles
brought suspicion on him, and during the Terror he had to go into
hiding. He represented La Meurthe in the Council of Five Hundred, of
which he was twice president, but his views developed steadily in the
conservative direction. Fearing a possible renewal of the Terror, he
became an active member of the plot for the overthrow of the Directory
in November 1799. He was rewarded by the presidency of the legislative
commission formed by Napoleon to draw up the new constitution; and as
president of the legislative section of the council of state he examined
and revised the draft of the civil code. In eight years of hard work as
director of a special land commission he settled the titles of land
acquired by the French nation at the Revolution, and placed on an
unassailable basis the rights of the proprietors who had bought this
land from the government. He received the grand cross of the Legion of
Honour and the title of count, was a member of Napoleon's privy council,
but was never in high favour at court. After Waterloo he tried to obtain
the recognition of Napoleon II. He was placed under surveillance at
Nancy, and later at Halberstadt and Frankfort-on-Main. He was allowed to
return to France in 1819, but took no further active part in politics,
although he presented himself unsuccessfully for parliamentary election
in 1824 and 1827. He died in Paris on the 4th of February 1840. He
publ