(1740-1824), Marquis, jurist, Peer (Pair de France)
Factfile
Born 1741 Domme (Périgord), died Paris, 21 November, 1824. 1760 lawyer at the Parlement de Bordeaux 1790 Member and subsequently Président du Directoire of his Département 1791 Member of the Tribunal de Cassation 1795 Député at the Conseil des Anciens, 1797 did not support the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor and retired from public life 1800 appointed by the Sénat member of the Tribunal de Cassation, later becoming President of the Section Civile as a replacement for Tronchet, who had been elevated to Senator 1800 (4 Thermidor, An VIII), called to the Commission of four jurists appointed to draw up a Code civil 1804 and 1805, published 'Analyse raisonnée de la discussion du Code civil au Conseil d'Etat', 4 volumes in-8°, which ran to two editions and was translated into German March 1806 appointed to the Sénat with the title 'Comte' April 1814 voted for Napoleon's deposition and supported the return of the Bourbons in the context of a constitutional monarchy 4 June, 1814, Louis XVIII made him peer (Pair de France) 1815 President of the Collége électoral of the Dordogne 1817 appointed Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur
During the late 1790s he was closely linked to Portalis, Lebrun, Muraire, Barbé-Marbois, and other members of the renascent monarchic party. One of his famous speeches attacked a law of 9 Floréal, An III, which ordered the sharing out of émigré property. He also demanded the abrogation of the law which excluded the relatives of émigrés from civil service jobs. As part of his work on the Code Civil he was opposed to divorce and adoption, but defended the idea of paternal domination. In his post-Napoleonic work he was active in the Chambre des Pairs until 1820, remaining profoundly conservative.
