MALESHERBES, Christian-William de Lamoig non de, minister and last counsel to Louis XVI., was descended of an illustrious family, which had occupied the highest offices in the magistracy, being the grandson of the celebrated advocate-general Lamoignon (see Lamoignon), and born at Parison the 6th of December 1721. He was son of the chancellor of France, William de Lamoignon, who was descended of an illustrious family. His early education he received at the Jesuits’ College, and afterwards applied himself with great assiduity to the study of the law, as well as of history and political economy. He was chosen a counsellor of the parliament of Paris at the age of twenty-four, and succeeded his father as president of the court of aids in the year 1750. Alongst with the presidentship of the court of aids, he received the superintendence of the press, and in his hands it became the means of promoting liberty to a degree beyond all former example in that country. As he firmly believed that despotism alone had reason to dread the liberty of the press, he was anxious to give it every extension consistent with sound policy and the state of public opinion. Through his favour the Encyclopédie, the works of Rousseau, and many other free speculations, issued from the press, in defiance of the terrific anathemas of the Sorbonne. This had no doubt its weight in paving the way for the revolution, which Malesherbes did not probably foresee; yet it had also the effect of freeing the minds of men from the fetters of slavery and superstition, and of enlightening thèm respecting their rights and duties in society. The superintendence of the press having been taken from him, and conferred upon Maupeou, he was only the more intent on fulfilling the duties of his presidentship, and opposing arbitrary power. When the proceedings of the court of aids were to be prohibited, on account of the spirited conduct of Malesherbes in the case of Monnerat, who had been unjustly treated by the farmers of the revenue, he presented a remonstrance to the king, containing a free protest against the enormous abuses of lettres de cachet, by which every man’s liberty was rendered precarious, and concluding with these memorable words: “No one is great enough to be secure from the hatred of a minister, nor little enough not to merit that of a clerk.” Soon after this he was banished to his country-seat by a lettre de cachet, and the Duke de Richelieu, at the head of an armed force, abolished the tribunal. In this state of retirement he committed to paper a number of observations on the political and judicial state of France, as well as on agriculture and natural history, all which perished in the wreck of the revolution. On the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne in 1774, he received an order to appear at the place where the court of aids had sat, and to resume the presidentship of the tribunal thus restored. He laid before the new sovereign an ample detail of the calamitous state of the kingdom, with a free exposure of the faults by which it had been produced. His sentiments so fully accorded with those of the young king, that he was chosen minister of state in the year 1775. In this elevated station he was only ambitious to extend the sphere of his usefulness. His first care was to visit the prisons, and to restore to liberty the innocent victims of the former reign. His administration was also distinguished by the encouragement of commerce and agriculture, being-supported in his laudable endeavours by the able and virtuous Turgot, at that time comptroller-general of the revenue. But having failed in his benevolent endeavours to ameliorate the condition of Protestants respecting the solemnization of marriage and the legitimation of their children, he resigned his office in the month of May 1776.

Being fond of travelling, and resolved to mix freely with people of every description, in order to acquire an accurate knowledge of human nature, he assumed the humble title of Μ. Guillaume, and commenced his journey in a simple, frugal manner. He travelled through France, Switzerland, [7:14:56]and Holland, frequently journeying on foot, and lodging in villages, in order to have a nearer insight of the state of the country. He made memoranda of whatever he conceived to be worthy of observation respecting the productions of nature and the operations of industry; and, after an absence of some years, he returned to his favourite mansion, fraught with such a stock of valuable knowledge as his age and experience qualified him to appreciate. Finding on his return that his native country was far advanced in philosophical principles, he drew up two elaborate memoirs addressed to the king; one of them on the condition of the Protestants, and the other on civil liberty and toleration in general. The difficulties with which ministers now found themselves surrounded induced the king to call him to his councils, being a man who stood high in the esteem of the whole nation; but he received no appointment to any particular office. In the critical state in which he clearly saw that the king stood, he made an effort to open his eyes, by means of two spirited and energetic memoirs, on the calamities of France, and the means of repairing them; but, as the queen’s party carried everything before it, he was not even permitted to read them, and was also denied a private interview with the ill-fated monarch, in consequence of which he took his final leave of the court.

When, by a decree of the National Convention, Louis was to be tried for his life, Malesherbes, nobly forgetting the manner in which he had been banished from his councils, generously offered to plead his cause. On the 13th of December 1792, he wrote to the president of the Convention, “J’ai été appelé deux fois au conseil de celui qui fut mon maitre, dans le temps où cette fonction était ambitionnée par tout le monde; je lui dois le même service, lorsque c’est une fonction que bien des gens trouvent dangereuse.” He was the person who announced to the unfortunate monarch his cruel fate, and one of the last who took leave of him when taken out to suffer. After this eventful period, he withdrew to his retreat with a wounded heart, and refused to hear anything more of what was passing on the bloody theatre of Paris.

Occupied with agriculture and the duties of charity, he was vainly seeking to console himself for the evils of his country, when, in the first days of December 1793, three members of a revolutionary committee of Paris, followed by a numerous escort, came to arrest his eldest daughter, and his son-in-law Μ. de Rosambo. He remained alone with his grandchildren, and for a moment it was believed that his age and his virtues would be respected; but next day new emissaries appeared, and carried him off with his children, notwithstanding the tears and protestations of the inhabitants of Malesherbes, who all offered to guarantee his virtues and his innocence. He then requested to be sent to the same prison with his family; but even this consolation was denied him, and he was incarcerated in the Madelonettes with one of his grandsons, Μ. Louis de Rosambo, whilst his other children remained dispersed in different prisons. When brought before the revolutionary tribunal, he was asked if he had counsel; he replied by a smile of contempt, and one Duchâteau was appointed ex officio his defender. This tribunal of blood would scarcely deign to hear him who had been so long the oracle of justice, and by whom so many victims had been saved from death. He was, indeed, convinced of the uselessness of any defence; and when they handed him the act of accusation (or indictment), in which he was charged with having conspired against “the unity of the republic,” he rejected it with disdain, saying, “Encore si cela avait le sens commun.” In the same charge were included thirty persons of all ages and both sexes. Malesherbes heard his sentence without emotion, and marched to death with undisturbed serenity. At this terrible moment, that mild yet lively gaiety which had formed the charm of his life did not forsake him. Happening to strike his foot against a stone, as he crossed the court-yard of the palace, with his hands tied at his back, he observed to the person next him. “Voilà qui est d’un fâcheux augure; à ma place un Romain serait rentré.” Madame de Rosambo was not less calm nor less resigned. When, on quitting her prison, she embraced Mademoiselle de Sombreuil, who had displayed so great courage during the massacres of September, “Mademoiselle,” said she, “you have had the honour to save your father; I am going to have that of dying with mine.” Malesherbes had the unspeakable grief of seeing immolated before him that daughter whom he loved so tenderly, and who herself witnessed the butchery of her children before she was called on to suffer. He perished the last of all, at the age of seventy-two, on the 22d of April 1794.

Grave errors may be laid to the charge of Malesherbes, but all of these had their source in that love of good which in him was as much a passion as a principle; and, besides, they were not only expiated by a glorious death, but confessed and bitterly deplored with that noble frankness which belonged to his character. Besides the works already alluded to, Malcsherbes left a number of manuscripts, which were dispersed by the vandalism of the revolution, particularly, 1. Observations sur le Méléze, sur le Bois de Sainte Lucie, sur les Pins, sur les Orchis; 2. Mémoire sur les moyens d’accélérer les Progrès de l’Economic Rurale en France; 3. Idées d’un Agriculteur, &c.; 4. Mémoire pour Louis XVI.; 5. Observations sur l’Histoire Naturelle de Buffon et Daubenton; 6. Mémoires sur la Librairie et la Liberté de la Presse; 7. Introduction à la Botanique; 8. Three Letters in the Journal des Savants on the geological phenomena of the environs of Malesherbes. Under the title of Oeuvres Choisies have been printed (Paris, 1809) extracts from his most celebrated remonstrances; and we have also Pensées et Maximes de Μ. de Malesherbes, suivies de Réflexions sur les Lettres de Cachet, 1802. in I2mo.