Boissy

Boissy d'Anglas, Comte de (1756-1826), French statesman. Boissy D'Anglas has gained to some extent the reputation of being a political trimmer, but it may be questioned whether he was not steady to his own principles throughout. Already a barrister, he was a moderate supporter of revolutionary ideas, and his views as to religious freedom gained for him at the hands of the royalists the accusation of wishing to establish a Protestant ascendency. As procureur syndic of the Ardeche he showed much courage in defending some Catholic priests. As a member of the National Convention he was opposed to the execution of the king, and he joined the silent party during the Terror. He came to the front again after the fall of Robespierre, and earned much popular odium for his mismanagement of the measures undertaken for relieving Paris during a scarcity which was called in ridicule the "Boissy Famine." He gained some reputation for the dignity with which at the Convention, during an inroad of the populace, he sat, said an eyewitness, "like the Roman senators who awaited death in their curule chairs." He served under Napoleon, under Louis XVIII., again under Napoleon, and again under the king. As an orator and as an author he was but second-rate.