Barere de Vieuzac, Bertrand

Barère de Vieuzac, Bertrand 

Born Sept. 10, 1755, in Tarbes; died there on Jan. 13, 1841. A figure in the Great French Revolution; lawyer.

A deputy in the Constituent Assembly and the Convention, Barère de Vieuzac advanced as a clever orator. In the Convention he tried to reconcile the Girondins with the Jacobins, supporting first one side and then the other. From April 1793 he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety and its principal speaker; he was occupied with problems of foreign policy and public education. As a member of the committee he worked with G. J. Danton and later M. de Robespierre. During Thermidor (July 27–28, 1794) he opposed Robespierre. Under the Thermidorean reaction Barère de Vieuzac was persecuted. In 1799 he welcomed the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire. During the Restoration he was exiled. At the beginning of the July Revolution of 1830, Barère de Vieuzac was permitted to return to France.

WORKS

Mémoires. . . , vols. 1–4. Paris, 1842–44.

A. V. GORDON