Royer-Collard, Pierre Paul, a French statesman; born in Sompuis, France, June 21, 1763. In 1811 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy in Paris, and exercised an immense influence on the philosophy of France. He was appointed president of the Commission of Public Instruction in 1815, but resigned that post in 1820; in 1815, also, he returned to political life as deputy for the department of Marne. The French Academy opened its doors to him in 1827; and in 1828 he was named president of the Chamber of Representatives, and in that capacity presented the address of the 221 deputies (March 1830) withdrawing their support from the government, which the king refused to hear read. Next day the Chamber was prorogued. From 1842 Royer-Collard completely withdrew from public life. He never was a writer, and he became a philosopher only by accident; his true interest in life was politics, his real eminence as a political orator after the ancient pattern rather than that of the modern parliamentary debater. He died in his county seat, Chateauvieux, near St. Aignan, Loir-et-Cher, Sept. 4, 1845.


Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

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