THIEKRY. 227 THIERS. (182S) won for Iiim a professorship of history at Bcsanron, but liis teacliin<; proved unpahitalile to the reactionary Government of Charles X. and his course of lectures was suspended by oflleial order. The Revolution of 1830 brought to him the Prefecture of HauteSaOne, which he held till 1838, when he received the otTice of Maitre des requites. In 1800 he was appointed Senator of the Empire. He was advanced to hi<;h office in the Legion of Honor and elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1841. The most important of his books are: Histoire de la duule sous radiiiinistntliuii rmiiaine (1840-47); Bis- toire d'Allila (1850); Tableaux de Vempire ro- main (1802) ; Recits de I'histoire romaine (1860- 64). He wrote also Sainl-Jerome (18(57) and Chrysostome et Eudoxie (1873). THIERRY, AuGUSTiN' (1795-18.50). A French historian, liorn at Blois. He studied at the col- lege of his native town and in the Ecole Xormale at Paris, and became a teacher in a provincial school. In 1814 he went to Paris, and published his first work, De la reorganisation de la soeicte eiirnpeennc. Adopting the views of Saint-Simon, Thierry became his assistant for three years. In 1817 he joined Comte and Dunoyer as editors of the Censeur Europi'cn. for which he wrote many articles, literary, political, and historical. In 18'20 he became engaged on the Conrrier Franqais, in which he published hisDi'ic lettres sur I'histoire de France. He then turned almost exclusively to historical writing. His masterpiece. L'histoire de la eonquete d'Anffleterre par les yormands, was first published in 1825. His Lettres Sriir I'histoire appeared in 1827. In 1835 he published his Dix ans d'etudes historir/ues. In 1840 appeared his lieeits des temps merovi>i(jiens, which gained the great Gobert prize. His last publication was the Essui sur I'histcfire de la formation et de progres du. tiers-etat (1853). He edited for Guizot's Col- Iretion des motniments incdits de I'histoire de France the Recueil des monuments incdits de I'histoire du tiers-Hat (1849-56). He died May 22, 1856. His complete works were published in ten volumes (1850-00). His principal works have been translated into English. THIERS, te'ar'. The capital of an arron- dissement in the Department of Puy-de-Dome, France, 23 miles east-northeast of Clermont- Ferrand (INIap: France, K 6). It is pleasantly situated on a hillside and consists of an upper and a lower town, the latter in a nearly sunless gorge (the Ville Xoire of George Sand's novel of that name). The eleventh-century Romanesque Gothic Church of Saint Genes contains a. noteworthy tomb of the thirteenth century, and the Church of Le!Moutier is an interesting Romanesque struc- turt? founded in the seventh century. The town is noted for its manufactures of cutlery, paper, and playing cards. Population, in 1891, 11.993; in UiOl'. 17.025. THIERS, Adolphe (1797-1877). A French statesman and historian, born at Marseilles April 15, 1797. He was distinguished as a student at the lycee, and in 1815 he went to Aix to study law. There he formed a friendship with Mignet, the historian, in company with whom, after he had taken his degree as advocate (1818). he set off for Paris. Obtaining an introduction to Lafitte. he was enrolled among the contributors to the f'cmstitutionnel. then the leading Liberal orcan. His vigorous articles attracted atten- tion to the young writer and won him a place in the most brilliant circles of the o])position. lli-i Hiatoire de la revolution franc-aisc (1823- 27) gave him high rank as an historian. In January, 1830, he, with Jlignct and Armand Carrel, established an able opposition paper, the 'National. Thiers in this journal waged unrelent- ing war against the Polignae Administration, whose publication of the celebrated Ordinances of .July brought on the Revolution of 1830. I'nder the new Government of Louis Philippe Thiers was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, where he quickly made his mark as a debater, was appointed to a secretaryship in the Department of Finance, and in October, 1832, was made Minister of the Interior. During the next four years he acted as Jlinister of the Interior, Jlinister of Commerce and Public Works, and
- Iinister of Foreign Affairs under various chiefs
— Soiilt. CJerard, Mortier, and Broglie. His views with time became more conservative, and he repressed with severity the democratic uprisings against the new Government. In February, 18.30, he became president of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, but in August retired when_ the King refused to approve his plan for intervention in Spain and became the leader of the opposition. In March* 1840, he again assumed the Premiership and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He wished to support Mehe- met Ali (q.v.) in his struggle against the Sultan, thus seeking to carry out the Napoleonic idea of a controlling influence by France in Syria and Egvpt. He therefore refused to enter the alliance of Western powers formed for the preser- vation of the Ottoman Empire. (See Quadruple AixiANCE.) When Mehemet Ali was driven out of Syria, the popular irritation in France, fos- tered by Thiers, was great, but Louis Philippe refused to countenance armed interference, just as he had done in the Spanish matter, and ac- cepted Thiers's resignation in October, 1840. The next five years Thiers spent in travel and in work upon his second history, L'histoire du eonsulat et de I'enrpire (ISio-d-i). After 1840 he again became active in political afi"airs, and appeared more frequently in the Chamber as an eloquent spokesman of the opposition. In the Revolution of 1848 his part was that of a Moderate friendly to the Republic. He was banished after the coup d'etat of 1851, but after a short residence abroad was permitted to return to Paris in 1852. Thiers entered the Corps Legislatif in 1803, and became the leader of the Liberal opposition, assailing the Imperial policies in a series of masterly speeches. He eloquently oppo.sed the war with Prussia and predicted the defeat of France. After the collapse of the Empire he became the brains of the rehabilitation of France. He undertook diplomatic journeys to England, Rus- sia, Austria, and Italy, on behalf of France — a self-imposed mission in which he was unsuc- cessful, but by which he acquired the gratitude of his countrymen. After the capitulation of Paris Thiers was elected to the Xational As- sembl.v bv twentv-six constituencies, and on February 17, 1871. became 'chief of the executive ]iower' in the provisional Government, and as such negotiated the treaty of peace with Ger- many. I'pOTi fiP outbreak of the war of the Commune (q.v.) Thiers took swift and energetic
