1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Salvandy, Narcisse Achille

SALVANDY, NARCISSE ACHILLE (1795–1856), French politician, was born at Condom (Gers) on the 11th of June 1795, of a poor family Irish by extraction. He entered the army in 1813, and next year was admitted to the household troops of Louis XVIII. A patriotic pamphlet on La Coalition et la France (1816) attracted the attention of Decazes, who employed him to disseminate his views in the press, and he waged war against the Villèle ministry of 1822–1828. Under the July monarchy he sat almost continuously in the Chamber of Deputies from 1830 till 1848, giving his support to the Conservative party. Minister of education in the Molé cabinet of 1837–1839, and again in 1845, he superintended the reconstitution of the Council of Education, the foundation of the French School at Athens and the restoration of the École des Chartes. For short periods in 1841 and 1843 he was ambassador at Madrid and at Turin, and became a member of the French Academy in 1835. Under the Empire he took no part in public affairs, and died at Graveron (Eure) on the 16th of December 1856.