, FOUCHE was chosen in 1792 member of the national convention, voted for the immediate execution of Louis XVI., and in 1793 proceeded to Ly- ons with Collot d'Herbois, charged with the execution of the decree issued by the conven- tion against that city, and shared in the violent measures and wholesale executions carried out there. After his return to Paris he was elected president of the Jacobin club (June 4, 1794). His influence and opposition gave umbrage to Robespierre, who caused him to be expelled from the club ; but he rejoined it after the execution of Robespierre (July 28, 1794), upon whom he now endeavored to throw all the odium of his violent proceedings at Lyons. But he was denounced as a terrorist, driven from the convention (Aug. 9, 1795), and placed under arrest, but restored to liberty by the amnesty of Oct. 26, 1795. He afterward in- gratiated himself with Barras, the president of the directory, by betraying to him the movements of Babeuf. The latter was guil- lotined in 1797, and Fouche was rewarded with a large interest in the contracts for the army, and in September, 1798, was made minister to the Cisalpine republic. In the beginning of 1799 he was sent in the same capacity to Holland, but was soon called to Paris to enter upon the duties of minister of police. He adopted rigorous measures against political agitators, without distinction of party, coop- erated in the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire, and strengthened Bonaparte's position by his vigilance in detecting royalist and Jacobin conspiracies; but the first consul, who dis- trusted his minister, discarded him as soon as the apparent return of tranquillity rendered it practicable to dispense with his services, the office being abolished (September, 1802). He was made a senator, a post which yielded him about $13,000 annually, and Napoleon reward- ed him also with half of the reserve fund in the treasury of the police, which amounted to nearly $250,000. In 1804, when Napoleon's position became more complicated, Fouch6 was again employed. He opposed the execu- tion of the duke d'Enghien, and said to Napo- leon, " It is more than a crime, it is a political fault ;" a saying which, in the form " It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder," has become proverbial, and has been generally attributed to Talleyrand. After the establishment of the empire, Fouch6 was formally reinstalled as minister of police (July 10, 1804), and under his administration tranquillity and order were secured at home, while Napoleon was engaged in fighting his battles abroad. In 1809 he re- ceived the title of duke of Otranto, with a large pension from the revenues of the king- dom of Naples. In the same year, while the minister of the interior Cretet was sick, Fouch6 managed his department along with his own ; and when the English landed on the island of Walcheren, he caused the whole national guard of France to be put in motion. In the following year he opened unauthorized nego- FOUGERES 345 tiations with the court of St. James, and was dismissed (June 5). Savary was appointed min- ister of police, and the governorship of Rome was assigned to Fouche, as a sort of honorable exile. He did not go to Rome, but was com- pelled to leave France on his refusing to sur- render certain autograph letters of Napoleon and other important documents, and was only permitted to come back on condition of giving them up. Napoleon began to fear the in- trigues of Fouche, and kept him out of France by calling him to Dresden, and sending him afterward to Illyria as governor, and subse- quently to Rome. In January, 1814, he wrote to the emperor from Rome, recommending the adoption of a more conciliatory policy. Returning to France in the spring, he an- nounced at Lyons and at Avignon the ap- proaching fall of Napoleon, and entered Paris two days before the count d'Artois. On April 23 he wrote again to Napoleon, urging him to leave Elba for the United States. At the same time he put himself in communication with the Bourbons. They suspected him, however, and on Napoleon's return from Elba issued an order for his arrest; but he con- trived to make his escape, and became for the third time Napoleon's minister of police, while he was at the same time Talleyrand's correspondent, the tool of the court of emigres at Ghent, and the bosom friend of the liberal deputies in the chamber. After the battle of Waterloo he sent for Dupont de 1'Eure, Lafay- ette, and others, and made use of their repub- lican feelings to precipitate the overthrow of the emperor ; and after his master's final abdi- cation he became the leader of the provision- al government (June 22, 1815). He was ap- pointed for the fourth time minister of po- lice by Louis XVIII. (July 6), but, placed between the opposition of the extreme re- publicans and the extreme royalists, his po- sition became intolerable. He presented to the king two reports on the disturbed state of France, which created a great sensation, and which are the best of his political wri- tings. He resigned the ministry Sept. 19, and was appointed ambassador at Dresden, but was deprived of that office by the law of Jan. 12, 1816, which affected all who had voted for the death of Louis XVI. From Dresden he removed to Prague, where he spent about two years ; and having become in 1818 a naturalized subject of Austria, he re- sided for some time in Linz, and for the rest of his life in Trieste. See Count Martel's Etude sur louche et sur le communisme dans la pratique en 1794 (Paris, 1873). FOl GERES, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Ille-et-Vilaine, on a hill near the Nan- con, 27 m. N. E. of Rennes; pop. in 1866, 9,580. It is the seat of a subprefecture, a court of primary jurisdiction, and a communal college, and has manufactories of sail cloth and hempen fabrics, flannels, hats, and leather. It was anciently fortified, and was considered
