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COMTE DE See also: born at Toulouse on the 14th of See also: April 1773 and educated for the See also: navy
.
He joined the " Bayonnaise " at See also: Brest in See also: July 1788 and served in the West and See also: East Indies
.
Arrested in the Isle of Bourbon under the Terror, he was set See also: free by the revolution of Thermidor (July 1794)
.
He acquired some See also: property in the See also: island, and married in 1799 the daughter of a See also: great proprietor, M
.
Desbassyns de Richemont, whose estates he had managed
.
His apprenticeship to politics was served in the Colonial See also: Assembly of Bourbon, where he fought successfully to preserve the colony from the consequences of perpetual interference from the authorities in See also: Paris, and on the other See also: hand to prevent See also: local discontent from appealing to the See also: English for See also: protection
.
The arrival of General Decaen, sent out by See also: Bonaparte in 1802, restored security to the island, and,five years later Villele, who had now realized a large See also: fortune, returned to See also: France
.
He was mayor of his commune, and a member of the council of the Haute-See also: Garonne under the See also: Empire
.
At the restoration of 1814 he at once declared for royalist principles
.
He was mayor of Toulouse in 1814–15 and deputy for the Haute-Garonne in the " Chambre Introuvable " of 1815
.
Villele, who before the promulgation of the charter had written some Observations sur le projet de constitution opposing it, as too democratic in character, naturally took his place, on the extreme right with the ultra-royalists
.
In the new Chamber of 1816 Villele found his party in a minority, but his See also: personal authority nevertheless increased
.
He was looked on by the ministerialists as the least unreasonable of his party, and by the " ultras " as the safest of their leaders . Under the electoral See also: law of 1817 the See also: Abbe See also: Gregoire, who was popularly supposed to have voted for the See also: death of See also: Louis XVI. in the
See also: Convention, was admitted to the Chamber of Deputies
.
The Conservative party gained strength from the alarm raised by this incident and still more from the See also: shock caused by the assassination of the duc de Berri
.
The duc de See also: Richelieu was compelled to admit to the See also: cabinet two of the chiefs of the See also: Left, Villele and Corbiere
.
Villele resigned within a See also: year, but on the fall of Richelieu at the end of 1821 he became the real chief of the new cabinet, in which he was See also: minister of See also: finance
.
Although not himself a courtier, he was backed at See also: court by Sosthenes de la Rochefoucauld and Madame du Cayla, and in 1822 Louis XVIII. gave him the title of count and made him formally See also: prime minister
.
He immediately proceeded to muzzle opposition by stringent See also: press See also: laws, and the See also: discovery of minor liberal conspiracies afforded an excuse for further repression
.
Forced against his will into interference in See also: Spain by Mathieu de Montmorency and Chateaubriand, he contrived to reap some See also: credit for the See also: monarchy from the successful See also: campaign of 1823
.
Meanwhile he had consolidated the royal power by persuading Louis XVIII. to swamp the liberal majority in the upper See also: house by the nomination of twenty-seven new peers; he availed himself of the temporary popularity of the monarchy after the See also: Spanish campaign to summon a new Chamber of Deputies
.
This new and obedient legislature, to which only nineteen liberals were returned, made itself into a septennial parliament, thus providing See also: time, it was thought, to restore some See also: part of the ancien regime
.
Villele's plans were assisted by the death of Louis XVIII. and the accession of his bigoted See also: brother
.
Prudent See also: financial administration since 1815 had made possible the conversion of the See also: state bonds from 5 to 4%
.
It was proposed to utilize the See also: money set free by this operation to indemnify by a milliard francs the emigres for the loss of their lands at the Revolution; it was also proposed to restore their former privileges to the religious congregations
.
Both these propositions were, with some restrictions, secured
.
See also: Sacrilege was made a See also: crime punishable by death, and the See also: ministry were preparing a law to alter the law of equal See also: inheritance, and thus create anew the great estates
.
These See also: measures roused violent opposition in the country, which a new and stringent press law, nicknamed the " law of See also: justice and love," failed to put down
.
The peers rejected the law of inheritance and the press law; it was found necessary to disband the See also: National Guard; and in See also: November 1827 seventy-six new peers were created, and recourse was had to a general election
.
The new Chamber proved hostile to Villele, who resigned to make way for the See also: short-lived moderate ministry of Martignac
.
The new ministry made Villele's removal to the upper house a condition of taking office, and he took no further part in public affairs
.
At the time of his death, on the 13th of See also: March 18J4, he had advanced as far as 1816 with his
See also: memoirs, which were completed from his See also: correspondence by his See also: family as Memoires et correspondance du comte de Villele (Paris, 5 vols., 1887-90)
.
See also C. de Mazade, L'Opposition royalists (Paris, 1894) ; J
.
G
.
See also: Hyde de Neuville
.
See also: Notice sur le comte de Villele (Paris, 1899); and M
.
Chotard, " L'CEuvre financiere de M. de Villele," in Annales See also: des sciences politiques (vol. v., 1890)
.
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