ISSN:
1873-0841
Source:
Cambridge Journals Digital Archives
Topics:
Economics
Notes:
In 1789, d'Argenson (1771–1842) who was a grandson of one of the ministers of Louis XV, embraced the new ideas. For a considerable time he held himself aloof from public life, while conscientiously managing hisextensive estates. All the same he was a “prefét” unter Napoleon. It is only with the Restauration, however, that he started out on his political career. Elected a deputy, he was a member of the leftist opposition, though paying far more attention than his faction to social questions, and particularly to the lot of the peasants whom he had come to know very well. In 1824 he announced the birth of a new science, viz. “the Science of Social Justice”, which was to correct the evils of inequality.The revolution of 1830 fired him with passionate ardour in the defence of his ideas. He was encouraged, moreover, through his intimate connection with the aged Buonarotti, a friend of Babeuf's.D'Argenson published a brochure of a revolutionary character entitled Boutades d'un riche à sentiments populaires, and defended this before the jury—by which he was acquitted—and before the Chamber. As he was not re-elected in 1834, he retired to his properties, remaining true to the socialist doctrines, however, up to the end of his life.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S187308410000046X
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