Robespierre’s father, a lawyer, was a man of eccentric habits and peculiar disposition, who after the death of his wife left his native town, and, it is believed, went to England and America. Nothing was again seen of him in France, nor did he ever communicate with his family. He left behind him three young children, Augustus, Maximilien, and a daughter Margaret. Of these Maximilien was adopted by two maiden aunts, who sent him to the College at Arras, and defrayed the expenses of his education. The religious circle in which his aunts lived brought the boy in contact with the wealthy and influential clergy of the town; a canon of the Cathedral of Arras took him under his immediate protection, and obtained for him, when twelve years of age, a _bourse_ or scholarship at the College of Louis le Grand, Paris. Robespierre, during his six years’ stay at this College, was studious, obedient, and intelligent, and took a first prize in the class of rhetoric. Among his schoolfellows were Camille, Desmoulins, and Fréron. On leaving college, Robespierre, who was very poor, studied law. A letter addressed by him to the Abbé Proyart, is still extant, in which he begs for a little help towards purchasing a decent suit of clothes in which to present himself before the Bishop of Arras, one of his protectors then in Paris. At this time (1778) Robespierre was twenty years of age. After completing his legal studies, he returned to his native town and exercised his profession as lawyer. His reputation had preceded him, and he soon obtained many clients, unfortunately for him most of them poorer than himself. Many reports of his pleadings remain--they are (most of them) mere declamations or speeches upon political and social questions; full of tirades against the “ignorance, prejudice, and those passions which form a redoubtable league against all men of genius--in order to punish these men for the services they render to humanity.” These speeches produced a great sensation. Robespierre invariably interlarded his discourses with the most fulsome eulogies of the King. In one speech he speaks of “that beloved and sacred head, the head of the Prince who is the delight and glory of France.” He occupied his spare time in literary pursuits, and wrote a great deal of indifferent poetry. He was in 1783 elected member of the Academy of Arras. His reputation for eloquence and intellect was now such that when the States-General assembled he was immediately chosen one of the sixteen representatives for the province of Artois. He was then so poor that he was obliged to borrow ten louis and a travelling trunk in order to be able to proceed to Paris. The inventory of the contents of his trunk is preserved, viz.: “six shirts, six neckcloths, and six pocket handkerchiefs, of which the greater portion are in good order.” ROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE FREDERIC, DUKE DE LA (_Liancourt_.) Born, 1737; died, 1827, aged eighty.