Voyer D Argenson, a distinguished French family of Touraine. I. Rene Louis, marquis d', born Oct. 18, 1694, died Jan. 10, 1757. In 1741 Louis XV. appointed him minister of foreign affairs, and he held this office till 1747, when the intrigues of Spain, whose policy he had frustrated in his negotiations with Italy, brought about his resignation. From that time he devoted himself principally to literature, and wrote, besides essays, Considerations sur le gouvernement de la France.

II. Marc Pierre, count d', brother of the preceding, born Aug. 18, 1696, died in Paris, Aug. 22, 1764. He was for some time secretary of the war department under Louis XV., and in this capacity did much for France during the war which preceded and the peace-which followed the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. D'Alembert and Diderot dedicated to him their Encyclopaedia, begun during his ministry, and he furnished Voltaire with valuable materials for his Siecle de Louis XIV.

III. Marc Antoine Rene de Palmy, son of Rene Louis, born in 1722, died in 1787. He was ambassador in Switzerland, Poland, and Venice, but, disappointed in obtaining the Roman mission, he resigned his public offices and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He edited 40 volumes of the Bibliotheque univer-selle des romans, including some of his own novels. He was elected a member of the French academy, and appointed governor of the arsenal, and distinguished himself by the splendid collection of 150,000 volumes with which he endowed its library.

IV. Marc Rene, grandson of Rene Louis, born in Paris, Sept. 10, 1771, died there, Aug. 2, 1842. He served for a time as adjutant of Gen. Lafayette. In 1809 he became prefect of the department of Deux-Xethes (now province of Antwerp, Belgium), but relinquished his place on account of a disagreement with the ministry, caused by D'Argenson's refusal to sequester the property of the mayor of Antwerp. He took an active part in the expulsion of the English from Walcheren. During the hundred days he was a member of the house of representatives for Belfort, and belonged to the deputation who besought the allied forces to prevent the return of the Bourbons. He was reelected as deputy after the second restoration, and distinguished himself by his eloquent denunciation of the massacre of the Protestants in the south of France. In 1830 he reentered the chamber of deputies as member for Strasburg, and created a great sensation by taking his parliamentary oath with the words Je le jure, savf les progres de la raison publique.

In May, 1832, he was one of the opposition members who signed the famous Compte rendu, and in October, 1833, he signed the manifesto of the societe des droits de l'homme. He was one of the chief leaders of the secret society charbonnerie democra-tique, and was designated as the future dictator of France in case of a revolution.