Antoine Francais, count, popularly known as Francais de Nantes, a French politician and author, born at Beaurepaire, Isere, Jan. 17, 1756, died in Paris in 1836. He was the son of a notary, received a superior education, and became in 1789 an advocate and customs director at Nantes and an ardent revolutionist. Subsequently, as a member and for some time president of the legislative assembly, and as a member of the council of five hundred, he acquired great popularity by his denunciations of royalists and priests. He readily accepted office, however, under the consulate, and rose to be director general of the octroi department, which gave him opportunities of offering sinecures to poor literary men, who regarded him as a Maecenas. He retained this influential post during the empire, when he was made a count. From 1819 to 1822 he represented the department of Isere in the chamber of deputies. His revolutionary pamphlets met with great success, but his miscellaneous writings brought him little fame. They include Tableau de la vie rurale, ou l'agriculture enseignee d'une manure dramatique (3 vols., Paris, 1829).