Bourgeois
LÉON VICTOR AU- GUSTE, a French statesman, born in Paris in 1851. He received a careful education at the Lycée Charlemagne and was destined for the law, which profession he followed for some time, though his inclinations drew him more and more into the domain of politics. He rose step by step from minor offices until he became Minister of Public Instruction in the French Cabinet, 1890-1892. Following this, he held a place in many cabinets and was Premier, 1895-1896. In political life he has been a radical by conviction, but has shown great talent in BOURGEOISIE conciliating diverse elements, so that he has occupied in French public life a rôle very similar to that of Henry Clay, "The Great Compromiser," in our own national history. He was a delegate to the Hague Conference, and it was the talent
LEON V. A. BOURGEOIS shown and the experience gained in this connection that caused him to be chosen to preside in 1920 at the first session of the League of Nations. As one of the French delegates to the Peace Conference, he took a leading part in the discussions, and was a very influential figure. a BOURGEOISIE (börzh-wä-zē'), name applied to a certain class in France, in contradistinction to the nobility and clergy as well as to the working classes. It thus includes all those who do not belong to the nobility or clergy, and yet occupy an independent position, from financiers and heads of great mercantile establishments at the one end to master tradesmen at the other. It corresponds pretty nearly with the English term middle classes. Etymologically, the word refers to the old class of freemen or burgesses residing in towns. The word became generally employed by the Bolshevist workers in Russia to designate all classes aside from manual workers, especially those who possessed property. Thousands of this class were killed or deprived of their possessions in 1917-1921. residing BOURMONT