Barras

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

PAUL FRANÇOIS JEAN NICOLAS, COMTE DE, a French Jacobin, born in Provence, in 1755; served as second lieutenant in the regiment of Languedoc until 1775. He made a voyage to the Isle-de-France, and entered into the garrison of Pondicherry. On his return, he led a dissipated life and squandered his fortune. When the Revolution broke out he opposed the while his brother sat with the nobility. July 14, 1789, he took part in the attack upon the Bastille, and Aug. 10, 1792, upon the Tuileries. In 1792 he was elected a member of the National Convention, and voted for the unconditional death of Louis XVI. He was sent, in 1793, to the south of France, and commanded the left wing of the besieging army under Dugommier, and it was here that he first met Napoleon Bonaparte, then captain of artillery. Robespierre was no friend of his, and often wished to arrest him. Barras, knowing this, became one of the principal actors of the 9th Thermidor, and put himself at the head of the troops which surrounded Robespierre at the Hôtel de Ville. In 1794 he was named one of the Committee of Public Safety. In February, 1795, he was elected President of the Convention, and, in that capacity, declared Paris in a state of siege, when the Assembly was attacked by the populace. Afterward, when the Convention was assailed, Bonaparte, by Barras' advice, was appointed to command the artillery; and that general, on the 13th Vendémiaire (Oct. 5, 1795), decisively repressed the royalist movement. For his services, Barras was now named one of the Directory. Napoleon's coup d'état, on the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), overthrew the power of Barras and his colleagues. He died in Paris, Jan. 29, 1829. BARRÉ, ISAAC (bä-rā'), a British soldier, born at Dublin in 1726. Gazetted as an ensign in 1746, he became friendly with General Wolfe, under whom he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was wounded at Quebec, was beside Wolfe when he fell, and figures in West's picture of "The Death of Wolfe." He entered Parliament in 1761, and held office successively under Lord Bute, Pitt, Rockingham, and Lord Shelburne. In Pitt's second administration he exposed the corruptions of the ministry, was a strong opponent of Lord North's ministry, and opposed the taxation of America. He died in London, July 20, 1802.