Barrot, Camille Hyacinthe Odilon, a prominent French statesman, born at Villefort, Lozère, 19th July 1791. At nineteen he pleaded before the ordinary tribunals, and at twenty-three, by a special dispensation, before the Court of Cassation, Paris, and early acquired a high reputation for eloquence. In the political arena also, his oratory soon made him one of the most influential leaders of the liberal opposition. He became president of the 'Aide-toi' Society in 1830, and at the July revolution in that year, was one of the three commissioners appointed to conduct the dethroned Charles X. to Cherbourg, on his way to England. On his return he was appointed prefect of the department of the Seine, and member of the Council of State, but in a few months resigned his offices to lead the opposition to Casimir Périer and the reactionary ministers who followed him. He supported Thiers from his accession to office in March 1840 to his fall in October, when he resumed his opposition to the ministry of Guizot. He took a conspicuous part in the reform movement of 1847, and spoke eloquently at several of the provincial reform banquets which led to the revolution of February 1848. Made president by Thiers in his short-lived ministry, he advised the king to withdraw his troops and thus remove the last obstacle to the downfall of his throne. In the last sitting of the
Chamber of Deputies, he supported the claim of the Count de Paris to the throne, and the regency of the Duchess of Orleans. The February revolution considerably abated his ardour for public liberty. He held office for some time under the presidency of Louis Napoleon, but retired from active political life after the coup d'état, 2d December 1851. In July 1872 he was made a councillor of state and vice-president of the council; but he died at Bougival, near Paris, 6th August 1873. His Mémoires Posthumes appeared at Paris (4 vols. 1875-76).