Bazard, SAINT-AMAND

Bazard, SAINT-AMAND, a French Socialist, was born at Paris in 1791. After the Restoration he helped to found the revolutionary society of the 'Amis de la Vérité,' and in 1820 an association of French Carbonari. He was the leading conspirator in the 'plot of Belfort.' In 1825 Bazard, impressed with the necessity of a total reconstruction of society, attached himself to the school of Saint-Simon, and became one of the editors of a Saint-Simonian journal termed Le Producteur. In 1828 he delivered at Paris a series of lectures, the substance of which was published in the Exposition de la Doctrine de Saint-Simon (2 vols. 1828-30), of which the first part was by Bazard, the second being chiefly the composition of Enfantin. He and Enfantin became the acknowledged leaders of the school. After the July revolution (1830) a larger scope was afforded to the Saint-Simonians. The masses were attracted by the doctrine that 'all social institutions ought to have for their end the moral, intellectual, and physical amelioration of the poor.' In a short time Bazard and his friends had 'created a new society, living in the midst of the old,' with peculiar laws, manners, and doctrines. But Bazard's connection with it was of short duration. He differed from Enfantin on the doctrine of the emancipation of women, and in 1831 seceded in disgust. His efforts to found a school of his own proved unsuccessful, and during a heated discussion with his former friend Enfantin, he was struck with apoplexy, from the effects of which he never recovered. He died 29th July 1832.