PREFACE

Edouard Laboulaye was born in 1811. Enthusiastic to a high degree in the cause of the laboring classes, the true friend of children and a politician of no mean ability he was one of the most popular men of bis time. Thoroughly conversant with French laws and ail philosophical questions he received .the appointaient of professor of comparative législation in the Collège de France. He soon became the idol of his students whom he attracted in large numbers by his clear, simple and yet masterly exposition of libéral ideas.

In 187 1 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies where he represented the Département de la Seine. Although he was in favor of many reforms, he never entertained revolutionary opinions, and always remained faithful to his principle that nations should gradually transform their institutions without having recourse to révolution. He first became known as a writer by his Histoire du Droit de Propriété en Europe. His Paris en Amérique^ published under the name of René Lefebvre, created quite a sensation on account of its satirical conception of French institutions, contrasted with an undisguised admiration for the United States. Besides thèse his principal works are: Essai sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Savigny^ in which he clearly expounds his