CHRISTIAN-WILLIAM DE LAMOIGNON DE, was born at Paris in 1721. He was son of the chancellor of France, William de Lamoignon, who was descended of an illustrious family. His early education he received at the Jesuits college, applying himself afterwards to the study of the law with great assiduity, as well as history and political economy. He was chosen a counsellor of the parliament of Paris at the age of 24, and succeeded his father as president of the court of aids in the year 1750. With the presidency of the court of aids he received the superintendence of the pres, in whose hands it became the means of promoting liberty to a degree beyond all former example in that country. As he firmly believed that despotism alone had any reason to dread the liberty of the pres, he was anxious to give it every extension consistent with sound policy and the state of public opinion. Through his favour the French Encyclopaedia, the works of Rousseau, and many other free speculations, issued from the pres, in defiance of the terrific anathemas of the Sorbonne. This had its own weight in paving the way to the horrors of the revolution, which Maleherbes did not probably foresee; yet it had also the happy effect of freeing the minds of men from the fetters of ignorance and superstition, and of enlightening them respecting their rights and duties in society.

The superintendence of the pres having been taken from him, to confer it on that tool of despotism Maupeou, he was only the more intent on fulfilling the duties of his presidency, and opposing arbitrary power with all his vigour, being thus freed from a number of other cares. When the proceedings of the court of aids were to be prohibited, on account of the spirited conduct of Maleherbes in the case of one Monnerat, who had been most unjustly treated by the farmers of the revenue, he presented a remonstrance to the king, containing a free protest against the enormous abuses of lettres de cachet, by which every man's liberty was rendered precarious, concluding with these memorable words; "no one is great enough to be secure from the hatred of a minister, nor little enough not to merit that of a clerk." Soon after this he was banished to his country-seat by a lettre de cachet, and the duke de Richelieu at the head of an armed force abolished the tribunal. In this state of retirement he committed to paper a number of observations on the political and judicial state of France, on agriculture and natural history, which all perished in the wreck of the revolution.

On the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne in 1774, he received an order to appear at the place where the court of aids had sat, and resume the presidency of the tribunal thus restored. He laid before the new sovereign an ample memoir on the calamitous state of the kingdom, with a free exposure of the faults by which it had been produced, from a firm conviction that truth at all times should have access to the throne. His sentiments so fully accorded with those of the the young king, whose mind was not yet corrupted, that he was chosen minister of state in the year 1775, in which elevated rank he was only ambitious to extend the sphere of his usefulness. His first care was to visit the prisons, and restore to liberty the innocent victims of the former reign. His administration was also distinguished by the powerful encouragement of commerce and agriculture, being supported in his laudable endeavours by the able and virtuous Turgot, at that time comptroller general of the revenue, who having lost his place through the intrigues of financiers, Maleherbes did not long retain his office after him. As he failed in his benevolent endeavours to ameliorate the condition of Protestants respecting the solemnization of marriage and the legitimating of their children, he resigned his office in the month of May 1776.

Being fond of travelling, and resolved to mix freely with people of every description, in order to acquire an accurate knowledge of human nature, he assumed the humble title of M. Guillaume, and commenced his journey in a simple, frugal manner. He travelled through France, Switzerland and Holland, frequently on foot, and lodged in villages, to have a nearer survey of the state of the country. He made memorandum, with the greatest care, of whatever he conceived to be worthy of observation respecting the productions of nature and the operations of industry; and after an absence of some years he returned to his favourite mansion, fully fraught with such a stock of valuable knowledge as his age and experience qualified him to appreciate.

Finding on his return that his native country was far advanced in philosophical principles, he drew up two elaborate memoirs to the king, one of them on the condition of the Protestants, and the other on civil liberty and toleration in general; and the difficulties with which ministers now found themselves surrounded, induced the king to call him to his councils, being a man who stood high in the esteem of the whole nation, but he received no appointment to any particular office. In the critical state in which he clearly saw the king stood, he made one effort for opening his eyes, by means of two spirited and energetic memoirs, "On the calamities of France, and the means of repairing them;" but, as the queen's party carried everything before it, he was not even permitted to read them, and also denied a private interview with the ill-fated monarch, in consequence of which he took his final leave of the court.

When by a decree of the national convention the unfortunate Louis was to be tried for his life, Maleherbes generously offered to plead his cause, nobly forgetting the manner in which he had been banished from his councils. He was the person who announced to him his cruel doom, and one of the last who took leave of him, when taken out to suffer. After this eventful period, he withdrew to his retreat with a deeply wounded heart, and refused to hear anything more of what was acting on the bloody theatre of Paris. Walking one morning in his garden, he perceived four men coming towards his house, sent by the convention to arrest his daughter Mad. Lepelletier Roffambo and her husband, once president of the parliament of Paris; and the accusation of Maleherbes was followed, as a matter of course, by the sentence of death. The truth is, the convention never forgave his defence of the king; an action, however, in which he himself always gloried.

On the fatal day, this great man left the prison with a serene countenance; and, happening to stumble against a stone, he said (with the pleasantry of Sir Thomas More), "a Roman would have thought this an unlucky omen, and walked back again." He conversed with his children in the cart, took an affectionate farewell, and received the stroke in April 1794, in the 73d year of his age. Thus fell, by the infatiable cruelty of a monster, whose hatred to men of virtue and abilities was implacable, one of the most spotless and exemplary characters of the period at which he lived. The government afterwards made some reparation for the injustice done him, by ordering his bust to be placed among those of the great men who have reflected honour upon their country.