CARNOT, LazareNicolas Marguerite (1753-1823), was born at Nolay in Burgundy, May 13, 1753. After receiving a good mathematical education in his native province, he was admitted as an officer of the engineer corps under the patronage of the prince of Condé; and he was beginning to gain some reputation as an author by means of a prize eulogy on Vauban, two mathematical essays, and a number of verses of no great value, when the Revolution drew him into political life. In 1791 he was returned to the National Assembly for the Pas de Calais, and it was not long before he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre. He took a leading part in the most revolutionary measures; before his election he had addressed a paper to the Assembly proposing the seizure of the property of the church, and he now proposed to arm 30,000 sans-culottes with pikes, and to destroy all the citadels in France, and voted for the overthrow of the nobility and the execution of the king. His genius, however, was more military than political; he effected an important improvement in the discipline of the army, and his activity and spirit contributed materially to the successes of the Republic. One of his chief exploits was the victory of Wattignies, where he led in person, and headed a charge on foot. In 1794, after the fall of Robespierre, Carnot had to defend his colleagues, Collot d’Herbois and Barère, from the charge of complicity with the crimes of their leader, and himself only escaped arrest through the glory of his military services. He based his defence on the argument that no member of the Committee was to be held responsible for the deeds of any of the others, since pressure of business made it necessary to sign orders with mt staying to learn their contents; and, ...though the excuse is far from sufficient, it was probably true that Carnot, amid the unceasing toils of a minister of war, was not aware of many of the atrocities which were committed. In 17 95 he became one of the five directors of the Republic, and it was now that he projected his famous Plan for the Invasion of England, by landing two armies simultaneously on the coasts of Sussex and Yorkshire. But not long after he was proscribed, and compelled to take refuge in Germany. Here, though under the protection of a monarch, he published his Mémoire Justificatif, in which he declares himself the “irreconcilable enemy of kings.” On the downfall of the Directory he returned to France, and became minister of war, but he soon resigned this office, consistently refusing to consent to the election of Napoleon as consul for life; and on the abolition of the tribunate in 1806 he retired into private life, became an active member of the Institute, and devoted himself to the pursuit of science. After the Russian campaign, believing that the independence of France depended upon the success of its emperor, he offered his services to Napoleon, and was made governor of Antwerp, which he defended till the abdication in 1814. He was still faithful to the Republic, and his revolutionary Mémoire au Roi did powerful service to the anti-royalist cause. On Napoleon’s return from Elba, Carnot was made minister of war, but the time was past for carrying out the vigorous measures which he proposed. On the overthrow of the empire he retired first to Warsaw, and then to Madgeburg, where he died in 1823.
Besides the above-mentioned writings, Carnot λvas the author of several works on mathematical subjects, of which, the best is his Réflexions sur la Métaphysique du Calcul Infinitesimal, and several on political subjects, including Réponse de Carnot, l'un des fondateurs de la république, au rapport du Bailleul sur la conspiration du 18 fructidor (1798) ,· Exploits des français depuis le 22 fructidor au l* r jusqu’au 15 pluviose an III. de la république; Exposé de la situation de I’ Empire (1815); Exposé de la conduite du général Carnot depuis le l ,r juillet 1814.
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