GARAT, Dominique Joseph (1749-1833), was born at Bayonne, 8th September 1749. After receiving a good education under the direction of a relation who was a curé, he came to Paris, where he obtained introductions to the most distinguished writers of the time, and became a contributor to the Encyclopedic Méthodique and the Mercure de France. He gained considerable reputation by an éloge on L’Hôpital in 1778, and was afterwards three times crowned by the Academy for éloges on Suger, Montausier, and Fontenelle. In 1785 he was named professor of history at the Athenaeum, where his lectures enjoyed an equal popularity with those of Laharpe on literature. Being chosen a deputy to the states-general in 1789, he rendered important service to the popular cause by his nafrative of the proceedings of the Assembly contributed to the Journal de Paris. Possessing strongly optimist views, a mild and irresolute character, and indefinite and changeable convictions, he played a somewhat undignified part in the great political events of the time, and became a pliant tool in carrying out the designs of others. He succeeded Danton as minister of justice in 1792, and in this capacity had entrusted to him what he called the commission affreuse of communicating to Louis XVI. his sentence of death. In 1793 he became minister of the interior, and during the Reign of Terror he was imprisoned, but he received his liberty after the revolution of the 9th Thermidor, and was named minister of public instruction. In 1798 he was appointed ambassador to Naples, and in the following year he became a member of the Council of the Ancients. After the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, he was chosen a senator by Napoleon and created a count. During the Hundred Days lie was a member of the chamber of ...