GARNIER, Germain (1754-1821), an able writer on political economy, was born at Auxerre, on 8th November 1754. He was educated for the law, and obtained when young the office of procureur at Châtelet. He acted for some time as secretary to Mme. Adelaide, aunt of Louis XVI., and by his fine presence and manners acquired considerable reputation and power at court. On the calling of the states-general he was named as deputy for Châtelet, and in 1790 he appears to have been a member of the monarchical club in Paris. After 1792 he withdrew to the Pays de Vaud, and did not return till 1795. In public life, however, he seems to have been singularly fortunate. In 1797 he was on the list of candidates for the Directory; in 1800 he was prefect of Seine et Oise; in 1804 he was made senator; and from 1809 to 1811 he acted as president of the senate. After the restoration he obtained a peerage, and on the return of Louis XVIII., after the Hundred Days, he became minister of state and member of privy council. He died at Paris, 4th October 1821. Garnier was somewhat advanced in years before he began to take any interest in political economy; his previous efforts in literature had been of an altogether different kind. At court he was, when young, noted for his facile power of verse-writing, and he translated Mrs Radcliffe and Mrs Montague....
Garnier is best known by his admirable translation, with notes and introduction, of Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1st ed 1805, 2d ed. 1822), and by his Histoire de la Monnaie (2 vols., 1819), which contains much sound and well-arranged material. His Abrégé des Principes de l’Écon. Polit. (1796) is a very clear and instructive manual. Of high value also is the Description géographique, physique, et politique du départe ment de Seine-et-Oise (1822), drawn up from his instructions. Other works are De la Propriété (1792), and Histoire des Banques d'Escompte (1806).
GARNIER, Marie JosephFrançois (1839-1873), usually called Francis Garnier, a French officer and explorer, was born at St Étienne, July 25,1839, and perished by assassination in Tong-king, December 7, 1873. He entered the navy, and after voyaging in Brazilian waters and the Pacific he obtained a post on the staff of Admiral Charner, who from 1860 to 1862 was campaigning in Cochin-China. After some time spent in France he returned to the East, and in 1862 he was appointed inspector of the natives in Cochin-China, and entrusted with the administration of the town of Cho-len or Sho-len. It was at Garnier’s suggestion that the Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat determined to send a mission through Laos to Tibet, but as he was not considered old enough to be put in command, the chief authority was entrusted to Captain Doudart de Lagrée. In the course of the expedition—to quote the words of Sir Roderick Murchison addressed to the youthful traveller when, in 1870, he was presented with the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London—from Cratieh in Cambodia to Shanghai 5392 miles were traversed, and of these 3625 miles, chiefly of country unknown to European geography, were surveyed with care, and the positions fixed by astronomical observations, nearly the whole of the observations being taken by Garnier himself. Volunteering to lead a detachment to Talifu the capital of Sultan Suleiman, the sovereign of the Mahometan rebels in Yunnan, he successfully carried out the more than adventurous enterprise. When shortly afterwards Lagrée died, Gamier naturally assumed the command of the expedition, and he conducted it in safety to the Yang-tze-Kiang, and thus to the Chinese coast. On his return to France he was received with enthusiasm. The preparation of his narrative was interrupted by the Franco-German war, and during the siege of Paris he served as principal staff officer to the admiral in command of the eighth “sector.” His experiences during the siege were published anonymously in the feuilleton of Le Temps, and appeared separately as Le Siege de Paris, journal Tun officier de marine, 1871. Returning to Cochin-China he found the political circumstances of the country unfavourable to further exploration, and accordingly he went to China, and in 1873 followed the upper course of the Yang·tze·Kiang to the waterfalls. He was next commissioned by Admiral Dupré, governor of Cochin-China, to Tong-king to found a French protectorate or a new colony. On November 20, 1873, he took Hanoi, the capital of Tong-king, and on December 7th he was slain.
The narrative of the principal expedition appeared in 1873, as Voyage <Γcx2>lοrαtiοη cηIηdο∙Chiηe effectui pendant les années 1866, 1867, et 1868, publié sons la direction de H. Francis Garnier, avec le contours de H. Delaporte et de HH. Joubert et Thorcl, 2 vols. An ac<Λunt of the Yang·tze·Kiang from Garnier’s pen is given in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog., 1874. His Chronique rogale du Cambodjc was reprinted from the Journal Asiatique in 1872. See Ocean Highways, 1874, for a memoir by Colonel Yule.
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