Camille Jordan (11 January 1771 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

– 19 May 1821) was a French politician born in Lyon of a well-to-do mercantile family. Jordan was educated in Lyon, and from an early age was imbued with royalist principles. He actively supported by voice, pen, and musket his native town in its resistance to the Convention, and when Lyon fell, in October 1793, Jordan fled. From Switzerland he passed in six months to England, where he formed acquaintances with other French exiles and with prominent British statesmen, and imbibed a lasting admiration for the English Constitution. In 1796 he returned to France, and next year he was sent by Lyon as a deputy to the

Council of the Five Hundred The Council of Five Hundred (''Conseil des Cinq-Cents''), or simply the Five Hundred, was the lower house of the legislature of France under the Constitution of the Year III. It existed during the period commonly known (from the name of the ...

. There, his eloquence won him consideration. He earnestly supported what he felt to be true freedom, especially in matters of religious worship, though the energetic appeal on behalf of church bells in his ''Rapport sur la liberté des cultes'' procured him the sobriquet of "Jordan-Cloche". Proscribed at the ''coup d'état'' of the 18th Fructidor (4 September 1797), he escaped to

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. Thence he went to Germany, where he met

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

. Back again in France by 1800, he boldly published in 1802 his ''Vrai sens du vote national pour le consulat à vie'', in which he exposed the ambitious schemes of Bonaparte. He was unmolested, however, and during the First Empire lived in literary retirement at Lyon with his wife and family, producing for the Lyon academy occasional papers on the ''Influence réciproque de l'éloquence sur la Révolution et de la Révolution sur l'éloquence''; ''Etudes sur Klopstock'', etc. At the

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

in 1814, he again emerged into public life. By

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

he was ennobled and named a councillor of state; and from 1816 he sat in the chamber of deputies as representative of Am. At first, he supported the ministry, but when they began to show signs of reaction, he separated from them, and gradually came to be at the head of the constitutional opposition. His speeches in the chamber were always eloquent and powerful. Though warned by failing health to resign, Camille Jordan remained at his post till his death at Paris, on 19 May 1821. To his pen we owe (1791); (1792); (1792); (I797); (1818); (1818). His were collected in 1818. The "," and translations from the German, were published in . Besides the histories of the time, see further details vol. x. of the ; a paper on Jordan and Madame de Staël, by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, in the '' Revue des deux mondes'' for March 1868 and R Boubbe, "''Camille Jordan à Weimar''," in the ''Correspondance'' (1901), ccv. 718–738 and 948–970.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Camille 1771 births 1821 deaths Politicians from Lyon Doctrinaires Members of the Council of Five Hundred Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery