Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . ronment in which he was xis nE His father was of the old and honorable family the Clerels, proprietors of Tocqueville on the coastof Normandy,— a family linked more prominently with the magis-tracy than with the nobility. His mother was the granddaughterof Malesherbes, the learned magistrate who undertook the defense ofLouis XVI. before the Convention, and for his loyalty was subse-quently put to death, together with many of his family. Madame deTocqueville and her husband were imprisoned, but escaped the g
Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . ronment in which he was xis nE His father was of the old and honorable family the Clerels, proprietors of Tocqueville on the coastof Normandy,— a family linked more prominently with the magis-tracy than with the nobility. His mother was the granddaughterof Malesherbes, the learned magistrate who undertook the defense ofLouis XVI. before the Convention, and for his loyalty was subse-quently put to death, together with many of his family. Madame deTocqueville and her husband were imprisoned, but escaped the guillo-tine by the opportune death of Robespierre. On the Restoration in1815, the elder Tocqueville, father of Alexis, reassumed the title ofcount. His famous son was born at \erneuil. Department of Seine-ct-Oise, July 29th, 1805, and was educated at the College of Metz;passing from there to Paris, where, after a course of legal studies,he was called to the bar in 1825. Louis XVHI. had died in the inadequate Charles X. occupied the French 14966 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE After a tour in Italy and Sicily, where with characteristic interesthe observed chiefly the political and social condition of the inhabit-ants, Tocqueville returned to France, entering upon magisterial dutiesas juge auditeur at Versailles. His wonderful sensitiveness to the cur-rents of political life made him aware of the revolutionary forcescontinually at work under the surface of the monarchical government,and drew him to the consideration of the causes of these disturb-ances. In 1830 the Revolution of July brought Louis Philippe to thethrone. From the July government Tocqueville and his colleague,Gustave de Beaumont, accepted a commission to inquire into theworking of the penitentiary system in America. This visit to the United States was to be of momentous import-ance. To Tocqueville, alive to the full import of the political phe-nomena of his own generation, and of that preceding, it was not
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