Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre
French philosophical writer, b. at Chambéry, in Savoy, in 1753, when Savoy did not belong to France; d. at Turin, 26 Feb., 1821. His family, which was of French origin, had settled in Savoy a century earlier, and had attained a high position, his father being president of the Senate. Joseph, the eldest of ten children, was a pupil of the Jesuits, who, like his parents, inspired him with an intense love of religion and detestation of the eighteenth-century philosophical rationalism, which he always resolutely opposed. In 1774 he entered the magistracy; in 1780 he was assistant fiscal advocate general; in 1788 he was appointed senator, being then thirt-five years old. Four years later, he was forced to fly before the invading French, and discharged for four years at Lausanne a confidential mission for his sovereign, the King of Sardinia. That monarch having lost the capital of his kingdom, de Maistre lived in poverty at Venice, but on the restoration of the king, went to Sardinia as keeper of the great seal (1799) and, three years later, to St. Petersburg, as plenipotentiary. This mission lasted fourteen years, till 1817. Though weakly supported by his Government, which was at times displeased with his frankness, poor amidst a lavish aristocracy, he nevertheless successfully defended the interests of his country with the Czar Alexander, who, like most of the leading personages at St. Petersburg, highly appreciated his character and his ability. He afterwards returned to Turin, to fill the post of minister of State and keeper of the great seal until his death.
