Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/639

Rh author of a large number of others, many of them of Con- siderable importance in connexion with various departments of industrial machinery. He died at Paris August 26, 1815. A pension of 6000 francs was bestowed in 1857 on his only surviving brother, and another on his niece.  GIRARD, (1750–1831), American philan- thropist, was born at Bordeaux on 21st May 1750. At the age of thirteen he commenced life as a sailor, and followed his avocatiou with such assiduity that he was enabled, before the French requisitions of age and service allowed, to become master and captain, in October 1773. llis first mercantile venture was to St Domingo in February 1771, whence he proceeded in July to the then colony of New York. After trading for three years between New York, New Orleans, and Port au Prince, he went to Phila- delphia in May 1777, and gave up the sea for a mercantile career. While he was engaged most successfully in the prosecution of an extensive trade, the yellow fever in its most malignant type broke out in Philadelphia, sweeping away one-sixth of its population. When, during its height, a hospital was established, for which it seemed almost im- possible to secure competent management, Girard devoted himself personally, fearless of all risks, to the care of the sick and the burial of the dead, not only in the hospital, of which he became manager, but throughout the city, sup— plying the poorer sufferers with money and provisions. Two hundred children, made orphans by the ravages of the fCVL'l‘, were in a great measure thrown upon his care. From this period his suecess commercially and ﬁnancially was un;x-.unplcd. He gave a portion of his time to the manage— ment of municipal affairs for several years, and rendered efficient service as warden of the port and as director of many public institutions. On the dissolution of the Bank of the United States, he instituted what is known now as the Girard Bank. During the war of 1812 “he rendered valuable services to the Government by placing at its disposal the resources of his bank at a time of difﬁculty and elllbarrassment, subscribing to a large loan which the Government had vainly sought to obtain.” Girard added to his other avocations that of a practical agriculturist. He died December ‘36, 1831. Girard College was founded by him for the education and support of the poor white orphans of his adopted city. His fortune amounted to about seven and a half millions of dollars. After speciﬁc legacies of two millions for the erection and endowment of the college, $110,000 to his relatiVes, $300,000 to the State for internal improvements, $500,000 to the city of Philadelphia to improve its eastern front, $116,000 to public charities, and various annuities and legacies, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to the city of Philadelphia, mainly for the improvement and main- tenance of the college. The most minute directions were given by Girard in regard to the buildings to be erected, and the admission and management of the inmates. Ile speciﬁcally requires that the orphans be instructed in the purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance into active life they may evince benevolence towards their fellow creatures, and a love for truth, sobriety, and industry. As for religious belief they are left to adopt such tenets as their matured reason may lead them to prefer; and to secure this he interdicts the employment, and even the admission into the grounds, ’of any ecclcsiastic whatever.  GIRARDIN,, a French authoress, was born at Aix-la-Chapelle, January 26, 1801, and died at Paris June 29, 1855. Her maiden name was Delphine Gay, and her mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up in the midst of that brilliant literary society of which she was afterwards a conspicuous ornament. In 1822 she obtained peculiarly honourable mention from the Academy for a poem on the Devotion of the Sislers of Salute Camille at Me Siege of Barcelona ; and not long after she published two volumes of miscellaneous pieces, Essais poétiques (1821) and Nozweuux essais poéliques (1825). A visit to Italy in 1827, during which she was enthusiastically welcomed by the literati of ltome and even crowned in the capitol, was productive of various poems, of which the most ambitious was Napoline (1833). Her marriage in 1831 to M. Emile Girardin opened up a new literary career. The contemporary sketches which she Contributed from 1836 to 1839 to the feuilleton of La I’resse, under the nom de plump of Charles Delaunay, were collected under the title of Lettres I’arisiemzes (1843), and obtained a success which has proved as permanent as it was brilliant. Eat it was to more elaborate efforts that the authoress would have pre- ferred to entrust her reputation, and she indeed confesses, in a half serious half mocking mood, that it was almost a disappointment to ﬁnd herself famous for so slight a thing. To the close of her life she continued to appear both as a novelist and as a writcr for the stage, and in both departments she reaped a wide popularity through the wit and emotional force of her productions. C'ontes d’mze vieilleﬁlle a ses neveux (1832), La ravmze cle Illensieur (le Balzac (1836), and Il ne faut pas jouer avec la (loulem' (1853) are among the best known of her romances; and her dramatic pieces include .L’Is'cole (les jom-mtlistes (1840), J mlil/t (1813), Cléopalre (1817), C’est la fame (lu mari (1851), Lady Tartufe (1853), Lajuie fait pear (1851), Le c/mpeau il’un Izorloger (1851), and Une femme gui (léleste son mari, which did not appear till after the author’s death. In the literary society of her time Madame Girardin exercised no small personal inﬂuence, and among the frequenters of her drawing—room were Gautier and Balzac, Alfred de Musset and Victor Hugo. During the latter years of her life a pensive melancholy gathered round her: for long years she had prayed the prayer of Hannah, and her woman’s heart had not been comforted. Her col- lected works were published in six volumes, 1860—1861.

1em  GIRARDIN, (1801–1873), a politician and man of letters whose real name was Marc Girardin simply, was born at Paris in 1801, and died at Morsang-sur-Seine on the 11th of April 1873. His school career at the Lycée Henri IV. was a distinguished one, and he afterwards t0ok university honours both in literature and law, but he never practised at the bar. During the reign of Charles K. he obtained several Academy prizes, and a mastership at the Lycée Louis le Grand, though his liberal principles stood a. little in his way. In 1828 he began to contribute to the Journal (les Dibats, on the staff of which he remained for nearly half a century. At the accession of Louis Philippe he was appointed professor of history at the Sorbonne and master of requests. Soon afterwards he exchanged his chair of history for one of literature, continuing to Contri- bute political articles to the Del/«ls, and sitting as deputy in the chamber from 1835 to 1818. As a professor he directed his efforts chieﬂy against the clerical reaction. In 1811 he was elected a member of the Academy. During the revo- lution of February 1818 Girardin was for a moment a minister, but after the establishment of the republic he was not re-elected deputy, nor did he take any prominent part in politics during the second empire save with his pen. In the capacity of journalist he continued to be active, and interested himself not merely in moderate opposition to the Government at home but also in foreign politics, especially in the affairs of Syria, Greece, and Turkey. After the war of 1870 he was returned to the Bordeaux assembly by his old