Charles-Gilbert Morel de Vindé

File:Portrait de Charles-Gilbert Morel de Vindé.jpg

Charles-Gilbert Morel de Vindé

Charles-Gilbert, viscount Morel de Vindé (20 January 1759 – 19 December 1842) was a French magistrate, agronomist and man of letters.

Biography

Family

Charles Gilbert Morel de Vindé was born in Paris under Louis XV to Charles-François Morel de Boistiroux, Lord of Vindé, du Meix, de Courtavant and Bricot, King's Counselor and President of the Court of Aids, and Anne-Catherine Paignon-Dijonval. He became an orphan at a very early age: his mother died six days after his birth, and his father in August 1762. He was then only four and a half years old when he was apparently entrusted to the guardianship or at least to the care of his maternal grandfather, Gilbert Paignon-Dijonval (1708–1792) of Sedan, who was to be the source of his fortune, his business acumen and his taste for the arts and sciences.

He inherited from his maternal grandfather, Paignon-Dijonval, a very important collection of objects and curiosities, some of which can still be seen at the Château de La Motte-Tilly. On May 1, 1780, he married his niece Marie Renée Elisabeth Choppin d'Arnouville (1763–1835) "in the Breton fashion". They had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Their daughter Claire married Hippolyte Terray de Rozières in 1800 and died in 1806.

Career overview

File:Blason Morel Vindé.jpg

Morel de Vindé coat of arms. The inscription reads: "Duty cannot be evaded"

At the age of 19, in 1778, he was appointed counselor of inquiries at the Parliament of Paris, in the straight line of his ancestors. The following year, he was called upon to preside over one of the six courts of Paris (Quartier des Tuileries), a position he accepted in the hope of finding an opportunity to serve the King.

He adopted the new ideas of the French Revolution with moderation. Thus, on February 28, 1791, he saved the eight servants of the king arrested in the castle. On July 2, 1791, after the flight to Varennes, Morel de Vindé was proposed as tutor of the Dauphin, but was not accepted. He considered that his position in Paris was becoming dangerous, and that his considerable fortune exposed him to all sorts of dangers (he had collected the rich estates of his grandparents). He resigned from his position as magistrate and toke the firm resolution to stay away from all public functions, disappearing from this much too risky political life, to which he would never really return.

In order to have a constant and plausible pretext for refusal, he decided from that time on to devote himself exclusively to agricultural work, which he understood very well. But he was no less exposed to the perils he had feared. During the September Massacres (1792), he was designated as one of the targets and revolutionists came to his home to arrest him. Fortunately, he was absent, and later managed to escape the rigors of the Terror.

He then devoted himself to the cultivation of letters and sciences and to works of agronomy. Morel de Vindé published numerous memoirs on agriculture and herds, which earned him membership or correspondent of the agricultural societies of Paris, Versailles, Lille, Caen, Toulouse, etc. His publications on merinos earned him the title of correspondent of the Academy of Sciences for the section of rural economy in 1808.

He had no other title than these works, so that at the Restoration, he was made a knight of the "Royal Order" of the Legion of Honor, on December 6, 1814, and, at the second Restoration, promoted to Peer of France and hereditary Baron by two orders of August 17, 1815, then finally to Baron peer in 1817. He will sit until his death in the Upper House, but rarely appearing there, fulfilling a role as self-effacing as under the two previous reigns, avoiding the various political trials that will be referred to it. However, he will vote for the capital punishment in the trial of the Marshal Ney.

In 1819, Morel Vindé was called to be part of the Royal Council of Agriculture, at the Ministry of the Interior. In 1820, he was named Viscount, hereditary peer, and authorized to "transmit his ranks, titles and dignities" to his grandson, Charles Louis Terray, born in 1803. Finally, he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences on December 13, 1824 (section of rural economy), under Charles X, and thus became ipso facto member of the Royal Institute of France.

Death

File:Portrait Mme Morel de Vindé.jpg

Portrait of Mme Morel de Vindé

He died on December 19, 1842 at his Parisian home at 11, boulevard de la Madeleine at the age of 83. He was buried on his land, away from the cemetery of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, next to his wife, who had died in the same town on July 19, 1835. His eulogy was pronounced in the Chamber of Peers by the Marquis of Audiffret. His immense collections (several thousands of books, engravings and maps) were be given to the library of the Senate and are still there.

Legacy

Morel de Vindé wrote a book on the anthrax disease of sheep, where, well before Pasteur. He seems to have the intuition of the existence of microbes and their role in this disease. Jean Rostand recognized his foresight in biology and his advance on his time.

Besides his writings on agriculture and on merino sheep, Morel de Vindé published some works of literature. The most successful one is a small moral treatise for children, expressed in quatrains. This book is entitled La Morale de l'enfance.

He was the owner of the Château de la Celle, in the commune of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, from 1804 to 1842, where he raised one of the most beautiful flocks of merino sheep of his time. King Louis XVIII was received there. He was also a very generous donor to his commune and gave either the land or the sums which allowed the construction of buildings of public interest (town hall, doctor's house, school, presbytery and infirmary). Finally, he made a donation in 1829 which allowed the commune to treat the needy for decades after his death.

The municipality was grateful to have given his name to a street in the town and to a elementary school.

Publications

Novels

• Primerose (1797; from which Primerose, a lyrical comedy based on the libretto by Edmond de Favières and music by Nicolas Dalayrac, was published in 1798)
• Clémence de Lautrec (1798)
• Zélomir (1800)

Essays

• La Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, mise à la portée de tout le monde (1790)
• Etrennes d'un père à ses enfants ou Collection de quatrains moraux (1790; reprinted under the title Morale de l'enfance)
• Essai sur les mœurs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle (1794)
• Des révolutions du globe, conjectures formées d'après les découvertes de Lavoisier (1797)
• Sur la théorie de la population, ou Observations sur le système proposé par M. Malthus et ses disciples (1829)
• Statistique de la commune de la Celle-lez-Saint-Cloud (1834)

Agronomic works

• Modèle d'un bail à ferme (1799)
• Mémoire sur l'exacte parité des laines mérinos de France et d'Espagne (1807)
• Mémoire et Instructions sur les troupeaux de progression (1808)
• Suite des observations sur la monte et l'attelage (1808)
• Plans et détails d'une nouvelle construction rurale pour servir de grange (1813)
• Notice sommaire sur les assolements adoptés à la Celle Saint-Cloud (1816)
• Quelques observations rapides sur la théorie des assolements (1822)
• Essai sur les constructions rurales économiques, contenant leurs plans, coupes, élévations, détails et devis établis aux plus bas prix possibles (1824)
• Considérations sur le morcellement de la propriété territoriale en France (1826)
• Les logements des animaux de ferme (1864)

References

• Philippe Martial, "Le vicomte de Morel-Vindé (Quelques lignes autour d'un croquis)." In: La vie en Champagne (1999), pp. 40–44.
• Philippe Loiseleur des Longchamps Deville, La Celle Saint-Cloud, cellule d'histoire. Pontoise: Graphédis (1979)
• Pierre Juhel, Les Ventes publiques d'estampes à Paris sous la Troisième République. Répertoire des catalogues (1870-1914). Paris: Electre-Editions du Cercle de la Librairie (2016)
• J. Girardin, "Notices biographiques de MM. de Morel-Vindé, d'Arcet et Mathieu de Dombasle." In: Extrait des travaux de la Société centrale d'agriculture du département de la Seine-Inférieure, vol. XIII (1845), pp. 207–14.

External links

• Works by Charles-Gilbert Morel de Vindé at Gallica