Colson, he practised for some time the art of wood-engraving, and ultimately turned his attention to the engraving and casting of types. He designed many new characters, and his foundry became celebrated not only in France, but in foreign countries. Not content with his practical achievements, he sought to stimulate public interest in his art by the production of various works on the subject. In 1737 he published his Table des proportions qu’il faut observer entre les caractères, which was followed by several other technical treatises. In 1758 he assailed the title of Gutenberg to the honour awarded him as inventor of printing, claiming it for Schöffer, in his Dissertation sur l’origine et les progrès de l’art de graver en bois. This gave rise to a controversy in which Schöpflin and Baer were his opponents. Fournier’s contributions to this debate were collected and reprinted under the title of Traités historiques et critiques sur l’origine de l’imprimerie. His principal work, however, was the Manuel typographique, which appeared in 2 vols. 8vo in 1764, the first volume treating of engraving and type-founding, the second of printing, with examples of different alphabets. It was the author’s design to complete the work in four volumes, but he did not live to execute it. He died at Paris on the 8th of October 1768.
FOURNIER L’HÉRITIER, CLAUDE (1745–1825), French
revolutionist, called “l’Américain,” was born at Auzon (Haute-Loire)
on the 21st of December 1745, the son of a poor weaver.
He went to America to seek his fortune, and started at San
Domingo an establishment for making tafia (an inferior quality
of rum), but lost his money in a fire. Returning to France
he threw himself into the Revolution with enthusiasm, and
specially distinguished himself by the active part he took in the
organization of the popular armed force by means of which the
most famous of the revolutionary coups were effected. His
influence was principally manifested in the insurrections of the
5th and 6th of October 1789, the 17th of July 1791, and the
20th of June and the 10th of August 1792. He was on bad
terms with the majority of the politicians, and particularly
with Marat, and spent a great part of his time in prison, all the
governments regarding him as an agitator and accusing him of
inciting to insurrection. Arrested for the first time for trying
to force an entrance into the club of the Cordeliers, from which
he had been expelled, he was released, but was in prison from
the 12th of December 1793 to the 21st of September 1794, and
again from the 9th of March 1795 to the 26th of October 1795.
After the attempt on the First Consul in the rue Sainte-Nicaise
he was deported to Guiana, but was allowed to return to France
in 1809. In 1811, while under surveillance at Auxerre, he was
accused of having provoked an émeute against taxes known as
the droits réunis (afterwards called contributions indirectes),
and was imprisoned in the Château d’If, where he remained till
1814. On the second restoration of the Bourbons Fournier
was confined for about nine months in the prison of La Force.
After 1816 he was left unmolested, turned royalist, and passed
his last years in importuning the Restoration government for
compensation for his lost property in San Domingo. He died
in obscurity.
For further details see preface to F. A. Aulard’s edition of Fournier’s Mémoires secrets (Paris, 1890), published by the Société de l’histoire de la Révolution.
FOURTOU, MARIE FRANÇOIS OSCAR BARDY DE (1836–1897),
French politician, was born at Ribérac (Dordogne) on
the 3rd of January 1836, and represented his native department
in the National Assembly after the Franco-German War. There
he proved a useful adherent to Thiers, who made him minister
of public works in December 1872. He was minister of religion
in the cabinet of May 18-24, 1873, being the only member of the
Right included by Thiers in that short-lived ministry. As
minister of education, religion and the fine arts in the reconstructed
cabinet of the duc de Broglie he had used his administrative
powers to further clerical ends, and as minister of the
interior in Broglie’s cabinet in 1877 he resumed the administrative
methods of the Second Empire. With a well-known
Bonapartist, Baron R. C. F. Reille, as his secretary, he replaced
republican functionaries by Bonapartist partisans, reserving
a few places for the Legitimists. In the general elections of
that year he used the whole weight of officialdom to secure a
majority for the Right, to support a clerical and reactionary
programme. He accompanied Marshal MacMahon in his tour
through southern France, and the presidential manifesto of
September, stating that the president would rely solely on the
Senate should the elections prove unfavourable, was generally
attributed to Fourtou. In spite of these efforts the cabinet fell,
and a commission was appointed to inquire into their unconstitutional
abuse of power. Fourtou was unseated in consequence
of the revelations made in the report of the commission. In the
Chamber of Deputies Gambetta gave the lie direct to Fourtou’s
allegation that the republican party opposed every republican
principle that was not antiquated. A duel was fought in consequence,
but neither party was injured. He was re-elected to
the chamber in 1879 and entered the Senate the next year.
Failing to secure re-election to the Senate in 1885 he again entered
the popular chamber as Legitimist candidate in 1889, but he
took no further active part in politics. He died in Paris in 1897.
His works include Histoire de Louis XVI (1840); Histoire de Saint Pie V (1845); Mme Swetchine, sa vie et ses œuvres (2 vols., 1859); La Question italienne (1860); De la contre-révolution (1876); and Mémoires d’un royaliste (2 vols., 1888).
FOUSSA, or Fossa, the native name of Cryptoprocta ferox, a
somewhat cat-like or civet-like mammal peculiar to Madagascar,
where it is the largest carnivorous animal. It is about twice
the size of a cat (5 ft. from nose to end of tail), with short close
fur of nearly uniform pale brown. Little is known of its habits,
except that it is nocturnal, frequently attacks and carries off
goats, and especially kids, and shows great ferocity when
wounded, on which account it is much dreaded by the natives.
An example lived in the London zoological gardens for nearly
fourteen years. See Carnivora.
FOWEY (usually pronounced Foy), a seaport and market-town
in the Bodmin parliamentary division of Cornwall, England,
on the Great Western railway, 25 m. by sea W. of Plymouth.
Pop. (1901) 2258. It lies on the west shore of the picturesque
estuary of the river Fowey, close to the water’s edge, and
sheltered by a screen of hills. Its church of St Nicholas is said
to have been built in the 14th century, on the site of a still older
edifice dedicated to St Finbar of Cork. It has a fine tower and
late Norman doorway. Within are a priest’s chamber over the
porch, a handsome oak ceiling, a 15th-century pulpit, and some
curious monuments and brasses. Place House, adjacent to the
church, is a highly ornate Tudor building. A few ancient
houses remain in the town. Deep-sea fishing is carried on;
but the staple trade consists in the export of china clay and
minerals, coal being imported. Fowey harbour, which is easy
of access in clear weather, will admit large vessels at any state
of the tide. St Catherine’s Fort, dating from the days of Henry
VIII. and now ruined, stands at the harbour’s mouth, and
once formed the main defence of the town. Opposite the town,
and connected with it by Bodeneck Ferry, is the village of Polruan.
Its main features are St Saviour’s Chapel, with an ancient rood-stone,
and the remains of Hall House, which was garrisoned
during the civil wars of the 17th century.
Fowey (Fawy, Vawy, Fowyk) held a leading position amongst Cornish ports from the reign of Edward I. to the days of the Tudors. The numerous references to the privateering exploits of its ships in the Patent and Close Rolls and the extraordinary number of them at the siege of Calais in 1346 alike testify to its importance. During this period the king’s mandates were addressed to the bailiffs or to the mayor and bailiffs, and no charter of incorporation appears to have been granted until the reign of James II. Under the second charter of 1690 the common council consisted of a mayor and eight aldermen and these with a recorder elected the free burgesses. A member for Fowey and Looe was summoned to a council at Westminster in 1340, but from that date until 1571, when it was entrusted with the privilege of returning two members, it had no parliamentary representation. By the Reform Act of 1832 it lost both its
