A versatile litterateur and politician, born at Marseilles; travelled in India, established himself as a Radical journalist in Paris in 1829, and edited important works of travel, wrote popular novels, published important studies in social science; elected a member of the Academy of Moral Sciences (1850); was an active politcian, investigated for government the agricultural colonies in Algeria; author of "Scenes in Modern Life," "Industry in Europe," etc. (1799-1879).