Charles Joseph Mathieu Lambrechts (20 November 1753 – 4 August 1825) was an Austrian Netherlands-born lawyer, rector magnificus of the University of Louvain, who became Minister of Justice of the French Republic, during the Directoire. Later he was a deputy from 1819 to 1824.
Charles Joseph Mathieu Lambrechts was born in Sint-Truiden, Austrian Netherlands, on 20 November 1753.
His father was Gilles de Lambrechts, a colonel in the army of the States General of the Netherlands.[1]
He studied civil and canon law at Leuven.[2]
He graduated in 1774, became a professor in 1777 and a doctor in 1782.
He was elected rector of the university in 1786.[1]
In the year 1778 he was initiated to the Lodge The True and Perfect Harmony of Mons.[3]
In 1788 the Emperor Joseph II charged Lambrechts with visiting the universities of Germany.[2]
The goal was for him to study legal education in Germany with the promise that when he returned he would be given the chair of public law and international law in Leuven.
The Brabant Revolution (January 1789 – December 1790) upset this plan.
Lambrechts sided with the emperor, left Belgium, and only returned after the restoration of imperial authority.[1]
In 1793 he established himself in Brussels to practice as an attorney.[4]
Lambrechts declared himself a supporter of the Revolution after the French entered the Austrian Netherlands.
He became a municipal officer in Brussels, a member of the central government, then President of the central administration of the Department of Dyle.
In 1797, the French Directory appointed him to replace Merlin de Douai at the Ministry of Justice.
He held this position from 3 Vendémiaire VI (24 Septembre 1797) to 3 Messidor VIII (22 June 1800).
He was a candidate to become a Director when Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was chosen in place of Jean-François Rewbell.[1]
In January 1798 Lambrechts defined the principles that would be followed in the territories occupied by the French armies, writing that servitude was accompanied by ignorance, and freedom could only come when the people were enlightened. They must therefore learn French in school so they could become virtuous citizens.[5]
Lambrechts spoke out against Napoleon Bonaparte's accumulation of power, and was one of three senators who voted against establishment of the empire.[2]
Despite this, he was appointed a member of the Legion of Honour on 9 Vendémiaire XII (2 October 1803) and was created Count of the Empire on 13 May 1808.[1]
In 1814 Lambrechts was at the head of the minority, and wrote the preamble to the act of deposition of Napoleon.[2][a]
He was a member of the commission to prepare a new constitution.
However, King Louis XVIII of France refused to sanction it.[1]
Lambrechts refused to give his oath to the emperor during the Hundred Days.[2]
He retired to private life during the Hundred Days, and did not return to politics until 1819, after the second Bourbon Restoration.[7]
On 11 September 1819 Lambrechts was elected to the chamber of deputies for two departments.[1]
His health prevented him from appearing except on rare occasions.
Lambrechts died on 4 August 1825. He left part of his fortune to various charitable institutions.[2]
Rapport sur les peines à infliger dans l'armée navale, et dans les ports et arsenaux fait au nom du Comité de la marine Séance du 16 août 1790
Le ministre de la justice aux tribunaux civils, criminels et correctionnels, aux commissaires du Directoire exécutif établis près de ces tribunaux.
Observations d'un citoyen du département des Deux-Nèthes sur les opérations des deux fractions de l'Assemblée électorale du même département 1799|Hacquart
Charles Joseph Mathieu De Lambrechts (1815). Principes politiques. Paris: Mme Marchant. p. 132.
^According to Lafayette, Lambrechts did not write the proposal to depose Napoleon, which was the work of Antoine Destutt de Tracy. He did write the preamble.[6]
^Paul Duchaine, La franc-maçonnerie belge au XVIIIe siècle, Brussels, 1911, p. 103:『 dans la suite plusieurs professeurs (de Louvain) et plusieurs étudiants se firent encore initier aux mystères maçonniques, Fery (N. B. Martin François Joseph Fery, professeur de philosophie à Louvain) et Lambrechts, Verhulst et Van der Stegen notamment』et Adolphe Cordier, Histoire de l'ordre maçonnique en Belgique, Mons, 1854, p. 337: "Tableau des membres de la loge la Vraie et Parfaite Harmonie à Mons: 117: Lambrechts, professeur de droit à l'université de Louvain, Init., 1778".
Becdelièvre-Hamal, Antoine-Gabriel de (1837). "Lambrechts (Charles Joseph Mathieu, Comte de)". Biographie liègeoise: ou précis historique et chronologique de toutes les personnes que se sont rendues célèbres par leurs talens, leurs vertues ou leurs actions dans l'ancien diocèse et pays de Liège, les duchés de Limbourg et de Bouillon, le pays de Stavelot, et la ville de. Jeunehomme. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
"Lambrechts, Charles Joseph Mathieu (1753–1823)". Biographie universelle. Bruxelles: Ode. 1844. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2014-06-10.