Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target (French pronunciation:[ɡiʒɑ̃batisttaʁʒɛ], 17 December 1733 – 9 September 1806) was a French lawyer and politician.
Born in Paris, Target was the son of a lawyer, and was himself a lawyer to theParlement of Paris. He acquired a great reputation as a lawyer, less by practice in the courts than in a consultative capacity,[1] and served theancien régime as member of a committee to revise the civil and criminal laws of the kingdom.[citation needed] He strenuously opposed the "parlement Maupeou", devised byChancellor Maupeou to replace the old judiciary bodies in 1771, refusing to plead before it,[1] an act that earned him the sobriquet of the "Virgin of the palace".[citation needed]
He was counsel forLouis René Edouard, cardinal de Rohan in the "affair of the diamond necklace".[1]
In 1785, he was elected to theAcadémie Française.[1]
He contributed to the development of theEdict of Tolerance signed atVersailles byLouis XVI in 1787.
In 1789, he was returned as one of the deputies of theThird Estate in Paris to theEstates-General, and he was instrumental in writing up thecahiers de doléances of Paris. He went on to support revolutionary measures such as the union of the orders, the suspensive veto, theCivil Constitution of the Clergy, the last of which he was one of the principal authors. He was one of many deputies named to theConstitutional Committee in September 1789, to replace those conservative members who resigned. He presided over theNational Constituent Assembly 18 January – 2 February 1790.
His excessive obesity, which made him the butt of the Royalist jokes, prevented his practising at the bar for some years before 1789. WhenLouis XVI invited him to undertake his defence, he excused himself on this ground. In 1792, he published someconstitutional observations in extenuation of the king's actions, which, in the circumstances of the time, would have taken some courage.[1]
Target took no part in public affairs during theReign of Terror. Under theDirectory he was made a member of theInstitut de France in 1796 and of theCourt of Cassation in 1798. He lived to collaborate in the earlier stages of thenew criminal code.[1]
Among his writings may be mentioned a paper on thegrain trade (1776) and aMémoire sur l'état des Protestants en France (1787), in which he pleaded for the restoration of civil rights toProtestants.[1]
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Target, Gui Jean Baptiste".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 418–419. TheBritannica gives the following references:
