The New International Encyclopædia/Detroyat, Pierre Léonce

DETROYAT, dā̇′trwä′yȧ′, Pierre Léonce (1829-98). A French naval officer, journalist, and author, born at Bayonne (Basses-Pyrénées). He studied at the Ecole Navale, took part in the Crimean War, and in the subsequent expedition to China, and accompanied to Mexico the Archduke Maximilian, of whose ill-fated empire he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Naval Affairs, and chief of the military cabinet. During the Franco-Prussian War he was for a time in command of the camp at La Rochelle. From 1866 to 1869 he was a member of the staff of La Liberté, which he edited from 1869 to 1876. He subsequently founded Le Bon Sens, and L'Estafette, the latter a conservative and Bonapartist journal, and in 1885-86 he edited the Constitutionnel. His works include the following diversified titles: La cour de Rome et l'empereur Maximilien (Paris, 1867); Du recrutement, de l'organisation et de l'instruction de l'armée française (1871); Le sénat et le scrutin de liste (1881); Nos possessions françaises en Indo-Chine (1887); and Les chemins de fer en Amérique (1886).