Gabriel Bonnot De Mably, a French publicist, born in Grenoble, March 14, 1709, died in Paris, April 23, 1785. His family name was Bonnot. Like his younger brother, the philosopher Condillac, he was destined for the church, and was ordained, but was secretly employed in affairs of state by his relative Cardinal de Tencin, minister of Louis XV.

| Quarrelling with his patron, however, he applied himself to literature, and in 1748 published at Geneva his Droit public de l'Europe, which achieved a remarkable success. It was followed by Observations sur les Grecs (1749);

Observations sur les Romains (1751); Entre-tiensde Phocion (Amsterdam, 1753); Principes des negociations (the Hague, 1757); Observations sur lhistoire de France (Geneva, 1765); De la maniere d'ecrire l'histoire (1773); De la legislation (Amsterdam, 1776); De l'idee de l'histoire (1778); and Principes de morale (1784). Having been requested by the government of Poland to prepare for them a code of laws, he visited that country in 1771, and published in 1781 a work Du gouvernement de la Pologne. He was also consulted by the American congress in 1783 on the preparation of the constitution, and embodied his views in his Observations sur le gouvernement et les lois des Etats-Unis d'Amerique (1784).