Ungues Bernard Maret Bassano, duke of, a French statesman, born in Dijon, March 1, 1763, died in- Paris, May 13, 1839. He was the son of a physician, received an excellent education, and went to Paris to practise law; but the outbreak of the revolution changed his plans, and he edited the Bulletin of the proceedings of the constituent assembly, which became the origin of the Moniteur, the official journal, and won for him great political influence. Although in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and one of the founders of the club of the Feuillants, he became in 1791 chief of a bureau in the ministry of foreign affairs, and was sent in 1792 on an extraordinary mission to London after the rupture of diplomatic relations with England. Failing in his negotiations with Lord Grenville, he returned to Paris, and losing his place during the reign of terror he resumed his editorial connection with the Moniteur. In July, 1793, he was appointed ambassador to Naples; but he and his travelling companion, the French envoy to Turkey, were captured by the Austrians in Switzerland and imprisoned in Mantua and Brunn about two years.

He was finally exchanged for the daughter of Louis XVI., and was received in Paris with great distinction; but owing to his former opposition to the Jacobins, he received no public employment till 1797, when he was sent to Lille as one of the plenipotentiaries for the negotiation of peace with England. "In 1798 the Cisalpine republic presented him with estates of the value of 150,000 francs as an indemnity for his captivity. Having formerly lived in the same house with Bonaparte, the latter on his return from Egypt greeted him as an old friend and employed him as private secretary. After the 18th Brumaire he became secretary general and subsequently secretary of state, officiating after the dismissal of Bour-rienne as the chief director of the home office, manipulating the press and exerting immense influence over his master, whom he accompanied in almost all his campaigns and assisted in all his diplomatic negotiations. The ministry of foreign affairs having been placed under his direction in 1811, he signed in February and March, 1812, the treaties which he had negotiated with Prussia and Austria to secure the cooperation of those powers during the Russian campaign.

Napoleon invested him with the duchy of Bassano, with an annual revenue of about 50,000 francs, besides presenting him with a palace and valuable property in Paris, and retaining him as his most intimate adviser even after he had removed him from the secretaryship of state and the ministry of foreign affairs. During the hundred days he resumed the former position, was made a peer on June 2, and remained by the side of the emperor at Waterloo. During the restoration he lived in exile at Gratz till 1820. Louis Philippe restored him to the chamber of peers in 1831, and in 1834 he acted for a few days as minister of the interior and president of the cabinet. He was restored in 1832 as a member of the academy. His interesting correspondence and literary productions have not yet been published. - His son, Napoleon Joseph Hughes Maret, duke of Bassano, born in Paris, July 3, 1803, was appointed in 1851 ambassador to Brussels, and in 1852 senator. - A younger son, Prince Eugene de Bassano, ruined himself in mining operations in Algeria. He published in 1848, with E. de Solms, Projet de colonisation de l'Algerie par l'association.