Marc René Marie de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d’Argenson (1771-1842), son of the preceding, was born in Paris in September 1771. He was brought up by his father’s cousin, the marquis de Paulmy, governor of the arsenal, and was made lieutenant of dragoons in 1789. Although, at the age of eighteen, he had succeeded to several estates and a large fortune, he embraced the revolutionary cause, joining the army of the North as Lafayette’s aide-de-camp and remaining with it even after Lafayette’s defection. Leaving France to take one of his sisters to England, he was denounced on his return as a royalist conspirator, on the charge of having in his possession portraits of the royal family. He then went to live in Touraine, married the widow of Prince Victor de Broglie, and saved her and her children from proscription. He introduced new agricultural instruments and processes on his estates, and installed machinery imported from England in his ironworks in Alsace. He was an enthusiastic adherent of Napoleon, by whom he was appointed in May 1809 prefect of Deux-Nèthes. He helped to repel the English invasion of the islands of South Beveland and Walcheren (August 1809), and afterwards directed the defence works of Antwerp, but resigned this post (March 1813) in consequence of the complaints of the inhabitants and the exacting demands of the emperor. In May 1814 he refused the prefecture of Marseilles offered to him by the Bourbons, but was elected deputy from Belfort in 1815 during the Hundred Days. On the 5th of July 1815 he took part in the declaration protesting against any tampering with the immutable rights of the nation. He was a member of the Chambre introuvable, where he became one of the orators of the democratic party. He was one of the founders of the journal Le censeur européen and of the Club de la liberté de la presse, and was an uncompromising opponent of reaction. Not re-elected in 1824 on account of his liberal ideas, he returned to the chamber under the Martignac ministry (1828), and resolutely persisted in his championship of the liberty of the press and of public worship. On the death of his wife he voluntarily renounced his mandate (July 1829), and hailed the revolution of 1830 with great satisfaction. On the 3rd of November 1830 he was elected to the chamber as deputy from Châtellerault, and took the oath, adding, however, the reservation “subject to the progress of the public reason.” His independent attitude resulted in his defeat in the following year at the Châtellerault election, but he was returned for Strassburg. He wished the incidence of the taxes to be arranged according to social condition, and advocated a single tax proportionate to income like the English income tax. He harped incessantly on this idea in his speeches and articles (see his letters in La Tribune of June 20, 1832). Although he was a proprietor of ironworks he opposed the protectionist laws, which he considered injurious to the workmen. He became the mouthpiece of the advanced ideas; subsidized the opposition newspapers, especially the National; received into his house F.M. Buonarroti, who in 1796 had been implicated in the conspiracy of “Gracchus” Babeuf (q.v.); and became a member of the committee of the Society of the Rights of Man. He was even sued in the courts for a pamphlet called Boutade d’un homme riche à sentiments populaires, and delivered a speech to the jury in which he displayed very daring social theories. But he gradually grew discouraged and retired from public affairs, refusing even municipal office, and living in seclusion at La Grange in the forest of Guerche, where he devoted his inventive faculty to devising agricultural improvements. He subsequently returned to Paris, where he died on the 1st of August 1842.
Charles Marc René de Voyer, marquis d’Argenson (1796-1862), son of the preceding, was born at Boulogne-sur-Spine on the 20th of April 1796. He concerned himself little with politics. He was, however, a member of the council-general of Vienne for six years, but was expelled from it in 1840 in consequence of his advanced ideas and his relations with the Opposition. In 1848 he was elected deputy from Vienne to the Constituent Assembly by 12,000 votes. He was an active member of the Archaeological Society of Touraine and the Society of Antiquaries of the West, and wrote learned works for these bodies. He collaborated in preparing the archives of the scientific congress at Tours in 1847; brought out two editions of the MSS. of his great-grand-uncle, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis XV., under the title Mémoires du marquis d’Argenson, one in 1825, and the other, in 5 vols., in 1857-1858; and published Discours et opinions de mon père, M. Voyer d’Argenson (2 vols., 1845). He died on the 31st of July,1862.
ARGENTAN, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Orne, 27 m. N.N.W. of Alençon on the railway from Le Mans to Caen. Pop. (1906) 5072. It is situated on the slope of a hill on the right bank of the Orne at its confluence with the Ure. The town has remains of old fortifications, among them the Tour Marguerite, and a château, now used as a law-court, dating from the 15th century. The church of St Germain (15th, 16th and 17th centuries) has several features of architectural beauty, notably the sculptured northern portal, and the central and western towers. The church of St Martin, dating from the 15th century, has good stained glass. The handsome modern town-hall contains among other institutions the tribunal of commerce, the museum and the library. Argentan is the seat of a sub-prefect, has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Leather-working and the manufacture of stained glass are leading industries. There are quarries of limestone in the vicinity. Argentan was a viscounty from the 11th century onwards; it was often taken and pillaged. During the Religious Wars it remained attached to the Catholic party. François Eudes de Mézeray, the historian, was born near the town, and a monument has been erected to his memory.
ARGENTEUIL, a town of northern France in the department of Seine-et-Oise, on the Seine, 5 m. N.W. of the fortifications of Paris by the railway from Paris to Mantes. Pop. (1906) 17,330. Argenteuil grew up round a monastery, which, dating from A.D. 656, was by Charlemagne changed into a nunnery; it was afterwards famous for its connexion with Héloise (see [Abelard]), and on her expulsion in 1129 was again turned into a monastery. Asparagus, figs, and wine of medium quality are grown in the district; and heavy iron goods, chemical products, clocks and plaster are among the manufactures.
ARGENTINA, or the Argentine Republic (officially, Republica Argentina), a country occupying the greater part of the southern extremity of South America. It is of wedge shape, extending from 21° 55′ S. to the most southerly point of the island of Tierra del Fuego in 55° 2′ 30″ S., while its extremes of longitude are 53° 40′ on the Brazilian frontier and 73° 17′ 30″ W. on the Chilean frontier. Its length from north to south is 2285 statute miles, and its greatest width about 930 m. It is the second largest political division of the continent, having an area of 1,083,596 sq. m. (Gotha measurement). It is bounded N. by Bolivia and Paraguay, E. by Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and the Atlantic, W. by Chile, and S. by the converging lines of the Atlantic and Chile.
Boundaries.—At different times Argentina has been engaged in disputes over boundary lines with every one of her neighbours, that with Chile being only settled in 1902. Beginning at the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, the boundary line ascends the Uruguay river, on the eastern side of the strategically important island of Martin García, to the mouth of the Pequiry, thence under the award of President Grover Cleveland in 1894 up that small river to its source and in a direct line to the source of the Santo Antonio, a small tributary of the Iguassú, thence down the Santo Antonio and Iguassú to the upper Paraná, which forms the southern boundary of Paraguay. From the confluence of the upper Paraná and Paraguay the line ascends the latter to the mouth of the Pilcomayo, which river, under the award of President R.B. Hayes in 1878, forms the boundary between Argentina and Paraguay from the Paraguay river north-west to the Bolivian frontier. In accordance with the Argentine-Bolivian treaty of 1889 the boundary line between these republics continues up the Pilcomayo to the 22nd parallel, thence west to the Tarija river, which it follows down to the Bermejo, thence up the latter to its source, and westerly through the Quiaca ravine and across to a point on the San Juan river opposite Esmoraca. From this point it ascends the San Juan south and west to the Cerro de Granadas, and thence south-west to Cerro Incahuasi and Cerro Zapalegui on the Chilean frontier. The boundary with Chile, extending across more than 32° lat., had been the cause of disputes for many years, which at times led to costly preparations for war. The debts of the two nations resulted largely from this one cause. In 1881 a treaty was signed which provided that the boundary line should follow the highest crests of the Andes forming the watershed as far south as the 52nd parallel, thence east to the 70th meridian and south-east to Cape Dungeness at the eastern entrance to the Straits of Magellan. Crossing the Straits the line should follow the meridian of 68° 44′, south to Beagle Channel, and thence east to the Atlantic, giving Argentina the eastern part of the Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island. By this agreement Argentina was confirmed in the possession of the greater part of Patagonia, while Chile gained control of the Straits of Magellan, much adjacent territory on the north, the larger part of Tierra del Fuego and all the neighbouring islands south and west.
When the attempt was made to mark this boundary the commissioners were unable to agree on a line across the Puna de Atacama in the north, where parallel ranges enclosing a high arid plateau without any clearly defined drainage to the Atlantic or Pacific, gave an opportunity for conflicting claims. In the south the broken character of the Cordillera, pierced in places by large rivers flowing into the Pacific and having their upper drainage basins on the eastern side of the line of highest crests, gave rise to unforeseen and very difficult questions. Finally, under a convention of the 17th of April 1896, these conflicting claims were submitted to arbitration. In 1899 a mixed commission with Hon. W.I. Buchanan, United States minister at Buenos Aires, serving as arbitrator, reached a decision on the Atacama line north of 26° 52′ 45″ S. lat., which was a compromise though it gave the greater part of the territory to Argentina. The line starts at the intersection of the 23rd parallel with the 67th meridian and runs south-westerly and southerly to the mountain and volcano summits of Rincón, Socompa, Llullaillaco, Azufre, Aguas Blancas and Sierra Nevada, thence to the initial point of the British award. (See Geogr. Jour., 1899, xiv. 322-323.) The line south of 26° 52′ 45″ S. lat. had been located by the commissioners of the two republics with the exception of four sections. These were referred to the arbitration of Queen Victoria, and, after a careful survey under the direction of Sir Thomas H. Holdich, the award was rendered by King Edward VII. in 1902. (See Geogr. Jour., 1903, xxi. 45-50.) In the first section the line starts from a pillar erected in the San Francisco pass, about 26° 50′ S. lat., and follows the water-parting southward to the highest peak of the Tres Cruces mountains in 27° 0′ 45″ S. lat., 68° 49′ 5″ W. long. In the second, the line runs from 40° 2′ S. lat., 71° 40′ 36″ W. long., along the water-parting to the southern termination of the Cerro Perihueico in the valley of the Huahum river, thence across that river, 71° 40′ 36″ W. long., and along the water-parting around the upper basin of the Huahum to a junction with the line previously determined. In the third and longest section, the line starts from a pillar erected in the Perez Rosales pass, near Lake Nahuel-Huapi, and follows the water-parting southward to the highest point of Mt. Tronador, and thence in a very tortuous course along local water-partings and across the Chilean rivers Manso, Puelo, Fetaleufu, Palena, Pico and Aisen, and the lakes Buenos Aires, Pueyrredón and San Martin, to avoid the inclusion of Argentine settlements within Chilean territory, to the Cerro Fitzroy and continental water-parting north-west of Lake Viedma, between 49° and 50° S. lat. The northern half of this line does not run far from the 72nd meridian, except in 44° 30′ S. where it turns eastward nearly a degree to include the upper valley of the Frias river in Chilean territory, but south of the 49th parallel it curves westward to give Argentina sole possession of lakes Viedma and Argentino. The fourth section, which was made particularly difficult of solution by the extension inland of the Pacific coast inlets and sounds and by the Chilean colonies located there, was adjusted by running the line eastward from the point of divergence in 50° 50′ S. lat. along the Sierra Baguales, thence south and south-east to the 52nd parallel, crossing several streams and following the crests of the Cerro Cazador. The Chilean settlement of Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope), over which there had been much controversy, remains under Chilean jurisdiction.