This work is in parts defective; Martin's descriptions of the Gauls are based rather on romance than on history, and in this respect he was too much under the influence of Jean Reynaud and his cosmogonic philosophy. However he gave a great impetus to Celtic and anthropological studies. His knowledge of the middle ages is inadequate, and his criticisms are not discriminating. As a free-thinking republican, his prejudices often biassed his judgment on the political and religious history of the _ancien régime_. The last six volumes, devoted to the 17th and 18th centuries, are superior to the earlier ones. Martin sat in the _assemblée nationale_ as deputy for Aisne in 1871, and was elected life senator in 1878, but he left no mark as a politician. He died in Paris on the 14th of December 1883.
Among his minor works may be mentioned:--_De la France, de son génie et de ses destinées_ (1847); _Daniel Manin_ (1860), _La Russie et l'Europe_ (1866); _Études d'archéologie celtique_ (1872); _Les Napoléon et les frontières de la France_ (1874). See his biography by Gabriel Hanotaux, _Henri Martin; sa vie, ses oeuvres, son temps_ (1885).
MARTIN, CLAUD (1735-1800), French adventurer and officer in the army of the English East India Company, was born at Lyons on the 4th of January 1735, the son of a cooper. He went out to India in 1751 to serve under Dupleix and Lally in the Carnatic wars. When Pondicherry fell in 1761, he seems, like others of his countrymen, to have accepted service in the Bengal army of the English, obtaining an ensign's commission in 1763, and steadily rising to the rank of major-general. He was employed on the building of the new Fort William at Calcutta, and afterwards on the survey of Bengal under Rennell. In 1776 he was allowed to accept the appointment of superintendent of the arsenal of the nawab of Oudh at Lucknow, retaining his rank but being ultimately placed on half pay. He acquired a large fortune, and on his death (Sept. 13, 1800) he bequeathed his residuary estate to found institutions for the education of European children at Lucknow, Calcutta and Lyons, all known by the name of "La Martinière." That at Lucknow is the best known. It was housed in the palace that he had built called Constantia, which, though damaged during the Mutiny, retains many personal memorials of its founder.