YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF European Public Men. Edited by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. RECENTLY PUBLISHED: BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. Vol. I.— ENGLISH STATESMEN. Bt Thos: Wentworth Higginson. $1.50. Vol. II— ENGLISH RADICAL LEADERS. By R. J. Hinton. $1.50. Vol. III.— FRENCH POLITICAL LEADERS. By Edward King. $1.50. to follow immediately Vol. IV.— GERMAN POLITICAL LEADERS. By Herbert Tuttle. G. P. Putnam's Sons, . . . New York. BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES FRENCH Political Leaders By EDWARD KING. Ml G. P. NEW YORK PUTNAM'S SONS Fourth Ave. and 23D St. 1S76. Copyright, Q. P. Putnam's Sons, 1876. EDITOR'S PREFACE. HE name of the author of this volume needs no introduction to those who read attentively the French correspondence addressed to American newspapers during the Franco-Prussian war and the period of the Commune. No letters of that, description were so clear and satisfactory, on the whole, as those written by " E. K." to the Boston Journal ; and it was the reputation thus gained which led to his selection as author of this volume. Mr. King is now in Paris, where all these pages have been written ; and this fact has given him the means of securing great accuracy of statement, with the latest light that can be thrown, in that ever-changing country, upon the char acter and career of each . person described. The result may safely be claimed as a work of great interest and practical value, especially for Americans. I know of no existing book, in any language, which comes so near to comprising just the information needed among us in regard to the present political leaders of France. T. W. H. Newport, E. I., Feb. 1, 1876. INTRODUCTION. N this little volume the author has endeavored to give the outline history of some of the prominent men in France, bringing into limits, convenient to the general reader, the main facts of their lives, and offering glimpses of their charac ters. He has hot pretended to analyze critically either these men or their motives, but rather to furnish data which will enable one to form a definite idea of them. All the persons described in this book are contemporaries ; most of them are in the political field to-day. Some have been members of all the great parliamentary bodies as sembled in France on. different occasions since 1830 ; some are equally distinguished in literature and in politics ; all played impor tant parts in the terrible drama enacted in France after the fall of the Empire. Among them will be found the principal representa tives of all the parties now struggling for power in that country. He would be a bold man indeed who should attempt at present to explain the relations of the various factions in France to each other, or even to give an absolutely correct notion of the composition of the two Legislative Chambers soon to be inaugurated at Versailles. The terms generally used in describing the divisions of the present viii INTRODUCTION. Assembly, and which will probably be retained many years, may be roughly described, however, in a few words. The " Right " of the Assembly comprises three divisions. The first is composed of the Legitimists, who adhere to the fallen fortunes of that elder branch of the Bourbon family, long since expelled from Fran ce, and now* represented by the Comte de Chambord, who calls himself " Henri the Fifth." The pure Legitimists believe in a king by right divine, and are stumbling blocks in the path of progress and reform. In the second division are the Orleanists, who believe in Constitutional Monarchy, and in a restoration of the younger branch of the Bourbon dynasty, whose rule finished with the abdication of Louis Philippe, and which is now represented by the Comte de Paris, and the Due d'Aumale. The third class is made up of Imperialists, who constitute a small party about thirty in number, sometimes characterized as the group of the " Appeal to the People." The more moderate of the Monarchists are grouped together in a sub division known as the "Right Centre," and the " Extreme Right" is the retreat from which the " pure Legitimists " only emerge when they fancy that they can inflict an injury on one of their enemies by co-operating with another. The "Left" is frankly republican in the highest sense. It is subdivided into the " Centre Left," made up of moderate and conservative republicans, willing to sacrifice much in order that they may gain time to educate the people, and bring the peasant class up to the level of its opportunities, and the " Extreme Left," which is radical, dissatisfied with the new constitu tion, and distrustful of the moderates of its own party. These ele ments will be conspicuous in the new Chambers, but between them there will not be the unyielding and unprofitable strife that constantly raged in the Assembly which came into power in 1871. ,The cleri cal party, never more aggressive in France than now, and represented INTRODUCTION. ix by such giants as Archbishop Dupanloup, is included in the Right, and lends its mighty influence to the efforts made by that body to turn the tide of events. The upheaval which followed the fall of the Second Empire and the war, brought to the surface and into the political arena all the rep resentatives of the old intolerant parties, — men who had been slum bering during the period of corruption and inaction, and who came to the responsibilities suddenly bestowed upon them, much as owls come into the sunshine. That was a somber satirist who called the mem bers of the Assembly of 1871, " the ghosts of 1848." The Frenchmen ofthe new regime, who had been gaining prominence and power in the declining days of the Empire ; who demanded emancipation from old and dead formulas ; and who recognized that the time had. come for a final and sustained experiment in national freedom, were astonished to find themselves treated as radicals, as revolutionists,. as dreamers, almost as madmen by the fossil politicians who had been handed down, a baleful legacy, to the new and progressive generation. They tried to reason, but reason was of no avail ; they found themselves confronted at every turn with an unbending bar rier 'of prejudice, and by skillful politicians toiling to form alliances which should prevent the legal establishment of the Republic. : " Ih this Assembly," says a recent French writer, " modern France found all her adversaries gradually gathering into a redoubtable coalition, excited by their unexpected success ; fancying that every thing must give way before them, and impatient to crush democ racy. All that composes our society, from its secular character even to the political equality guaranteed by universal suffrage, was harshly menaced ; one can hardly imagine the number of plots in preparation against all the liberties conquered by the nation since '89. The whole country demanded, in the anguish of suspense, X INTRODUCTION. when the final encounter between the ' Modern Spirit," and the combination of all the disappointed monarchists would take place? " The varying passions, the violent prejudices, and the intense in tolerance which sometimes seems almost a national characteristic, have made of the National Assembly since 1871 the scene of fre quent chaos. But this has not been without good effect, for it has given the Republicans a powerful advantage over their enemies of the Right. It prevented, it rendered absolutely impossible the mon archical coalition which was at one time so greatly feared ; and by preventing this, it opened the door to the Republic. The French man who said that the new Republic had been founded by its ad versaries uttered a profound truth. After the resignation of M. Thiers, in May, 1873, Marshal Mac- Mahpn, Due de Magenta, was elected president of the French Re public by the Assembly.' On the 19th of November of the same year, the continuation of his powers for seven years was accorded by a majority of sixty-eight votes. This action bound the Marshal- President to the preservation of order, and to the virtual mainte nance o£a truce between all parties while the discussion, adoption, and preliminary operation of the constitutional laws were in prog ress. This seven years of armed neutrality is generally designated as the " Septennate," at the end of which time the revision of the Constitution will be demanded by many radicals and some mon archists. But it is confidently expected by the friends of liberty that by 1880 the most of the French people will have plainly and unmistakably declared in favor of Republican government ; that the Imperialists will have become discouraged, and will no longer seek to go before the people, with their " plebiscite," asking them to choose directly between Empire and Republic, and that those classes who now fancy that they see in Republicanism a forerunner INTRODUCTION. XI of anarchy and destruction of " moral order " will be reassured, and, at least partially, willing to work at upbuilding the edifice of na tional liberty. The members of the Cabinet play a much more active publifc part in France than in the United States. As in England, the " pre mier " sustains his own measures face to face with the. legislators who are battling to prevent their adoption. From the " tribune," the species of pulpit in which every orator is required to stand when addressing the Assembly, the premier and his colleagues daily hurl defiance at their enemies. The personalities of the ministers thus become much more interesting than in America, where the secreta ries' voices are never heard in Congress. In Fiance it is the Govern ment which takes the initiative, and the ministers who introduce and defend the projects which, of course, meet with no favor from the opposition. All important bills and amendments are identified with persons, are even named after those who present them. Each ministry receives a sobriquet because of some salient point in its policy. It is believed that in a few weeks the " National Assembly " will have ceased to exist. But many of the " Political Leaders '' who have been so conspicuous in its stormiest sessions for nearly five years will, doubtless, re-appear in the new chambers, where they will engage in fresh battles over the questions constantly arising, be fore the French in their march toward freedom and self-govern ment. One of the recent acts of the Assembly illustrates with much force the manner in which the internal dissensions of the monarchical party are of direct profit to the cause of the Republic. The As sembly was compelled, by a provision of the new Constitution, to choose seventy-five " senators for life," to occupy seats in the Senate. In the struggle which ensued, the Legitimists and Bonapartists Xll INTRODUCTION. voted with the Republicans in order that they might succeed in completely crushing the Orleanists, who were decidedly over whelmed. So long as the enemies of the Republic are thus divided against themselves, there is hope for liberty in France. Paris, December, 1875. CONTENTS. PAGE Victor Marie Hugo 9 Louis Adolphe Thiers 55 Leon Gam-betta 75 Jules Simon 98 Marshal MacMahon (Due de Magenta) 114 Monseigneur Dupanloup 122 Jules Grew 140 Edouard Laboulaye. ......: 147 Eugene Rouher 160 Edgar Raoul Duval 172 The Due de Broglie 180 Louis Joseph Buffet ; 196 The Due d' Audiffret-Pasquier 195 Jules Armand Stanislas Dufaure 202 Emile Ollivier , 210 Jules Fa.vre 224 The Comte de Chambord 239 The Due d'Aumale 248 The Comte de Paris 261 Ernest Picard 273 Henri Rochefort 279 Casimir Perier 308 Jules Ferry : 316 Victor Marie Hugo. j|T the beginning of this century," writes Victor Hugo, in the preface to the first volume of his "Deeds and Words'' — a work which forms a substantial history of his career, — "in the most desolate quarter of Paris; a child lived in a great mansion, which a huge garden surrounded and isolated. That mansion was called, before the Revolution, the Convent des Feuillantines. The child lived there with his mother, his two brothers, and a venerable priest, an old Oratorian, still trembling at the recollections of '93, — an old man, long since persecuted, but indulgent then, who was their clement preceptor, who taught them much Latin, a little Greek, arid no history at all. At one end of the garden there were some very large trees, which concealed an old, half-ruined chapel. To-day those trees, the chapel, and the mansion have disappeared. The improvements which have so rigorously intrenched on the garden of the Lux embourg have extended even to the Val de Grace, and have destroyed that humble oasis. A wide street, which IO BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. serves no purpose, passes over the site. Nothing now remains ofthe Feuillantines but a little grass and a frag ment of decrepit wall, seen between two tall, new blocks, ... It was in this house that the three brothers grew up under the first Empire." ' ' For the youngest of those three brothers the old man sion, of the Feuillantines is to-day a cherished and re ligious souvenir. It appears to him, in his musings, covered with a kind of savage shade. It is there that, amid sunbeams and roses, the mysterious unfolding of his spirit took place within him. Nothing could have been more tranquil than that high, florid ruin, long ago a Convent, then a solitude, always an asylum. Nevertheless, the Imperial tumult now and then resounded there. From time to time, in those vast. abbey chambers, in those crumbling monastic halls, beneath the vaults of the dis mantled cloister, the child saw come and go between two wars, whose echoes he heard, — coming from the army, and going back to the army — a young general, who was his father, and a young colonel, who was his uncle. This charming paternal invasion dazzled him for, a moment ; then, at thesound of a trumpet, those visions of plumes and sabers vanished, and everything became peaceful and silent in that ruin where there was a dawn. " Victpr Hugo was born in Besancon, on the 26th of February, 1802. His family was noble, and had been so since 1531. It was one of the most sterling and re nowned families of Lorraine. There were many valiant soldiers among the ancestors of the first of modem French poets. Hugo's father was a volunteer soldier under the Republic ;- and, after the advent of the Empire, became, VICTOR MARIE HUGO. II at onde, a general and a governor of some of the most im portant provinces in Spain. His mother was a lady of rare character and refinement. She shared, when she could,; the adventurous existence of her soldier-husband, and generally took her children with her. It is 'even said that she had herself been personally engaged in the terrible struggle in the Vendee, under the Republic. In Hxi§Sfff' earlier poems, many allusions to his romantic youth are to be found. As a child, he followed the imperial armies with his mother, and when hardly old enough to speak plainly, was taken to Italy, and thence to his father, who> at that time Governor of the province of- Avellino, in Calabria, was campaigning against the celebrated bandit, " Fra Diavolo." Hugo had been on the banks ofthe Arno, the Tiber, and Naples Bay, before he was seven years of age. One evening, when young Hugo was playing in the garden of the convent of the Feuillantines,. whose shadows were from time to time lit up by the reflection of the colossal fireworks with which Paris was celebrating ¦ some new imperial victory, he saw come out from the ruined chapel a man whom he had never seen before. This man was a proscribed gentleman, who had been concealed by Hugo's father, after a price had been set upon his head. Victor Hugo thus describes him : "Victor Fanneau de Lahorie was a Breton gentleman who had given his faith to the Republic. He was the friend of Moreau, also a Breton. Lahorie had, in- the Vendee, knpwn my father, who was younger than he by a quarter of a .century. Later, he was his companion in the army of t^e ''Rhine. There sprang up between them one ' of 12 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. those soldier fraternities which enable one man to give his life for another. In 1801 Lahorie was implicated in the conspiracy of Moreau against Bonaparte. He was proscribed ; a price was set upon his head ; he had no asylum ; my father opened his house to him. The old chapel of the Feuillantines, a ruin, served to protect that other ruin, a conquered man. Lahorie accepted the asylum as it had been offered to him, simply, and he lived concealed in the shade." On the occasion when young Victor saw him first, the proscribed man had the imprudence to come out from his hiding-place, to speak to three generals, comrades of Hugo's father, who had come to bring the wife news of the absent husband. These generals were friendly to Lahorie and did not betray him. During the conversation the proscribed said tothe child : "Remember, — liberty above all." Hugo learned later that this unfortunate .gen tleman was his godfather. Lahorie had said to the father, " Hugo is a northern name, you must soften^ by joining it to a southern word, and complete the German by the Roman." So the friends decided to call the child Victor, after Lahorie. Young Victor saw much of the proscribed man after he had once found out his refuge. Behind the altar in the old chapel there was a camp-bedstead, over which hung some pistols ; and in that nook, into which the rain would now and then patter, Victor Lahorie and Victor Hugo read Tacitus together ; while the old priest, who had no thought of betraying Lahorie's hiding-place, looked approv ingly on. One day Lahorie disappeared, and young Vic tor's mother would not tell him where the outlaw had gone. VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 1 3 Three years later, as Victor was walking with his mother one evening, he saw a placard posted on a column at a church portal. It ran as follows : . ' ' Empire Francais — By and according to sentence of the First Court Martial, were shot yesterday, in the plain of Gre- nelle, for the crime of conspiracy against the Empire and the Emperor, the three ex -generals, Malet, Guidal, and Lahorie." "Lahorie!'' said Victor's mother. " Remember that name. He was thy godfather:" Hugo was, in his early youth, constantly surrounded by people who made the Republic a by-wbrd and a re proach. His father, fighting desperately for Joseph Bona parte's tottering throne against the never-yielding Spaniards, had little time to watch over his development. Madame" Hugo finally went to Madrid to live at the Court of Jo seph. With her young children she had a long and dan gerous journey through the Spanish mountains. Victor was, although of tender years, wonderfully impressed with Spain, with Spanish architecture, and the people ; this is very perceptible in both his earlier and later poems. He was at school for a time in the somber and disagreeable "seminary ofthe nobles," where he was half starved, and consoled himself by writing verses, although he was but ten years old. In 181 2, events in Europe compelled the departure ofthe majority of the French from Spain. Hugo returned with his mother and his brothers to the Convent ofthe Feuillantines. After another period of dreamy and poetic existence there, he was sent, with his brother Eu gene, to a school where they were to prepare for the Poly technic, as their father intended to make soldiers of them. The father frowned on Victor's poetical aspirations, and I4 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. urged him to plunge into the study of the higher mathe matics. Victor acquiesced ruefully in the parental judgment. He studied mathematics, but he also wrote verses. At fourteen he had already written a tragedy, called " Ir- tamene," and two lyrics, which had in them the true ring of genius— "Rich and Poor," and "The Canadian Girl." In 1 817 he wrote so well on the subject assigned for com petition by the Academy (" The Advantages of Study") that he received an honorable mention, and would have had the prize, had not the Academicians refused to believe that he . was but fifteen years of age. A few years later, from 1819 to 1822, he obtained, three times in succession, the chief prize from the Toulouse Academy of Floral Sports, for three poems entitled "The Virgins of Verdun," "The Re-establishment of Henry Fourth's Statue," and " Moses on the Nile." These three odes, really among the best which he has ever written, made him temporarily quite famous. He had already published many poems, and a romance called " Bug-Jargal, " which he contributed to a review named "The Literary Conservative," founded by one of his brothers. In these youthful days he was like his mother — ultra-royalist. Chateaubriand became much attached to the astonishing youth, whose precocity bore such savory fruit, complimented him highly, and endeav ored to make him a place in the Berlin embassy, to which he himself had been appointed. But Victor declined, hav ing little taste for diplomacy. In the mid-summer of 1 821 his mother died. It was a great sorrow for Victor, who was for many weeks almost inconsolable. VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 1 5 Although the young Hugos were by no means unsuc cessful in literature, their father, the General, informed them that he could not bestow an allowance, upon them unless they would consent to take "regular" professions. Victor refused to desert letters, and found himself thrown on his own resources, with a capital of only eight hundred francs, which he had earned for himself. He had long sincerely loved a charming and accomplished young girl, Mademoiselle Foucher, the daughter of worthy parents, who felt that they could smile upon the match if they could hear their prospective son-in-law declare that his expecta tions were good. The appearance of his first volume of poesy, " Odes and Ballads," and the manner in which his name was mentioned, did much to weaken the objec tions of the parents, and they at last decided to give their daughter to the writer whom Chateaubriand had called "sublime." Hugo, was, besides, at this time much in favor with the government. Louis XVIII. was anxious to bestow honors upon him. Although Hugo was well known as a royalist, he had written a letter to an enemy of royalty, offering him an asylum in his house, and this trait of character was said so to have delighted Louis, that he said, when the letter was brought to him : ' ' The writer is a noble young man ; ,1 will give him the first vacant pension." Victor began "Hans of Iceland," an impassioned and impossible romance, in the dark days when he was strug gling to make a livelihood, and was lamenting the cruel circumstances which separated him from his love. He was gloomy, discouraged, and angry ; he found a rude pleasure in portraying the savage grandeur of the icy North and the l6 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. horrible ferocity of the legendary giant in ' ' Hans of Ice land." He even went to the Church for consolation in his trouble ; and hastened to seek Lamennais, then in the full flush of his fame. He found the priest installed at the Convent of the Feuillantines, the old Hugo home. The flood of painful souvenirs which rushed upon him as he entered the walls of the old cloister made him still more forlorn. Lamennais found, however, that Hugo had little to confess ; and so, after a brief conversation, sent him away comforted. After his marriage Victor maintained an artificial gloom until he had completed ' ' Hans oflceland, " which he sold to a publisher for a thousand francs. At the same time a second edition of the ' ' Odes and Ballads " increases his slender income. As he had already begun, in "Hans of Iceland," to neglect the classical, and to prefer the romantic style, his romance was severely handled by the critics. Hugo's mind and style were undergoing a vast change at the same time. He was becoming liberal, and was preparing for these audacious efforts which resulted; after so many severe battles, in the complete success of the new school, whose virtual chief he was and is. He clung to his royalist opinions in his verses, however ; and" was so firm in the manner of sustaining his views that the cele-'- brated Armand Carrel once determined to challenge him, but was prevented by friends. In 1826, Victor Hugo pub lished the second series of " Odes and Ballads," and in these poems were found incontestable proofs that he had' - become, as his enemies of the time phrased it, "infected' with powerful liberalism." He had been very much annoyed' on learning that his pension, accorded by the king, was VICTOR MARIE HUGO. if due entirely to a trick which he considered unworthy of the representatives of power. When he discovered that the letter which he had written to offer the conspirator shelter, had been opened, read, and carried to Louis XVIII. by spies, his indignation knew lio bounds, and he was almost resolved to refuse the sum which the king had given as a token of his admiration of the young poet's generous sen timents. The Cenacle, or club, which he gradually formed around him, was semi-revolutionary in character, and was enlivened by such brilliant spirits as Sainte-Beuve, Des- champs, and Boulanger. In his lyric poems, Hugo, day by day> showed increasing contempt for the classical school; and the daring splendors of his antithesis, and his contin- ' ual combinations of the-grotesque and the sublime, dazzled and pained the old-fashioned critics, who did not hesitate to proclaim him an upstart. When Hugo saw the assassin of the Due de Berri taken to the scaffold in 1820, his blood ran cold in his veins, and his whole spirit revolted against the horror and the unfor giving severity of capital punishment. He was, in those days, still ultra-royalist at heart, and found the assassin's work hideous and inexcusable in every sense ; but he could not believe in "a life for a life." Some years after ward he was walking in the square in front of the Hotel de Ville one evening, when he saw the executioner practicing with the guillotine for an execution to take place on the morrow. The crowd surrounded the brutal officer, who, while he greased the grooves in which the fatal knife was to fall, recounted the terrors of the unhappy prisoner and the details of his crime ; young Hugo, sick at heart, went home shuddering. The next day he began to write " The 1 8 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. Last Day of a Condemned Prisoner" (Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamne), and finished it in three weeks. It was published early in 1829, and created a profound sensation. As a' psychological study it is exceedingly powerful ; so strong, indeed, that thousands refused to believe, on reading itfor the first time, that it was the work of one who had never been under sentence of death. The horrors, the despairs, the paralysis, the fantastical dreams and rude awakenings ofthe convict were depicted with a force, yet delicacy, which captivated even those who saw in . the book an odious' at tempt to' derogate from the majesty ofthe law. There-was never a more eloquent protest against capital punish-' ment. Victor Hugo has all his life been true to his early be liefs on this subject. In 1832, he added to "the Last Day of a Condemned Prisoner " a preface, . in which he elo quently advanced powerful reasons for clemency in all capital cases. In 1854 he published" Claude Gueux," an other appeal for mercy to criminals iri general, although too late to serve in the case of the real Claude, who had been executed two years previously for a crime, to com mit which he had been incited by hunger. Hugo was one of those who petitioned for this criminal's pardon, and' who cared tenderly for him while he was in prison. In May of 1839, the insurrection in which Blanqui and Barbes were prominent figures was promptly sup pressed. On the evening, after its suppression,. Hugo Was at the opera, when an act ofthe "Esmeralda," taken from his " Notre Dame" was performed. A peer of France sat down beside the poet, whom he recognized, saying : VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 19 >. "We have just completed a very, sad task; we have condemned a man to death." " Is Barbes condemned? " said Hugo. "Yes, and he will be executed, because the ministers insist upon it." "When?""To-morrow, probably ; you know that there is no ap peal from the decision of the Chamber of Peers. " Hugo left the peer, went into one of the private offices at the opera, called for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the following verse : " Tar votre ange envolee ainsi qu'une colombe ! Par ce royal enfant, doux et freie roseau ! Grace encore une fois ! grace au nom de la tombe ! Grace au nom du berceau."* He placed the paper in a common envelope, sealed it, wrote his name on it, addressed it, and carried it himself to the Tuileries. The porter said that tb.e King would not get the letter until the next day. But when Hugo ex plained that a rnan's life depended on the instant delivery of the missive, the porter carried it to the aide-de-camp. In twenty minutes he returned. "The King has read your letter," he said, " and that shows that you were wise to write your name on the en velope. It seems that M. d'Houdetot, who is the aide-de- * In this little verse, in which Hugo so touchingly asked for the pardon of Barbes in the name of the tomb and the cradle, the poet alluded to the death of Marie d'Orleans, one of Louis Philippe's children — which occurred in 1839, — and to the recent birfh of the Comte de Paris. 20 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. camp on duty, knows you; he was just about to throw your letter on the table, when he saw your name. Then he carried your letter in at once, and the usher saw the King reading it, for he looked through the glass door." Next morning the generous Victor learned that Barbes still lived. Louis Philippe had been deeply touched by the poetic appeal, and had resisted his ministers. He sent to "Hugo the following answer : ' ' His pardon is granted, ' it only remains forme to obtain it," — which was a delicate5 allusion to the difficulty he experienced in contradicting the wishes ofthe ministry. In 1862 Barbes wrote to thank Hugo for his timely intercession. In 1848 Victor Hugo made an eloquent address in the Constituent Assembly against capital punishment, vot ing for its abolition. In 1849 ne asked for the pardon of one of the persons inculpated in the Brea affair, but it was not granted. In 1851 his eldest son was brought up for trial at the Paris Assizes, charged with having pro tested, in anarticle in the Evenement, a city journal, against"' the horrible details of a certain execution. Hugo asked, : and received permission himself to conduct his son's case. He did so, making one of the most eloquent and thrilling speeches against " the penalty, of death " ever ut tered in a civilized country. "As for this law of blood for blood, gentlemen of the jury," he cried — "I have fought it all my life. All my life— and so long as there remains a particle of breath in my body— I will fight against it with all my power as writer, with all my deeds' and all my votes as a legislator. I declare it "—here he extended his arm and pointed to the Christ on the crucifix - above the Judge's Bench—" I declare it before that victim VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 21 of the punishment of death who is there — who sees us, and who hears us! I swear it before that gibbet, to which nearly two thousand years ago, for an eternal les son to the generations, human law nailed divine law ! " Despite the eloquence of the father, the son was sen tenced to six months' imprisonment. In 1 854, when Victor Hugo was in exile in Guernsey, he eloquently interfered several times in behalf of unfor tunate culprits about to be hanged; and, on one occasion, wrote a letter to Lord Palmerston, in favor of the abolition of all ' ' legal murder '' — which echoed throughout Europe. In 1859 he raised his voice in indignant protest against the execution of John Brown, asserting that " all notions of justice and injustice would be confounded on the day when the world should see deliverance . assassinated by liberty." A year or two later, a Belgian jury's decisions having brought nine sentences of death before the public attention, some one published a poem filled with passionate invective, to which he affixed the name of Victor Hugo. The poet at once wrote to repudiate the forgery, but, at the same time, he added, ' ' When it is an affair . of saving heads, I am willing that my name should be used and even abused. " And he united his cries for pardon with those of the un known person who had forged his signature. He appealed to the Belgians to "push back finally into the night that monstrous punishment by death, whose principal glory is that it raised on earth two gibbets, that of Jesus Christ in the old world, and that of John Brown in the new." In 1862, the poet's efforts to exclude a law allowing capital punishment from the new constitution of Geneva were of great avail in directing the public attention toward the 22 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. important question of mercy, and in securing great reforrhs in criminal legislation. All his life long the great and good man has fought for humanity, and one of the kindly deeds of his old age is the appeal for clemency which he recently made with success in the case of an unfortunate French soldier condemned to death for a grave military offense. His heart bled when the terrible massacres of the insurrectionists of 1871 occurred, and he has a hun dred times demanded pardon for the exiled, the crushed, ,and forlorn who have been sent to the shades of Noumea and . the gloomy horrors of a penal colony. ¦ One day, when M. Taylor, was the royal commissioner I at- the Comedie Francaise, he asked Hugo why he did' not write for the theater. "I am thinking of it," answered the poet. "I have., just begun a drama with Cromwell for its subject" "Well, finish it and give it to me. Cromwell, written*- by you, can be played by Talma only. " A short time thereafter, the courteous Taylor brought '?. Talma and Hugo together at a dinner party. Talma was then sixty-five years old, he was worn out with fatigue ; in deed, he died a few months afterward. But he was' en thusiastic over Hugo's project, said that he had always desired to appear as Cromwell ; and applauded the scenes which the young author repeated to him. " Use all possible speed in writing your play ; I am im patient to see it," said Talma. Hugo obeyed, but relin quished his project when he heard of Talma's death. After a long delay, he resumed the work, and, in December of 1.827, a huge-volume containing the piece, and a preface of massive proportions, made its appearance. Both play ¦ VICTOR MARIE HUGO. 23 and preface created a profound sensation. The latter, into which the author had worked his ideas on the relative values of the classical and romantic schools, was a verita ble declaration of war, and provoked great numbers of hostile criticisms. The journalists laughed the youthful iconoclast to scorn ; advised him not to talk., about Shake speare until he had learned to spell the name ; and en deavored to give him such a crushing defeat that he would at once retreat from the field. No attempt was made to place the drama on the stage." a, Hugo's next experience of the critics occurred while he was still overwhelmed with grief at the sudden death of his father, who succumbed in the winter of 1828 to a stroke of apoplexy; The poet had, some years - before, written, in conjunction with another poor and struggling literary man, a piece called "Amy Robsart," the story of which was of course taken from " Kenilworth." When Hugo became famous, his brother-in-law urged him to publish or to pro duce at the theater this play of " Amy Robsart^; ¦" but Hugo refused, , saying, that he did not consider it as his work, so great had been the change in his methods since the time that it was written. He gave the piece, however, to his brother-in-law, because of very earnest solicitation, and was not a little surprised when he learned that it was to be played at the Odeon, and that the name of the author waa not announced. His brother-in-law had fancied that he was doing him a kindness ; but the piece was violently hissed. Hugo, with characteristic frankness, wrote to the press that the passages objected to * by the audiences were nearly all from his pen. This at once gave the piece a fresh interest ; the partisans of the new school rallied to 24 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. the support of "Amy Robsart." But the hisses were re doubled, and the agitation became so great, that the government suppressed the play. This was but the beginning of the disturbances destined to mark the poet's dramatic career, and to crown his triumphs. After the publication of the volume of poems called "Les Orientales," which, although by no means one of the best proofs of Hugo's genius, gained a popular verdict of favor such as few poems ever receive — and after the event ful issue of " The Last Day ofthe Condemned," elsewhere recounted — Hugo devoted himself earnestly to the creation of a great dramatic work. A hundred subjects suggested themselves to his fertile brain ; but he finally hesitated only between the stories of " Marion Delorme," — which was at first called "A Duel under Richelieu," and 219 ing. In June 1865, he met the Emperor, and urged him, according to his own account, to authorize the right of public assembly, and to give increased liberty to the .press. The first days of 1867 saw M, Ollivier once more at the Tuileries. This time he was offered something like a definite place ; but he was ready with a phrase, as usual, and said to M. Walewski, who was conducting the ap proaches, " I feel an almost invincible repugnance towards quitting my peaceful life of study and meditation to throw myself into the struggling life of, action." On the noted Second of January Ollivier was informed that the Emperor would condescend to be liberal if the ex-member of the opposition would come boldly over to the Empire. Na poleon even offered to "do something for the press," and agreed to certain other reforms. The promises were slen der, and by no means clearly shaped ; but Ollivier found them sufficient, and agreed to take Rouher's place as Pre mier, provided that Rouher would not carry out the "new programme." Ollivier's own programme was a. good one ; but he well knew that the Empire would never permit him to carry it out. Under cover of it, with the word " recon ciliation "on his lips, and with a host of platitudes hover ing in his brain, he went straight over to the enemy's camp. He had an important interview with Napoleon on the 10th of January, 1867, and, was offered a ministry, pro vided he did n£>t want too much reform, but- he was still coy, and needed a little more wooing. On the 19th of January, Napoleon wrote a letter, which was published in the Official' Journal, announcing his determination to 220 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. crown the Imperial edifice by numerous liberal reforms. M. Rouher was invited to co-operate with Ollivier in the new programme, and at first seemed inclined to do so, but gradually fell off into open enmity. In July Ollivier seemed to have fallen into disfavor, and his, relations with the Emperor were suspended. But he still went on prating of a reconciliation, which was utterly impossible while the "irreconcilable," school 'was growing in power and favor daily. Ollivier was defeated when the new general elections occurred in 1869, and Bancil, the compeer of Gambetta, took his place. From that time until the occasion pf his defense of Clement Duvernois, whose election as an official candidate was. contested in the liveliest manner, Ollivier was but little heard of until the close of the extraordinary session of the Corps Legislatif. When the ordinary session began in December of 1869, the cabinet then in power resigned. On the 27th of December, the Emperor ad dressed a letter to Ollivier, begging him to designate per sons who could form with him a homogeneous cabinet, faithfully representing the majority of the Corps Legislatif. After many long debates and struggles, the Ollivier cabinet, better known as that of the "Second of- January," was formed, with Emile Ollivier as Minister of Justice. The doughty knight announced that he was about to carry out his grand programme of regeneration of the Empire by liberty, and the debates began. The career of M. Ollivier thenceforward is well known. He was branded as a renegade by the mass of the republi cans, who never have forgiven him for going over to the Empire in 1 867. He found stormy times before him in the EMILE OLLIVIER. 221 ministry; the opening months of 1870 were filled with alarms. The riots provoked by the brutal assassination of Victor Noir by Pierre Bonaparte seriously alarmed the Imperial party, which had already had numerous presenti ments of its impending doom. There were violent scenes in the Chamber, and M. Ollivier, who had made his first entry into the Legislative Hall as a member of "the Five," now rose from his ministerial bench to cry out, when Gam betta and Jules Favre fearlessly criticised the government, ' ' We are the law, we are the right, we are moderation, we are liberty, and if you constrain us we shall be force ! " These words were pronounced on the nth of January, 1870. M. Ollivier had accomplished some lively political somersaults since 1865. He was inconsistent in rare de gree ; at one moment he was found condemning the sys tem of official candidates, although he had defended Du- vernois, and won his place for him ; at another, he was seen hard at work in the interest of the plebiscite, whose principles he had furiously condemned in his volume en titled "The Nineteenth of January.'' This situation was so humiliating that some of the members of the cabinet resigned when the plebiscite was brought forward. Ollivier took upon his own shoulders the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and conducted it until the Due de Grammont came to the post. •*? Napoleon and Ollivier were in a "fool's paradise" for some time after the successful result of the plebiscite. They fancied that they were secure ; the one confident that he would be allowed' to cheat anew, and the other imagin ing that he would have a long lease of power, in which he might succeed in making the Empire liberal. He was re- 222 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. posing on his laurels after having made an able speech con testing the repeal of the laws of banishment decreed against the Orleans princes, when suddenly the Franco-Prussian difficulty arose. Then it was that Ollivier declared, "The government desires peace ; it desires it passionately, but it desires to maintain it honorably." His old companion in the Opposition, M. Favre, daily asked him for particulars concerning the negotiations with. Prussia, and was daily re fused information. A few days before the declaration, Ollivier spoke in such confident terms of the results ofthe approaching war, that it is evident he fancied the Im perial armies well prepared. After the first defeats, when the Prussians were rapidly approaching Paris, his mouth was filled with pitiably eloquent phrases, as he endeavored to maintain himself in a situation no longer, tenable. The Chamber laughed him to scorn ; in due time he and his fellows resigned, and Count Palikao formed a new cabinet under the advice of the Empress regent. Then cames Se dan and September, and Ollivier disappeared into the tem porary oblivion which he merited. Ollivier is in the prime of life, fifty years old, and may yet play an important part in French politics. But for Frenchmen of this generation he is dead. Whether or not he was a traitor, they will always consider him as such. His vast vanity does not permit him to believe that he was misled in attempting to reconcile the Empire and liberty, and he delights in assuming the air of a martyr, and in looking down from the serene heights of his contempt, upon those who criticise him, and consider his career -a failure. He is fond of defending himself, and would be very glad to get back into political life, although he would EMILE OLLIVIER. 223 be roundly abused by both Imperialists and Republicans. He recently published a volume called "Principles and Conduct," which led a malicious Paris journal to say that its author never possessed either. In this volume he de fends himself against the Imperialists, who pretend that his liberal quackeries were one of the chief causes of the Em pire's fall. Napoleon, it seems, maintained his esteem for Ollivier until the last, and wrote him a highly complimen tary letter from Chalons, in August, 1870. The ex-commissioner of the Republic, ex-deputy, and ex-minister of the Empire, is a mild-looking man, with spectacled eyes, and rather unprepossessing face. His oratory is effective, although not remarkable ; his literary style is clear, but pedantic. He has written much on legal subjects. As a lawyer, he was so popular in his early days, when the Empire suspended him, that the whole Paris bar protested against his suspension. M. Ollivier has been twice married ; his first wife was a woman of brilliant abilities, and the malicious used to say that she aided him in the preparation of his speeches. She is said to have been an illegitimate daughter of the A.bb6 Liszt. The second wife is a lady of wealth, and the ex-statesman is reposing quite at his ease, much as M. Rouher is, and waiting the progress of events. Jules Favre. FAVRE has the reputation of being'one ofthe best- abused men of his time Yet while there is a large class which can never hear- his name mentioned without at once proceeding to scandalize it, it is certain that the noted lawyer, the brilliant orator, and the prominent member of the " Government of National Defense " has a vast number of admirers, and will leave behind him a last ing fame. He bids fair, too, to outlive the passions of his epoch ; and may possibly compass that lot so rare for mor tals — that of being reckoned a prophet, not without honor in his own country, during his lifetime. He has always been an ardent champion of popular rights, and, however much the people may at times be weaned from him, is sure of their lasting sympathy and regard. Much of his best effort has been devoted to the defense of the unfortunate and down-trodden. He has shown, in a hundred instances, a rare carelessness of self, which is its own highest praise. As a struggling young lawyer, he was brave enough to de fend the accused of the affair of April, 1834. As a success-- JULES FAVRE. 22$ ful politician and advocate, he was not afraid- to undertake the defense of a man so much under the ban as Orsini ; and, as a member ofthe government, he was willing to swallow his own pride for his country's. sake, and to treat with the enemy for the capitulation which was inevitable. Gabriel Claude Jules Favre was born March 21st, 1809, in the busy and turbulent city of Lyons. His father was a small commercial man, possessed of sufficient means to insure the education of his son for the legal profession. Young Favre studied in Paris ; took part in the revolution of 1830 there; and, going home to Lyons after his law studies were finished, gave evidence of his liberal and dem ocratic predilections by undertaking, in 1831, the defense of a society of workingmen prosecuted for illegal associa tion. The fiery language of the young orator, who was then, as now, one of the most eloquent of Frenchmen, created a veritable revolution. There was a bloody con flict between the working masses of the city and the sol diers of the garrison. Favre was concerned in it, and it .was almost miraculous that he should have escaped pun ishment afterwards for the participation in the riots. No harm came to him ; and his fame widened and his elo quence increased. In 1834 he went to Paris to defend the accused in the noted prosecution of workingmen of that year. He stood up before theChambre of Peers unabashed, and opened one of the finest speeches on record with these four words ; "lama republican." It was a sore check for him when he found that all his eloquence was in vain ; that he had lost his case, having unfortunately brought himself into opposition with the Committee of Defense of that period ; and his chagrin was so great when com- 10* 226 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. pelled to listen to the condemnation of those whom he loved and had desperately defended, that he retired for some time from both politics and public affairs generally. At last, however, he returned to his labors, and was soon famous again, as the defender of all persons accused of political offenses. He had had too many narrow es capes to be easily frightened, and did his work boldly. Perhaps he was a bit of a fatalist in those youthful days ; the manner in which he Exposed himself to the vengeance of the enemies of liberalism might prompt one to think so. He made a short essay in journalism, taking the politi cal direction ofthe sprightly paper known as " The Move ment," at the time that Lamennais resigned its chief edi torship ; but he was not successful. The journal lived but a short time," although Favre's sentiments were as boldly announced in its columns as when, in his student days, he wrote to the National demanding the abolition of royalty, and the convocation of an Assembly. But if he did not succeed as an editor, his little visit to the newspaper world helped him as a lawyer ; he soon had a large number of jour- • nals to defend ; his business grew to gigantic proportions. Some of the speeches made in those days when he was battling for freedom have the ring of veritable war-cries ; many are stately and dignified in form, full of sound sense and faultless logic, animated by a hidden fire which com municates its heat even to him who reads them from the printed page. In 1848 Jules Favre announced his profession of faith as follows : "Liberty is the free exercise of all the facul ties bestowed upon us by God, governed by our reason. Equality is the participation of all citizens in social advan- JULES FAVRE. 227 tages, without other distinction than virtue and talent. Fraternity is the law of love, uniting men and making all members of one family." The lawyer and orator had ar rived at the ripe age of forty-two when the revolution broke out. He was at once recognized by the radical party as a necessity. He became Secretary-General of the Ministry ofthe Interior, and to him at the time was commonly at tributed the editing of numerous circulars signed by- Ledru Rollin, documents of such an ultra-revolutionary charac ter that they provoked the wildest agitation in some de partments, and threw the whole country into ferment. M. Favre has expressly denied any share in the prepara tion of the circulars, and it is generally admitted to day that he filled his difficult office in those troublous times very well. Among other accusations of the period against him, it was asserted that he had appointed to high office persons who had been convicted of criminal offen ses ; but this was simply a vulgar and poorly-contrived falsehood. He resigned his position to take a seat in the National Assembly, to which he had been elected from the Department of the Loire by thirty-four thousand two hundred and sixty votes ; and at the same time he addressed a letter to all the prominent journals, announcing that he had retired definitely from the duties of an office-holder, and would in future content himself with the responsibilities of a deputy. But he was persuaded, later, to become Secretary-General to the Min ister of Foreign Affairs. In the Assembly he was a marked man. His sublime oratory, his matchless felicity of expres sion, gave him immediate and great fame. He prepared theTeport ofthe committee which had the matter of Louis 228 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. Blanc's impeachment under consideration, and was in fa vor of that measure. When it was defeated he resigned, but was prevailed on to remain in office. He was a mem ber of the radical party, yet always felt at liberty to act outside of it whenever he chose. He was no formalist, and the lack of formalism in his political career doubtless made him many enemies. He proposed the measure for the confiscation ofthe personal wealth of Louis Philippe. Long before the coup d'etat he was a conspicuous figure in the political arena ; and those who were hostile to him delighted to paint hiin in blackest colors. When the second Empire was established, Favre betook himself to his law practice. He was a steadfast and per sistent enemy of "the nephew of his uncle.'' He dared even to plead Orsini's defense, and did it so superbly that some people almost fancied the would-be assassin had justice on his side. He. refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Imperial power when elected a member of the Councils- General of the Loire and Rhone in 1852, but he took it in 1858, when he was elected to the Corps Legislatif from the sixth circonscription in the department of the Seine, He had previously made an unsuccessful attempt, in an other department, to get into the Corps, that he might help, in their valorous struggle, the small band which the Imperialists were wont scornfully to say was "few in number, and noticeable only for the audacity of its. pre tensions. " When he first entered politics under the Em pire, Napoleon and his adherents were not a little star tled, for the defender of Orsini was'likely to be, as indeed he proved himself, a formidable member of the Opposition. His voice was heard often, and in fearless condemnation JULES^ FAVRE. 229 of many Imperial measures. The Imperialists cavil at him because, as they say, he voted for the credit of one million two hundred thousand francs for the Italian expedition, yet blamed the conduct of that expedi tion ; and because he finally took the oath prescribed by the Constitution of 1852, after having once re fused to do so. They have always endeavored to create the impression that M. Favre is inconsistent, vacillating, and worthless as a politician, but it is certain that he con tributed, in no small degree, to hasten the Emperor's downfall, and that it was for no other purpose that he hu miliated himself enough to consent to sit in the Corps L6- gislatif. He made great speeches on the policy of France with regard to Italy ; on Algerian and Roman affairs ; on the liberty of the press; and in 1864, when the "law for" general surety " was under discussion, he delivered an ad dress which made him new and permanent fame through out Europe. At the general elections in 1863, he was elected deputy for the two departments of the Rhone and the Seine, and chose to represent the former. Thence forward until the declaration of the Republic, in Septem ber of 1870, he was almost- constantly in politics, and was among those who denounced the pretended reforms and the so-called "liberal" trickeries of the tottering Napole onic dynasty. - Favre was at his best when his sympathies were thor oughly enlisted in behalf of an oppressed people, or a persecuted individual. When pleading for such a cause, his face glowed with inspiration. He wrote on such sub jects as well as he spoke in the vigorous days of his mid dle life. A little work which he published many years be- 230 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. fore the creation of the Second Empire, and called " Anathema," contained touching pictures of the suffer ing and the sin caused by social disorder. He was bitterly oppressed with the consciousness that the world was going wrong, and that some strong redeeming force was needed both, in politics and in the Church to set it right. He was anxious for the unity of Italy, and the freedom of Rome, and spoke well in their favor. He took, as he still takes, a genuine interest in social science, and made many ef forts for the amelioration of some penal laws. In the Corps Legislatif, he. now and then showed that he had a good head for financial matters, and made some lucid speeches, filled with facts, on the commercial condition of the country. He has always been too busy to write much, and his published works consist mainly of his most cele brated speeches, and some of his early pamphlets on politi cal and social topics. Those who have read his addresses on the reestablishment of the restrictions of liberty of the press, on the Proudhon proposition, and on the Italian ex pedition, cannot have, failed to, recognize true genius in them. His reputation as a member of the bar has grown steadily since 1834, and in i860 he was made abalonnier of the order of Paris advocates. , In 1869, and early in 1870, the opposition in the Corps Legislatif to the Imperial policy was very powerful, and M. Favre distinguished himself by the manner in which he organized and conducted a campaign against " official candidatures" and the other devices of the Empire for cheating the people out of their liberties. It was Favre who "interpellated" the government a few months before the Franco-Prussian war, as to the Imperial contempt for JULES FAVRE. 23I the rights of the chamber, and who made the motion by which it was demanded that the attributes of con stituent power should belong exclusively to the Corps Legislatif. He knew the folly and sinfulness of precipitat ing a declaration of war with Prussia, and voted against it on the 4th of September, 1870. He was a conspicuous fig ure in the Corps L6gislatif during the declaration of the downfall of the Imperial family ; and on the same day was. proclaimed the choice ofthe people for one of the mem bers of the Provisional Government of National Defense. He became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and went ear nestly at his work somewhat too confidently, perhaps ; for when he met Bismarck at Ferrieres, to discuss the possi bility of negotiations for peace, he assured the conqueror that the French people would deliver to the Prussians neither an inch of their territory, nor a stone from their fortifications. He was diligent in efforts for a conference of the great powers with regard to the war, and at one time contemplated appearing before it, and pleading the cause of his own unfortunate country. He had great confidence in Gambetta, and kept him encouraged in his desperate efforts to raise an army in the South of France, by letters and dispatches which are models of statesmanlike clearness and precision, yet which are interesting as romances can be to the general reader. Jules' Favre was one of the principal participants in the most interesting historical episode of modern times,' the negotiation for the capitulation of Paris. He has given the world, in his " Simple Recital" ofthe thrilling events, and the difficulties attendant upon the siege, a graphic picture of the interviews which he held with Bismarck. His 232 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. government was hardly recognized by the Prussians as any thing save a band of illegitimate dictators. Moltke even defended himself for having begun the bombard. nent of Paris without proper announcement by saying that he did not feel obliged to confine himself to ordinary usage in treating with a government which had no rights. Bis marck had long shown in his correspondence, that he con sidered the little band of national defenders as a faction, and accused them of desiring to prolong their dictatorship by a continuation of the war. This was enough to cast a gloom over the stoutest heart. But M. Favre, at the moment that he decided to set out for Versailles, in the bleak winter weather of Jan uary, 187'j, knew that a formidable revolt was in prepara tion in Paris. Its supporters had already made two des perate attempts, in October and in January, to wrest the power from the Government of National Defense ; and might be expected at once to take advantage of any new embarrassments of those at the head of affairs. The troops massed for the defense had been unsuccessful whenever they had attempted to raise the siege ; and the provisions could last only a short time. M. Favre was so often haunted by the terrible thought that the revictualing of Paris might be delayed too long, that he passed many sleepless nights. Favre informs the world frankly that he decided to go to Versailles, and consult with the conquerors, simply be cause he wished to escape an out-and-out surrender, which daily became more probable. In his own mind he had laid down, as the cardinal points of the demand to be presented to Prince Bismarck, an armistice, the election of JULES FAVRE. 233 an Assembly, in order that France might be consulted as to her wishes for the future, assurances that the Prussian victors would not enter Paris, that the National Guard should be allowed to retain its arms, and that none of its members should be taken' as prisoners to Germany. He has been bitterly reproached by his adversaries for exact ing the stipulation with regard to the arms of the National Guard, it being alleged that, had a disarmament occurred, the communal insurrection would have been rendered impossible ; but it is certain that he acted wisely ; for, had he proposed to disarm the two hundred thousand at that time, he would have succeeded only in hastening the dreaded communal revolt. The insurrection of the 2 2d of January, headed by Flourens, and baptized in blood, decided M. Favre on immediate action. On theevening of the 23d, as^soon as the sedition was quelled; he addressed a note to Bismarck, asking for an interview, without explaining the motive. At dawn an officer took the note to the outpost at the Sevres bridge, requesting an immediate Answer. On the 24th the Government invested M. Favre with plenary powers, and then anxiously awaited the response of the victors. The day was "somber and filled with alarms. Heavy fogs overhung the capital ; the streets were covered with sleet ; the cannonade from forts and iramparts was more furious than usual ; shells rained upon the town. After many hours of- suspense, M. Favre received an an swer from Bismarck, appointing an interview for either the morning of the 25th, or the evening of the 24th. Ac companied by his son-in-law and a young officer, he set out without a moment's delay for Versailles. Learning 234 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. that the "National Guard, alarmed at the rumors of Favre's departure, wished at all hazards to stop him, the trio did not go by the ordinary route, but took a by-path, and at six o'clock were at the Sevres bridge over the Seine. The .firing had, ceased, by order from, both sides. At that point, M. Favre and his companions were embarked in a skiff, and crossed the Seine, pushing their way through masses of floating ice, which were illuminated by the glare of the flames in the burning town of Saint-Cloud. At Sevres M. Favre found a carriage, escorted by cav alry, and at eight in the evening he was at Versailles, at the hotel of Madame de Jesse, occupied by Bismarck, who did not keep him waiting. M. Favre told him that he came to begin where he had left off at Ferrieres ; drew him a vivid picture of the sufferings of the Parisian popu lation ; and, finally, asked what were the conditions of an honorable surrender. v, "You are too late," cried Bismarck, hastily ; "we have treated with your Emperor ; as you neither can, nor wish to make any promises on the part of France, you will easily understand that we shall seek the most efficacious means of finishing the war." M. Favre's surprise and indignation, as Bismarck in formed him ofthe numerous schemes proposed for restor ing the Imperial Dynasty to power, may be imagined, but not described. The discussion with Bismarck was long and exhausting. Favre at last wrote down the stipulations which he thought necessary to insist upon, and gave them to the German Chancellor, with the understanding that they were only for his private use. The discussions continued at intervals until the 26th, JULES FAVRE. 235 M. Favre suffering the most cruel anxieties, during his temporary absences from Paris, as to the events which •might occur while the negotiations were pending. On the evening ofthe 26th, there seemed some chance of an agreement between conquerors and conquered ; and Bis marck, accompanying Favre to his carriage, said, impul sively : '.' I don't believe that, at the. point we have now reached, a rupture is possible ; if you consent, we will stop the firing this evening." Favre accepted this concession gratefully, and went home at once to give the order commanding a cessation ofthe bombardment from the French side. It was late in the evening. when he recrossed the Seine. As the artillerymen in the French lines had not been in formed of his passage, they were keeping up alively rain of shell on the Sevres bridge, and two shells fell close to Favre's carriage. As soon as the worn-out' minister reached Paris he saw General Vinoy,and issued the nec essary order. The emotions which filled-"his heart that night are best described in his own words : "At fifteen minutes before midnight, I was on the stone balcony of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which overlooks the Seine. The cannon of our forts and those of the German army still made their formidable echoes heard. At last the hour of midnight sounded. A final explosion burst forth, repeated far away by an echo, which grew feebler and then died out ; -then all was silence. This was the first -real repose for many weeks; it was the first symptom of peace since the commencement of the foolish War, into which- we had been hurried by- the infatuation 236 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES". of a despot and the servility of his courtiers. I remained for a long time absorbed in thought. I believed that the slaughter had ceased, and, despite the sorrow which weighed me down, this thought was a relief; I did not foresee that behind this bloody curtain, now lowered, our own disasters, greater calamities, and more lamentable hu miliations were concealed." Every one remembers that the terms of the armistice did not permit M. Favre to realize his hope that the German troops would not be allowed to enter Paris. Bismarck did not seem inclined to insist upon this crowning disgrace for the French ; but the King and the military party were determined upon it. No man in France could have labored more eloquently and with more dignity to preserve his native land and its capital from needless- shame, than did M. Favre. Few men could have rnet with unruffled front and serene politeness the haughty German, whose nature continually prompted him to provoking excesses of language, and whose miraculous success had given him overwhelming confidence. It was the fashion during and for a long period after the war, to cavil at M. Favre's ad ministration of his important office ; . but sober judgment admits that he was the man for the place and the time. On the evening of the 28th of January, 1871, at ten o'clock, M. Favte signed the agreement to an armistice, and" was permitted to send a telegram to the delegation of the Government of National Defense at Bordeaux, an nouncing an armistice of twenty-one days, and the convo cation of the Assembly for the. 12th of February. He then hastened back to Paris with a mortal terror at his heart. The .terms of the treaty which he had just, signed. JULES FAVRE. 237 provided for freedom to revictual the capital, but it was possible that the needed provisions would come too late. M. Favre telegraphed to London, to Antwerp, to Dieppe, instructions to buy and forward food as rapidly as possible"; but the directors of the different French railroads, sum moned in council, informed M. Favre that, however great might be their efforts, Paris must be several days without food ! The unfortunate Minister hastened back to Versailles. There he saw Bismarck, and told him that he had deceived him as to the duration of the resources of Paris, and that the population was literally in danger of absolute starva tion. Favre says that Bismarck was much moved ; that he promised to do all that he could to. hasten transportation, and that he even put at the disposition ofthe French such provisions as the Prussian army could spare. The revictualment took place, and fortunately in time to prevent the horrible mortality feared. M. Favre found occasion to respond in warm messages of thanks to the kindness of neighboring nations. V He was intimately concerned with M. Thiers in the sub sequent negotiations for peace with the Prussians. As soon as the Assembly was established at Bordeaux, he was appointed by the Government of National Defense, to hand in their collective resignation. When he mounted into the tribute there was a general murmur of respectful surprise among all who knew him personally, so worn and aged had he grown under the influence of the excitements and trials to which he" had been subjected. He went down from the tribune like a man from whose shoulders a crushing burden had been lifted ; and he doubtless would 238 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. have been glad to = escape from the- responsibility with which he was honored in the new cabinet chosen by M. Thiers, that of holding the portfolio of -foreign affairs. He was in Paris during the early days of the Commune, but, as soon as the revolutionary committee began its work, he, with the other members of the Cabinet, retreated to" Versailles. He was prominent in measures for the sup pression of the revolt, and, so long as he remained in the ministry, was active and discreet in managing the difficult and delicate relations of France with Germany. He was elected to the Assembly in 1871 from numerous depart ments — a pretty fair test of a French politician's popular ity ; — but he has not been noticeable in politics of iate. His work on the "Government of National Defence" has occupied most of his attention for the past year or two. Personally, Favre is a man above medium size, with a grave, sweet, very dignified, face. His nature is sensitive, and' he has probably suffered a great deal from the bit ing invective and the scandalous reports to which, he has been subjected. His presence in the legislative tribune is. commanding, and he is always listened to with the respect and admiration which his exquisite French and charming oratory command. The Comte de Chambord. j]LL for France, by France, and with France ! " in cessantly cries the Comte de Chambord, Due de Bordeaux, grandson of Charles X., and pre tender to kingship by right divine over the French. The pious and worthy Legitimist standard-bearer doubtless fails 'to see the inconsistency of employing a device thoroughly republican in character, as a rallying cry for monarchists of the antique pattern. Neither is it probable that he has ever for a moment appeared to himself in that rather ab surd light- in which the mass of enlightened and unpre judiced Frenchmen see him. Wedded to his idea, firmly vested in his imaginary right, he moves aloof from the bustling republican mobs which might perhaps jostle him ' rudely ; and passes his time in devotion, and in the pro duction of somber and severely classical manifestoes signed with a kingly flourish, " Henri." The noble count is never seen in public devoid of what the French call the "air souffrant!' There is a terrible resignation upon his features which impresses, as it is in- 240 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. tended to impress, all beholders. It seems to say, " Here am I, Henri, King of France, the child of the miracle, baptized in the water of the Jordan ; here am I, debarred of my rights, and condemned to retirement, yet ready and willing to save France from the abyss which threatens her, if she will but give me yonder bauble of a crown." But the pretty jade France, with the Phrygian cap crowning her disheveled locks, keeps the diadem so much longed, for under lock and key, and laughs at the distress of the grand son of Charles X. Chambord is one of the last of the apostles of the doc trine of "right divine " in Europe. The doctrine is bred in his bone ; nothing — no lesson of revolution, no pros perity of France under republican institutions — can ever change him. A fine scorn of the modern vulgarity which consents to the leveling process is visible in all he writes ; he disclaims citizenship, and assumes that he is a king, the king. It is true, as he himself has said, that he has always and everywhere shown himself accessible to French men of all classes and conditions ; but it is also true that he has done this invariably as monarch, not as fellow-citi zen. - "How," he cries, "could any one suspect me of wishing to be only the king of a privileged class, or, to employ the terms commonly used — the king, of the old regime, of the ancient nobility, arid the ancient court ? " How, indeed? Far prettier to be king over all — over no bleman-bourgeois, and man of the people — and that is exactly what Henri, Comte de Chambord, ardently de sires. He looks upon France with a species of tender pity,, or reproachful sympathy, which, strangely enough, becomes THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 241 food for inextinguishable laughter among the radicals, and is regarded with, profound indifference by moderate repub licans. In each new symptom of departure from the old ways he finds occasion for a fresh outburst of commisera tion. In October of 1870, he wrote " Do not allow your selves to be carried awaiy by fatal illusions. Republican institutions, which may possibly correspond to the aspira tions of new societies, will never take root upon our old monarchical soil." Later, in his famous letter in which he assumes the title of "Henri," he apostrophizes the white flag, which is the object of his passionate adoration. "I received it as a sacred trust from the old king my ancestor, when he was dying in exile ; it has always been for me inseparable from the remembrance of my absent country — it waved above my cradle ; and I wish to have it shade my tomb ! " This is fine ; but a moment afterwards,' one reads in the same letter, ' ' In the glorious folds of this stainless standard, I will bring you order and liberty." He cannot help reminding the French once more that they are doing themselves a great injury in refusing him his kingship. Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonne L'Artois, Due de Bordeaux, was born on the 29th of September, 1820. He is the son ofthe Due de Berri, who was assas sinated in February of the same year ; and of Caroline, Princess ofthe Two Sicilies, the famous Duchesse de Berri. The mother, whose role in history was destined to be a famous one, was a woman of extraordinary force of char acter. She was beautiful, frank, simple in her manners, and her beauty was heightened by a melancholy which never left her features. Partisan scandal was unusually 11 242 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. mean on the occasion of the birth of Chambord ; it even ventured to hint that there was room .for. doubts as to the reality of the confinement of the duchess. But the mother prevailed upon the attendants to introduce thirty or forty witnesses into her chamber soon after her delivery ; and these people, who were taken at hazard from the ranks of the Parisian National Guard, soon set the slanderers to shame. The duchess appeared on the balcony of the Tuileries on the afternoon of the day of the child's birth, with the infant in her arms, to show the people that it was really her own. Diplomats came to congratulate the mother ; the water of the Jordan, which good Chateaubriand had brought in a bottle from the East, where he had been journeying and writing rhapso dies, was sprinkled on the august baby ; and Lamartine Wrote a poem on the "Child of the Miracle." In the London newspapers there appeared a protest against the legitimacy of the new pretender to the French crown, and this protest was signed by a French prince. The name of Henry V. was often heard in the Legitimist salons ; and the press was filled with anecdotes of the good King Henry IV, and the desirability of giving him a legitimate suc cessor. Meantime, the Bourbons went on tottering to their fall. ' , Young Henri had a pleasant and comparatively une ventful childhood. When he was a year old, a. national subscription resulted in securing for him the chateau of Chambord as a home. He was educated under the Dukes de Montmorency, de Riviere and de Damas. By the last- named instructor he was thoroughly trained in the princi ples of the ancient monarchy, and his mind was set- 7 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. ' 243.-. against modern progress and modern infidelity. At ten years of age, he- was a pious, thoughtful child, well edu cated, in politics as well as in books. The Revolution of 1830 grumbled over the head 'of the venerable Charles X., who resolved to abdicate in favor of Henri, and wrote the following, letter to the Duke of Orleans from Ram- bouillet : "I resolve to abdicate in favor of my grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux. The Dauphin, who shares my senti ments, also renounces his rights in favor of his nephew. Your duty will therefore be, as lieutenant-general of the. kingdom, to proclaim the accession of Henry V. to the crown." This letter was written on the 2d of August, 1830. The old king did more : he caused a proclamation, signed by "Henry Fifth," to be distributed among the troops en camped at Rambouillet. But the Due d'Orleans, although he professed willingness to see the boy prince seated on the throne, took many measures to prevent it, and one day the people of Paris made a hasty journey toward Ram bouillet, manifesting their displeasure as they went along. Charles X. did not wait to see them;- he and his family hastened to Cherbourg, whence they sailed for Eng land. The advisers of the young prince considered it best that he should also quit France, and he followed his grand father to Holyrood in Scotland. He was accompanied by the Due de Damas, who trained him in the most austere "ways. The Scotch climate was too harsh for all of the exiles, and they therefore sought a more genial refuge in Southern Austria. The Duchesse de Berri did not accom pany them ; she was frantic -with indignation at what she" 244 - BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. termed the cowardly usurpation of the Due d'Orleans, and vowed a vow, that she would take from him By violence the throne which he had stolen from her son by intrigue. She fulfilled her threat if not her vow, by her wild and courageous conduct in the Vendean insurrection, which she was mainly instrumental in fomenting. In 1832, when she was imprisoned in the fortress of Blaye, because of the part which she had taken in La Vendee, the young prince was much with her, and listened with tearful enthusiasm to the recital of her exploits. One day, Chateaubriand came to the fortress, and the child, a dozen years old, was amazed to hear himself addressed by the great writer as "King." As he arrived at years of discretion, young Chambord undertook long journeys in Europe, in which he was ac companied by generals and dukes devoted to the Le'giti- , mist cause. He visited the military establishments of Aus tria, Hungary, Germany, Lombardy, the States of Rome and of Naples, and was received in each of these countries with all the honors due a sovereign. These excursions, which gave him a wide acquaintance with European politics, and gained him many sympathizers, were interrupted in 1 84 1 by a fall from his horse, which fractured his left thigh, and made him a prisoner for a long time. In 1843 he resumed his tour in search of sympathy ; visited Saxony, Prussia, and Great Britain. In November of 1843, he an nounced himself openly as an active claimant to the French throne. It was in this month also that the famous Belgrave Square reception occurred — a reception which caused in tense excitement throughout France. The Legitimist deputies crossed the channel to see him, and to salute him as their sovereign; Belgrave Square was transformed into THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 245. the semblance of a court, where royal etiquette was ob served. Chateaubriand, the mighty Berryer, the Dues de Fitzjames and de Valmy, M. de Pastoret, and others were among these deputies, and then received no severer reproof than newspaper scoldings and the frowns of the Opposition. In 1844, the pilgrims to Belgrave Square found their visit qualified, in the parliamentary address, as a "culpable manifestation," and therefore resigned their seats, only to be at once returned by the Legitimist voters who had originally elected them. The death of Charles X. left the Comte de Chambord the chief of the eldest branch of the house of the Bour bons. . In November of 1846 he married the eldest daugh ter of the Due de Modena, Marie Theiese Beatrix Gaetano, who brought him a dowry amounting to many- millions- of francs. For a time he renounced his political ambitions, and the happy pair went to live in the Castle o'f Frohsdorff, not far from Vienna, in Austria. Around them gathered a highly cultivated and enthusiastically orthodox society, which the Legitimists were wont to call the "true France," professing a deep contempt for the flippancies and immoralities of modern Paris society. The Revolution of 1848 found the Comte de Chambord at Ven ice with his mother, who was by no means weary of con spiracy. For a time it seemed as if a vigorous attempt to secure the throne were to be made ; but it was found to be discouraging work, and the Royalist supporters dropped away one by one. The duchess had, some years pre viously, on the occasion of her departure from the Fortress of Blaye, and the discovery that she had married secretly a second time in Italy,, been deprived of the privilege of 246 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. directing her son's education ; but he remained deeply attached to her. The Comte de Chambord showed him self near the French frontier repeatedly during the Revolu tion — now at Cologne, now at Wiesbaden, now at Ems ; and in the latter city the first attempt at fusion of the two branches of the Royal family was made. The manifestoes which came from Frohsdorff from time to time after the advent of the Empire had rendered futile any farther attempts at a Legitimist restoration, and were always read with interest by Frenchmen, but excited little or no enthusiasm. The count passed his life in meditation, devotion, social duties, the cultivation of lively literary tastes, and a keen review of the progress of events. He sent words of encouragement, counsel, and true French spirit to his suffering countrymen during the war of 1870, and at that period carefully refrained from urging his per sonal claims ; and he told the nation some refreshing, although disagreeable truths, in the long proclarnation which he issued during the Commune's reign. But peo ple at that moment listened with extreme impatience. They did not like to hear him stoutly insisting on the omnipotence of the Church, and asserting his royalty, while they were struggling in the toils. The proclamation which he issued in July of 1871 has sometimes been sneeringly called his suicide. In it he renounced the title of Chambord, although he had, as he says, been proud of it for forty years ; and he added : " I can neither forget that the monarchical right is the patrimony of the nation, nor decline the duties which it imposes upon me. I will fulfil these duties, believe me, on my word as honest man and as King." He promised THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD. 2^7 administrative decentralization and local franchises, and signed himself "Henri," perhaps this time even with a- confident flourish. But the French shrugged their shoul ders, and said that they wanted no king. For a moment, in 1873, it seemed as if there might be hopes of a restoration. There were decided efforts at con ciliation between the two branches of the Bourbon house. But, at the last minute, just as the ladies were ordering their court robes, and the gentlemen devoted to royalty were beginning to take courage, the Comte de Chambord dispelled to the winds all their castles in Spain by formally announcing to Monseigneur Dupanloup that he had neither sacrifices to make nor conditions to' receive. Arid he added : "I expect little from the wisdom of men and much from the justice of God." The Comte de Chambord is rapidly nearing three score ; he has no children ; he stands haughtily aloof from the press of politicians at Versailles and in the par lors of Paris ; and one may almost fancy him continually repeating the sentence with which his manifesto of July, 1 871, closes : "Henry the Fifth cannot abandon the white flag of Henry the Fourth. " The Dug d'Aumale. SEFORE the National Assembly had passed the laws which permitted the return of the Orleans Princes to the country from which they had been exiled so long, the Due dAumale announced himself as a candidate in the department of the Oise. His letter, writ ten in London, and addressed to the voters in the depart ment, was received with peculiar favor ; the adherents of constitutional monarchy were not displeased at the pros pect of being represented by a prince who possessed superb estates in the Oise ; estates, too which had come down to him from the heritage of the last of the Condes. The Re publicans were pleased, because, in the electoral letter, or profession of faith, the duke made use of the following terms, after frankly expressing his preference for monarchy as the future form of government for France : ' ' In my sentiments, in my past, in the traditions of my family, I find nothing which separates me from the Re public. If it is under that form of government that France wishes to live and definitely to constitute her future con- THE DUC D'AUMALE. 249 dition, T am ready to bow before' her sovereignty, and I shall remain her devoted seryitor. Constitutional mon archy or liberal republic prevailing, it is only by political probity, by the spirit of concord and abnegation, that France can be saved and regenerated. Those are the sen timents which inspire me. " Truly, these were noble and courageous words, full of dignity and ofthe worthy spirit of self-sacrifice, which the duke advocated in his letter, they serve as an admirable exponent cf the frankness, earnestriess, and nobility of one ofthe first gentlemen of his time. The Due dAumale has long been a familiar figure in England, but the present generation of Frenchmen really knew little of his worth, until he returned from exile. ¦ The Imperial ring was wont to scatter aspersions concerning the Orleans family ; and, because the personal record of the gentlemen and ladies composing the family was stain less, the ring liked to dwell vaguely on political intrigues, which had no existence save in the brains of the inventors. When the duke came among his countrymen after long absence, he found that they awoke speedily from their in difference, and welcomed him with the deference and homage which his talents and good qualities, rather than his once exalted position commanded. The duke is now in his fifty-third year ; but he is as vigorous and youthful in appearance as many a man. of thirty. He is essentially a soldier in his bearing ; were he to be dressed in an Oriental robe and set in an easy chair, it would be difficult for him to conceal the attitudes,, the movements which inevitably betray the better type of French officer. He is in every sense a Gaul ; his features, 11* 9 250 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. clearly cut and stamped with a certain nobleness of aspect, are decidedly Gallic ; a long residence in England has not given him a single trait of Anglo-Saxon manner or method. Henri Eugene Philippe Louis d'Orleans, Due d'Aumale, shows exactly who and what he is, and might be picked out of a crowd for a representative of the family, by any one who had ever once seen an Orleans. He was born in Paris, on the 16th of January, 1822, and was the fourth son of King Louis Philippe, and of Queen Marie Amelie. Like his brothers, he received a public education at the college of Henri Quatre, and distin guished himself by his University successes, carrying off two prizes in rhetoric. In his early years, the brilliant and distinguished M. Cuvilier Fleury was his preceptor. The immense fortune which he had inherited did not hinder him from entering the ranks of the army at seventeen, from making his debut as officer at the camp of Fontaine- bleau, and soon afterwards directing the school for military instruction at Vincennes. In 1839, he was promoted to the grade of captain of the Fourth Regiment of the line, and in 1840, he accompanied to Algeria his brother, who had already made for himself a fine place in the army then campaigning there. He went out as a staff-officer, was under fire for the first time at Afroun, took part in the combats on the ridge of the Mouzaia, and elsewhere, and meantime gained rapidly in promotion. In July of 1 84 1, he was stricken down by fever, and returned to France, where he was everywhere received with the greatest demonstrations of enthusiasm. The return to Paris of the Seventeenth Light Infantry was one of the greatest popular ovations ever seen in France ; the popu- THE DUC D'AUMALE. 251 lation gave a glorious welcome to the bands of sunburned and ragged soldiers, conducted by the gallant prince ; and could not contain their indignation when Quenisset, a discontented soldier, attempted to assassinate D'Aumale by firing a pistol at him as he marched by at the head of his column. Fortunately, the assassin's hand trembled, and the prince escaped. The duke spent the period of 1841-42 in hard military study, and then, having been made a marshal of the camp, he returned to Algeria, where, until 1843, he commanded the subdivision of Medeah. It was not long before he distinguished himself, and obtained the grade of lieuten ant-general, by a brilliant feat of arms. In command of a small and compact force, he attacked the encampment of Abd-el-Kader at Goudgilab, and captured it with much treasure, and all the correspondence, standards, and flocks of the emir, together with thirty-six hundred prisoners. Not content with promoting the young prince, the author ities made him chief commander of the province of Con stantine. In 1844 he undertook another expedition, suc cessful in all particulars ; and toward the end of the same year he married the daughter of Prince Leopold of Sal- erna— Marie Caroline Auguste de Bourbon. Two suc ceeding -years were passed in incessant labor, at the camp ofthe Gironde, in 1845, and in pacifying the Kabyles in 1846, after which the prince went to Madrid for a little re pose, and to be present at the marriage of his brother, Montpensier. In September of 1847, the king, having had some differences with Marshal Bugeaud on the sub ject of the camps in the colonies, removed him and placed in his stead the Due d'Aumale as Governor-General of the 252 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. French possessions in Africa. The duke thus became a kind of viceroy in Algeria, with his residence in Algiers. The army was devoted to him, but the viceroyalty was the object of lively attacks from the Opposition at home. Guizot defended it in a speech, made in January 1848. D'Aumale was viceroy only six months, for the Revolution came to relieve him of his functions. As soon as he heard) of the abdication of Louis Philippe, he resigned, gave his duties into the hands of General Cavaignac, and, counsel ing the army to await orders from Paris, he left Algeria on the ship "Solon," in company with the Prince and Princess of Joinville. The "Solon" went to Gibraltar, thence to England and the duke was in exile. D'Aumale has frequently been bitterly abused for what his enemies call his "lack of firmness" at that critical moment. They say that he should have marched upon Paris at the head of the army wlych idolized him, and should have endeavored to protect the throne from which his father had been compelled to retire. But he, doubt less, remembered that during the Revolution great num bers of the soldiers of the line had gone over to the pop ulace, and, consequently, reflected that in the army of eighty thousand men under his orders there might be not a few who would do the same thing. As soon as Louis Philippe heard of his son's conduct, and read the letter of farewell which the young duke had addressed to the army, he gave these measures his cordial approval in the pres ence of numerous eye-witnesses, and, referring to the let ter, said : "That is the only thing which D'Aumale could have worthily said." THE DUC D'AUMALE. 253 The duke, on his arrival in England, went first to Clare- mont, to comfort the king and queen in exile. In suc ceeding years he made numerous journeys to Italy, and finally settled upon the choice of a residence in England, at Twickenham. He purchased Orleans House, the property of Lord Kilmorey, a simple mansion in a peace ful neighborhood, and rendered attractive to i.ts new pos sessor by the fact that Louis Philippe and Marie Amelie had passed two years there, from 1813 to 181 5, when they were proscribed in France. It was at Orleans House that the parents of the Due d'Aumale had heard the first news of the battle of Waterloo ; there that the king's hands' had planted many shrubs, which are to-day majestic trees. The duke was enchanted with his new property ; he settled down to its enjoyment with a rare zest ; spent his morn ings in his library, or among his -superb collections of pictures ; astonished the English in the neighborhood by his soldier-like manner of dashing about the country on horseback, with no visible object, not even the grave one of following the hounds; and entertained company in (he most modest and delightful manner. Twickenham- and ' Orleans House were mentioned" often enough in the Eng lish papers, but the French press did not contain many items concerning Louis Philippe's daring and accom plished soldier-son. It made the Imperialists uncomfort able to see his name paraded, and they never allowed the newspapers to annoy them. The wandering Frenchman, with a kindly remembrance of the Orleans rule in France, rarely went to England. without making an excursion to Twickenham to pay his respects, and write down his name or leave his card at the 254 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. porter's lodge as a token of respect. The fortunate ones who penetrated the mansion, which the duke gradually en larged until he had given it the proportions of a small pal ace, found that he had inscribed upon the walls and on the shelves of his library the most gratifying evidences of perfect taste. ' ' At the first visit, " says M. Yriarte in a description of .Orleans House, "one sees that the master ofthe residence is an eclectic in art and in literature ; there are pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, and French schools, and a considerable number of historical miniatures. Fragonard is represented there by a very curious collection of forty- two portraits of the princes and princesses of the royal branch of Bourbon and the family of Cond6. This comes from the Chateau of Chantilly. Another interesting col lection, from an historical point of view, is that relating specially to the conqueror of Rocroy. It is a passage in the history of France spread out before tRe eyes. In the midst of the numerous portraits of Conde, and of the paintings ofthe combats in which he was engaged, the vis itor may lay his hand upon the flag of the Royal Liegeois Regiment, taken at the Battle of Rocroy, and upon the guidons ofthe army ofthe prince. "The designs by masters are very numerous, and, of all the schools ; engravings occupy a very large portion of the space ; and one may say that in the galleries there is to be found a sample of every form which art can take on to please the eye, elevate the soul, and touch the heart. Enamels from Petittot and Limousin, exquisite miniatures, precious manuscripts, autographs of Francis I., of Rabelais, of Montaigne, Brant6me, Conde\ Corneille, Racine, fig ure in this collection, in whieh one also sees the autograph THE DUC D'AUMALE. 255 corrections of Bossuet on the manuscript copy of the Defense of the ' Declaration of the Clergy of France. ' The whole is a spectacle which delights and tempts the amateur. "The romantic period of 1830, that admirable efflores cence at which the princes assisted, and for which they have such a love, is specially. represented at Orleans House. The history of art in our time*would not be complete if the historian did not visit this dwelling. The Maison Gal lery went in there, purchased all at once ; and, during twenty years of exile, the prince has every year, at the auc tions, disputed the finest pictures with other amateurs. " Near the library, to which one is conducted by a gal lery ornamented with Ecouen windows, attributed to Bernard de Palissy, is the Prince's private cabinet. It is in France, because everything in it speaks of that country. There the African weapons, and the cap and the epaulettes of the lieutenant-general are preserved as precious sou venirs ; family relics cover the walls. "The library is famous ; the Cigogne Collection was the -nucleus. Every day since that time, some fare copy, an Aldus or an Elzevir, fought for at sales, has come to take its place upon the shelves. The prince himself carefully superintends his catalogue, which will be an important work." In 1862, when the Fine Arts Club visited Twickenham, the members were shown a special exhibition, comprising seven hundred and thirty different pictures, tapestries, gems, historical weapons, and precious bindings. There is probably not another private collection in Europe which is at once so rich and so varied. In addition to the labor 256 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. of making and superintending this veritable museum which he had created in his own house, the duke moved much, and with evident pleasure, in English society ; he was well known, and received with flattering attentions everywhere in the three kingdoms ; he had a shooting-box in Worces tershire, and went there now and then to find relaxation from books, pictures, and parlors. Like the Comte de Paris, he gave careful attention to the study of English institu tions and people, and drew from them much serious inspiration. At Brussels, at Baden, and in Switzerland, in summer he was often to be found ; and many political adversaries, falling into conversation with him in the unceremonious fashion prevalent at watering-places, with out an introduction, were charmed with his brilliant con versation and his store of knowledge. He has always had a particular liking for Switzerland, and sent his son, the Prince de Conde, to Lausanne to finish his studies and to enter the Swiss army. The years of exile passed rapidly, and far from unhap pily for this duke. In 1855, he published, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, over the signature of De Mars, two ex cellent essays, one concerning the Zouaves, and the other on the Chasseurs k Pied in the French army. He had pre viously written papers on the "Captivity of King John " and the "Siege of Alesia," and in 1861, having read a speech made in Paris by the Prince Napoleon, he wrote a pamphlet called a "Letter on the History of France," which made a great sensation in Paris, and led the gossips to predict that Prince Plon Plon and the duke would have to meet on the turf in deadly encounter. The publisher and the printer of the pamphlet were both condemned to pass a year in THE DUC D'AUMALE. 257 prison, and to pay five thousand francs fine. When, some time later, the duke's v< History ofthe Princes ofthe House of Conde " was published in France by Michel Levy, the government interdicted the first edition, and it was not until four years later that it was allowed to appear. The duke, who has since attained the great honor of a seat in the French Academy, having been elected on the 30th of December, 1871, to the place left vacant by M. de Mon- talembert, has lived to see the same persecutors tasting the bitter bread of exile. The official admission of the duke to the Academy, by the way, was marked by the fact that, contrary to the immemorial custom, he addressed in his speech, as a new-comer,, no especial thanks to the worthy company. He was, for that matter, as a clever French writer has said, "quite at home in the Academy, seated beside his preceptor, and surrounded by ministers and friends who had served his family, much as if he had been in M. Guizot's parlor." The duke entered France almost immediately after the September revolution in 1870, and begged to be allowed a share in the national defense. His offer was refused, and he went back to exile, this time in Brussels, with a heavy heart. A few days after the meeting of the Assem bly at Bordeaux, early in 1871, the duke and his brother, the Prince de Joinville, came to Bordeaux to demand the seats to which they had been elected. The duke slept one night under the same roof, that of the Hotel de France, ' with Thiers, the newly-constituted chief of executive power. But the government "invited" both princes to leave the country, and to remain -absent until the laws of exile were abrogated. They went to England, and waited 258 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. impatiently. In June, 1871, two propositions for abro gation were presented to the Assembly, one tending to the abolition of all proscriptive laws, and the other demanding simply the repeal of the laws forbidding the Bourbon princes to enter France. In obedience to the demand of M. Thiers, who declared that the abrogation could be ac corded only in exchange for certain guarantees, the friends of the princes announced that the latter had pledged themselves neither to take their seats nor to present themselves at any election during the existence of the As sembly. Thiers offered no obstacles to the repeal of the exile laws, after this promise was made public ; and the elections • of the duke and his brother, which the As sembly had up to that time refused to" confirm, were ren dered valid. In December, 1871, the Due d'Aumale, wearied of occupying the abno'rmal and humiliating position of a deputy whose election was not contested, yet who could not take his seat, published in the Journal des Debats, a letter in which he declared that the promise which he had made in the interests of public peace, and under very ex ceptional circumstances, should not be considered as irrevo cable. He brought the matter anew to the attention ofthe Assembly, whose members were already half inclined to let in the princes who had been so long kept "out in the cold." On the very day of the publication of the duke's letter, M. Brunet inquired of the government "why deputies elected ten months since, and whose elections had been confirmed for more than six months, were not present in the Assembly. " A debate ensued. The deputies, when the matter was hrought to • a vote anew, shrugged their THE DUC D'AUMALE. 259 -shoulders and decided that they would adopt an ©rder of the day announcing that they would" take no responsibility and give no advice in the affair. They left it to the con sciences of the princes ; and the duke and his brother went the next day to the Assembly and took their seats. But, although the duke had appeared exceedingly desirous to get into the Chamber, he assumed an attitude of pru dent reserve as soon as he arrived there. He abstained from voting on difficult and delicate questions, and only spoke on rare occasions. When the trial of Marshal Bazaine was prepared at Ver sailles, the Due d'Aumale, who had, naturally enough, been re-established by M. Thiers in his grade of division- general, found himself called by seniority to become .a member ofthe court-martial, to whom the fate of the be trayer of Metz was committed. It is, perhaps, doubtful if the duke desired to sit on the court-martial, for one of his friends offered an amendment in the Assembly a short time before the trial, to the effect that deputies could not become members of the court. This amendment was re jected, and the duke declared that he would fulfill his duty as a soldier, however painful and cruel it might be. In October of 1873, he was chosen president of the court- martial, and has been warmly praised for the tact and courtesy with which he fulfilled his difficult duty. With the return of honors came the wealth which had been wrested from the duke and his family by the Im perial laws of 1852. The National Assembly voted, on the 21st' of December, 1872, to restore to the Orleans princes property worth forty, millions of francs. The duke pur chased the H6tel Fould in the Faubourg Saint Honored 260 * BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. and there threw open his hospitable parlors to the hosts 01 celebrities who gathered about him. He was able to in vite his friends to Chantilly, whence he had been so long banished, and to enjoy most of the privileges which had been taken from him in 1848. He was greatly shocked - and saddened by the death of his wife, which occurred while he was still in exile ; and he has never recovered from the sorrow. The amiable and accomplished duchess was a real helpmate for him ; she was his secretary in all his_ literary labors, and was interested in his collections. Many children were born to the duke during his exile, but two, at the time of the outbreak of the late war, were living — the Prince de Conde and the Due de Guise. The forrrier died in Sidney, Australia, from fever, during a journey which he was making round the world. The failure of the attempted restoration of royalty can hardly have surprised the Due d'Aumale. Since that time his adhesion to existing institutions has been firm, and recently published letters in the avowed organ of the Or leanist family, the Journal de Paris, makes their support of the Republic see'm almost like a renunciation of any future pretensions to a resumption of their reign. As the duke is a division-general in actual service, he is taking ari active part in the re-modeling and consolida tion of the French forces, and to this work he gives his whole heart and soul. The Comte de Paris. HEN the Comte de Paris was a child ten years old, he was greatly surprised, one day, to learn that the teachers, who usually kept him busy with lessons, could not come to him. His first impression was that a new holiday had been created, and he was eagerly looking forward to a festival, when he rem'arked that his mother and all the persons about her were unusually sad. The great palace of the Tuileries, where he was wont to see everything and everybody in gala attire, was somber as a funeral vault ; mysterious-looking people came and went from the royal cabinet, and. the count and his bro thers were carefully secluded from view <5f the streets. This was on the 23d of February, 1848. On the morn ing of the 24th, when the young count went, as usual, to kiss his mother, she told him that a' great misfortune had be/alien France ; that he could not understand it, but that he must pray and await events. His preceptor came at the usual hour and lessons were heard in an apartment of the palace opening upon the Rue de Rivoli. Suddenly 262 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. an order came' to remove to rooms overlooking the garden ; and the count then learned that a combat in the streets was imminent. The child, after his lessons, began to play in the room to which he had been removed, when the door was hastily thrown open, and his mother entered, saying to the teacher : " It is not a riot ; it is a revolution." The young count understood full well the meaning of the last word which fell from his mother's lips. He fol lowed her, with questioning eyes, into a small bedroom, which separated Louis Philippe's private cabinet from that of the queen. Then the preceptor, now thoroughly al armed, attempted to conceal his agitationas he superintend ed the translation of an episode in an epitome of sacred history. The count was ferreting out the narrative of the» young heroes, who, according to the - book of Maccabees, perished in cauldrons of boiling oil, when a great tumult arose on the Place du Carrousel. The troops, drawn up in line, demanded to see the king. Louis Philippe went out to pass the review, and the young count gazed at the brilliant spectacle from a window of the palace. A short time after Louis Philippe had returned from- the Place du Carrousel, he came out of his cabinet with a de termined air, and, standing erect before the door, said, in a grave and firm voice :* "I abdicate." The young count ran to his teacher, saying, ' ' No ; it's impossible." He was not too young to understand that if his grandfather should abdicate, he might be called upon * " Les Princes d'Orle'ans. " Par Charles Yriarte. Paris. 1872. THE COMTE DE PARIS. 263 to take his place, and visions of a gilded throne and of every one looking at him, floated through his youthful brain. Outside, he heard from time to time the noise of musketry, but he was not allowed to look out of any window. His mother at last came to tell him that he must accompany her to the Chamber of Deputies, and thither the frightened lady, with her two sons, and sur rounded by a host of devoted friends, took her way. They passed out under the clock tower of the palace. The count did not approach that tower again until twenty- four years, later, when he found it a heap of smouldering ruins. After many adventures, they arrived at the Chamber of Deputies. There the count was seated beside his mother, and was enjoined to be silent while the speeches were made. He saw that his mother was surrounded by coun selors, who advised her what to say to the Chamber ; then came violent knocking at the door ; the crowd rushed ¦ in, and muskets were aimed at the Duchess and her chil dren. The good M. de Remusat covered the young count with his body. No guns were fired, but the child,' with his mother and brother, fled from the hall, and after a weary and dangerous season of wandering, iri which they were protected by the kindly offices of rela tives and friends, they gained the open country, left the revolution behind them, and found themselves practi cally in exile. There were days of journeying, which were terribly fatiguing to the child. When at last they came to the frontier, and discussed th% question of crossing it, he cried : " Leave France ! No, never ! " - 264 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. But the carriage went on, and the family did not find repose until it had crossed the Rhine, and the mother, pressing her children to her breast, said : "Now I feel that I am, indeed, exiled." The duchess established herself at Eisenach, in a chit- teau which was the property of her uncle, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar. There the count and his brother tran quilly pursued their studies until the summer of 1849, when the duchess decided to reside in England. The little family embarked at Rotterdam, and, after a rude voy age, arrived in the hospitable island destined so long to be their home.' , The period from early youth to manhood was passed by the count in long journeys in Germany, alternated with serious study and periods of residence in England. When he was twenty, his mother wrote of him: "It is no longer I who protect him ; I feel that he protects me." The Due de Nemours was for a time his mentor, and has borne witness to the early gravity, serenity, and sweetness of the count's character. Just before the youth attained his majority, he became enamored of the study of chem istry ; and, after a few months of application, he was con sidered by Professor Hoffman, of the London School of Mines, as one of his most remarkable pupils. He has never relinquished his study of the science. After the death of his mother, which occurred in May, 1858, he traveled extensively in Spain, came back to England, there 'to await the end and the results of the war in Italy, and in the following year, in cijmpany with his brother, visited the East. His correspondence of that period is filled with the most charming souvenirs of his excursions in THE COMTE DE PARIS. 265 Egypt, the Holy Land, and Greece; even then he wrote well, and deserved the literary reputation which he has gained since that time. He was in Syria at the time of the Lebanon massacres, and the impressions of his journey there are recorded in a volume entitled "Damascus and Lebanon," which he published in London in 1865. The Comte de Paris and his brother were anxious to study the political and social system of the United States, and on the 30th August, 1861, but a -short time after their return from the East, they sailed for New York. They found the country in the anguish of civil war, and their sympathies, as well as their curiosity, were at once aroused. The count had not been able to serve in the Italian campaign, as his younger brother had done, for fear of complicating the relations of Victor Emanuel with the Emperor of the French. But he longed to take part in the struggle for liberty in America ; there appeared no obstacle to his participation, and both he and his brother at once demanded permission to serve in the Federal army. They were gladly received, and, in the letter which Mr. Seward wrote them to announce that they had been at tached to General McClellan's staff, he affirmed that the princes served without pay, that they had been asked to take no oath of allegiance, and that they were free to return to Europe whenever they should choose. As this left them ample room for honorable retirement in case the United States should find its interests opposed to those of France, the princes entered the service. The Comte de Paris has often declared that the hap piest days of his exile were passed as a staff officer in McClellan's army. During .the ten months that he was 266 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. with the Army of the Potomac he was active in service. His duty was to obtain information as to the enemy's plans, forces, and positions ; and he was frequently com mended for his industry and zeal. Both he and his brother risked their lives in numerous battles, notably at the fight of Gaines's Hill. The count assisted at the taking of Yorktown and the siege of Richmond ; and would doubtless have served throughout the campaigns whose historian he was destined to be, had not the unfor tunate attitude of the Imperial Government with regard to Mexico rendered a collision between France and the United States among the probabilities, and made it wise for the princes to leave the Federal service, that hostile criticism might be avoided. They took leave of General McClellan on a gunboat on the James River, and shortly afterwards departed for Europe, having served from the 28th of September, 1861, to the 2d of July, 1862. It is gratifying to note that, according to the testimony of all his personal friends, the Comte de Paris never for a mo ment, even in the darkest hours of our national trial, doubted the final triumph of the Union. The precocious maturity which his fond mother perceived and noted, many years before her death, in her letters to her friends in France, had become so marked in 1862, that many of the letters written from 'America by the young prince, twenty. four years of age, seem like the sentiments of a man of forty. Soon after his return from America to England, the Comte de Paris became much interested in social science, and zealously studied everything concerning the workmen's condition. At the time of the great cotton famine, he THE COMTE DE PARIS. 267 visited Manchester, and was in active relations with those people interested in aiding the starving poor of Lanca shire. The spies of the emperor soon found out the new turn which the count's studies had taken, and watched the mails carefully to see that nothing subversive, from his pen, crept into France. When the prince decided to embody the result of his observations in an article contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes, in February of 1 863, under the title of "Christmas Week in Lancashire," he was compelled to publish it over the name of another contributor. To have given to so noted a publication an essay filled with argu ments in favor of combinations among working-men, over the signature of the Comte de Paris, would have been an unpardonable offense in the eyes of the Emperor Napo leon. The article was signed by Eugene Foreade, but all the friends of the Comte de Paris knew that he was the author. It attracted great attention both in England and France, and encouraged the prince to other studies. In company with Jules Simon, he again visited Manchester ; carefully investigated the origin and purposes ofthe famous society of the ' ' Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale, " and made the acquaintance of many of its founders. For several years he devoted a great portion of his leisure to excur sions among the working people of England, and kept up an extensive private correspondence on the subject of workmen's unions, and their benefits, with the people in terested in the same matter in America, England, and on the Continent. In 1868 his attention was drawn to the voluminous re ports published by the English Parliament under the name of "Blue Books," which contain such treasures of in- 268 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. formation on the special matters of which they treat. His bookseller had sent him one of these "Blue Books" con taining a portion of the report of the sessions of the royal commission established to inquire into the condition and working of the trades' unions. He read this eagerly, and awaited the pthers impatiently. When they came, and he had devoured, their contents, he found himself possessed of a lively desire to know some of the persons who had played the most important rdles in the commission. He met and had many interviews with Thomas Hughes, who was a member of the minority favorable to the continued ex istence of the unions. In the course of a third visit to Manchester, he encountered ' Maudley, an old workman, who lived in an obscure cottage in one of the dreariest suburbs of Manchester, but who had great influence over the trades' unions in Lancashire. Maudley was a logical, honest, straightforward representative of the better type of his class, by no means embittered against society, which he desired to aid in reforming rather than in de stroying ; and the heir to the French throne and the humble workmen spent many afternoons together, com paring theories and discussing plans for the amelioration of the lower classes. • > The result of all this study — this close attention to the subject for nearly six years— was the publication, early in 1869, by the Comte de Paris, of a compactly written and intensely interesting little volume, entitled " Workingmen's Associations in England." The book was at first pub lished anonymously, and obtained a gratifying success. The Imperial censors of course found out with no loss of time who the author was. After peering into the pages THE COMTE DE PARIS. 269 to discover any infernal machine which might lie hidden there, and finding none, they opposed no hindrance to its sale, and it ran through numerous editions. It is filled with information calculated to be serviceable to the French working classes ; and a spirit of liberality and even en lightened republicanism is breathed, throughout the work, The count was reproached because he did not draw any definite conclusions, but he showed by powerful reasoning that the working classes "cannot expect to be happy in a country where the liberty of the press, of public assembly, and of association is denied them. He hinted that a system of industrial partnerships might aid in solving the grievous problem, whose solution has always been so far beyond the French mental grasp, and he was of course attacked by hostile critics who were perhaps paid to cry down any work which came from the pen of an Orleans. The count is a good pamphleteer, and his essays on "The New Germany in 1867," and "The Spirit of Con quest in 1871," attracted much attention in France. The latter was published shortly before the distinguished author was recalled from exile. He also published in 1868 a no ticeable article on "State Church and Free Church in Ireland." In his writings on Germany, he gave to his countrymen a clear and admirable view of the. progress of centralization in that country. , He was admirably qualified for this work by the numerous sojourns and journeys which he had made in the German States when young. His private life, after his return from America, was sin gularly happy. In 1862,, during the'Universal Exhibition at London, he and the other members of the family were" constantly feted and acclaimed by pilgrims from France, 270 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. who did not hesitate to tell them that they looked forward with impatience to the time when the Comte de Paris should grace the throne from which Louis Philippe had stepped down. In 1863 the count went to Spain, where, in 1859, on the occasion of a brief visit, he had seen and admired his cousin-german, the Princess Isabelle, daugh ter of the Due de Montpensier. He found her, on his second visit, an accomplished and elegant lady, and a fam ily council demanded her hand for him.- The count took his charming cousin to England, where they were married, in the Catholic chapel of Kingston, in 1864. The years from 1864 to 1870 were comparatively une ventful for the Comte de Paris. The death of his devoted mother, in 1866, was a sad blow to him ; their association . had always been tender and intimate ; and the vicissitudes through which she had been compelled to pass when he was young had intensified his affection for her. In 1867 he returned to Spain for a short time, after which he established himself .near Twickenham, at York House, in England. His home was very modest compared with the superb residence of the Due d'Aumale at Twickenham, but it was charmingly situated in one of the most delightful suburbs of London, and there the count devoted himself to study and to the education of his children, until the downfall of the Empire made a way for his return to France. A demand for the abrogation of the laws of exile, which hung over the heads of the Orleans family, was repulsed by the Corps Legislatif in June of 1870. Three months later the Empire no longer existed. The Due d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville were in Brussels, as near the theater THE COMTE DE PARIS. 27 1 of the war as they could safely get, but the Comte de Paris was condemned to remain in England, lest his journeys at such a time might be attributed to a policy of action.. He sent from York House a demand to the French Government to be allowed to take up arms in defense of his country ; but his efforts were vain. At last came the law -abrogating the laws of exile — -voted by the National Assembly — and the count returned to France to find it as when he left it, in disorder and revolution. He made a pilgrimage to Dreux, to the. tombs of his ancestors, then went to Paris, and walked among the smoking ruins of the palace which he had once, a royal infant, in habited. The Comte de Paris is to-day installed with the Due " d'Aumale, his uncle, in a superb' mansion in the Faubourg Saint-Honor6. He keeps a keen eye on the political sit uation ; is by no means entirely hostile to the Republic, and it was even rumored in the early autumn of 1875 that he and the other members of the family were inclined to rally to the support of the new government. He devotes himself with the same assiduity which characterized him in Germany, in England, and in the United States, to the study of social and economical questions. He is now thirty-seven years of age ; a tall, robust, and gracious per sonage, noble in aspect, and the observed of all observers, even when surrounded by celebrities. He wanders about the industrial quarters of Paris, and enters into conver sation with the workmen ; passes his mornings in his li brary, and his evenings with his children or in society, and travels enough every year to keep his cosmopolitan spirit dut of the Paris ruts. He has three children, one 272 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. of whom, the Due- d'Orleans, gives promise of decided geniua- The latest work from the pen of the count, the ' ' His tory of the Civil War in America," has hardly yet been published long enough to have received a final verdict. It has evidently been a labor of, love, and is' written in a sympathetic spirit. In this work the author has rather boldly declared principles which can be called by no other name than republican, and which reflect the highest honor upon his head and heart. Ernest Picard. JHE deputies in the National Assembly never shuf fled their feet when M. Picard was in the tribune. They were always compelled, by the magic of his voice, to listen and to be silent. However much they might disagree with what he had to say, they were careful, as a rule, not to cry out against him ; and had he been offended at anything like a lack of attention, and taken them to task, they would have been terrified. M. Picard, who began, his political career in the early, days of the Second Empire, and who has combated the principles of that government from first to last, is to- day a lively, rotund, humorous, polished, accomplished poli tician, of democratic manners and matchless address. He was born in Paris in December of 182 1 ; studied law, and entered the bar with great promise. He became the sec retary of the brilliant and celebrated M. Lionville, and finally married the daughter • of that distinguished person age. In 1 85 1 he was accumulating a fine practice, and was- already among the legal celebrities of the city. Re- 12* 274 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. gardless of consequences, he protested loudly against the infamy of the coup d'etat, and then opposed the Impe rial intrigues by every means in his power. He became a member of the Administrative Council ofthe Siecle news paper, and in this position was able to administer some hard knocks to his adversary. His voice was heard in all the political meetings decrying the policy of abstention, with which so many of the Republican leaders endeavored to content themselves in those days. In 1858 he was elected to the Corps Legislatif as the candidate ofthe Dem ocratic opposition. He rushed into the political arena with frantic force, which, as he became more accustomed to the kind of warfare required, settled into calm and continuous effort. He was one of the most useful of the famous group of ' ' the Five " who dared to stand up in the legislative hall, and to say to all the world that the gov ernment of Napoleon III. was a tyranny founded on fraud and violence, and that it was the duty of the French peo ple to overturn it. In questions of finance, of internal policy, and of exterior relations, he was an acknowledged leader in the Republican ranks, and he never hesitated to say exactly what he thought, no matter into how great rage it might throw the Imperial party. He was the sworn enemy of Haussimann and his administration of the Department ofthe Seine, from the very moment ofthe ap pointment of that functionary. He made the prefect un comfortable, for he unveiled >the corruption which existed in those days, and showed such a rotten condition of af fairs that he thus had one of the most effe'ctive arguments possible against the Empire. His raillery, his scorn, and his exposes won him the distinction of being very closely ERNEST PICARD. 275 espied. But he was never troubled, even when the cloak of his inviolability as a deputy was thrown aside. Picard did the French good service in making every possible effort to hinder the foolish -Mexican expeditiont He was re-elected to, the Corps Legislatif in 1863, "Und i. was shortly after his re-election that he made numerous earnest and eloquent speeches against the Imperial policy with regard to the American continent. The people who refused to believe him in those days have had a profound respect for his judgment ever since.- In 1869 he was elected by both the Departments of the Seine and the He- rault, and chose to represent the latter. He was firmly opposed to the Imperial plebiscite, which he rightly con sidered a trap set to catch the unwary ; and as the Em pire became, in outward appearance, more and more in clined to make liberal concessions, he became all the more its avowed enemy. In his electoral circular of 1869, he stated that his policy was that of the Liberal Union, which had aided in his nomination, and whose aim was the over throw of the emperor's personal power. He added : "I am for the Republic which is willingly accepted, rather than for the Republic by right divine. " ¦ The portfolio of -finance was given to M. Picard when the Government of National Defense was formed, and he kept it until the Assembly met at Bordeaux, when he was elected a deputy from the Department of the Meuse. M. Thiers insisted that he should become Minister of the Interior in the first Cabinet which he formed, and Picard occupied that important post until June, 1871. He then resigned, and refused at the same time an appointment as governor ofthe Bank of France, which Thiers had of- 276 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. fered him. He said that he preferred to consecrate him self to his duties as deputy. A few months later, however, he accepted the mission of minister plenipotentiary to Brussels, but kept up his work as a legislator all the time. When' any important question in which he was interested came up for discussion, he took the train from Brussels to Versailles, attended the debates, and then returned. His friends everywhere called him the deputy- minister. His enemies dreaded his sudden entrances into the legis- tive hall, and always endeavored to postpone the discus sions at which he had come to assist. M. Picard resigned his ministerial position as soon as M. Thiers had fallen from power, and at once became one of the most active members of the Centre Left. As a deputy in the Assembly," his role in initiating meas ures was quite important. He proposed the law for placing the Department of the Seine-et-Oise in a state of siege, at the time that the Assembly intended to remove from Bordeaux to Versailles. When General Ducrot made his noted speech against the ' ' men of the Fourth of September," using the term as one of reproach, Picard, who was at that time Minister of the Interior, made a superb speech, in which he hurled back upon the unsuc cessful general all the calumnies which had been uttered by him. " Do you know, gentlemen, " he cried, addressing the deputies, "who they are who should rightly be called the men of the Fourth of September ? They are, above all, those who, against all right and all patriotic endeavor,. blindly obeying the Imperial power, voted a declaration of war which was fatal to the country— a declaration which, we resisted until the very last minute ! " ERNEST PICARD. 277 One day, when dissension was more painful than usual, he cried out, " France is not lost, but she will be, if such divisions, such fatal differences inflame our debates daily." Picard voted for the abrogation of the laws of exile, as did his friends Favre, Lefranc, and Simon. He did not show himself- liberal toward the press. By a decree of the 10th of October, 1870, the Government of the National Defense had suppressed the odious and onerous system of caution-money, which had done so much to break down the independence of journalism in- France. Picard, al though an ex-member of that same government, proposed, in the National Assembly, the abrogation of the decree, and obtained it. He was very severely criticised for this illiberal measure, and was at a loss to explain satisfactorily why he wished to put the " caution " at work once more. Probably he fancied that much was to be gained by muz zling the monarchical press. In this matter, and in the determined opposition which he made to certain projects of decentralization, claiming that they would tend to destroy the national unity, his conduct seems really inex plicable, -No one can doubt his sincerity as a lover of freedom, but he seems anxious, like so many other Frenchmen, to be personally the judge of what that freedom shall be. In December, 1871, M. Picard, in a committee meeting of the Centre Left, offered a proposition inviting the As sembly to put an end to the provisory regime by proclaim ing the republic as the actual government of France ; and by creating two chambers in the place of the one huge and unwieldy body of nearly eight hundred members. At that time the proposition was judged inopportune, and was laid 278 BRIEF .BIOGRAPHIES. aside, although it was admitted by all the friends, of repub licanism that it was right in theory. Picard showed then, as now he shows, his determination to be contented with nothing less than a republican government, as he has con ceived it. If he is no longer as ardent in his opinions as he was in 1858, he is none the less sincere in his desire for constitutional, and, above all, for good government. As a moderate, he of course receives many hard blows from the radicals, who would be glad to get him out of the way; standing, as he does, in their way, and hindering many of their maddest schemes, he perhaps serves France much more effectually than he could in any other manner, unless it be in the occasional luminous explanation of those financial questions which the other deputies wil lingly leave to h's attention. Henri Rochefort. ilHE name of Henri Rochefort is not often spoken, of late, in France. The once famous author of La Lanterne, the fiery editor of the Marseillaise, the proscribed politician, the escaped convict, the man on whom every eye was fixed in 1869, is now almost forgot ten in his native land. From time to time, when Cassaig nac challenges him to a duel, when he ventures on to French territory and is in imminent danger of arrest, or when he narrowly escapes drowning _ in the lake near Geneva — a city which he has chosen as his future place of residence — there is a murmur concerning him ; then it dies suddenly away. Even Figaro, the brilliant and sprightly journal, to whose columns he once contributed so many lead ing articles, no longer visits periodically upon him the petty vengeance of its insults, or the gnat-like stings, of its small scandals. He has won the only prize for which he could possibly have hoped ; the happy lot in which he is free, and for the time forgotten. Those of his enemies who fancy that Jie suffers keenly because debarred from 280 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. the privilege of re-entering France ; those who misunder stand him so wofully as to suppose him a disappointed and venomous being, whose only ambition is to pull down society, feast on the spectacle of political anarchy, and re venge himself on the powers that be ; and those who im agine him a plotting conspirator, coldly concentrating his intelligence upon plans for some chimerical government ; all these are alike mistaken. Rochefort is neither dan gerous, demented, nor soured. The terrible events through which he has passed since 1870, have naturally left in effaceable scars upon his heart and his memory. But those who know him best and judge him most, fairly,, affirm that his temper has lost'none ofthe sweetness, once' one of his chief charms. He has been chastened, not embittered ; no man has ever been more willing to -recognize his grave faults, and to endeavor under the eye of God and man to atone for the gravest of them, than Henri Rochefort. His wild youth — a youth of passions, reverses, remorses, afflictions, triumphs social and professional, duels, im prisonments, hair-breadth escapes, voyages around half the world, and controversies which would have struck a chill to the hearts of' men" less courageous — has left him in a calm which has something very like apathy in it. Perhaps he will one day arise and enter the field, of journalism again, and do battle as of old ; perhaps, on the contrary, his life-work is over, and the Rochefort of the future will con tent himself with the curious reputation of the Rochefort of the past. It is not entirely singular that there are no Impartial French biographies of Rochefort in existence. The hun dreds of pamphlets and newspaper articles purporting to HENRI ROCHEFORT. 28 1 give the true story of his early life and subsequent career, which appeared when he stepped from the humble position of a writer in the controversial press to the proud post of an opposition deputy in the Corps Legislatif, were all either wretchedly untrue, or so distorted by prejudice and hate, as to be totally unreliable. Time was when any penny-a- liner, who could invent a lie about Rochefort was sure of his market in a dozen of the principal editorial rooms of Paris ; when it was the fashion to revile the man who had so recently been the " confrere" and the "distinguished " Collaborateur. People who should have blushed to en gage in such contemptible employment, ransacked the past for items which should tell against Rochefort or his family. The journalist-politician groaned as he saw what a curse his popularity had become to him, and doubtless reflected now and then, with woe-begone expression, on the fickleness of " friends. " From sources believed to be authentic, we get the state ment that Henri Rochefort was in Paris, in July, 1832, at a time when the cholera was sweeping off hundreds of victims weekly. The child's parents were of aristocratic de scent, although their fortune was beginning to fail, and they were very near the bottom round of that ladder which the old French families have been so steadily descending ever since '93. These parents gave their children the title of Count, and the name of Victor Henri de Rochefort-Lu9ay. Although the cholera did not seem inclined to meddle with the infant, it was feared that his life would be short, as nature had provided him with such an enormous head, that his body seemed hardly competent to support it. The doctor called the baby-count a young monster, but 282 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. ended by consoling the parents, and prophesying that the head would in due time become better adapted to the body. The child grew up to youth a timid, awkward, lank fellow, whose sleeves were never long enough for his arms, and who almost died of fright and bashfulness whenever his parents took him into company. Some of his timidity was banished by the time he was ready to enter the college of Saint Louis in Paris, where he was educated. There he showed decided political tendencies ; received plenty of compliments from his rhetorical professor, and wrote one or two excellent sonnets to the Virgin, which his Catholic adver saries are fond of quoting against him since he has become a "free-thinker," and has condemned the Church in toto. At the' age of sixteen, Rochefort was except'onally pious, and his devotion, so marked for a time as to render him liable to a suspicion of bigotry, is said to have been the fruit of an excellent sermon preached one afternoon at Notre Dame by Father Lacordaire. The wicked and false biographists, with malice which has an exclusively- French savor, announced that a lady relative, very rich and devote, had promised her fortune to the young collegian, if he would persist in treading the narrow ways of goodness. The sonnets to the Virgin are to be seen to-day in the Ar chives ofthe Academy of Floral Sports at Toulouse. In 1869, when Rochefort was a candidate for the Corps Legis latif, the Paris Siecle fished out of oblivion and printed these pieces of verse. Their resuscitation undoubtedly cost Rochefort many hundreds of votes. While Rochefort was at college he tqok much interest in .the course of politics, and avowed himself, even at that HENRI ROCHEFORT. 283 early age, an ardent and earnest Republican. His mother had imbued him with her liberal convictions, and he felt an intense interest in the fate of the oppressed masses, and a supreme scorn for the aristocrats and parvenus, who pro fessed to see nothing but anarchy possible as the result of an attempt at free government. The mother was so much in earnest. in her liberalism, that she refused to have a priest at her bedside when she was at the point of death ; and this refusal she insisted upon, although her son him self is said to have asked her to receive the consolation and the absolution offered by the representative of Holy Church. In 1848, Rochefort, like most other young Frenchmen of talent, did some foolish things. He talked wildly in the Robespierre vein, and threatened all tyrants with instant immolation. This fever did not last long ; but he grew steadily in radical feeling. In the same revolutionary year of 1848, an archbishop, who had recently received his pro motion, because his predecessor had been killed at the barricades, invited to a grand breakfast the most studious and promising pupils from all the Paris Lycees. Roche fort was not only among the number, but was appointed by his professor of rhetoric to read a cantata in honor of the new archbishop. The young poet carefully kept his poem in his desk until the day for the reading came. Then he horrified the professors, shocked his fellow-pupils, and maddened the archbishop by a series of allusions to political events — allusions which, whetheror not they were in good taste, were certainly cutting. Rochefort at once lost favor with his professor. At the age of eighteen our hero contemplated the study 284 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. of medicine, and forthwith became a noticeable figure in the Quartier Latin. Student life in that peculiar section of one of the most peculiar of cities is a madness which does not last long, but which is acute while it endures. The victims of this insanity look back with a species of stunned wonder at a later period of their existence, upon their frolics, their caprices, and their sins in Bohemia. Rochefort was as mad as all the others ; he was more steady in his attendance upon the Bullier ball than on medical lectures ; he wrote roystering songs for the com panions of his joyous existence ; was a prominent member ofthe " processions " whose exploits sometimes brought them into unpleasant contact with the police ; hissed and broke up benches when anything displeased him and his fellows at the Odeon Theater ; challenged enemies with alarming recklessness, and fought duels with a gay abandon, which gave him a dubious reputation throughout Paris. He did not go to his examinations ; knew very little of the inside of the books which he was supposed to be studying, and was leading a round of jovial dissipation, when he woke up one morning to learn that his family no longer possessed a sou in the world, and that he must go to work. He put away his books and his songs, and began a ca reer as teacher, in a small way, for the moderate sum of thirty sous daily. Now, thirty sous, as the French say, "is not the sea to drink up, " and Master Rochefort found that the ' ' Psalm of Life " is a very somber kind of song. But his joyousness never deserted him ; he was always hoping for an agree able to-morrow, and would have starved with supremest HENRI ROCHEFORT. 285 contempt, had not Charles Merruan, an ex-jburnalist, who had an affection for the young count, and who was just then an official in the office of the Prefecture of the Seine, found for him and offered to him a steady position, worth twelve hundred francs per year. Rochefort accepted and for some time worked well. But the life of a hack in the cells of administration is rather demoralizing from the very routine, and the youth soon found it convenient to make • occasional visits to a neighboring caf6 during office hours, and to play piquet, and, perhaps, to write a sonnet now and then on the marble-topped tables. This conduct soon brought reproof from his superior officer upon him, where upon he waxed wroth, and sent a challenge to the superior. Rochefort's protector succeeded in securing his protege's pardon for these eccentricities,, and found him a new' place in the Bureau of Archives. This was another species of living burial. Rochefort, after some vain efforts to endure it, rebelled. He was then sent to the Auditor's Office. Here he began to understand a little better how to con duct himself, and his long head was seen bent over his desk every moment in office hours. But he was not en gaged in doing extra work for -the Government; on the contrary, he was busy writing Vaudeville farces, and small comedies for the minor theaters. Commerson, ofthe Tinta- marre, was a co-laborer, and the two turned out some cu rious work. Not much of it is alive to-day. When Rochefort had too much to do, he gave his office work tq his neighbor clerk, who cheerfully performed it, taking his pay in theater tickets, of which the budding dramatist always had his pocket full. The pieces which Rochefort and Commerson jointly evolved from their seething brains 286 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. were nearly all produced at the Vaudeville and the Palais- Royal, where excellent acting contributed to help out a success which would have been far from certain with dif ferent accessories. The young dramatist-clerk wrote one or two buffooneries for the Varietes Theater, and at times worked in company with Pierre Veron. While he was thus auditing accounts and writing for the theater, he was miserably poor, and was constantly looking about for some means of increasing his slender income. The first journal, a small gazette 'devoted .to- the theaters, to which he applied, sent him speedily about his business, strongly hinting that it had but small opinion of his tal ents. But he speedily proved his right to the title of an author by writing some articles of contemporary biography, which were very striking, and which made his name gen erally known. He next began writing for the Charivari, -a grotesque journal, whose popularity is mainly due to its excellent caricatures. While engaged on, the staff of this paper, he had a quarrel with one of the editors of the Gaulois, and an "encounter" was the result. Rochefort was slightly wounded, and, the evening after the duel, the loungers in the three thousand cafes of the city all had his name upon their lips. He naturally neglected his hack work in the office of the auditor, and in process of time came the demand for his resignation. He gave it, but the. prefect of the Seine hearing that Rochefort's ancient pro tector had deserted him, called that individual into his cabinet and said : "What have you done to that poor Rochefort? I am going to offer him the post of assistant inspector of fine arts, with three thousand francs salary." HENRI ROCHEFORT. 287 A few months previously, Rochefort would gladly have accepted such an offer ; but he was daily becoming more famous in journalism, and he felt it his duty to refuse. He left the halls of administration, and looked about him for new adventures in the dangerous field of literature. Aurelien Scholl was at that time making strenuous en deavors to rival the Figaro, and had decided to found- a critical and satirical journal called the Yellow Dwarf. He offered Rochefort 'an editorial post; the latter accepted, did some exceedingly good work, and was, consequently, * •bought up in a short time by Figaro. Villemessant, the ambitious editor of the last-named sheet, gave Rochefort five hundred francs monthly for a weekly article. Roche fort wrote well, whatever his enemies may to-day say to the contrary ; he was the sensation of the time, and Figaro gained immensely in circulation. He was constantly in trouble, because he wrote with a sharp pen. His victims sent him their cards and their seconds. Their challenges were never kept waiting in the antechamber. Now it was a Spaniard, who fancied that the ex-Queen Isabella had been insulted, and who demanded reparation ; now, a Frenchman, who supposed' that some covert allusion had been made to his political sentiments. Rochefort never offered any excuses ; he sharpened his pen and wrote again, and fought as long and as often as his adversaries could desire. By-and-by a banker, who was a little envious of Fig aro's power, and who, like so many other unfortunate wights, fancied that journalism is an easy game to play at, founded the Soleil. No sooner had the beams of this new intellectual luminary begun to be felt in Paris, than 288 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. the founder offered Rochefort fifteen hundred francs monthly, for a bi-weekly chronicle of events. This was superb payment. Rochefort accepted ; but Figaro cap tured him anew next year by offering him two thousand francs monthly, and a bonus of three thousand francs. New duels succeeded each other rapidly ; princes and parvenus . measured swords with this lively Gaul, whose lean and sinewy form, when he was wielding his rapier upon the turf, face to face with his antagonist, reminded the lookers-on of Don Quixote doing deeds of valor for some imaginary good cause. Rochefort came to blows with Paul de Cassaignac, the latter being possessed of an amiable desire to kill a journalist who was already beginning to be troublesome for the Imperial ring. Cas saignac was the insulter ; the young men went to Belgium to settle their differences, but there they met some grave- looking gendarmes, who sneered at their ferocity, and con ducted them to the frontier. They then betook them selves to a plain near Paris, where Rochefort received a bullet wound, and Cassaignac professed himself, for the time, satisfied. Underneath the current of Rochefort's curious and excited existence all this time, ran a current of intense contempt for the corrupt and ignoble people whom he pil loried from week to week. He had, long before the power of the spell which the Second Empire had cast over France had begun to wane, dared to speak out boldly and emphatically against certain abuses practiced by the Impe rial party, and he was usually on the side of truth in his accusations. When Napoleon arrived at the zenith of his power,- in 1867, and when the gilded bubble of the HENRI ROCHEFORT. 289 Empire was attracting the attention of the whole world, that bubble received a sharp stab from Rochefort's danger ous pen. The popular chronicler, who might have con tented his readers and continued to earn his splendid salary by simply winking at political hypocrisy and wick edness in high places, had the courage to say to the French people that they were worshiping an odious sham. The first articles, in the columns of Figaro which had a tendency ' to throw discredit upon the Imperialists were passed over in silence. But at last came one signed "Henri Roche fort," which drew the attention ofthe judges. The Figaro was at that time only a literary journal by name, and was, therefore, not obliged to deposit caution-money. But, as soon as Villemessant, the editor, received a notice that his paper had offended .the "superior authority," he at once deposited the sum necessary as a kind of bail, and Figaro became political. Rochefort renewed his attacks on the Empire and the emperor. The editor-in-chief oi Figaro was summoned to a ministerial cabinet, and explanations were demanded. A few days thereafter, it was announced that Rochefort was no longer a member of the editorial staff. The Lanlerne was then created. Rochefort put his lance in rest, and ran at full tilt against the government. The appearance of a little pamphlet, in red covers, with a lan tern engraved upon them, with Rochefort's name as the author, and with a heavy caution-deposit behind the enter prise, one day. startled all Paris. The promenaders on the boulevards grew pale as they read the audacious accusa tions which a simple citizen hurled at the head of the emperor. The bourgeois shopkeeper put up his shutters 290 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. earlier than usual. The excitable working-men gathered in groups, and, despite the spies sent among them, dis cussed the new sensation. Thousands, hundreds of thou sands of the pamphlets were scattered throughout France ; they were seized in one place and burned, but were speed ily heard of in another. The Imperial family at first smiled at the venture ; then, as the Lanterne beamed more brightly" week by week, and as its flame seemed to grow . more and more lurid, they were annoyed. Soon they be came frightened, and then the Empiie's agents began to take decisive measures. Rochefort, intoxicated with the exercise of the strange power which fate or hazard had placed in his hands, grew careless. He wrote too freely; his flippant remarks concerning the empress procured him condemnations which made it necessary to leave France. The Lanterne was compelled to shed its beams upon the frontier-wall. The circulation of the pamphlet, which at one time had been as much as one hundred and twenty thousand copies weekly, fell to four thousand. Not a copy was allowed to enter France through the post-office, and travelers carrying the fiery document in their luggage were rendered liable to heavy fines. Rochefort, weary, and smarting under a sense of temporary defeat, did not write as well as usual, and his daring literary-political adventure came to an end after a few weeks of existence. - Meantime, the man who had dared to beard the em peror was sought out during his exile by other exiles, who perceived what a powerful engine Rochefort's pen had be come, and how strong it would be in aiding to produce the desired upheaval in France. The wags, who are never weary of making jokes about Victor Hugo, related that HENRI ROCHEFORT. 29I the great poet was dining one day in the midst of his fam ily, in the house which he had taken at Brussels, when Rochefort's card was sent in. "Henri Rochefort?" said Hugo, "I don't know any M. Rochefort. Here is my son Charles — here is my son Francis. I have a third married — Henri. Let my son Henri come in." Thus adopted, Rochefort laid his plans for the future before M. Hugo. At this very first interview, the creation of the Rappel, a daily ultra-republican paper in Paris, was decided upon. In a short time, Franjois and Charles Hugo, Auguste Vacquerie, and Paul Maurice began work, swearing to Rochefort that they would open the doors of the Corps Legislatif to him, and that the population of Paris would see to" it that he was safely placed in his seat, if elected. The Rappel was founded, most of its editors remain ing in Brussels. It was a lively newspaper, filled with little illustrations, between the paragraphs, of drummers violently beating revolutionary drums. The Hugos helped it speedily to an immense circulation. There were perse cutions, condemnations, months in the prison of Sainte- Pelagie for those of the editors who were to be reached ; but they did their work well. They proposed Rochefort as a candidate for legislative honors. The boldness of this proposition took even the emperor by storm. Napo leon saw that the opposition to his policy and to his dy nasty, begun in 1868, had increased ten-fold in 1869 ; and now came the proposal that the enemy whom he had com pelled to retreat into exile, under the shower of a score of legal condemnations, should become inviolable in the per- 292 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. son of a "deputy. It frightened him, as it was an unmis takable sign of approaching revolution ; but he carried his policy of bravado to the extreme, and even then contem plated a general amnesty act, permitting Rochefort and others to return to France. But Rochefort's candidacy, proposed to the people in May, 1869, against that of Jules Favre in the seventh Paris circonscription, was a fail ure. The June elections gave him only a few thousand votes, and induced some small rioting, which did the Re publican cause in France much more harm than good. The Imperialists breathed freer after Rochefort's defeat, and when asked if they did not dread him in the future, replied by the Amnesty Act, which the erriperor fancied would do much toward winning him back his lost pop ularity. Rochefort was once more endowed with his rights of citizenship, of which a sentence had deprived him, be cause of his conduct while editing the Lanterne. Rochefort came back to Paris soon after the declaration of the amnesty. He was arrested on the frontier, but was at once released. An attempt was made to show that the empress had interfered in his behalf, but he wrote a letter denying this, and saying that he did not wish, to be safe. He added, in the closing paragraphs of this epistle : ' ' My ingratitude is more radical than ever." It was evident that he had not returned to his native country in a thank ful mood. On the evening of his arrival from Brussels, he appeared in the court-yard of the Grand Hotel in a sack-coat and a rather dilapidated wide-awake. The "' ' soft hat " is an emblem of Republicanism in the eyes of the Paris bourgeois. The next day Rochefort was set down as a "child ofthe people," "one ofthe masses," an " en- HENRI ROCHEFORT. 293 fant du boulevard," and, by his enemies, a -demagogue. Wherever he appeared in public, an immense crowd fol lowed him. He was hailed by working-men, and ac claimed by thousands, who looked upon him as one of the many who were doing their best to bring on the great struggle. The young politician soon appeared again before the peo ple as a candidate for the Corps L6gislatif. In November, 1869, he was frequently seen at mass-meetings or "elec toral reunions," as they are called in France. These meetings were usually held in some of the large public halls which abound in the remote quarters of the city, or in the suburbs, and which serve for ball-rooms on Sun day evenings, and for conferences now and then. None except voters were expected to attend, and the police were very strict in their examinations of applicants for admis sion at the doors. If Rochefort were announced to speak at an electoral meeting on the Boulevard de Clichy, at some distance from the city's center, the moment that his car riage left the boulevard it was as closely watched by po lice as though it contained some great criminal, whose es cape would be a public disaster. On the platform at all those meetings appeared the Imperial police commissioner, who had the right to disperse the assemblage, and arrest the orators if anything occurred to displease him. On one occasion, at a meeting in Belleville, the police commissioner and Rochefort had quite a controversy. Rochefort began a brief, but carefully prepared harangue, in which a sentence ended with the word ' ' Republican. " "Don't use that word, if you please," said the commis sioner. 294 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. But Rochefort, being a notoriously bad speaker, had learned his words by heart, and could not change them readily. He very soon came to another sentence in which the forbidden word occurred. The police commissioner advised him not to be the means of dispersing the meeting, and insisted that the word should not be used. Rochefort angry was a much better speaker than Rochefort tranquil. He turned fiercely upon the unhappy official, and gave him such an oratorical scorching as he did not soon forget. He analyzed the obnoxious word, and the reason why it was tabooed under the Empire ; then repeated it, ending a third sentence with it. The commissioner pronounced the customary formula, declaring the meeting adjourned without day, and stalked out of the hall, accompanied by barkings and mewings from the audience. The session was recklessly continued for an hour, but the police did not think it prudent to in terfere. The ex^editor of the Lanterne found his popularity in creasing. On the second evening after his arrival from Brussels, his carriage had been dragged through the streets by the populace ; and he now found himself the pet of the people ofthe revolutionary faubourgs. He was called upon for many disagreeable and dangerous missions ; he pre sided at meetings of workmen who were on strikes, and the writer once saw him on the platform at a reunion in the cock-loft of a manufactory at La Villette. The great beams of the loft, from which hung a few lanterns dimly lighting up the shadows, were decorated with gamins, whose shrill voices and comical comments were irresistible. HENRI ROCHEFORT. 295 Rough wooden seats had been improvised for the two thou sand people who crowded the uncomfortable place. Most . of the^ people were intelligent middle-aged men, who had their wives and children with them. Outside there was a tumultuous crowd, bullying the police and threatening to break their heads if not allowed to enter. The elections of November, 1869, gave Rochefort a seat in the Corps Legislatif, at the hands of the voters of the First Paris Circonscription. The conservative press was highly disgusted ; the radical world was in ecstasy; Gloomy prophecies of coming anarchy were indulged in by all the monarchical and imperialist papers. Rochefort, meantime, founded a journal called the Marseillaise, al most as outspoken against the Empire as the Lanterne had been. As soon as elected, he naturally gave the chief editorship of this paper into the hands of one of his friends,' as he did not wish to take advantage of the inviolability of his person as a deputy to write against his political ene mies. Rochefort's entrance into the Corps Legislatif was "a memorable occasion. On "opening day," there was a brilliant audience of ladies and gentlemen in the galleries. The "opposition" members marched in a solid body, but Rochefort was not among them. Just as an impatient murmur was heard, however, the young journalist stepped coolly into the hall, made a gentle bow which answered for everybody, as he stood for a moment under the glare of hundreds of unsympathetic eyes, then walked slowly to his seat, stopping a moment to shake hands with his venerable republican colleague Raspail. . The ladies present said afterwards that Rochefort wore red gloves. 296 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. The career of Rochefort in the Corps Legislatif was short. He felt himself out of place ; was not even quite aggressive enough to satisfy the electors of the ' ' eccentric quarters ; " and the absence of his impassioned denun ciation from the columns of the Marseillaise was daily felt. Among the editors of the Marseillaise was a young man named Victor Noir. He was enthusiastic and talented, lacking possibly in that fine range of reading which might have softened his mode of expression ; but wonderfully clever. He was brought up in the streets, and at twenty- two united to the natural wit of the gamin an extraordi nary physical strength, and a fine presence. Victor Noir had himself, once upon a time, published a little journal printed in red ink, and called The Pillory, which was mer ciless for political offenders, and was consequently hunted and suppressed by the police. Rochefort received early in January of 1870 a furious letter from Prince Pierre Bonaparte, endeavoring to pro voke him to a duel. The young deputy had not yet made his answer public, when on the morning of the 10th of January, Victor Noir and another gentleman called upon Prince Pierre in his residence in Auteuil, and sent in their cards. On being received, they announced that they came on the part of their friend Paschal Grousset, whom the prince had some time before grievously insulted. The prince, having read the letter which Noir and his com panion had brought him, turned very pale, tore up' the. missive, and said : "' I am concerned with Rochefort, and not with his hangers-on. " HENRI RpcHEFORT. 297 The gentlemen answered that they had been requested by their friend to bring the letter, and that they had noth ing to do with the Rochefort affair. The prince then said : ".I have provoked Rochefort, because he carries the flag of the canaille. As to M. Grousset, I have nothing to say. Are you then, the sus tained of these blackguards ? " "My dear sir," said Noir's companion, "we come here loyally and courteously to fulfill the request of a friend. " " But are you supporters of these miserable wretches?" Victor Noir answered, ' ' We stand by our friends. " Prince Pierre then struck young Noir a furious blow in the face, and immediately afterwards drew a pistol and fired at Noir's breast. The journalist threw up both hands, ran out, and fell before the door. In a few moments he was dead. .- The prince afterwards alleged that Noir first struck him, but this version of the story was universally discredited. The news electrified Paris ; shops were at once closed ; police thronged the streets ; but the evening passed with out any manifestations. The next morning the Marseil laise appeared bordered with mourning, and in its columns it was strongly hinted that Prince Pierre had endeavored tb entice Rochefort into his house for the purpose of kill ing him ; but that he had contented himself with the slaughter of Noir. There were other violent articles which the government chose to construe as an appeal to arms ; the Marseillaise was seized, and. the presses were put under lock and key. In the Corps Legislatif, as soon as the session was 13* 298 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. opened, Rochefort ascended the tribune, and cried out , "Yesterday a young man, covered by the sacred protection of second in an affair of honor, was assassinated. The as sassin is a member of the Imperial family. The assassi nated is a child ofthe people." These words produced a tremendous sensation ; Roche fort proceeded to demand that a jury be drawn from the people,- to sit in judgment upon Prince Pierre. The presi dent ordered him to leave the tribune, whereupon Roche fort invited all good citizens to arm and take justice into their own hands. But the majority were already preparing a scheme for the impeachment of Rochefort, for his articles. in the Marseillaise, as having incited to revolt and civil war. The daring deputy was escorted to his lodgings by a determined-looking crowd of workmen, who sang the Marseillaise with an emphasis which made the old Impe rialists ominously shake their heads. Prince. Bonaparte was sent to prison. In the Concier- gerie he heard vague rumors that riots were beginning in certain quarters, and announced his desire to be given the command of a regiment of gendarmerie, that he might go out and quell the disturbance. The funeral of Noir was celebrated on the Wednesday following the Monday of the assassination. All the workshops in the popular quar ters were closed, and the workmen, with their wives and children, came in thousands to be present at the little cem etery of Neuilly. By eleven o'clock at least two hundred thousand of the common people were on foot, marching in serried ranks, and making few. noisy demonstrations. Regiments of regular troops were massed in the Bois de' Boulogne. By-and-by came long processions singing HENRI ROCHEFORT. 299 revolutionary songs. Thousands of persons stood pa tiently for six hours in the same place that they might cast' flowers upon the coffin as it was borne, in front of them. Women fainted or wept from excess of emotion, and com ments upon the murder drew down' most unqualified male diction upon the Bonaparte dynasty. Toward four o'clock, the old guardian of the little Neuilly cemetery struggled through the crowd and opened the gate. Down the avenue to the entrance, amidst silent thousands and a storm of immortelles, marched sixteen bare-headed men, brother journalists of young Noir, bear ing on their shoulders the bier. At their head marched Rochefort, pale but. resolute. At the grave he fainted, but speedily recovered, and disappeared while the crowd was wildly shouting " Vive Rochefort !" and dispersing to • the tune of the Marseillaise. - January of 1870 was a troublous month for the Impe rialists, and they attributed all their embarrassments to the , influence of Rochefort. The people were ripe for riot. On the night of the execution of Troppmann, a noted assassin, the town was filled with troops. The execution took place in front ofthe prison of the condemned, in one of the quarters inhabited mainly by workmen, and it was feared that the, passions of a great assemblage before the guillotine might be kindled into such a rage that the mob would march upon the Tuileries. Paris, in those tumul tuous January days, was more like a fortified camp than a metropolis. Early in February, the chamber having authorized the "prosecution of Rochefort because of his supposed revolu tionary language on the occasion of Noir's assassination, 300 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. the famous deputy was excluded from the political world. The Empire's supporters felt that they must act with vigor, and they therefore ran the risk of riots. . One evening, a mass meeting in an obscure quarter was announced, with Rochefort as president. Several police agents posted them selves outside the building in which the electors were as sembled, and, when Rochefort arrived at the door, he felt a hand laid on his arm. It was that of a quietly dressed gentleman, who invited him to accompany him to the neighboring police station. Rochefort looked around, saw at once that he was surrounded, and offered no re sistance. In twenty minutes he was at Sainte-Pelagie, the prison of political offenders. Inside the great ilfflighted hall, where the uncouth audi ence was crowded, breathlessly listening to an excited speaker who was filling the place of the belated Rochefort, loud cries were suddenly heard : ' ' Rochefort is arrested ! " ' ' They are going to assassinate him ! " "To arms ! Down with Napoleon ! " Gustave Flourens, who had, it was said, endeavored to incite a revolt on the day of Noir's funeral, drew a revolver, and, crying to others to follow him, rushed out of doors. Many of the workmen also drew pistols ; others were armed with guns, mysteriously brought to them at a mo ment's notice ; still others had clubs. The mob hastened out into the night ; erected barricades ; broke open ar morer's shops, and bonneted policemen. In due time these rioters were dispersed, only to be followed by others, who made formidable demonstrations, even on the central boulevards. Rochefort, imprisoned in Sainte-Pelagie, ere- HENRI ROCHEFORT. 3OI ated more disturbance in Paris than Rochefort in the office of the Marseillaise or Rochefort in the' Corps Legislatif. Hundreds of policemen swarmed in the streets, and troops of cavalry patrolled the narrow avenues leading, to La Vil lette, where the troubles had begun. People were every where so apprehensive and nervous that the slightest unusual sound frightened them. An awning, insecurely fastened in front of a cafe, fell, on the second evening after Rochefort's arrest. There was, of course, some con fusion ; the passers-by interpreted it as a riot, and there was a veritable stampede before the real facts were made known to the crowd. A grim-looking sergent-de-ville mounted a chair. "It is only an awning, and not the Empire," he said, " that has fallen. " Rochefort was active during his imprisonment. A few days after his arrest he showed that he . intended still to take a part in the business of the Corps Legislatif, and he sent by one of his deputy friends a project for the impeach ment ofthe Government and the ministry, which he. tried to have read in his name. The failure of this scheme did not discourage him. He was taken from prison to serve as a witness before the high court of justice, assembled at Tours, to try Prince Pierre Bonaparte. There Rochefort won golden opinions from all by his gentlemanly carriage and his great moderation of language. He remained prisoner for six months. There were pre vious sentences against him, arid when the time came for his release from the sentence for the offense of "appeal to arms," the minister of justice insisted that he should serve out his other terms. A short time before this he had announced that he had concluded to. publish the Mar- 302. • BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. seillaise no longer at that time, but that it would re-appear " when Rouget de 1'Isle's hymn — for the moment Bona- partist and official — should have become seditious and Re publican/' He thus alluded to the efforts which the Em pire was then making to break down political opposition to it in presence of the foreign enemy, at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. The revolution of the Fourth of September opened the doors of Rochefort's prison, and enabled him to write once more in the Marseillaise. It was indisputable that he had contributed very largely to the downfall ofthe Empire, arid he was at once made a member of the Government of Na tional Defense. He won, in many respects, tKe esteem and friendship of his colleagues, and would have, doubt less, remained associated with them had not an article written by General Cluseret, and reflecting severely on the Government of National Defense, unaccountably found a place in the columns of the Marseillaise. Rochefort dis claimed all knowledge of the article ; himself criticised it as odious and improper, and at once gave notice that he should thenceforth have nothing further to do with the ed itorship of the Marseillaise. Late in September, when the Prussians were beginning to be very aggressive at the gates of Paris, Rochefort was made president ofthe "Barricade Commission." A short time afterwards, when he was strongly urged by Flourens and others to give his resigna tion, he replied in a very remarkable letter, in which he expressed his determination to keep his place, until the Prussians should retire from before Paris. M. Jules Favre, in his "Simple Recital " of the events during the siege, thus speaks of Rochefort : HENRI ROCHEFORT. 303 ' 'Our colleague, M. de Rochefort, had not appeared on the day ofthe 31st." (This was the 31st of October, when the first communal insurrection occurred. ) ' ' The next morning he was present at the council held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; then he ceased to come to our sessions, and a. few days thereafter he sent in his resignation. Up to that time his attitude towards us had been perfectly sat isfactory. He manifested an extreme deference and a re spectful confidence for General Trochu. Some other members of the Government were scarcely able to flatter themselves that, they filled him with the same sentiments toward themselves, but all found him invariably courteous and conciliatory ; and it was for them a subject of no small astonishment to find him in our daily relations so entirely .unlike the politician whose pamphlets had given him such an unsavory reputation." The truth is, that the ex-editor of the Lanterne was not at the meeting of the Government of National Defense, on the 31st of October, for the reason that he was at the-\H6- tel de Ville trying to dissuade the unhappy Communists from persevering in their mad attempt. He labored for more than twelve hours in endeavors to calm the excited crowd, and dissuaded them from proceeding to any extreme measures. Some of the madcaps had already placed his name on a hastily extemporized list of members of a ' 'Com mittee of Public Safety." He committed a great impru dence, however, on that day : he promised the mob that the municipal elections for which they were clamoring should be held without delay. The Government did not feel, itself in a position to fulfill this promise, and M. Roche fort thereupon resigned. After order had been restored, 304 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. he was urged to withdraw his resignation. He steadfastly refused to do this, but remained at the head ofthe " Bar ricade Commission," and made many patriotic appeals to the population, which were riot without good results. In February of 1 871, Rochefort founded in Paris a new journal, called the Mot d Ordre, which was as aggressive and brilliant as his other newspapers had been, and which gave Gambetta vigorous support in all his undertakings. When the elections for the National Assembly were held, he was elected a member from the department of the Seine, the sixth in rank out of forty-three, and had one hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and seventy votes out of three hundred and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy. He was but little heard of during the pro cess of reconstruction at Bordeaux, save on one occasion, when in a brief speech, he declared. that this time the "re publicans would not allow themselves to be cheated out of the Republic. ' ' He voted against the measures prelimi nary to peace ; and when they were adopted, he resigned. He was at this time much broken in health, on account of the excitements and hardships through which he had passed ; but at the outbreak of the Commune, in March, he was in Paris, battling against the Assembly in his Mot dOrdre, which had already once been ordered to suspend publication. The mad epoch of passion and destruction began, and Rochefort did not seem as anxious as in the previous Octo ber to avert disorder. He defended many of the measures of the famous "Central Committee" ofthe insurrections; but took no active part in the revolt, and refused to become a member of the Commune. It was. he who suggested HENRI ROCHEFORT. 305 the destruction of the mansion of M. Thiers ; who coun seled resistance to the last, and who wrote much which; in a variety of ways, contributed to embitter the quarrel. He was not of the Commune, yet was a powerful aid to it. The Communal authorities. found that he occasionally criticised thern severely, and they therefore persecuted his journal from time to time. At last he announced that " in presence ofthe situation created for the press by the Commune, the Mot d Ordre believed it necessary to its dig nity to cease to appear. " He then, a few- days before the troops from Versailles succeeded in entering Paris, left the city, hoping to regain Brussels, but was arrested at Meaux on the 20th of May, and taken to Versailles, where he was thrust into prison. Rochefort remained several months in confinement, awaiting his trial, and-suffering' from a very grave cerebral rnalady, which at times threatened to destroy him. During his imprisonment, he legalized his children by marrying their mother when she was at the point of death. In Sep tember of 1 871, he was condemned before a court martial, upon nine different indictments, and sentenced to transporta tion with confinement in a fortress. The commission on pardons rejected his appeal, and, although Victor Hugo ahd others made pressing and pathetic requests for a com mutation of sentence by M. Thiers, the old President re mained firm. Rochefort, after weary trarisfer from one fortress to another, was sent to New Caledonia. At the date of his departure from France, he was declared a vic tim of heart disease, and his enemies confidently ex pected that he .would die during the long and cruel voyage. His judges forgot him, and the public ceased to 306 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. think of him, for New Caledonia is many thousands of miles away. The story of his romantic escape from that terrible Noum6a, of which, since his return to Europe; he has given the world such startling pictures, is familiar to all. Rochefort, with two companions, succeeded in getting away from the island where he was a prisoner, and put to- sea in an open boat. Picked up by a passing ship, the refugees were carried into Sidney,^ whence, after a brief so journ, they made their way to the United States, vid the Sandwich Islands. The ex-editor of the Lanterne staid in New York only long enough to give a lecture to his countrymen. He appeared at the Academy of Music, and gave a brief account of his sufferings and those of his fel low exiles, after which he went to London and Geneva. In the latter city he at present lives, with his daughter, devoting a portion of his time to literature. He has writ ten a novel since his return, and publishes a Lanterne which, although forbidden in France, is said to find quite a circulation in that country. This clever Frenchman, who has been so much the creat ure of circ'umstance, and has been buffeted and tossed about by variable fortune from his early youth, is tall, angular, . and reserved in appearance. His high forehead, crowned with springy hair, which nothing can keep down, is now fur- . rowed with wrinkles of care and sorrow. His whole manner is tranquil and sober ; he has been toned and mellowed by misfortune and the hundred dangers through which he, has passed. He wields the same brilliant and facile pen as of old. Sometimes the old Rochefort crops out, as in the letter of challenge which he recently sent to Paul HENRI ROCHEFORT. 307 de Cassaignac. But his life is no longer a perpetual defiance. He is in the attitude of waiting, and he seems to have learned that " They also serve who only stand and wait." Casimir Perier. j|ASIMIR PERIER will always be gratefully re membered by lovers of liberty in France, because, in times when men were timid and distrustful, he had the courage and good sense to avow his faith in the Republic. After his mind was once made up that the mo ment had arrived when France should be free, he worked faithfully and unfalteringly, as he still works, to secure the most liberal institutions possible. He cares little what men say of him ; he is not irritable and petulant like his brother-in-law, the Due D'Audiffret-Pasquier, nor does he halt between two opinions until he can decide which is likely to be the most popular. He has never, for an in stant, associated with the radical and arbitrary party. In the days when Broglie and his men were engaged in top pling down Thiers and his ministry, and accused them of not being able to maintain order, M. Perier, wh6 was then the Thiers Minister of the Interior, expressly stated that neither he nor the gentlemen associated with him in the Cabinet had ever manifested any intention of affiliating CASIMIR PERIER. 3O9 with the "radical party." As a conservative republican, he has had immense influence during the -battles which have been fought over the constitutional laws. Early in 1873 he had already become convinced that monarchical restoration was impossible, and, in a public letter, he de manded the "end of a provisory and precarious regime,. and; in its stead, institutions which would give to the government the force it needed to reassure all interests by the exercise of a firm and clear policy. " He pointed out in this letter, which contributed much toward form ing public sentiment at the time, that the future would naturally inspire more confidence when the public powers, properly organized, were no longer daily questioned,. and when "everything should not appear to rest upon the shoulders of one man. " It was nothing less than the definite organization of the Republic which Casimir Perier demanded long before many of his colleagues dared to ask for it. This honest and unwavering man is the son of the cel ebrated statesman and minister under the July monarchy, who died in 1832. Auguste Victor Laurent Casimir Perier was born in Paris on the 10th of August, 181 1. He was a promising and ambitious youth, and, at the age of twenty, had not only achieved a remarkable education, hut, as first secretary of the Embassy at Brussels, had en tered a diplomatic career. He rose rapidly, in this profes sion, for the exercise of which he had most brilliant endow ments. He was successively charge d'affaires at Naples and at St. Petersburg, and minister at Hanover, and held sec retaryships in London and at the Hague. He left diplo matic life after a few, years of experience in it, and, in 3IO BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. 1846, was elected to the chamber among the liberal con servatives from the first Paris district. After the February revolution, he returned to his estate in the department of the Aube, where he remained until early in 1849, when he was sent to the Assembly by the electors of the Aube*. There, he associated and voted constantly with the Right. The advent of the Empire was not without its trouble for Casimir Perier. He was at the meeting of deputies in one of the Paris mayoralties, where an energetic protest was made against Louis Napoleon's perfidy on the day of the coup d'etat. He was arrested, like the others, and thrown into a dungeon in Fort Valerien, where he was kept in close confinement for some days. As there was no direct accusatio'n against him, he was liberated, and, inspired by a profound contempt for the Empire and the chain of cir cumstances which had rendered it possible, he retired to his chateau of Vezille, a charming retreat among the green fields and rich forests of the Isere. There he devoted him self to agricultural improvement, and to occasional ven tures into literature, such as his article on the finances of the Second Empire,' published in the Revue des Deux Mondes — an article which created a profound sensation.- He had been notably prominent in the Assembly of 1849, as a member of that group which sustained the policy of Napoleon and his allies until a short time before the forma tion ofthe ministry which preceded the coup d'etat; and his words of criticism upon the Empire had much weight. The Imperialists learned to dread him, not merely because he wrote them steadily and sternly down, but because . an annoying liberalism pervaded his writings on co-operative CASIMIR PERIER. 311 societies and on financial reform. His various essays on these subjects secured him a membership in the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. When he returned to the political field in 1869, he .was one of the best-known men in France, and the Imperialists determined that he should not be elected, and allowed to oppose them openly. M. Casimir Perier presented himself in the Department of the Aube as an independent candidate for the Corps Le gislatif. But he was beaten by the Empire's official can didate, M. Argence, who was helped to his triumph by most scandalous intrigues, which contributed much towards disgusting honest folk with the reign of Imperial corrup tion. M. Perier was quietly reposing on his literary laurels at his home near Pont-sur-Seine, when the Franco-Prussian war broke out. During the invasion he was captured by the Prussians and was taken to Germany as a hostage. He remained there until the signature of the armistice, when he returned at once to France, and soon took his seat in the Assembly as a member elect from three departments. He chose the Centre Left as his position, and gave an ear nest support to Thiers' policy. As he was one of the most competent authorities on finance in the Assembly, he was chosen reporter-general of the budget, and, on the death of Lambrecht, Minister of the Interior, he received the portfolio of that office. He was in this position as liberal as Broglie -was. subsequently repressive and arbitrary. He signalized his first week of office by sending to the pre fects of all the departments in France a circular, in which he explained the principles of government in a really free country, and gave his own adhesion frankly to a Republic 312 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. —not " one that should be exclusive and - intolerant, but one in which the way should be open to all men of good will." He gave all functionaries a strong intimation, in this circular, that it was their bounden duty to see that the Republic was respected, a duty which has been but poorly performed since that time. "In a Republic," he wrote, ' ' the vigorous repression of an attack upon the State is all the more obligatory, because it is not the interests of dynasty, person, or party which are to be de fended, but the sacred weal of all public peace and labor." At the epoch of the elections he also shoWed ' his wisdom and liberality by issuing the following instructions : "Above all, let every citizen, under the inspiration of his own conscience, deposit his own vote independently in the electoral. urn." He warned the Republic against the dan ger' and shame of copying the Imperial tactics with regard to " official candidates. " A curious obstinacy on the part of M. Casimir Perier, with regard to the location of the National Assembly after it left Bordeaux, was the cause of his resignation from the ministerial post which he occupied with so much honor. M. Peiier insisted that the return to Paris was indispen sable to public order and to the transaction of National business. He probably saw, later, that it was well that his opinion did not prevail. But, at the time that the question was under discussion, he was so firmly convinced that he was right, that he made a speech in which he de clared the impossibility of conducting the administration at Versailles, and when the Assembly refused to return to Paris, he, on the 4th of February, 1872, resigned. "It was considered a somewhat ungracious resentment on his CASIMIR PERIER. 313 part, as he had been solicited by hundreds of the deputies to remain in power. He had no sooner left the ministry than he endeavored to form a league of conservative Republicans, which was to serve as a means of alliance between the Centre Right and the Centre Left in the Assembly. In this he did not succeed at all. A few members of the Centre Left were at first attracted by his proposition, bnt speedily resumed their places. Renouncing this enterprise without mani festing any special disappointment, M. Casimir Perier de voted his whole time and energy to solidifying the Repub lic. He wrote an explanation in the newspapers in May, 1872, ofthe process of reasoning hy which he, who had .been long and ardently attached to the ideal of consti tutional monarchy, had been, led to "pronounce bold ly and without reservation for the Republican form of government. " He asserted his belief that it is the only government which "seems to-day destined to preserve France from a crisis of anarchy, the certain prelude of some form of despotism, without speaking of exterior dangers. " Thiers called M. Gaaimir Perier into the Cabinet again as Minister ofthe Interior on the 19th of May, 1873. H's ministry this time lasted scarcely a week. On the 24th he was defeated, in company with his venerable chief, after -having presented and defined, with zeal and eloquence, the conservative Republican policy which he had intended .to carry out. He could have been of incalculable service to the cause of liberty, had he been allowed to remain in office for a year or two after May, 1874. The name of Casimir Perier would always have been 314 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. associated in France with ideas of liberty and honor, had not the noble convert to Republicanism crowned his fame by proposing, on the 15th of June, 1874,, in the name of the Centre Left, his proposition in favor. of the definite es tablishment and organization of the Republic. This frank demand, coming, as it did, on the heels of the failure of attempts at a " Restoration, " produced a powerful impres sion. At one time, when a majority was obtained on a vote of urgency, it was thought that M. Perier would carry his point ; but the proposition, although sustained by both himself and Dufaure in earnest addresses, was re jected. It is pleasant for Casimir Perier to know, how ever, that, despite the meager success attendant on his first attempt, he is considered as mainly instrumental in the success of the constitutional laws, and the foundation . of the Republic, without bloodshed or relapse- into anar chy. Casimir Perier is English in feature ; he has blue eyes, blonde whiskers, and sedate ways. He is cool, self-reliant, earnest ; a man who loves truth and hates shams. He never stifles his political conscience by "expedients;" he loves difficult situations, because he finds truth and prog ress beyond them. He has published a number of vol umes on commercial and agricultural subjects, and since 1844 has been a grand officer of the Legion of Honor. He is rich, and is beloved by his constituents and an im mense circle of friends. Out of fifty -six thousand four. hundred and eighty-four voters in the Aube he received thirty-eight thousand five hundred and forty-eight votes in 1 871. This will serve to illustrate his popularity. His example in frarikly accepting the Republic has been of CASIMIR PERIER. 315 great profit to France'. It is not unwise to predict that there will yet be found many other distinguished French men willing to follow in his train, admitting that one must not "Attempt the future's portal with thepast's blood-rusted key." Jules Ferry. ULES FERRY was always an uncompromising enemy of the Empire, and has ever been a true and consistent friend of freedom. M. Thiers thought him a good enough man to send to Washington, to represent the new French Republic there ; but Ferry's enemies' said No ! They did not like to think that he whom they had so earnestly endeavored to overturn, was to hold a great and responsible position, in which he could do much to further the interests of the new republican government of his country ; and the venerable statesman yielded to their prejudices. Despite these efforts to prevent his progress, Ferry received an appointment as ambassador to Greece, and satisfactorily fulfilled his duties there, with the same lack of affectation, and the same force which had" charac terized him when he was one of the leading orators of the irreconcilable faction in the Corps Legislatif. M. Ferry made his d'ebut in the law in Paris, and won rare honors at an early period of his career. He was born at Saint Die, an old monastery town in the department of the Vosges, in April, 1832, and his youth was uneventful, JULES FERRY. 317 although filled with struggles for a livelihood and for fame. He was ambitious, and laborious in his profession, but he found time to devdte himself now and then to politics, as the doings of the Imperial party filled him with disgust and horror. He was no sooner admitted to the bar than he joined the daring group of young lawyers who aided the deputies in maintaining constant opposition to the Empire ; and he was one of those condemned in the famous trial of the "thirteen." This little taste of Imperial correction only made him all the more anxious to keep up the battle. He wrote well ; he began to take an interest in journal ism, and played at that dangerous game for many years. In 1863; he published "The Electoral Contest," in which he boldly and admirably exposed the shameful manner of electing official candidates, so persistently practiced by the Empire. This made him a marked man ; he was thence forth dogged by spies and was otherwise the object of the government's solicitude. He joined the staff of the Temps, the best evening paper in Paris, in 1865, and there won new renown for himself by contributing a series of articles on current politics, as well as by the. terrible analy sis which he bestowed upon the accounts of Prefect Hauss- mann, who was then occupied in rebuilding Paris, and consequently handled very large sums of money: These latter articles were published in a volume called the "ComptesFantastiques d'Haussmanh," and gave the Em pire and its adherents new reasons for disliking M. Ferry. The young writer's attempt to secure his election to the Corps Legislatif in 1863 did not succeed. He retired be fore M. Garnier-Pages. But in 1869 he was better known, and after a few speeches at political meetings, in which he 318 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. eloquently announced his programme of "fighting the Empire to the death, he was elected by twelve thousand nine hundred and sixteen votes from the Sixth Paris cir conscription. One of his opponents had been a representa tive of the clerical party, to which, it is hardly necessary to say, M. Ferry, has always been hostile. His nomination had, therefore, a double character. It was anti-clerical and democratic. There were some faint-hearted people who fancied that Ferry, once comfortably seated in a deputy's chair, would subside into a voting member, and would leave the risks of a career of opposition to some one else. But he did not justify these suspicions. He became one of the recognized chiefs of that small but resolute party of men who would have succeeded in overthrowing the Empire had it not fallen before a foreign enemy's bayonets. He was never the dupe of those clever people who pro jected the "reform movement," although his attacks were not at first violent, after the promises of Emile Ollivier ; he gave no confidence to the Imperial programme for the "crowning of the edifice," and was not long in discovering that a determined and vigorous policy was the only one to pursue at this period. He was one of the deputies who demanded the dissolution of the Corps Legislatif, on the ground that it no longer represented the majority in the country. On the occasion of that demand, he engaged in a heated discussion with Emile Ollivier, in which he re proached the latter for having dishonored his father's name, and for having brought discredit upon republican fidelity. He foresaw clearly that the war with. Prussia would be disastrous, and voted against the fatal declara tion. . JULES FERRY. 319 The Fourth of September made him a member of the government of the National Defense. He was at once appointed secretary, and the administration of the De partment of the Seine came into his hands. Paris, in its complete disorganization, and the war-stricken country round about the great city, comprised a section by no means easy to administer ; and it is not astonishing that there were many criticisms and expressions of dissatisfac tion. He did the work of ten men every day, and showed great talent in the manner in which he entered into the details of the equipment of the National Guard, the crea tion of ambulance corps, and many other organizations rendered necessary by the state of siege. He was. an in novator ; he made some important changes in the. service ofthe department, changes which were not -sustained by his successor. When the communal insurrection- of. October, 1870, oc curred, M. Ferry was the hero of some very strange adven tures. His energetic qualities were shown to great ad vantage in the contest between the Communists and the forces loyal to the government of National Defense. Af ter he discovered that parley with the insurgents would be of no avail, he placed himself at the head of the col umn which was to charge the rioters. At ten o'clock on the evening ofthe famous 31st of October, he began to take active measures to subdue the revolt. • The gas-lights in the streets were extinguished ; musket-shots were heard in the direction of the HStel de Ville; the populace was rapidly becoming panic-stricken, believing that the long- dreaded Commune had really at last arrived. Ferry, with his little band, picked his way through the darkness to the- 320 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. H6tel de Ville and summoned the rioters lodged there to retire. His summons received no response. The gates of the hotel were forced, and Ferry began an attack; Presently Delecluze and other of the commanders in the movement appeared, and wished to discuss the situation. They offered to retire, provided their lives and those of their men might be spared. Desirous of avoiding bloodshed, M. Ferry consented to allow those of the rioters who were in the Hotel de Ville to leave it, and at once took possession. But the rioters did not leave, and M. Ferry was somewhat surprised wheri they cleverly turned *the tables by arresting him. This movement, which was ridiculous, inasmuch as the- Communists had not the force to sustain it, resulted in convincing Ferry that he must .fight, if necessary ; and, released from tempo rary custody by the National Guard, who came pouring in to help him, he soon banished all the insurrectionists. He was afterwards accused of having been too lenient and- of parleying too much with the leaders, but this charge he fully disproved. He was lenient merely in allowing some two hundred foolish people, who had been taken prisoners during the disturbances, yet who had nothing whatever to do with the insurrection, to go free. Had it not been for his promptness, bravery, and energy, the Commune might have then succeeded in obtaining a firm foothold in Paris, and in maintaining it throughout the siege. M. Ferry was conspicuous in the succeeding months of . trial for his good sense and his activity. He was the dele gate of the Government at the central mayoralty at Paris, and presided over the Assembly of Mayors, who came every morning loaded with complaints from the twenty wards of JULES FERRY. 321 the city, whose administration was intrusted to thefn. He found food when all others despaired of finding it ; he was fertile in expedients. In January, 1871, he' was a second time called upon to resist a body of insurgents who, mad dened by the defeat of the French arms in the disastrous sortie of the 19th of January, attacked the Hotel de Ville, with the intention -of overthrowing the Government of Na tional Defense. His coolness and bravery, and his stern command helped to save the situation. He exercised the difficult functions of Prefect ofthe Seine until the success ful outbreak of the Commune in March, 1871, and re sumed them again for a few days in June, after the entry ofthe Versailles troops. This time, however, he remained iri office only ten days, as he was much criticised, and was not sorry to yield his difficult and almost thankless functions into the hands of M. Leon Say. His appointment to Athens gave him an opportunity for repose, but he improved it only for a short time. He was elected a deputy from the De partment of the Vosges, and as politics at home grew interesting, he hastened back to throw himself with ardor into the battle. His nervous but logical oratory has fre quently been of great service in the Assembly on impor tant occasions. M. Ferry was for a long time the president of the group of deputies known as the ' ' Union of the Left. " He was one of the deputies who voted for the re turn of the Assembly to Paris, and against the abrogation of the laws of exile. B^iPsi^^3&5llP WJ&2J& ^w«riVgMm^CT' S^^^jBimmm'.i^HH -* ¦'"i-jjJr.jfriJ iJH^^E^^^ 1131111 INDEX A- Abd-el-Kader, 251. About, Edmond, 138, 165. Academie Francaise, 37, 38, 59, 74, 113, 128, 188, 257. Achard, General, 115. Albert (Alexandre Martin), 106. AngoulSme, Duchesse d', 125. Arago, £., 162. Argence, M., 311. Aristides, 144. Arnaud, Antoine, 112. Audiffret-Pasquier, Due d', Memoir, 195 ; also 170, 308. Augusta, Queen, 117. Aumale, Due d', Memoi\r, 248, also 270, 271. B. Balzac, Henri de, 24. Bancil, 220. Barbes, Armand, 18, 19, 20, 163. Baroche, P. J., 192. Barodet, M., 87. Barrot, Odillon, 31, 162, 164. Baudin, 76. 77. Bauville, Theodore de, 47. Bazaine, Marshal, 83, 117, 259. Berri, Due de, 17, 241. Berri, Duchesse de, 62, 63, 125, 241, 243, 245- Berryer, A. P. 162, 213, 214, 245. Bertoll, M., 158. Besancon, Cardinal Archbishop of, 124, 125* Bismarck, Prince- K. O., 72, 231, 232, 233. 234. 237- Blanc, Louis, 47, 56, 162, 163. Blanqui, L. A., 18. Bonaparte, Joseph, 13, 40. Bonaparte, Napoleon (I.), 12, 40, 156, 182. Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon (IIT.)i 38, 42, 43, 46, 65, 76, 86, 106, 116, 127, 139, 143, 164, 166,. 167, 183, 184, 192, 196, 1977204,205, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 229, 234* 267, 274, 288, 291,-310. Bonaparte, Joseph Napoleon, 256. Bonaparte, Pierre Napoleon, 221, 297, 298, 301. Bordeaux, Duke of, 125. Bossuet, Rev. J. B., 112, 132, 255. Boulanger, 17. Bourbaki, C. D. E., 83. Bourbon, Marie C. A. de, 251. Bourdaloue, Louis, 132. Brantome (P. de Bourdeilles), 254. Brea. 106, Broglie, Due De, Memoir, 180; 62, 176, 177, 183, 194, 200. Brown, John, 21, 46. Brunet, M., 258. Bugeaud, Marshal, .251, Buffet, Louis Joseph, Memoir; also 9^, 140, 145, 208. Burritt, Elihu, 149. 62, 107, 168, 214, 228, 296, also Carlos, Don. 37. Camor, L. H., 105. Carrell, Armand, 16, 60. Cassaignac, Paul de, 96, 279, 28 Castelar, E. de, 147. i3°7- 324 INDEX. Cavaignac, General, 63, 143, 163, 204, 205, 252. Challemet-Lacour, M., 135, ,136, 200. Chambord, CoMte dk, Memoir, 239; also 125, 130, 131, 197.^ Champfleury (Jules Fleury), 47. Changarnier, Gen., 38, 119, 154. Charming, Rev. W. E., 147, 157. Charlemagne, 37. Charles X., 25, 60, 119, 239, 240? 243, 245- . Chateaubriand, F. A. de, 14, 15, 63, 242, 244. 245. Chevalier, Michel, 167. Christ, 20, 2r, 123. Cluseret, G. P., "30a. Commerson, M.t 285. Commune, The, 51, 72, 86, 118, 175, 238, 246,304,305,319, 321. Comte, Auguste, 128. Conde, Prince de, 254. Conde, Prince de (present), 256, 260. Constant, Benjamin, 27. **Constitutionnel," The, 60. Corneille, P. de,254. " Correspondant," The, 183, Cosette, 46. " Courrier de France," 186. Cousin, Victor, 102, 103, 104, 162. Cromwell, Oliver, 22. D. Damas, Due de, 242, 243. Delacroix, E., 24. Delescluze, L. C, 320. Desaix, L. C. A., 39. Descartes, Reno, 112. Deschamps, E-, 17. Dorval, Madame, 30, 31. ,Ducrot,"Gen., 117, 276. Dufaure, Jules A. S., Memoir, 202 ; also 142, Dumas, Alexandre, 24. Dupanloup, Monseigneur, Memoir, 122 ; also no, 247. Duval, Edgar Raoul, Memoir^ 172. E. " Emancipation," The, 78. Emanuel, Victor-, 265. Empire, French (First), 10, 124. Empire, French (Second), 29, 43, 44, 50, 51, 63, 65, 66, 75, 77, 78, 80, 84, g7, 107, 108, 123, 124, 127, 152, 160, 166, 167, 169, 173, 178, 184, 191, 196, 197, 198, 199, 204, 205, 206, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 222, 228, 230, 273, 274, 275, 288, 289, 290, 300,301, 302,310, 3*7. 3^8. Esmeralda, 35. Eugenie, Empress, 218, 222, 299. " Evenement," The, 20, 42. F. Fan tine, 46. Favre, Jtles, Memoir, 224; also 72, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89, 108, 221, 222, 277, 2Q2, 302. Fenelon, F. de, 132. Ferry, Jules. Memoir, 316. k' Figaro," 279, 287, 288, 289. Fitzjames, Due de, 245. Fleury, Cuvilief, 250. Flourens, Gustave, 300, 302. Foucher, Mademoiselle, 15. Fould, Achille, 38. "FraDiavolo " (Michel Pozza), iz. Fragonard, J. H., 254. Francis, I., 30, 37, 254. Franklin, Benj., 149. x 'G. Gampetta, Leion, Memoir, 75 ; also', 56, 131, 138, 144, 166, 175, 178, 194, 199, 200, 220, 221, 231. Garibaldi, G., 45, 51. Garnier-Pages, M.,317. Garrison, W. L., 149. *" Gaulois," The, 286. Gavroche, 46. Gilliatt, 47, Girardin, Saint-Marc, 38. Grammont, Due de, r45. Gregory XVI., Pope, 127, 129. Grew, Jules, Memoir, 140 also, 56, 87, 193. " ¦Grousset, Paschal, 296, 297; Guerry, Madame de, 213. Guidal, General, 73. Guis2, Due de, 260, Guizot, F., 31, 96, 162, 188, 203, 252, 257. H. Haussmann, "Baron, 2131274. Henri IV., 242, 247. Henri V., 242, 243, 247. Hoffman, Prof., 264. Houdetot, M. de, 19. Hughf.s, Thomas, 268. n Hugo, Charles, 291. Hugo, Eugene, 13. Hugo, Francois, 291. Hugo, Madame, 13. Hugo. Victor Marie, Memoir, 9 also, 165, 290, 305. Hyacinthe, Pere (M. Loyson), 122. INDEX. 325 Isabella, Queen, 287. Isabella, Princess, 270. J- James IL, 114. Jesse, Madame de, 234. Joinville, Prince de, 252, 270. Joinville, Princesse de, 252, 257. Jourdan, J. B., 39. "Journal de Paris," 260. "Journal des Debats," 158, 258. Julian, Emperor, 189. K. Keller, M., 56. Kilmorey, Lord, 253. ! L. Laboulaye, Edouard, Memoir, 147 • also, 135. Lacordaire, J. B. H-, 188, 282. Lagrange, M., 38, 41. Lahorie,- V. F. de, 11, 12, 13. Lamartine, A- de, 64, 151, 152, 162. 242. Lambrecht, M., 311. Lamennais, H. F. R., 16. "Lanterne," The,. 289, 290,. 292, 294, =95- 3°4- 306- La Rochejaquelein, Madame de, 39.- Le Boeuf, Marshal, 66. Lefranc, M-, 277. Lemaltre, Frederick, 32. Leopold, Prince, 251. Levy, Michel, 257. Lincoln, Abraham, 149. Linville, M., 273. L'Isle, Ron get de, 302. Liszt, Abbe, 223. Littre, M. P. E., 128, 129, 138. Louis, Baron, 60. Louis XL, 35. Louis XIII., 25. Louis XVIIL, 15, 17, Louis Philippe, 19, 20, 30, 38, 63, 135, 162, 182, 228, 250, 251, 252, 253, 262, 269. Loyson, M. (Pere Hyacinthe), Z22. M. MacMahon, Marshal, Memoir, 114; also, 68, in, 15J, 193, 208. Magenta, Duchesse de, 116, 121. .Malebranche, Nicolas, 112. Malet, General, 13. Mann, Horace, 149, 150. Marie Amelie, Queen, ^50, 253. Marius, 46. * Mars, Mademoiselle, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31. ¦ * Marseillaise, " The, 279, 295, 296, 297, 302. Martignac, M. de, 25. Massillon, J.-B.., 132. Maudley, 268. «~ Maurice, Paul. 291. Mazarin, Cardinal, 183. McClellan, Gen. G. B.,265, 266. Merimee, Prosper, 21, 27. Merman, Charles, 285. Mery, Louis, 211. Modena, Due de, 245. Rfoltke, Baron von, 232. Montaigne, Michel de, 254. Montalembert, C. F., 39, 257. Montpayeroux, Guyot, 92. Montpensier, Due de; 270. Montpensier, Isabelle de, 270. Moreau, Gen. J. V., 11, 12. Morny, Due de, 163, 215, 217, 218. " Mot d'Ordre, -The," 304, 305. 11 Movement," The, 226. Murray, Grenville, 119, 88, 137. Musset, A. de, 24. N. Napoleon, See Bonaparte, " National," The, 60, 226. Naquet, A. J., 200. Nemours, Due de, 115, 264. Niel, Marshal, 115. Noir, Victor, 221, 296, 297, 298, 229, 300. Ollivier, Demosthenes, 210. Ollivier, Emile, Memoir, 210 ; also, 80, 117, 165, 168, 184, 193, 318. 1 Orleans, Due d\ 243, 244, 272. Orleans, Marie d', 19. Orsini, Felice, 116, 228. P. Palikao", Count, 222. Palissy, Bernard, 255. Palmerston, Lord, 21, 65. Paris, Archbishop of, 138. Paris, Comte De, Memoir, 261 ; also, 256. Pasquier, Baron, 19S. Pastoret, M. de, 245. Pelissier, Marshal, 113, Pelletan, Camille, 89. Pelletan, Louis, 47. Perier, Casimir, Memoir, 308; also, 62, 188, 192, 196. Picard, Ernest, Memoir, 273 also. 89. Pietri, 89. 326 INDEX. Plebiscite, 50, 63, 7g, 80, 150, 132, 176, 193, 221, 275. Plon Plon, Prince (Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte), 256. Proudhon, P. J., 3S, 230. Quasimodo, 35. Quelen, Archbishop, 126. Quenisset, 251. R. Rabelais, Francois, 254. Racine, Jean, 254. Ranc, 175. il Rappel," The, 291. Raspail, F. V., 163, 293. Remusat, Charles de, 87, 263. Remusat, Comte de, 119. Renan, Ernest, 126. Republic, French (First), n, 13, 156. Republic, French (Second), 40, 41, 127, 142, 143, 162, 163, 164, 167, 183, 191, 204, 213. Republic, French (Third), 57, 67, 68, 69, 71. 85, 97, 109, 127, 129, 137, 144, *53i IS4> I5S, i/6, 180, 181, 185, 187, 188, 200, 206, 208, 229, 248, 271, 304, 309, 311, 372, 313, 314. Resistance, Committee of, 42, 43. "Revue des Deux Mondes," 183, 256, 267, 310. Riviere, Montmorency de, 242. Robespierre, F. J., 283. Rochefort, Henri, Memoir, 279; also, 52, 56, 60, 80, 147, 152. Rohan, Prince de, 124. Rollin, Ledru. 142, 151, 210, 227. Rouher, Eugene, Memoir, 160: also, 89, 92, 93, 192, 196, 198, 199, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 223. S. ' Sainte-Beuve, C. A., 17, 24, 26. Sayigny, F. C. de, 157. Say, Leon, 321. Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duke of, 264. Scholl, Amelien, 2S7. Septennate, The, 119, 120, 155, 187. Seward, W. H., 263. Shakespeare, William, 23, 36. • "Siecle," The, 282. Simon Jules, Memoir, 9*; also, 13a 138, 161, 267, 277. " Soleil," The, 282. Soulie, F-, 24. Stael, Madame de, 181. Strauss, D. F-, 128. Talleyrand, C. M. de, 102, 137 Talma, F. J., 22. Taylor, M., 22, 24, 23. "Temps," The, 317. Tesseyre, Abbe, 124. Theodore the Great, z8g. . " The Pope and the Congress," Z38. "The Situation," 169. Thiers, Louis Adolphe, Memoir, 55 ; also, 27, 80, 82, no, 118, 119, 131, 132, 137* 138, i75» 176. i77> l8l» l82» 184, .185, 186, igi, ig3, 196, 199,200, 203, 206, 207, 208, 2ir, 217, 218, 237, 238, 257, 258, 259, 275, 276, 305, 308, 3x1.313. 3l6- Tissot, S. A., 128. Trochu, Gen., 303. Troppmann, 299. Vacquerie, Auguste, 38, 291. Vacquene, Charles, 38. Valjean, 4^. Valmy, Due de, 245. Vauvenargues, L., 59. Verger, 138. Veron, Pierre, 286. Veuillot, Louis, 124, 128, 138. Vigny, A. de, 24. Villemessant, 289. Vinojr, Gen., 235. Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 126. W. Walewski, F. A., 219. William L, King (of Prussia), zi6, 120. Yriarte, 254.