the precursor of other similar triumphs, and his attainment of the first rank among legal orators was acknowledged to be only a matter of time.

In 1830 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies by the department of the Haute Loire, and on the 9th of March in that year he made his first appearance in the tribune, securing to himself as prominent a position in the house as he already held at the bar. After the Revolution of July he frequently spoke in favour of popular government, though he was rightly regarded as the chief of the Legitimist party in Paris. This position exposed him to some danger, for the advisers of the Duchess de Berri determined on an insurrection in 1832, which course Berryer strongly opposed. Armed with a letter from Chateaubriand, he went to La Vendée to urge his views on the Duchess, and to guard against the suspicion of being concerned in their measures he left Paris for Switzerland. He was however arrested at Angoulême and conveyed to Nantes to stand a trial, which took place at Blois on the 16th October 1832, and led to disclosures concerning the practice of the Government's agents singularly damaging to its popularity. Berryer admitted having gone to La Vendée to see the Duchess, but refused to divulge any particulars of his conversation with her Royal Highness, save that he had frankly and honestly given her his opinion unfavourable to her projected course of action. Some of the witnesses for the prosecution proved themselves guilty of perjury and forgery, the result being that the Crown counsel threw up the case in an agony of shame, leaving M. Berryer to rejoice in a triumphant acquittal.

Having resumed his seat in the Chamber, he boldly took advantage of his position to demand the pardon of the Duchess de Berri. Shortly after her arrest, Chateaubriand had published a pamphlet on the illegality of her detention. In apostrophising her he had used the expression, "Votre fils est notre Roi." Large bodies of the youth of the university and schools had presented the Viscount with complimentary addresses, and he was consequently prosecuted by the Government, the editors of six newspapers, which had printed his reply to the students, being tried along with him. Berryer was counsel for the defence, and all were unanimously acquitted.

D'Argenson, De Puyraveau, and Garnier Pagès reaped the advantages of Berryer's advocacy on their trials in 1834-5. In 1836 the French Legitimists subscribed a large sum, with which they purchased the estate of Angerville, as a tribute to the brilliant orator who had so boldly and so successfully raised his voice in their defence.

In 1836 he paid a visit to Goritz to the ex-King Charles X., shortly before his decease, showing his fellow Legitimists that he was still attached to their cause.

In August, 1840, Louis Napoleon made his entry into Boulogne, which was at the time characterised as the act of a madman; but the French Government carefully abstained from publishing the fact that the garrison of Boulogne had been changed just three hours before the arrival of the prince, who missed the tide, and consequently landed six hours later than he had planned for. He and his companions were taken and tried before the Court of Peers. Berryer and Marie were advocates for the prisoners. Berryer made a powerful speech, contending that as 4,000,000 of votes had placed the Napoleon dynasty on the throne, Prince Louis was in fact the heir to that throne, and could not, and should not, be executed for seeking to obtain it, but should be exiled like other claimants to the throne. Berryer undertook the defence of the Prince with reluctance, and in fact had at one time resolved to decline the request of the Prince and of his London friends. It was on the representation of an English resident in Paris -a friend who scarcely missed a day without seeing the famed orator-that the occasion would furnish the opportunity of making a covert attack on the reigning Sovereign, that the great advocate at length consented to undertake the defence. "All that I can do," said M. Berryer, "is to save his life; perpetual imprisonment must at all events be his fate." Berryer had a strong personal feeling against Louis Philippe for the conduct of that monarch towards the elder branch of the Bourbons; the Grenoble affair, of which the Duc Decazes and General Donnadieu have given such different versions, always rankled in the breast of Berryer. In his consultations with the Prince the chief anxiety expressed by the prisoner was to be freed before the Peers from the interrogatories of Baron Pasquier, the chancellor, the president of the court. The Prince had endured specimens of the inquisitorial sport of French magistrates at Boulogne before M. Buisson, and he had undergone other "interrogatories," which mean cross-examinations in private, before the chancellor. To avoid a scene in the Court of Peers it was therefore determined that the Prince should deliver a short address, and then decline to answer questions. It is a passage in this speech which has given rise to endless commentaries on the Corsican character of the Prince as entertaining la vendetta against the English for the battle of Waterloo. When it is stated that Prince Louis Napoleon never wrote the passage referred to, but that it owes its origin to a mere jocular observation of an Englishman,† what a mass of indignant commentary will fall to the ground. The facts are simply these :-The Prince wrote down a sketch of what he wished to say to the Court of Peers, giving it to his counsel to alter and amend as he thought expedient. M. Berryer, who was in * No doubt Mr. C. L. Gruncisen, at that time the Paris correspondent of the Morning Post, to which journal he has recently communicated the facts narrated † Mr. Gruneisen again.

above.

daily communication with the English friend referred to, being struck with the rather inflated style of the proposed address, quite natural under the perilous position of the prisoner, read over the draft to the Englishman with the observation, "You English, who have so much common sense, can suggest what is ultra and exaggerated." Suggestions were mutually made on the reading until M. Berryer came to a passage, "I represent before you a principle and a cause-the first the Sovereignty of the People, and the second that of the Empire." On hearing this sentence the Englishman smiled. "What are you laughing at?" said M. Berryer. "Well," was the reply, "I think there is one other thing the Prince represents." "What is that?" rejoined the advocate. "A defeat," was the answer. "What do you mean?" "Waterloo," quietly remarked the Englishman. "C'est le mot, c'est le mot!" called out M. Berryer, and, pen in hand, he altered the passage as it was delivered to the Court, and it stood thus: "I represent before you a principle, a cause, and a defeat. The principle is the Sovereignty of the People; the cause is that of the Empire; the defeat is that of Waterloo. The principle-you have recognised it; the cause -you have served it;-the defeat-you would revenge it."

In 1843 Berryer came to London with M. de Chateaubriand, to pay a visit to the Count de Chambord, who was then living in Belgravesquare; and his advice to the Prince that he should abstain from all intrigues and attempts to bring about a revolution in France, was scrupulously followed.

Berryer was almost a passive spectator of the events of 1848, but was chosen in that year, and again in 1849, representative in the Legislature of the Bouches du Rhône. In the Republican Parliament he spoke but little save upon financial and administrative questions, but he was opposed to the conduct of the President Louis Napoleon, and spoke against it in 1851. In the same year he protested against a proposal for repealing the law which exiled the Bourbons, on the ground that the Count de Chambord was not an exiled Frenchman, but a King of France unlawfully excluded from the throne, and that no monarch could accept permission to enter his own dominions. Berryer was among those who endeavoured to procure the impeachment of Louis Napoleon, but, after the coup d'état of the 2d December, 1851, which he had foreseen and worked against, Berryer took little part in political matters, except in endeavouring to effect a fusion between the two branches of the House of Bourbon. In 1852 he was elected bâtonnier of the French bar, and in 1854 became an Academician, on which occasion he did not pay the usual visit to the Emperor. In 1858 he was chosen by the Count de Montalembert to defend him on his trial for the famous article upon a debate on India in the British Parliament. Montalembert was sentenced to fine and imprisonment, but

the Emperor would not allow the latter part of the sentence to be carried out. In 1861 he was engaged in the celebrated cause of Miss Patterson concerning the succession of Jerome Napoleon. In 1863 Berryer permitted himself to be put in nomination for the department of the Bouches du Rhône, and was elected by his old constituency, M. Thiers and M. Marie being his colleagues.

In 1865 he paid a visit to England as the guest of Lord Brougham, and was entertained at a special banquet given in his honour at the Temple by the benchers on the 10th November, where the highest compliments were paid to the great French advocate, who had all through life maintained a thoroughly consistent course.

M. Berryer did not take a very active part in the debates of the Parliament of the Second Empire, but he raised his voice in the Chamber in December 1867 in approval of the French intervention in Rome; and on 14 Feb. 1868, he made a long speech in the Corps Legislatif to sustain an amendment, designed to secure the independence of the judges, which he had proposed to a new law on the press. His last political act was his publicly subscribing to the fund raised to defend the Paris journals which were prosecuted for having published lists of subscriptions for a monument to Baudin, one of the victims of the coup d'état of 1852.

The following is a copy of a letter written to the Count de Chambord by M. Berryer on his death-bed, after having received the last sacraments of the Church :

"O Monseigneur,—O mon Roi, on me dit que je touche à ma dernière heure. Je meurs avec la douleur de n'avoir pas vu le triomphe de vos droits héréditaires, consacrant l'établissement et le développement des libertés dont notre patrie a besoin.

"Je porte ces vœux au Ciel pour votre Majesté, pour sa Majesté la Reine, pour notre chère France. Pour qu'ils soient moins indignes d'être exaucés par Dieu je quitte la vie, armé de tous les secours de notre sainte religion. "Adieu, Sire; que Dieu vous protège et sauve la France.

"Votre dévoué et fidèle sujet,

"18 Novembre, 1868."

"BERRYER.

The remains of M. Berryer were deposited on the 7th of December in the family vault, which is situate directly at the foot of the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the little church of Angerville. Speeches were made by M. Grévy, M. Marie, the Duke de Noailles, M. de Falloux, and M. de la Ferté, the three latter being deputed by Count de Chambord. Mr. Huddleston, Q.C. who, with Mr. James Anderson, Q.C. and Mr. H. T. Cole, Q.C. represented the English bar on the sad occasion, delivered a few remarks in English, after which the funeral service was performed by the Bishop of Orleans and the Abbé Desbrosse.

A writer in the Times remarks that M. Berryer had "long been considered the foremost orator of France since the days of Mirabeau; and his speeches had in them at once all the charm of finished orations and the force of the suddenness, vivacity, and fire of extempore harangues. There are those who have compared him to Lord Derby, or rather to the Lord Stanley of a quarter of a century ago; of whose vehement and impassioned manner he reminded English hearers: especially when, confident of some advantage gained over his opponent in debate, he would heap refutations, sarcasms, and taunts on his discomfited adversary. When he stood at the Tribune, with his head raised and his arm uplifted, and poured forth his torrent of eloquence, nothing could be superior to him in style or in action. Possessing a most musical voice, and thoroughly gifted with every oratorical resource, he was listened to with profound silence, broken by applause only at the end of some fine period. Add to this the fact that he had an astonishing aptitude for business, and an intuitive quickness in mastering the details of the most complicated questions, and the reader may have an idea of the versatile and powerful orator whom France has just lost."

Some years ago M. Berryer talked of compiling his Memoirs for publication, but it was only within the last fifteen months that his friend Paul Andral (son of Dr. Andral) began the work under his directions. It is understood that one volume is finished, but whether it will be published or not must depend on the discretion of the executors. It has often been said that M. Berryer was not rich. He spent largely the income that he made. At Angerville he gave away as much as 2,000l. a year to the poor, and his farms did not bring him in a net rent of more than 607. His library is said to be worth 20,0007.

He has left a son, Arthur Berryer, who, in 1852, was sent, under the title of Commissioner of the French Government, to negociate the question of the Turin and French railways in Sardinia. Named Imperial Commissioner for the Society of the Dock Napoléon, he was implicated in an action which culminated in the dissolution of the Society. Though attempts were made to modify the position of M. Arthur Berryer, still he was obliged to admit the reception of moneys from the concessionaires of the docks, to the prejudice of the society. The sister of M. Berryer married the Duc de Riario-Sforza, who died in 1862.