The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-08 00:00:00

DEATH OF 7HE DUKE PASQUIER.

Duke Pasquier died at his house (Rue Royale) on
Saturday afternoon, in his 96th year. He had suf-
fered from a slight attack of influenza during the
last winter, but had recovered from it, and was able
to see his friends and join in their conversation as
usual up to the last few days of his life. " The
wonderful vitality of his mind deceived us as to his
age even to the very last days," observed M. St.
Marc Girardin :
" He who writes these lines had the honour
hardly six years ago of conversing with M. Pas-
quier, who asked of him to read what he had dic-
tated but the day before. He made judicious,
pointed, and profound observations and revolutions
and restorations. What -we read coteealed from
us what we saw, and we could hardly believe that
this mind, so full of life, so animated, so attentive to
the affairs of the world and of our time, and this
frame, so weakened, so exhausted, and so near its
end, were one and the same person."
M. Pasquier sprung from a family that could
boast of several eminent magistrates, the most cele-
brated of whom was the jurist and historian,
Etienne Pasquier, who acquired in a moment an im-
mense reputation by his defence of the University
of Paris against the Jesuits in 1564. Duke Pas-
quier was born in Paris in 1767. He was educated
at the once celebrated College of Juilly (Seine et
Marne), founded in 1639 by the Oratorian Fathers,
who continued to direct it till 1789. On the com-
pletion of his studies he was named Conseiller do
Requetes in the Parliament of Paris; and when the
Parliament was exiled to Troyes, in the last years
of the monarchy, ho shared its exile. His father,
who had filled judicial functions in the same Par-
liament, was arrested soon after the massacres of
the 10th of August, 1792, and, with several of his
colleagues, among whom was the father of the late
Count Mole, perished on Vie scaffold in April, 1794.
The efforts made by young Pasquier to save his
father's life drew upon him the suspicions of the
revolutionary tribunals. He was arrested, thrown
into prison, and would assuredly have added
another to the many victims of that rule of terror
but for the fall of Robespierre on the 9th, and his
execution, amid the wild exultation of the people,
on the 10th Thermidor. Cambaceres, who had risen
to the post of Second Consul of the Republic,
was then Arch-Chancellor of the Empire ; and
had during the time he was Minister of Justica
under the Directory an opportunity of estimating
the character and merits of Pasquier, and he ap-
pointed him in 1804 Master of Requests. Ho did
not long remain in that subordinate post. He was
named Councillor of State and Procureur-General,
a Baron of the new Empire, Commander of the
Legion of Honour, and, finally, was appointed to
the important and delicate post of Prefect of Police,
in which by general admission he acted throughout
with great moderation. It was while he held this
office that the famous Malet made the daring at-
tempt to overthrow the Government during the
Emperor's absence in Russia, and in which he so
nearly
succeeded. Baron Pasquier's presence of
mind
on that occasion, though he did not know
until he saw Malet at the hotel of the Adjutant-
General
Doucet that his prisoner had escaped, or
that the Minister of Police, Savary, was in the
hands of the conspirators, defeated the plan, and
the Emperor, on whom this extraordinary affair
produced a deeper impression than the disasters of
the Moscow retreat, retained him in his post on his
return to Paris,

After the abdication of Fontainebleau, M. Pas-
pier recognised the new Government, and did his
best to induce the Parisian population to submit to
the authority
of the Bourbons. On their restora-
tion he withdrew from political affairs, but accepted
the post of Director-General of the Ponts et Chaus-
sees. He resigned on the return of the Emperor
from Elba, and exercised no public function during
the Hundred Days. On the second restoration he
was offered the post of Keeper of the Seals (Garde
des Sceaux) in the first Cabinet formed by Prince
Talleyrand in 1815. This Cabinet had but a brief
existence ; it was dissolved before the Chamber met.
M. Pasquier was elected deputy for Paris and Pre-
sident of the Chamber in 1816. He joined the
Ministry of 1817, and strove in vain to stem the
violence of the ultra-Royalist factions which formed
the majority of the Chamber., He retired in 1818
with Richelieu. In the following year ho was asso-
ciated with M. Decazes in the formation of a now
Cabinet, in which he held the portfolio of Foreign
Affairs. His talent as a Parliamentary debater,
found constant employment in defending the mode-
rate system which he had ever supported against the
extreme parties that had coalesced for the over-
throw of the Government. During these conflicts
occurred the murder of the Duke de Berri by
Louvel, in February, 1820, and the responsibility
of which the reactiouists audaciously pretended to