The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-08-14
FRANCES NEW president

/ fact that his political career bad been
/ conservatively republican through
out.
/ Several years later the Royalists
presumed on this action, and offered
Casimir-Perier an exalted position in
+ return for his allegiance TO their
party. But their proposal was indig-
naGtly rejected by him, with the an
swer that he would rather be a citizen
in a republic than a duke in king
dom. In 1890 he became Vice Presi-
dent of the Chamber, and has been
three times elected to that position.
In November last he became Prime
Minister, and, failing a vote of conf
dence several weeks later, his Minis
try was overthrown, and the result
is supposed to have been brought
about by his own efforts to further his
prospects as a candidate for the Presi-
dency.
The new President will bring to the
Elysee the same measure of social
distinction which it has enjoyed un-
der Carnot, which was in turn such a
contrast to the bourgeois parsimony of
the Grevy days at the Presidents
residence. Casimir Perier is wealthy
man, and his wife came of wealthy
and noble family. She was the Count
ess de Sigur, and is conspicuous in
Paris society. Most of the wealth of
the new President comes from his
mines, although a number of country
estates which he owns have been,
since the days of the revolution, in
the possession of his family. His
wealth is not so great as has been re-
ported. 1t is said that his properties
yield an income of SOC, 900 francs or
about $50, 200 year, which in addi-
ton TO his wife's private income and
his large salary as President will be
sufficient to enable them 10 continue
the luXuriance and splendid hospi-
tality at the Elysee which were main
tanned by the earn Is. The Presi-
dents town house in Paris was at %
Rue NitOt. His mother was a Fon-
tenieliat, and Casimir-Perier is cou-
sin of Nicomte CASTOR de Fonteniel-
lat, who was married in 1877 in Paris
to Miss Mimi Smith, the sister of Mrs.
W. X. Vanderbilt, and lives now in
France, after d somewhat turbulent
residence of several years in this city.
There are other affiliations of the
family with this country. The Peri
ers have supplied number of notA-
bilities to the Church, and one of
these was Rose Duchesne- Perier, who
died here in 1872 after life devoted to
religious work. She came here, a
nun, TO ChTistianiZe the American In
dams, and her only complaint when
she was past seventy one was that hel
advanced age prevented her from res
cuing the Indians from barbarism and
heathenism and bringing them into
the Church.
The Perier family descended from
a notary who lived near Grenoble, in
Dauphine, in the second half of the
eighteenth century. The family
prospere1, and in 1775 the notary's
son bought the royal castle of While
from the Duke of Nilleroy, and lived
there in the state suited TO a landed
proprietor, although he was only a
nOtary's son. This was Claude Perier
and his son was the Minister under
Louis Philippe and the grandfather
of the new President. A niece of
Claude Perier married distinguished
lawyer of Grenoble, and their daugh-
ter, Rose Philippine Duchesne Perier,
who was born in 1863 at GrenOble, was
the member of the family who lived
and died in this country.
When the reign of terror was inau-
gurated the Perier family had already
settled in Paris, and, owing TO the
grave political situation, the daugh-
ter, Rose, was not enabled to take the
veil until 1901. The name Casimir
belongs to an-older branch of the fam
lily, and it has been legally made
part of the family name.
Casimer Perier's republicanism has
often beeD questioned by his political
opponents. This is a part of his
speech, touching especially on his
political creed, made in 1898 when he
accepted the portfolio of Foreign At
fairs:
1.-The Government before you finds
its duty traced by fhe recent express
sion of the will of the country. Never
has France affirmed with more force
her attachment to the Republic, her
aversion TO a period of reaction, her
respect for liberty of thought and
conscience, and her faith in progress.
Never has universal suffrage more
cleary condemned the politics of alb
straet formulas, of unjust restrictions
and arbitrary cIassificatiOns, nor more
energetically preserved, in the face of
the theories OF certain schools, the
maintenance of order and the defence
of the principles given TO US by the
French revOlution-liberty and indl-
vidusl property
The new President is man of mill
itary bearing, graceful and polished
manners and the dignity which is so
often characteristic If Frenchmen in
high positions. His election will
prove NOR popular than that of Du-
puy would have been, for the speeta-
Gle of q man of such rearing and tastes
as the representative of the nation
would probably have pleased very few
classes of the French people.