page_title: Casimir Pierre Périer
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Casimir Pierre Périer / Biography / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Mme Casimir Perier, born Pauline Loyer (1788-1761)
context_page_description: Casimir-Pierre Périer was a prominent French banker, mine owner, political leader and statesman. In business, through his bank in Paris and ownership of the Anzin Coal Co. in the Department of Nord, he contributed significantly to the economic development of France in the early stages of industrialization. In politics, he was a leading liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies throughout the Bourbon Restoration and president of the chamber at the outset of the July Revolution of 1830. He led the liberal-conservative Resistance Party in support of the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe I. He became president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Interior in the spring of 1831. Although his ministry was brief, his strong government succeeded in restoring order at home and keeping peace abroad. He fell victim to the cholera epidemic in France in 1832.
context_section_description: Casimir Perier's wide-ranging business interests and investments help to explain his opposition in the Chamber of Deputies to financial policies of Restoration ministries. In 1817, he opposed the policy of the Richelieu ministry for raising loans to pay the war indemnity demanded by the allied coalition after Napoleon's final defeat. In the 1820s, he was a leader in debates (1821–1822) against the policies of the Villèle ministry for financing canal construction and (1824–1825) for indemnifying the nobility for lands confiscated during the Revolution.
  Perier entered the Chamber of Deputies for Paris in 1817, taking his seat in the Left Centre with the moderate opposition, and making his first speech in defense of the freedom of the press. Re-elected for Paris in 1822 and 1824, and in 1827 for Paris and for Troyes, he elected to represent Troyes (Department of Aube), and sat for that constituency until his death. Perier's violence in debate was not associated with any disloyalty to the Bourbon Restoration, and he held resolutely aloof from the Republican conspiracies and intrigues which prepared the way for the revolution of 1830. Under the Martignac ministry, there was some prospect of a reconciliation with the court, and, in January 1829, he was nominated a candidate for the presidency of the chamber; but in August with the elevation to power of Jules, Prince de Polignac, the truce ceased, and on 15 March 1830, Perier was one of the 221 deputies who repudiated the Ordinances put forward by Charles X.
  Averse by instinct and by interest to popular revolution, Perier nevertheless sat on the provisory commission of five at the Hôtel de Ville during the Three Glorious Days of July 1830, but he refused to sign the declaration of Charles X's dethronement. Perier reluctantly recognized in the government of Louis Philippe's constitutional monarchy the only alternative to the continuance of the Revolution, but he was no favorite with the new king, whom he scorned for his trucking with the Paris 'mob'. He became President of the Chamber of Deputies, and sat for a few months in the cabinet, though without a portfolio.
caption: Madame Perier by Louis Hersent (1831), Musée de la Révolution française.
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