[ 678 ] [JUNE, 



THE CHARACTER OF CASIMIR PERIER, 



THE late premier of France was the son of a banker, Claude Perier, 

 who owed his wealth, in a great measure, to the misfortunes of those who 

 suffered from the consequences of the first revolution of France. Claude 

 Perier was one of the celebrated bande noire, who engaged to destroy the 

 castles and domains of the ancient nobles. Until 1816, Casimir 

 Perier was quite unknown to the world as a politician, and as a banker he 

 had the renown of being one of the most cunning, most interested, and 

 generally successful in his speculations. He owed his celebrity, partly to 

 the anti-national administration of M. de Villele, but chiefly to the friend- 

 ship of General Foy, who caused him to be elected member of the 

 chamber of deputies. In private life his conduct to his family, his wife, 

 his brothers, his children, and all who were in any way his dependents, 

 was that of a tyrant, and Casimir Perier could justly have claimed for his 

 motto, 



Sic volo, sicjubeo, statpro ratione voluntas. 



We must also add that if Casimir Perier had died five years ago, posterity 

 would have been greatly misled with regard to his real character ; for at 

 that time he undoubtedly evinced all the apparent qualities of a friend of 

 the people, and of an independent member of the French senate. 



But Casimir Perier has been for the last fifteen months the premier of 

 France, the champion of the reigning^ws/e milieu, and one of the most active 

 members of the New Holy Alliance. It is in these characters that we 

 have to consider him, and to weigh his pretensions as a statesman. We 

 commence them with an odd question What was Casimir Perier ? 



Were we to believe only half that the Moniteur, the Debats, and the 

 Journal de Paris have said of the late President of the French council, 

 we must regard him as the " foremost man of all the world." Berlin 

 de Veau has placed him above Napoleon, and Leon Pillet has called him 

 un puits de science politique. But if we would trust the contrary 

 party, we should pronounce him to have been accord ing to the National, 

 the Tribune, and the Mouvement the vilest of mankind, even viler than 

 Metternich, Wellington, and Polignac. 



What we here say of Casimir Perier, we say from personal knowledge ; 

 and we can truly declare that we always found in him a man of a despotic 

 and tyrannical disposition one possessed of a superficial general know- 

 ledge, of little classical and political instruction, but of great financial 

 talents. 



What were the political principles of Casimir Perier ? The defenders 

 of the Juste Milieu style him the true constitutional minister. Odillon 

 Barrot, Lamarque, Dupont de L'Eure, and all the most popular members 

 of the French senate, have often called him the secret agent of the 

 legitimate party of Europe, and the Mannequin of Metternich and 

 Nesselrode. 



Both these opinions are exaggerated ; in our belief, the late Premier of 

 France had no political principles of his own ; he was the mere executor of 

 the dictates of the doctrinaire party ; whatever was proposed, and adopted 

 by M. M. de Broglie, Guizot, Dupin, and Villemain, not excepting the 

 son of Egalite', was the political creed of Perier, and as his was unquestion- 



