578 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[MAY, 



Buonaparte, his exclamation was " Fo- 

 reigners look towards us, knowing that 

 the first general in the world marches at 

 our head : if they see us rallied around 

 him, they will think themselves already 

 defeated ; but, if we are divided, we pe- 

 rish." 



But the usurper was crushed, and a 

 change of scene became once more neces- 

 sary for the safety of M. Constant. On 

 the restoration of Louis XVIII., he 

 went to live at Brussels ; thence he came 

 over to England ; and, in November, 

 1816, he returned to Paris. Subse- 

 quently he engaged in several periodical 

 works of the day; particularly in Le 

 Mercure, in which he wrote, though not 

 with great violence, in opposition to the 

 government. By advocating the cause 

 of the Liberals, he procured his election 

 in the Chamber of Deputies, in 1818. 



M. Constant was one of the editors of 

 La Minerva, and, on all sides, allowed 

 to be one of the ablest political writers 

 of the age ; he was a fine German scho- 

 lar, and tended much to introduce and 

 promote a love of the literature and 

 philosophy of Germany into France. 

 Besides the works which have been in- 

 cidentally noticed in this sketch, he was 

 the author of the following, with many 

 others of minor note : On the Spirit of 

 Conquest and Usurpation, as they' in- 

 fluence European Civilization ; Reflec- 

 tions on Constitutions, the Distribution 

 of Powers, and Guarantees in a Consti- 

 tutional Monarchy ; On the Interest 

 of Government respecting the Liberty 

 of Pamphlets and Journals ; Observa- 

 tions on the Speech of the Minister of 

 the Interior on the Liberty of the Press; 

 On the Responsibility of Ministers ; 

 Political Principles applicable to Repre- 

 sentative Governments, and particularly 

 to the Existing Constitution of France ; 

 Principles of Public Law ; On the 

 Elections of 1807 and 1808; Letters 

 on the Trial of Wilfred Regnault ; 

 Letter on the Massacre of the Protest- 

 ants at Nismes ; Letters on the Hun- 

 dred Days ; several pamphlets on the 

 projected change in the Law of Elec- 

 tions ; articles in the Universal Bio- 

 graphy ; Adolphus, an Anecdote found 

 amongst the Papers of a Person Un- 

 known. The last-mentioned work is a 

 romance, founded on the system of fata- 

 lity. 



M. Constant caught a severe cold 

 during the memorable three days of 

 1830, and continued in a declining state 

 till the period of his death, which occur- 



red at Paris on the 8th of December. 

 His remains were interred on the 12th, 

 in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. The 

 funeral was attended by the Chamber 

 of Deputies, and an immense portion of 

 the population of Paris, and is said to 

 have produced a sensation equal to that 

 occasioned by Mirabeau. His ashes, 

 report states, are shortly to be removed 

 to the Pantheon. If so, it will be an 

 exception to the general rule, that ten 

 years must elapse after the death of an 

 individual, to enable posterity to judge 

 of the validity of his claim to this high 

 national honour. 



COMTE SAINTE SUZANNE. 



Le Comte Sainte Suzanne, a peer of 

 France, and Lieutenant-General in the 

 Army, was born at Chalons-sur-Marne, 

 in 1760. At an early age, he was one 

 of the pages to Madame, sister-in- 

 law to Louis XVI. Having subse- 

 quently entered into the regiment of 

 Anjou, he held the rank of captain at 

 the commencement of the revolution ; 

 and he distinguished himself in the wars 

 of that period. In 1796, he was a gene- 

 ral of brigade in the armies of the 

 Moselle and Rhine, and took an active 

 part in the campaign, opposed to the 

 Archduke Charles. In some affairs with 

 General Kray, upon the Rhine, he ob- 

 tained considerable advantages over that 

 general; and occupying all the ap- 

 proaches to Ulm, he ultimately compelled 

 the enemy to retreat. Soon after- 

 wards he covered the left wing, and 

 secured the communications with Mo- 

 reau. 



On the return of peace, General Su- 

 zanne went to Paris ; where he was 

 elected, successively, a member of the 

 council of state, and a member of the 

 senate. In 1809, he was appointed, to 

 the inspectorship of the army for the 

 protection of the coast of Boulogne. 



On the 1st of April, 1814, this officer 

 voted against the ^continuance of Buo~ 

 naparte on the throne of France ; and, 

 on the 4th of June following, Louis the 

 XVIIIth created him a peer, and named 

 him Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis. 

 Unlike many others, he did not exer- 

 cise his legislative functions after the 

 return of Buonaparte ; and, conse- 

 quently, he was not deprived of his 

 pension on the final restoration of the 

 Bourbons. 



Comte Sainte Suzanne died at Paris, 

 on the 27th of August, the same day 

 that Comte Louis de Segur died. 



