BILLAULT, AUGUSTE A. i. 



BOTFIELD, BERIAH. 



165 



energy, boldness, and readiness in debate, and 

 took position as one of the leaders of the Con- 

 stitutional Opposition. When M. Thiers formed 

 his second cabinet, March 1st, 1840, he assigned 

 to M. Billault the position of Assistant Secretary 

 to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, 

 and in this office he displayed a rare aptitude 

 for business. When the Thiers. ministry was 

 replaced by that of Guizot, M. Billault resigned, 

 and returned to his old seat with the opposi- 

 tion. He was soon after admitted a member 

 of the Paris bar, and, in his place in the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies, became one of the most persist- 

 ent and formidable opponents of the Guizot 

 administration, distinguishing himself particu- 

 larly by his opposition to the right of search, 

 ajnd to what was called the " Pritchard indem- 

 nity." In 1846, he was elected for the third 

 arrondissement of Paris, and also for his old 

 constituency of Ancenis, in4;he department of 

 Morbihan. He declined taking any active part 

 in the reform banquets which preceded the rev- 

 olution of 1848, though expressing his sym- 

 pathy with their views and purposes. He held, 

 however, the professional relation of legal advis- 

 er to the Due d'Aumale, the wealthiest of Louis 

 Philippe's sons. Immediately after the revolu- 

 tion, he was elected to the Constitutional As- 

 sembly for the department of the Loire Inferi- 

 eure, being the third on a list of 13, and re- 

 ceiving 88,858 votes. In this body he took, on 

 most questions, the extreme republican view, 

 supporting Louis Blanc's doctrine of the " right 

 of labor." He, however, voted with the Mod- 

 erates, for the banishment of the Orleans fam- 

 ily, and against the bills requiring security from 

 the journals, and providing for two Legislative 

 Chambers. He was not reflected for the Legis- 

 lative Assembly in 1849, but had become an 

 influential and intimate friend of the Prince 

 President, who consulted him frequently on 

 important questions. Meantime, he devoted 

 himself assiduously to his legal practice, which 

 was now large, and bided his time. It came 

 soon. Immediately after the coup d'etat of De- 

 cember 2d, 1851, he was returned for St. Girons, 

 in the Ariege, and was named President of the 

 new Corps L4gislatif, in which capacity he 

 greatly contributed to the reestablishment of 

 the empire. In July, 1854, he succeeded M. Per- 

 signy as Minister of the Interior, and in Decem- 

 ber of the same year was made a senator. 

 While occupying this position, the attempted 

 assassination of the emperor by Orsini and his 

 associates occurred (January 14th, 1858), and M. 

 Billault drew up, and succeeded in passing the 

 law of public safety, popularly known as the 

 Lois des Suspects, and soon after resigned to 

 give place to Gen. Espinasse, who was con- 

 sidered the man Best adapted to carry out its 

 provisions. The emperor was, however, un- 

 willing to lose the benefit of M. Billault's emi- 

 nent abilities, and, accordingly, named him and 

 M. Baroche ministers without portfolio, their 

 duty being to defend, in the Corps Legislatif, 

 the acts of the Government. The labor thrown 



upon him by this unpleasant office (for he had 

 often to defend measures of which he did not 

 approve), undermined his health. At the next 

 change of ministry he was appointed Minister 

 of State in place of Count Walewski, and he 

 still continued to be the official advocate of the 

 Government in the Senate and Corps Legislatif ; 

 this seems to be the first step toward a return 

 to the old system of responsible ministers. The 

 result of the elections of 1863 greatly affect- 

 ed M. Billault, as, notwithstanding the utmost 

 efforts of tbe Government to prevent it, thirty- 

 five opposition candidates were elected to the 

 Chambers, nearly all of them men of eminent 

 abilities. This untoward result aggravated a 

 disease of the heart, under which he labored 

 for some years, and probably caused his death. 

 He was a ready, able, and eloquent speaker, of 

 mild and unassuming manners, and singularly 

 skilled in presenting a case, however bad, in 

 fair and attractive colors. In private life he 

 was greatly beloved for his strong domestic 

 affections, and his kindness and affability to all, 

 and especially to the young, and to those who 

 were struggling to obtain an honorable position. 



BLOCKADE. (See PKIZES.) 



BOLTON, a village in Hinds county, Missis- 

 sippi, seventeen miles west of Jackson, on the 

 railroad to Vicksburg and twenty-seven miles 

 from Vicksburg. It was on the route over which 

 Gen. Grant's army moved. 



BOTFIELD, BERIAH, M. P., born at North- 

 amptonshire, Eng., in 1807, died at his residence 

 in Ludlow, Aug. 7th, 1863. He was educated at 

 Harrow, and from thence went to Christ Church, 

 Oxford, and took his degree of B. A. in 1828. 

 He early evinced a taste for botany, and pur- 

 chased many valuable publications on that 

 branch of science, but in after years devoted 

 more attention to bibliography, which eventual- 

 ly became the favorite study of his life. In 

 1840 he sat in Parliament for the borough of 

 Ludlow, and again the following year. At the 

 ensuing election, in 1847, he contested that 

 borough unsuccessfully, but in 1857 was soli- 

 cited by his former constituents to represent 

 them once more, and remained member for Lud- 

 Jow during the rest of his life. In his early 

 political career he was a follower and personal 

 friend of Sir Eobert Peel, and voted for free 

 trade when that measure was first introduced 

 into Parliament. He was remarkably success- 

 ful as a book-collector, deeming neither time, 

 labor, nor money in that service as ill spent, 

 and his library at Norton Hall was one of the 

 finest collections in England. Its specialty 

 consisted in a valuable collection of Editiones 

 Principes of classical authors, and costly folio 

 editions of illustrated works, many of them in 

 the French language. At different periods he 

 has appeared before the world as an author, 

 having published in 1849 " Notes on Cathedral 

 Libraries in England," and in 1861 collected 

 and edited the " Prefaces to the first Editions 

 of the Greek and Koman Classics, and of the 

 Sacred Scriptures." He also contributed articles 



