16 MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 



and assisted in the changes which were thought necessa- 

 ry there; while, after the second restoration of the Bour- 

 bons, he was actively employed in every sort of adminis- 

 tration, connected with the Committee of the Interior, at- 

 tached to the Council of State. In 1826, he officiated as 

 one of the Presidents at the coronation of Charles X. ; and, 

 after the last Revolution, he was not only named a Peer of 

 France by the Citizen-King, but, at the time of his unex- 

 pected death, the appointment of President to the entire 

 Council of State waited for the royal signature. Thus, 

 we see his early course of study usefully brought for- 

 ward ; for it must be recollected that law and ad- 

 ministration were the branches which he entered upon, 

 from choice, in the University of Stutgard, and that 

 the study of Nature was employed as a relaxation from 

 his more severe legal and literary engagements. As, 

 however, it is more with his career as a naturalist than as 

 a statesman that we have now to deal, let us look back and 

 trace his labors, from his appointment in the Jardin des 

 Plantes till the second restoration of the Bourbons. 



We have seen the occupations of Cuvier since the time 

 of his arrival in Paris to the period to which we have 

 brought down his history, to have been almost more than 

 sufficient for any ordinary mind. The lectures which 

 were to be delivered in his situations in the Garden, were 

 of themselves an arduous task ; but no part of the adminis- 

 tration to which he was attached was denied his assistance. 



In 1830, he became anxious again to see England, 

 and to trace the march which science had there made 

 since his last visit ; his important offices in the State, were, 

 however, a serious hindrance to this indulgence, and the 

 ordinances which Charles X. was then passing, were 

 looked upon by the people as so vexatious and un- 

 just, that almost double employment was given to the min- 

 istry, to enable them to maintain order and prevent open 

 outrage. His leave of absence was, therefore, several 



