42 MEMOIRS OF 



pecuniary reward. This appointment associated 

 him with the ministry, and gave him the super- 

 intendence, not only of the rehgious, but the civil 

 and political rights of his own creed, and ceased 

 only with his life, although the Grand Masters 

 were afterwards laymen. 



In 1824, M. Cuvier officiated, as one of the 

 Presidents of the Council of State, at the coro- 

 nation of Charles X. j and, in 1826, received trom 

 that monarch the decoration of Grand Officer 

 de la Legion d'Honneur. On the Saturday he 

 knew nothing of this compliment, and on Sunday 

 it arrived, without, however, disturbing him from 

 the delighted survey he was taking, with his 

 daughter-in-law, of some alterations just made 

 in his house. At this time also, his former sove- 

 reign, the King of Wiirtemburg, appointed him 

 Commander of his Order of the Crown. 



In 1827, to M. Cuvier's Protestant Grand 

 Mastership was added the management of all 

 the affiiirs belonging to the different religions in 

 France, except the Catholic, in the Cabinet of 

 the Interior, for which increase of his duties he 

 also refused to accept any emolument. But this 

 year was marked with the heaviest calamity the 

 Baron Cuvier had yet sustained, the loss of 

 his only remaining child ; a pious, talented, 



