drawings by Mr. Chantrey, R.A., who presented to Mr. Rhodes a series
of drawings for his work, "as a token of his friendship, and a mark of
his attachment to his native country."

* * * * *

SELECT BIOGRAPHY

M. CASIMIR PERIER.

(_PARTLY FROM THE FRENCH._)

The late French premier, was the son of a rich merchant at Grenoble,
where he was born October 12, 1777. At an early age he entered the
army: he served in the Italian campaigns of 1799 and 1800, in the
staff of the Military Engineers. On the death of his father, however,
he quitted the service and devoted himself wholly to commercial
pursuits. In 1802, he opened a bank at Paris, and subsequently,
establishments for cotton-spinning and sugar-refining, and a steam
flour mill, all of which were eminently successful, and contributed
to the formation of his immense fortune. He first became known to the
public in 1816, by a pamphlet against the foreign loan system, which
was equally remarkable for its clearness of argument and profound
knowledge of finance. In 1817, he was elected one of the Deputies for
the Department of the Seine, and from that time until the revolution
of 1830, he continued the firm opponent of every ministerial
encroachment on the rights and privileges of the people. He
particularly distinguished himself by his hostility to the Villele
administration; himself supporting almost singly the whole burden of
the opposition to the famous budget of Villele, which he disputed,
item by item, with talent and perseverance worthy of entering the
lists with the distinguished financier to whom he was opposed. When
M. de Polignac became President of the Council, the opposition of M.
Perier assumed a more violent character, and he was pre-eminent
among the 221 deputies who voted the address which led to the fatal
ordonnances of July. When the revolution broke out, he at once avowed
himself the advocate of the popular cause, and opened his house as the
place of meeting of the deputies, who assembled to protest against the
illegality of the proceedings of the Crown. Firmly, however, attached
to the principles of constitutional opposition, and shrinking,
therefore, from the probable effects of a revolution, he was one of
the last to abandon the hope that his infatuated sovereign would open
his eyes to the gulf on the brink of which he was standing, and by a
timely revocation of the ordonnances, prevent the necessity of the