committed by Matthéo, the sub-cashier of the Treasury; on the alleged irregularity of certain financial operations at the Bourse by the Covetto Ministry; on the expenses attendant on the collection of taxes; on pensions to the widows and orphans of soldiers in active service; and, as usual, on other subjects of a financial character. In the Session of 1822 he only spoke twenty-two times; and in the Session of 1823 only nine. In that of 1822 the question of the negotiation of new rentes was debated by him with talent, and he distinguished himself by his conflicts with M. de Peyronnet. He defended, also, General Bertin against M. Maugin, and opposed some reductions in the budget proposed by the Finance Commission. The Session of 1823 was that in which Manuel was excluded from the Chamber. M. Perier spoke frequently on this question, and but seldom on any other. It was one of the errors of the Restoration, and the recorded protest of Casimir Perier is an unanswerable "morceau" of logical argumentation. During the Session of 1824 M. Casimir Perier delivered twenty-eight speeches. The principal topic of dispute was the proposed conversion of the 5 rentes, which M. de Villéle proposed, and M. Perier opposed, with so much of sense and of truth. Casimir Perier was a decided and energetic enemy to every system which tampered with the public credit; and he was, undoubtedly, one of those who most powerfully contributed to the subsequent rejection of that measure by the Chamber of Peers. In the Session of 1825 he spoke very frequently. No less than fifty-six speeches did he deliver that Session; and the subjects which most occupied his attention were the law of indemnity to the emigrants-the new bill on the public debt and sinking fundthe conversion of the 5 per cents. the expenses of the Spanish war-the debt due by Spain to France-the consolidated debts-and the recognition of the new states of South America. In the Session of 1826 he addressed the House fifty-two times, and on a variety of interesting topics. Amongst them were the questions of the gambling at the Stock Exchange-the citation of the director of the Journal du Commerce to the bar of the House the right of petitioning-the indemnity to the St Domingo Colonistsas to the right of the King to modify a law by an ordinance-as to the contracts for the Spanish war-the sinking fund-and the foreign corn bill, During this Session, also, the ecclesiastical budgets, and the conduct of the "congregation" and the "Jesuits," came under debate; as likewise an interesting debate on the right of the Chamber of Peers to intervene in the discussion of the budget. The financial situation of the country, the postoffice, and the immorality of the lottery, also furnished him with materials for very good and useful addresses. In the Session of 1827 M. Casimir Perier spoke forty-four times. The Session commenced by an attack on the then new tariff of the post-office, and on its operation on the journals of the country, as well as on the transport of gold and silver by means of the post-office. Then came a discussion on the laws as to the press, which occupied much of his time and attention. The whole question of the securities to be given by, and to be offered to the press, was debated with talent and energy, and M. Perier had to contend with two able antagonists in the persons of M. de Corbiere, and M. Dudon. The repression of the slave-trade was also debated, as well as a proposal of a member of the Opposition to appoint a commission to watch over the prerogatives of the Chamber, and to see they were not infringed on. The whole question of the woods and forests of the Crown, and the complaints urged against the civil list for having felled too great a quantity of timber, were examined, and led to angry and personal debates. The financial situation of France was likewise discussed by M. de Villéle as by M. Perier. In the Session of 1828 M. Casimir Perier abstained nearly entirely from appearing at the Tribune. The Martignac Ministry had been named, and a new era commenced for France and her King. Its glorious but unsuccessful mission was to keep within bounds the exaggerated pretension of faction-but to satisfy all the just exigencies of real public opinion. Two great measures marked this Sessionone was destined to prevent electoral frauds, and the other to abolish the censorship. The character and sen timents of the majority were now changed. The priest party was defeated. The true royalist party for 1828 was represented by M. de Martignac. No one felt this more strongly than Casimir Perier, and no one acknowledged it more honourably. He belonged, then, no longer to the Op. position, and was placed on the list of candidates for the post of President of the Chamber of Deputies, and named member of the commission of the budget. He spoke but eight times during the Session, and would even have lent to the Government his important aid, but that his health was much affected, and required repose. The Session of 1829 was the last for constitutional France and the old race of the House of Bourbon. M. Perier spoke but three times during that Session; and, on each occasion, on the same subject-the debt due from Spain to France. He had Count Roy for an antagonist, but he sustained the conflict with great talent and spirit. On all other questions he was silent. He perceived with sorrow that the Martignac Ministry was not supported by the majority, and, to avoid the appearance of being factious, he did not oppose the passing of the law confer ring on the Crown the right to grant "dotations" to poor peers. The closing of the Session of 1829 was pronounced the 31st July, and eight days afterwards the Martignac Ministry existed no longer. The Session of 1830 opened the 2d March. The Polignac Ministry had been appointed. The general elections had taken place. The Chamber of Deputies voted, on the 15th March, the memorable address of the 221; but, though M. Casimir Perier voted in that number, he did not once address the House. He was no rebel, no exciter of sedition, no lover of tumult. He voted what he believed to be right; but he even did that, on this occasion, with fear and trembling. He was no infringer of the royal prerogatives, but he had an energetic hatred for the priest party. The reply of Charles X. to the address of the 221did not surprise M. Perier, but the dissolution of the Chambers on the 16th May was a great fault on the part of the Crown, and was felt to be so by the subject of this memoir, No one knew better than did Casimir Perier that the Chamber was not prepared to refuse the budget to the Polignac Administration, but that, on the contrary, having satisfied its convictions or its passions, by the passing of the address, it would have voted the ways and means, and even have passed other laws which the Government was prepared to submit. The dissolution of the Chamber on the 16th May, 1830, was then a capital fault-and the result of the next general elections demonstrated its folly. Of course, the same men were returned; of course, they were exasperated at having been put to the vast trouble and expense of two recent elections; of course, they returned to Paris with hostile intentions; and it now did become rather questionable whether the Chamber would vote the budget if presented by the same Ministry. M. Casimir Perier felt, however, little doubt upon the subject; he thought to the end that, notwithstanding the result of the two elections, if the King resolved to maintain his Ministry, the Chamber could not refuse the means for carrying on the Government, so long as the acts of the Government were not illegal. But the King was persuaded to take another course-to act upon the 14th article of the Charta of 1814, and to make the memorable and fatal ordinances of July. HYMN TO DIANA.-CALLIMACHUS. By the Translator of Homer's Hymns. O! LET us hymn Diana!—she loves her shafts to throw On the mountain top, and the beasts they drop under her swaying bow. For they shall point my barbed shafts, and they my quiver fill ; With tunic bare below the knee let me go forth to kill, And bear the light throughout the night as the deer's red blood I spill. And of Ocean, sixty daughters, O! grant to me, their Queen, That yet are in their virgin bloom, and but summers nine have seen; My buskins to prepare and my weary dogs to tend, She spake, and stretched her little arms to stroke her father's beard, But could not reach; then at her speech the father's heart was cheered; He gave his nod approving, and bending down his head, He sweetly smiled upon his child, and thus in joyance said:- Shall share with thee the bended knee, the sanctity, the pride. To thee, in all, thy worshippers altars and groves shall raise; And there she found beneath the ground the brawny Cyclops famed, All standing round a mighty mass, a mighty work to make, From whose broad brink might coursers drink, this did they undertake All to fulfil great Neptune's will, and laboured for his sake. But when the timid virgins the fiery monsters saw Each one a mountain Ossa-they stood awhile in awe ; Each in his swarthy forehead one burning eyeball raised, And when they heard the dreadful din from all the anvils round, And the bellows blasting windy roar under their labouring hands, "And the deep pant-ho' at every blow" * that shook the neighbouring lands Of Italy and Cyrnus' isle; huge Ætna roared and rang As the ponderous hammers high they raised, then down with a mighty bang On bursting brass, or the livid mass, that shook with an iron clang. As well may be ; for even queens celestial, when long past Their childhood years, with shuddering fears behold the monsters vast; Hard to obey a mother's sway, they hear such words as these :- Comes forth a Cyclop grim and gruff; the affrightened infant flies And bore thee, Vulcan calling, to Brontes to bestow A natal gift, with dauntless thrift, to Brontes thou didst go- And if some bristly mountain-boar, or lonely wandering beast I chance to slay, be yours the prey-the Cyclops it shall feast." Thou spakest, and the task was done, thou stoodst in arms complete, He then a large Monalian Lynx in pieces did divide, For whelp and hound that fed around, as he the flesh supplied. And willingly the bearded God did then on thee bestow Two from his pack, half white, half black; three with ears hanging low, And forward—and one brindled dog, all stanch and hounds of note, For they would dare the lion's glare, and drag him by the throat, Yet living, to their home.-Soon more, the Cynosuris breed, Of scent most true, and to pursue swift as the wind in speed, To find his secret hiding hole, and drag him from below, With his bristly chine, the porcupine, and chase the mountain roe. On whose high crags there stood five stags-they oft had drank the fount All large as bulls, a glorious sight, and their wondrous antlers spread, Hail, Artemis, Parthenia, hail! thy hands the giants slew : See the beautiful lines, "The Forging of the Anchor," in Maga., Feb., 1832. poured its streams into the works, the old stones and bricks would have been sold "aux enchères," and the shareholders would have divided amongst them the remnant of the 'funds and the produce. And let not this be ascribed to the wrong cause. The French do not want either patience or perseverance-but they want capital. It is for this reason that their banks and bankers are often embarrassed to discount £4000; that their manufacturers and manufactories are at a stand instead of being in activity; that the Government is obliged to propose to take in hand all great works itself; and that at the very moment we are writing these lines, appeals are being made in the public journals of London, Brussels, and Amsterdam, to the English, the Belgians, and the Dutch, to come forward to take shares in the companies proposed to be formed for the establishment of various railroads in France. When similar projects are started in England, are appeals made to the French, the Dutch, and the Belgians there? No-English capital is sufficient for English enterprises -but this is not the case in Francefor her merchants have neither the precious metals, nor the paper, nor the credit sufficient to enable them alone to carry the objects they propose into effect. Look at the subscription-list for the shares in the railroad company from Paris to Brussels, and we see that though months have elapsed since it was begun, the sum required cannot be raised, though only one-fifth is required as a deposit. And when we thus write, it is not reproachfully, or spitefully, or vauntingly, and with haughtiness; but when we thus write, it is to assert a great fact, that the Revolution of 1789, or rather of 1793 in France, destroyed national credit, private capital, and the means of rendering France a powerful commercial country. We know well that we shall be told that the division of property into small fortunes is the developement of the "greatest happiness principle"and Doctor Bowring, who has laboured so long and so unsuccessfully in France in endeavouring to obtain equal justice for British commerce, and British merchants, will prate to us about his Jeremy Benthamism, and about the comfort and happiness of the lower orders in France, with their perch of land and their pig upon it. But we also have visited France, in the length and in the breadth thereof and we have no hesitation in saying, that the situation both of the manufacturing and the agricultural poor is far, very far superior in England, Scotland, and Wales, to the peasantry or manufacturing workmen of France. They are more healthy, cleanly, comfortable, better fed, clothed, housed, and are more moral, and more religious. We have purposely made this dissertation, because, though the family of Perier did all they could do, with comparatively large capital, for the commerce and industry of their country-yet, after all, their resources were very small indeed, when compared with those of a Manchester manufacturer. The next son, M. Scipion Perier, was a man of profound scientific knowledge, deep and unaffected piety -was so virtuous as to be even scru pulous to a failing-and was uniformly calm and dignified in the midst of an impassioned and animated family. But Scipion was really a man of lively imagination, and even passionate soul -but he was, during his whole life, making one constant effort to repress his ardour, and maintain an external dignity and serenity. a Casimir Perier, with a character less equable, much more susceptible, and with a mind much less adorned, but possessing that coup d'œil which seizes and perceives truth, which correctly estimates the possible, and assures success, associated with Scipion, and founded together at Faris Banking House, known and respected throughout all Europe. Their speculations, however, were of a very different nature from those of a London banker. They engaged in all sorts of mercantile transactions, and the bank alone was only the means of enabling them to carry on their industry with greater advantage. M. Casimir Perier displayed much penetration, prudence, and judgment-but he was never assiduous in the minute details of business. Whilst Scipion had a prudent and enlightened mind, the talents of an administrator, the love of the details of business, and the spirit of daily application, he yet often hesitated as to the course to be |