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was called to London, to superintend an important Portuguese work, entitled the Investigador Portuguez. On his removal to the Metropolis, he became a licentiate of the college; and in 1816 he was appointed physician to the Portuguese embassy at the British court.

DUKE DECAZES

Was born at St. Martin-en-laye in 1780. After completing his education at the college of Vendome, he applied himself to the study of the law. At an early age he was judge of the tribunal du premiere instance, of the Seine; and in 1810 was appointed counsellor of the Court of Appeal. On the return of Bonaparte in 1815 he placed himself at the head of a company of the national guards, destined to combat for the royal cause. The chambers of the royal court being assembled to receive M. Gilbert de Voisins, who had been appointed to supersede M. Séguier, as first president, and to attend the reading of an address to Bonaparte, M. Decazes presented himself to the assembly, and undauntedly opposed the reception of the new first president, declaring that in Bonaparte he saw only an usurper. "Have you need of other proof of his legitimacy (was replied) than the rapidity of his march? Who but a legitimate sovereign could come in twenty days from Cannes to Paris?" "I have never heard (said M. Decazes) that legitimacy was the prize of a horse race!" Exiled the same day to forty leagues from the capital, he retired into the bosom of his own family, and did not appear again till the king's return to Paris. On the 7th of July he was appointed prefect of police, and gave orders for the dissolution of the Chamber of Representatives. Shortly after, he was called to the Council of State. In August he was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for the department of the Seine; and in December was appointed minister of police in the room of M. Fouché. In January following he was raised to the dignity of count. At the close of the year 1818 he was removed from the ministry of the police to that of the home department. He was next created a duke, and sent to England as ambassador of Louis XVIII. He had not, however, long resided in this country before he left his diplomatic concerns in the hands of a chargé d'affaires, and revisited France for political purposes. The ultra-royalists were then struggling for

the ascendancy, and at one time had so far attained it, that the duke Decazes is said to have been exposed to several slights and indignities from the court. He appears, nevertheless, to have fully recovered his influence; and a report was even circulated recently that he was to form one of a new ministry, and to be the president of the council.

M. Decazes, it is affirmed, has the praise of having sedulously sought to do all the good that could be accomplished; though the almost inextricable difficulties of his position did not permit him to effect all that a sound and comprehensive policy might perceive and desire. He has most ably combatted the excesses of the two extreme parties; but, above all, he has known how to apply the strength of his political power, and the force of his eloquent mind, to the subjugation of the most dangerous of these: namely, the ultra-royalists, who, in truth, are equally the enemies of the throne and of the people. Such was the revengeful spirit excited in this faction, by his opposition to their designs, that one of them, Clausel de Coussergues, had the baseness to accuse him of being an accomplice in the murder of the duke de Berry. Many of the measures which M. Decazes proposed for the repression of the ultra-royalists' purposes, deserve the gratitude of France; and most of the speeches which he pronounced in both chambers, in defence of those measures, have been received with respect, both by the patriot and the man of letters.

M. DECREMPS,

A French writer little known, who has nevertheless written introductory works for the uninformed, which have much merit. Among these is one to which he has given the title of La Science Sanculotisée, which may be translated Science made Familiar, or a First Essay on the Means of facilitating the Study of Astronomy. This is a curious and valuable book. M. Decremps was born in 1746.

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DUKE DECRES,

Vice-admiral in the French service, was born at Chateau-Vilain in 1762, of a noble family. He owed his advancement in the navy chiefly to M. Rochechouart. After serving under M. de Grasse, and other distinguished officers, he was made rear-admiral in 1797. He commanded a squadron under Admiral Brueys in the Mediteranean. He was made prisoner by the English, but was soon exchanged. On his return to France, he was appointed prefect of the 4th maritime division at Lorient ; and in 1802 was made minister of the marine and the colonies. He accompanied the first consul to Brussels in 1803; and the next year he was raised to the rank of viceadmiral, appointed commander of the 10th cohort, and grand officer of the legion of honour. He soon after presided in the electoral college of the Haut Marne, and in 1805 he was appointed inspector-general of the coasts of the Mediterranean. M. Decres was distinguished for the fidelity and zeal of his services. Frequently he has been useful to his master by holding in reserve large sums of money, destined for purposes not of the utmost necessity, and producing them in times of actual distress. He was raised to the dignity of duke. In 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon, he retired from the ministry, and was created knight of St. Louis. In 1815 he was one of those who signed the address of the ministers to Napoleon, of the 25th of March, and was called to the Chamber of Peers. On the return of the king he again resigned his offices, and has since lived in retirement upon his estates.

LIEUT.-GENERAL DEDON.

This officer of artillery was born at Toul in 1762, and became a lieutenant in 1780. He served with reputation during the war of the revolution, and in 1805 was made a brigadier-general. In the following year he entered into the service of Joseph Bonaparte, king of Naples, with whom he passed into Spain. He distinguished himself so greatly at the siege of Saragossa, that Joseph appointed him director-general of the Spanish artillery. At the latter end of 1813 he returned to the French service, and acted till the abdication of Napoleon, when Louis made him a lieutenant-general. He was then put upon half-pay,

bat was called into the field by Napoleon, when he returned from Elba. He is now again on half pay. M. Dedon is author of A Historical Sketch of the Campaigns of the Army of the Rhine and the Moselle in 1796 and 1797, which is the best history yet written of those campaigns. He has also published A detailed Account of the Passage of the Limat, and one or two other military works.

COUNT DEFERMON-DES CHAPELLIERS, A native of Rennes, where he was born in 1756, was attorney of the parliament of Rennes, and, after the revolution, held a seat in the national and legislative assemblies, where he displayed much activity, particularly on financial subjects. His opinions were uniformly favourable to liberty. Being elected a member of the Convention, he was president when the king was tried, conducted himself with a decorous impartiality, and voted for the banishment of the monarch, and the appeal to the people. In the contest between the Girondists and the Jacobins, to the former of which parties he belonged, he exerted a degree of firmness, which, had it been imitated by his friends, might have prevented their overthrow. Being proscribed, after the triumph of the Jacobins, he found an asylum among the Breton royalists, but his principles remained unchanged. The fall of Robespierre enabled him to return to Paris, and he continued to be a member of the legislature till May, 1797, when he was appointed commissioner of the treasury. Bonaparte made him a member of the council of state in 1799, and one of the ministers of state in 1807. From that period till the first abdication of Napoleon, Defermon was at the head of the finances, and is said to have treated public debtors with much rigour. He was left unemployed by the Bourbons; but, when Napoleon resumed the crown, Defermon recovered his places and titles. He was also elected a member of the chamber of deputies, in which he strongly opposed the return of the Bourbons, and moved that the son of Napoleon should be acknowledged as emperor. When Louis was a second time escorted to Paris by the allies, he included Defermon among those who were doomed to banishment, and the count, in consequence, fixed his residence at Brussels.

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