Etienne-Denis Pasquier

Biography

Resulting from old a family of dress anoblie in 1671, descendant of Etienne Pasquier (1529-1615), Jurisconsult and scholar, author of the Research on France , Etienne-Denis Pasquier was the son of Etienne Pasquier, adviser with the Parlement of Paris, condemned to died by the Tribunal revolutionary and carried out the 1st floréal year II (April 20th 1794), and of Anne Therese Nicole Gauthier. Itself, after studies with the College of Juilly, had been named, with adviser, waiving of age limit at the Parliament of Paris in 1787. Under the Terror, he married Miss of Saint-Novel, widow of the count de Rochefort, was stopped and imprisoned for two months with Saint-Lazare; he recovered freedom only after the Thermidor 9.

Under the Empire

After having been distant during a few years from the public affairs, it adopted the Empire and, thanks to the protection of Cambacérès, it was named Maître of the requests to the Council of State (June 11th 1806), baron of the Empire (November 29th 1808), to advise State (February 8th 1810) and prosecutor of the seal of the titles.

The October 14th 1810, to be shortly after promoted officer of the Legion of honor, it became prefect of police to replace Louis Nicolas Dubois. In 1812, it could not prevent the plot of the generals Malet and Lahorie, but was Bern by entreated, stopped and led to the Prison of the Force, of which it left only thanks to the intervention the general Hulin. In spite of this incident, it was maintained in functions and was useful with zeal, if not effectiveness.

Under the two Restorations

In 1814, it entered in talks with the count de Nesselrode at the time of the entry of Alliés Paris, to present to the emperor of Russia the tender of the capital. It took measurements of order which the situation called, was solved “to use of all the means which were in its capacity to facilitate the restoration of the Bourbons”, and tried to rejoin the Council of State to this company, but to the provisional government only the April 14th adhered. He resigned of the police headquarter the May 13rd and was named managing director of the Ponts and Chaussées (May 21st 1814).

The Emperor left it without employment during the Hundred Days though it had lent oath to the additional Acte. The Second Restoration compensated it by naming it Minister of Justice and Minister of Interior Department by interim in the cabinet Fouché - Talleyrand (July 7th 1815). In these important functions, it could show skill and courage to resist the complaints of Blücher and Müffling. It took measures to prevent that the dissolution of the army of the Loire caused disorders. He blamed, says one, excesses of the royalist reaction - the white Terreur, the assassination of Brune, executions of Labédoyère and Ney - and endeavoured to make prevail moderate ideas. He prepared the ordinance of the August 23rd 1815 which, bringing back that of 1814, reorganized the Council of State by bringing it much more closer to the Council of Napoleonean State that old Conseil of the King that the First Restoration had sought with ressusciter. He left the capacity with Talleyrand the September 25th 1815.

Raised with the dignity of Grand Cross of the Legion of honor (September 28th 1815), it was named Minister of state and member of the private Council. The August 22nd 1815, it had been elected appointed large college of the the Sarthe and large college of the the Seine. He chose the Seine and was re-elected the October 4th 1816 and the September 20th 1817. After having directed, in 1816, work of the commission of the foreign credits, it was called, the same year, with the presidency of the House of Commons, whom it preserved to his entry in the ministry Richelieu in the capacity as Minister of Justice, Minister for Justice (January 19th 1817). It approved the law Laîné relating to the elections, the law Gouvion-Saint-Cyr on the recruitment of the provostal army and the suppression of the courses. However, following the new electoral law and from the elections of 1818, it withdrew with the cabinet the September 18th 1818.

Pasquier refused to take again a wallet in the ministry Dessolles - Decazes and claimed the revision of the electoral law of the February 5th 1817. This question divided the ministry: Decazes supported Pasquier, but the other ministers, Dessolles, Gouvion-Saint-Cyr and Louis gave their resignation. Pasquier inherited then the wallet of the Foreign affairs (November 19th 1819) in the altered cabinet. There remained minister after the assassination of the duke of Berry in the new Richelieu ministry. It was announced by the skill with which it defended measurements which suspended individual freedom and the Freedom of the press and reduced the capacity of vote: “Yes, I ask the arbitrary one, says it, because when one leaves legality it can be only for one important goal, for a large object to be filled. The laws of exception belong only to the free governments and they only have the right to have some. ”

After the bys-election of 1821 had consolidated the majority Ultra-royaliste, the House of Commons voted, during the discussion of the Address, a sentence relating to the foreign politics whose insinuations outragèrent Louis XVIII, which involved the resignation of the duke of Richelieu, imitated by the baron Pasquier (December 13rd 1821).

The preceding September 24th, this last had been named Pair of France. It took its retirement as Foreign Minister the February 13rd 1822. With the Room of the pars, it approached the constitutional opposition, voted against the Droit of seniority, against the Loi on the sacrilege, against the law of tendency, the conversion of the revenues. In its improvisations, of an abundant facility, it showed of a rare presence of mind and a coolness scornful of all the attacks.

In 1828, it refused to enter the ministry Martignac.

Under the monarchy of July

The baron Pasquier adopted, after the revolution of 1830, the Monarchie of July. He would have declared on this occasion: “The political oath is a countermark to return to the spectacle. ” Named president of the Room of the pars the August 3rd 1830, it occupied this function until the revolution of 1848.

In this quality, it had to direct the Procès of the ministers of Charles X, those of risen of April, Giuseppe Fieschi, Armand Barbès, the prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte after the attempt at Boulogne-sur-Mer, of the ministers Teste and Cubières. According to Victor Hugo, it was shown extremely below its task: “It had eighty-two years, and at eighty-two years, one faces neither a woman, nor a crowd. ” It supported the personal policy of Louis-Philippe and, during the formation of the coalition of 1839, took the party of the government and the count Molé.

In 1837, the king revived for him the title of Chancelier of France. It was created duke Pasquier the December 16th 1844 with letters patent of the February 3rd 1845 and authorization of reversion of the title in favor of its great nephew, whom it had adopted, Gaston d' Audiffret (1823 - 1905), wire of his/her niece, Gabrielle Pasquier and of the count Florimond-Louis d' Audiffret.

Friend of Chateaubriant, he had been candidate with the Academy in 1820 friendly as “of the letters” but he was elected only the February 17th 1842, to replace M {{gr.}} Frayssinous, against Alfred de Vigny which obtained 8 votes. He had a literary living room and created with the Academy, with the duke of Broglie and the duke of Noailles, which he sponsored, the “party of the dukes”. When he died, Napoleon III had one moment the idea to succeed to him.

The revolution of 1848 had put a term at its political career. Two years before its death, it observed: “I am the man of France which the most knew the various governments which followed one another on our premises: I made them with all their lawsuits. ”

It had a very long connection with the countess of Boigne: “It was a rather widespread belief in the Tuileries and with the Luxembourg, written Montalivet, that after the death of Mrs. Pasquier, the Chancellor had married in England Mrs. de Boigne I am those which believed in the secret marriage. At all events, during the last part of his life, the duke Pasquier lived with the countess of Boigne in softest and the most constant intimacy. ”

Works

Speeches made in the legislative rooms of 1814 to 1836 , 1842 (4 vol.)
the interpretation of the Institutes of Justinien, with the conference of chasque paragraph to the royal decrees, arrestz of general Parliament and coustumes of France, works new of Etienne Pasquier, published by Mr. the duke Pasquier , 1847 - Republication in facsimile: Slatkine, Geneva, 1970
History of my time. Memories of the Pasquier chancellor, published by Mr. the duke of Audiffret-Pasquier , 1893 - 1895 (6 vol.)

References

Source

External bonds

biographical Card of the French Academy

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