Victor de Persigny

Jean-Gilbert Victor Fialin , duke of Persigny , born with Saint-Germain-Lespinasse (the Loire) the January 11th 1808 and died in Nice the January 12th 1872, was a statesman of the Second Empire.

Biography

The adventure Bonapartist

Fialin is the son of a collector of tax, soldier of the Large army killed during the Guerre of Spain, it is high in the worship of Napoleon and educated with Limoges. It enters to the school of cavalry of Saumur in 1826 becoming sergeant the fourth body of the hussards two years later. The role played by its regiment by supporting the revolution of 1830 - Persigny being republican at the time - was looked like insubordination and the following year Fialin is returned army. He becomes journalist and, in 1833, Bonapartist burning under the title, known as sleeping in his family, of count de Persigny.

As much of young people of its age, Fialin is a romantic , vaguely opposing to the Restauration monarchical and also vaguely revolutionary. Its meeting in 1835 with the young person Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III, is a true revelation for him. Its political feelings confused find finally a framework, the Bonapartism; its incredible energy, a goal, restoration of the Empire; and its thirst for fidelity, a man, Louis-Napoleon.

At the time, the Bonapartism is however far from constituting a credible political clout. Prerogative of some survivors of the Large army, dreams of some romantic young people engourdis in the middle-class good company of the Monarchie of July, the Empire belongs more to the history in the future…

But Fialin has audacity to resell. Assisted by a former officer of Napoleon, he convinces Louis-Napoleon to try a takeover by force to Strasbourg in 1836. Objective: To raise the garrisons of the East and to go on Paris. If the soldiers of the artillery regiment of Strasbourg acclaim the “putschists”, the other regiments do not join and disarm the apprentices plotters. While the king Louis-Philippe shows leniency by sending Louis-Napoleon in exile in America, Fialin, which succeeded in escaping, does not lower the arms. It floods the press of articles and of official statements, recruits again in favor, harvest of the funds, provides the foundations of an embryo of party. In 1840, the economic situation seems to him favorable to a new attempt at plot. Louis-Napoleon and Fialin charter a ship of which they entrust the command to a former corsair, companion of Surcouf. With about fifty their partisans they unload with Boulogne-sur-Mer of which they in vain try to rejoin the garrison. But confrontation turns badly. Shots are exchanged, two people are killed and the small band Bonapartist is stopped. Louis-Napoleon is condemned to purge a custodial sentence with perpetuity with the Forteresse of Ham from where he will escape in 1846, while Fialin is imprisoned with Doullens, condemned to twenty years of reclusion in a fortress, pains quickly attenuated, Persigny being sick. During its imprisonment, he writes a work destination and permanent utility of the Pyramids , published in 1845, in which he affirms seriously (it seems) that the function of the Pyramides of Egypt is to prevent the stranding of the Nile.

Released by the French revolution of 1848, it directs the presidential electoral campaign of Louis-Napoleon at the beginning against the will of this one. Untiring, it reconstitutes its networks, finances newspapers and furrows France, having of cease only the news of the candidature of that for which it dedicated its life known in is moved back the most of the hamlets. December 10th, 1848, Louis-Napoleon is thus elected first President of the French Republic with nearly 75% of the voices. The following year, Fialin, which is already made call count de Persigny, of the name of a property as of its ancestors, is elected appointed of the Loire. This character of foreground of the new mode marries the grand-daughter of the Maréchal Ney much younger than him.

The exercise of the capacity

During this period when the elections are under narrow monitoring, Persigny does not have any evil to become President of the General advice of the the Loire (1858 - 1870). It deploys an extraordinary energy besides there. The boring of the channel of the Drill, the creation of the company historical and archaeological of Drill , the Diana, the installation of aid funds for the victims of the overflows of the Loire, the continuation of the industrial rise of the department, the transfer of the Prefecture of Montbrison to Saint-Etienne are as many acts to be put at its credit.

Rewarded after its participation in the Coup d'etat of December 2nd, 1851, he is Minister of Interior Department of 1852 to 1854, commercial Minister of 1852 to 1853, ambassador with London of 1855 to 1858 and 1859 to 1860 then again Minister of Interior Department of 1860 to 1863. He there controls the press and decides line of the semi-official newspapers of the mode like the Constitutional one or the Country. Its ideas, like those of the Prince Napoleon, cousin of the emperor, are favorable to the Italian revolutionists although in 1859 he decided against the war of Italy; it presses the emperor to give up Rome to them. It is Persigny which will find the means to finance Great Work in Paris.

Its authoritative character draws up to him as a rival Charles de Morny which it succeeded in 1852. The empress Eugenie hates it for her anticlericalism and to have criticized it many times near the Emperor.

It prepares the elections of May 1863 with despotism while getting busy to obtain a flexible room. Only the candidates whom it endorses can declare " indépendants"! At the same time, it moves away the catholic candidates and does not represent several deputies. It does not envisage nor does not prevent the electoral success of the opposition. He then advises in Napoleon III to control without room but held responsible for the defeat, he is isolated. Him then is slandered as follows: " it will finish on the straw because it has already its litter (dirtied Thiers) ". He is high duke this same year.

The military defeats of the War of 1870 and the collapse of the Empire which follows come to put a term at its career of notable. Prematurely out-of-date, the Duke of Persigny dies out in 1872. He is buried with the cemetery of Saint-Germain-The Espinasse. His wife does not even come to pay a last homage to him. The day after its funeral arrives finally a telegram of Napoleon III: " My Dear Persigny, I learn with sorrow the state from your health. I hope that you will be able to triumph over the disease; but while waiting for your cure, I make a point of saying to you that I forget what could divide us me to remember only the evidence of devotion that you gave me during long years. Believe in my sincere amitié." (quoted according to Clement Pascal, Persigny, the man who invented Napoleon III , ED. Perrin, Paris, 2006). The tomb of the duke seriously damaged by the storm of 1999 was rebuilt with the identical grace an exceptional subsidy emanating from the General advice of the Loire (chaired by P. Clément) and of the Minister of Interior Department (at the time, J-P. Chevènement).

Quotation

“ the Empress is legitimist, Morny is orleanist, Prince Napoleon is republican and I am myself socialist. There is one Bonapartist, it is Persigny, and it is insane ” Napoleon III

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