was classical and historical. He studied the best models of forensic eloquence, and was at an early age convinced of this great fact and principle, that monarchical governments are favourable to the developement of genius, and to the advancement of industry and talent. The father of Berryer was, from principle as well as from education, a Royalist. He had watched with his son, who was at his elbow, and examined, as younger and elder students, the events which had transpired in France, from the period when the young Berryer was ten years of age till the epoch of his maturity;— and both were equally satisfied that the land of their birth, as of their affection, was unprepared for the doctrines of republicanism, and totally opposed to the continuance of imperialism. From 1812 to 1814 both father and son anticipated the speedy return of the Bourbons to France as a fact which was ever inevitable, and desired an arrangement, by which the liberties of the people, the power and unity of the monarchy, and the ameliorations introduced by the events of 1789 might be consecrated and preserved. It was at this period that Berryer was called to the bar. From the moment of his appearance as an advocate, his admirable aptitude for reply was admitted by all his fellow-barristers and one of them made in his honour a charming song, the chorus of which was "A la réplique on connait l'avocat." This facility of replying to his adversary, of seizing the weak points of his argument, and of gaining the attention of both judges and jury by a lofty address and an animated and powerful logic, has, of course, grown with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. His introductory addresses are strong, masculine, nervous. His replies are thunderbolts which sweep all before them, and leave his antagonists the sorriest victims of his power, strewn lifeless, or incapable of retorting on the field of battle. When Berryer first entered public life as a barrister, the events of 1814 and 1815 rendered that profession more political than legal, and gave to it a character peculiarly favourable for the developement of his immense powers. He embraced with ardour royalist opinions. The despotism of Napoleon and the vexations of his government, had irritated the mind and heart of the young advocate. He had admired with all the French youth the military glory of the warrior-but when he contrasted that sole title to public favour with the persecuting character of the police, and with the arbitrary acts of the Government, he learned to appreciate beforehand the benefits of a government which brought back to France both liberty and order. He embraced with enthusiasm the cause of legitimacy, and to it he has been faithful during the rest of his noble and energetic life. I remember, in the month of December, 1830, listening to a splendid oration of Berryer, in which he thus sketched his opening career: "Je réclame le privilège heureux de mon âge, qui me fit étranger à l'ancien régime. Ma carrière a commencée au milieu d'un bruit des armes. Je me suis, en quelque sorte, eveillé au monde aux cris de gloire de l'empire; alors que les vieilles querelles étaient etouffés. Je n'ai connu la liberté, l'ordre, les lois, la discussion des droits, la défense des interêts publiques ou privés, que dans la France, telle que la restauration l'a faite." Berryer was one of those who felt, when contemplating the vast catastrophe of the empire, how much there is of peril for the happiness and repose of society, when the power which directs it is all concentrated in only one man. Whilst such men as Bonaparte are rare, and hardly ever transmit to their successors the force with which their own genius has invested them-society is in perpetual need of order and protection. An unchangeable, inviolable, dominating principle, which consecrates all rights and all interests, can alone reply to these demands-and, if you will, to these weaknesses of human society. It is easy for the enemies of the Restoration to affect a vast repugnance for foreign bayonets; but time and truth will do justice to this species of ingratitude, and the acclamations of the France of 1814 will, at a future period of French history, reply victoriously to those posthumous calumnies, only got up to give the lie to the facts of the past. The Restoration will preserve its great name in the annals of France, and posterity will say, that by the return of legitimate power to these shores, France was able to obtain that repose from her long political agita tion of which she was so much in need, and was brought to enjoy that "prosperity without example," which M. Dupin, in 1815, then admitted to exist. I cannot forbear from citing the very words of this distinguished individual, made use of in his letters to the electors of La Nièvre at that period. Le roi veut cicatriser nos plaies, tarir le source de nos maux, et nous procurer cette paix que a fui loin de nous avec les Bourbons; et qu'eux seuls pouvaient nous mener." It is often a subject of occupation with M. Berryer, to compare men with themselves as well as with each other; to see how their passions and their prejudices at one period of their lives give the lie to the justice and truth of another period, and then vice versa. I cannot myself refrain, whilst speaking of the calumniated Restoration, from citing a few passages from the Journal des Debats, an organ of public opinion which has exercised so great an influence over the minds of the "Bourgeoisie" for a quarter of a century. That journal was compelled, in its Numbers of 1st and 4th September 1832, to admit, "that France had not enjoyed any liberty before the promul gation of the charter, and the re-establishment of the constitutional monarchy by Louis XVIII. That which is certain in spite of all the declama tions in the world is this, that France was never truly free but under the constitutional monarchy." And again, "the Emperor had deprived us of the liberty of the pressthe charter restored it us. The Em peror had taken from us the liberty of the tribune-the charter restored it to us. The Emperor, in one word, has destroyed every vestige of a representative government-the charter gave us that government back again. These are facts which may be kept back, and about which not one word may be uttered, but the facts will remain, and cannot be destroyed." Even the 221 deputies, who in March, 1830, presented an address to Charles X., in which they virtually required him to abandon one of the most sacred prerogatives of his crown, the right of naming his own ministers, were conpelled by the force of truth to your authority. Fifteen years of peace and of liberty, which they owe to your august brother and to you, have rooted deeply in their hearts that gratitude which attaches them to your royal family." As Berryer was always a man of action, as well as of principle, he became a Royalist volunteer, and made as such the journey to Ghent during the Hundred Days. On the second return of the Bourbons, his Royalist opinions did not prevent him from devoting himself with ardour to the defence of the of ficers who were compromised by the events of 1815, and who were brought before the tribunals to be judged by the order of Ministers, who little understood the interests of the monarchy, and were never seriously devoted to Bourbon. And it is not a little sinthe eldest branch of the House of gular, nay, it is a fact well deserving of being rescued from oblivion, that which prescribed the arrest and trial the ordonnance of Louis XVIII., of Ney, Cambronne, Debelle, &c., was made when Pasquier, the now President of the Chamber of Peers, and Baron Louis, the now candidate for the post of President of the Court Prince Talleyrand, now the factotum of Accounts, were Ministers; when of the Tuileries, was President of the Council, and the Duc de Cazes, the now Grand Referendary of the Chamber of Peers, was Prefect of Police. Yet one of the great accusations brought by the Revolution of 1830 against the Restoration was this,--"The arrest, trial, and death of Marshal Ney." Against this ordonnance, counselled and carried into execution by the warmest supporters of the new order of things in France, Berryer protested test. He was the defender of the prinin 1815, and has never ceased to prociple of the monarchy, because he was convinced that that principle alone it is therefore that the alliance of could conciliate order and liberty, and the constant objects of all his efforts, "Legitimacy and Liberty" has been and the political faith of all his life. the lover of freedom-because he was derstood the nature and character of In the eyes of a man who thus unroyalty, all violent measures were in his opinion opposed to the essence of legitimate power, which should never doubt its rights or its force, and which should "Sire! The people cherish and respect feel that it was less a dominating say power than an immense pledge of security for the country. He was then opposed to all criminal proceedings which resembled acts of vengeance instead of acts of justice, and he would not that the conqueror should make the "Place de Grève" a supplement to the theatre of so many combats, or that the executioner should search for victims on the field of battle. M. Berryer opposed, then, with all the powers of his mighty eloquence, that reactionary spirit which the men who undertook to direct the second restoration dared to print upon it, and who were indifferent, as they are still, to the fall of dynasties and to the revolutions of empires, provided from the general wreck they can snatch but a ministerial portfolio. When Marshal Ney was tried before the Chamber of Peers he assisted in his defence; and when Cambronne was tried at Nantes in 1816, his young Royalist friend was his defender. M. Berryer was a Royalist from conviction, the result of profound thought and enquiry; he therefore desired that the throne should be strong enough to pardon, and often did he address himself to the Royal clemency. When unable to save Debelle by his splendid pleadings before a court-martial, he rushed to the palace, and threw himself at the feet of that King against whom the General had dared to raise the standard of revolt. "He shall have his pardon," replied the monarch to the young advocate, “because he fought not against France, but against me." It was thus that Henry IV. stretched forth his hand of forgiveness to the soldier who wounded him at Arques. "Plus de proscrits" was the motto of M. Berryer. It was a noble and generous policy; and, faithful to the same motto, he had the right, in 1831, when he appeared as one of the counsel for the ex-Ministers of Charles X., "that, as the royalty of so many centuries had been proscribed by the Revolution of July, at least the Ministers of the exiled monarch could not be led to the scaffold." to say, There are two passages in that most extraordinary and magical defence which, though out of the order of date, I insert in this part of my narrative, because they bear upon the conduct and opinions of Berryer in 1815. "J'exprime ici, Messieurs, une pensée pro fondement gravée en mon cœur : et, pardonnez "C'est dans cette pensée que je m'assis près de mon père pour la defense de Marechal Ney. Et que je parvins du moins à sauver les jours des Généraux Debele et Cambronne." The following concluding words of M. Berryer, when he defended the Ministers of Charles X., supply an admirable example of his powers of reasoning, his love of justice, his impassioned eloquence :— "La charte dit; que la du Roi personne est inviolable et sacrée, que ses Ministres seules sont responsables; ces deux principes sont correlatifs, dependant l'un de l'autre, La responsainséparables l'un de l'autre. bilité des Ministres est la garantie de l'inviolabilité du Roi; cette inviolabilité des personnes royales est le fondement de la responsabilitié des agents du pouvoir......En frappant le Roi lui-même, par la perte de ses droits, vous avez réputé qu'il avait voulu, commandé, exigé, et vous ne pouvez désormais punir ses Ministres de leur obeissance. La revolution que vous avez consommée a anéanti l'ordre politique, que l'accusation des Ministres n'aurait eu pour but que de maintenir et de venger... Vous ne pouvez pas vous faire leurs accusations, et je ne leur vois plus de juges sur la terre de France." The defence of Cambronne by Berryer was a masterpiece of eloquence, but I dare not cite from it, not only from the difficulty of selection, but from the fear of extending this sketch to a disproportionate length. Cambronne was one of the generals who devoted himself with the greatest zeal to the cause of Bonaparte, and it was he who exclaimed at the battle of Waterloo, when required to surrender"La garde meurt-et ne se rend pas !" Few events in the life of Berryer have given him so much satisfaction as the acquittal of Cambronne by the council of war, and he often refers to that first success with noble pride and generous sympathy. The pardon of me "The laws are made for the protection of all. To invoke them when they are violated is as much the duty of the lowest citizen as of the Prime Minister. It is a small thing that the social pact promises political liberty. It is essential that all the secondary institutions should concur in protecting this liberty; and that every portion of the legislation of the country should guarantee at once the respect which is due to it, and the punishment of all attacks which shall be made upon it. It is our duty to attach ourselves to two things: the first is, not to tolerate that the laws of the times of persecution and of terror should be brought forward to impede the action, and prevent the developement and enjoyment of that liberty which the king has given us; and that the agents of the govern ment shall not be allowed to have recourse to laws created by a military despotism to regulate a people restored to the advantages of its legitimate government. The agents of the government would insult France, if, showing to her in one hand the charta and its liberties proclaimed by Louis XVIII., they should dare to menace her with the other, with the decrees and Senatus-Consultus of Bonaparte. The French, who attach some importance to the laws of their country and to all royal institutions, are bound, above all, at a time when they are invited to enjoy a wise and rational liberty, to attach themselves with sincerity and ardour to the execution of the laws. They ought not to suffer any abuses to be introduced with impunity into that execution-abuses which, from their nature, are liable to extend and to multiply every day. The Ministers and agents of the government, who should render themselves thus culpable towards the governors and the governed, ought not to be able to escape from the legal responsibility which rests upon them. A merely moral responsibility is not sufficient. It would be little formidable in the eyes of a man who would console himself by the confidence of his master for the want of confidence of the whole nation!" profession of advocate, and obtained the most signal success. In criminal prosecutions he was distinguished by the influence which he exercised over the minds of the judges to acquit his clients when innocent, or when their guilt was really doubtful; or to inflict the smallest penalty imposed by law when the individual he defended was worthy of sympathy, or at least of compassion. His sensibility, his tact, and his deference to those appointed to administer justice, ensured him the respect of the tribunals. In the conduct of civil suits his clearness of comprehension, his precision, and his perfect knowledge of the codes, and of the commentaries and decisions of the most celebrated legists and courts, distinguished him from the rest of the members of the bar. In France it is too much the custom with the advocates to weary both jury and judges by the minuteness of their details, and by dissertations more calculated to fatigue than to enlighten. M. Berryer, on the contrary, always sought to present to the judges the point in contest, the real question at issue and to that point he directed all his erudition, all his research, and all his eloquence. In the present state of French jurisprudence, true it is, indeed, that occasions are rare when grave discussions of public or private rights can be entered into; but whenever these occasions present themselves, M. Berryer displays the most profound respect for those ancient jurisconsults whose names and services, endowments and acquirements, would have adorned any country and any age. nions of modern French judges he rarely refers to. He knows how easy it is in these times to become a magistrate in France, and when he has such an example before his eyes, as M. Barther the carbonaro, the fourthrate lawyer, Minister of Justice, and chief of all the French tribunals, it is not surprising that he should pore over the folios of former times, and read and reperuse the wisdom of ages, instead of satisfying himself with the empty dissertations of dandy advocates, or the fashionable pamphlets of mere political jurisconsults. The opi In political discussions M. Berryer has always an advantage which has most admirably aided him, in every act of his political life, as well as in all M. Berryer pursued with ardour his his speeches from the tribune; and that advantage has consisted in an "ensemble" of ideas in a complete system, well examined, and well decided on, and constantly pursued. Under the Restoration M. Berryer pleaded several cases of great political importance. The three most remarkable were, 1st, his defence of M. Michaud against the ministry of Corbiere; 2d, his defence of his friend De la Mennais against the Gallicans; and 3d, his pleading for the Quotidienne against the Constitutionnel. On these occasions he developed all the resources of a rich and fertile talent, all the powers of an extemporary speaker of the first-rate school, at once classical and poetic-and the brilliant yet well regulated display of a powerful and convincing eloquence. In the first case, he proved that he knew how to combat even his friends, when the defence of a great political principle, the liberty of the press, compelled him to speak. He attacked, with vigour unparalleled the attempts made by the Corbiere ministry "to stifle the expression of thought," and rendered historical the famous demand of that minister, who had not feared say "vendez nous un procès." to In the second case, he showed the art he possessed of rendering intelligible, even to those least conversant with such questions, the subtleties of Roman Catholic religious discussions, separating them, however, from those questions which more properly belonged to the province of the civil judges. When he pleaded for De la Mennais, he was influenced by two sentiments-that of affection for the accused, and of his own religious convictions. For the religious convictions of M. Berryer are very lively and very decided. He is a sincere Christian, and never hesitates openly to avow his firm and unwavering belief in the sacred chronicles of Heaven. He has often indeed been rallied by his adversaries, and even by his friends, as to his political and religious creed-and some have affected to think "that he had too much talent to believe in monarchical and religious principles." But M. Berryer would never accept a homage thus paid him at the expense of truth-and he has gloried in proclaiming, "Yes, I am a Christian""Yes, I am a Monarchist!" In the third prosecution, in which M. Barthe, now Minister of Justice, was counsel for the Constitutionnel, whilst M. Berryer was the advocate of the Quotidienne, he displayed that power of satire which he seldom resorts to, except when his adversary attempts to impose on the court the exaggerations of a melo-drama for the sober language of truth and reason. His triumph was irresistible. It was Lord Abinger against Charles Phillips. It was Sir Robert Peel against the Member for Kilkenny. Fearful odds! and the result was not doubtful. Although during the years M. Berryer was more or less acquainted with the various ministers of the Restoration-and although his talents and his influence were admitted by all parties -he never made use of them to procure for himself any advancement in the ranks of his profession, and never condescended to solicit any favour but the pardon of the unfortunate. Far also from seeking to obtain an appointment to public functions, which so many desired he would fill, he defended Conservative principles as an unshackled and free man, loving his country for the country itself-and thus adding to his doctrines the weight of his independence. This noble disinterested conduct gained for him the confidence of those who knew how to contrast the egotism of the age with the pure and unselfish character of his services and his devotedness. If M. Berryer sometimes solicited the favour of his King, it was on behalf of some old faithful servant, whose intentions or services had not been appreciated or understood-or it was some act. of grace on behalf of the unfortunate. He was the petitioner and protector of the unfortunate and the faithful. This same spirit of mercy and of love induced him to plead, in his memorable speech of 9th November, 1831, the cause of the pensioners of the old civil list, when the Princes who were in exile, and who formerly supplied the wants of his now suffering clients, were unable to relieve the miseries of those for whom he did not plead in vain. M. Berryer was one of the editors of the " Conservateur," but he only inserted one article of his own in that journal: it was on the works of " Omer and Denis Talon," Advocates-General to the Parliament. But he assist. ed with constancy in the revision of |