M. Casimir-Perier, ex-President of the French Republic, died on Tuesday
at the age of fifty-nine. He belonged to the higher middle class into whose hands so much power fell after the Revolution of 1830. It has often been remarked that neither then nor after the Great Revolution did the power pass directly into the hands of the democracy which had struggled for it. "But the Republic has become increasingly democratic, and M. Casimir-Perier belonged to a kind of Whig Republican class which has almost vanished from power. His grandfather was the famous Minister of Louis Philippe, and his father was made Premier by Thiers, and was one of his most ardent supporters. Jean Paul Casimir-Perier entered politics like his ancestors, and soon became a leader of the Moderates. In 1893 he was appointed Prime Minister. It was during his Premiership that Valliant, the Anarchist, threw a bomb in the Chamber. This led to the modification of the Press laws for the suppression of anarchy. Casimir- Perier succeeded the murdered Carnot as President of the 'Republic. Then for the first time was really revealed the extreme sensitiveness which made him unequal to the crises of a political life. He was a man of high honour and elevated feeling, but he withered under the relentless attacks of the Socialists. He was a colliery-owner, and was daily pilloried as the most hideous type of the capitalist bourgeois. After seven months he resigned the presidency. Since then he had lived in retirement.
