Berryer

Berryer, Pierre Antoine, politician, was born in 1790 at Paris. After receiving his preliminary education he adopted the legal profession, though he leaned to a career in the church. Among his first work was the defending of Marshal Ney and other of Napoleon's generals. In 1830 he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and shortly before the fall of Charles X. made an effective speech on behalf of the policy of that king. After the July revolution he was the only member of the Legitimist party that retained his seat. In 1832 he left Paris to meet the Duchess of Berri on her landing at Marseilles and so prevent her from organising a rising on behalf of her son, the Count of Chambord. He failed, and was arrested as a participator in the insurrection. He was soon released, however. Thereafter he signalised himself by his defence of Chateaubriand in 1833. In 1840 he defended Louis Napoleon after his attempt at Boulogne, and in 1843 he made a visit to the Count of Chambord in London, acknowledging him as the lawful king of France. He was a member of the National Assembly of 1848, and was among those who vigorously protested against the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851. Withdrawing from parliamentary life he was received at the French Academy in 1854; after twelve years' retirement he again, however, appeared as a deputy to the legislative body in 1863. The leading achievement of his later life was his defence of Montalembert in 1858. In 1865 he visited Lord Brougham and was entertained by the benchers of the Temple and Lincoln's Inn. He died in 1868.