Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/204

 master at St. Paul's school, wrote several manuals and edited texts. In 1887, under the pseudonym of 'Max O'Rell,' which he permanently adopted, he dedicated to John Bull his 'John Bull et son Île,' a vivacious picture of English eccentricities and racial characteristics. It was translated by his English wife (born Bartlett) and achieved a success so rapid as to determine the writer to abandon his teaching career, successful as it had hitherto proved, for one of popular writing and lecturing. There flowed from his pen in rapid succession 'John Bull's Womankind' (1884), 'The Dear Neighbours' (1885), 'Friend Macdonald' (1887), 'Drat the Boys' (1886), in collaboration with Georges Petilleau, 'John Bull, Junior' (1889), 'Jonathan and his Continent' (1889), 'A Frenchman in America' (1891), 'John Bull and Co.' (1894), 'Woman and Artist' (dedicated to his wife, 1900), 'Her Royal Highness Woman' (dedicated 'to the nicest little woman in the world,' 1901), 'Between Ourselves' (1902), and 'Rambles in Womanland' (1903). All of these were written originally in French and were produced almost simultaneously in English. Many were translated into other languages. In 1887 and 1890 he lectured in America; in 1893 with his wife and daughter he made a round of the English colonies, his readiness as a speaker and lecturer ensuring him a welcome everywhere from people who like to see their foibles presented in a humorous light. In 1902 he settled in the Champs Elysées quarter of Paris as correspondent of the 'New York Journal' and wrote in the French 'Figaro' in support of the entente cordiale between England and France. He died of cancer in the stomach at 9 Rue Freycinet on 25 May 1903, and was buried in the church of St. Pierre de Chaillot. A tolerant, shrewd, and on the whole impartial observer, on lines inherited from Voltaire, About, Taine, and Jules Verne, Blouet mixed a good deal of flattery with his smart and witty banter, and with the leverage thus gained was able now and again to tell an unpalatable truth, not entirely without effect.

 BLOUNT, EDWARD CHARLES, K.C.B. (1809–1905), Paris banker and promoter of French railways, born on 16 March 1809 at the family seat, Bellamour, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, was second son of Edward Blount (1769–1843) by his wife Frances (d. 1859), daughter of Francis Wright of Fitzwalters, Essex. The Blount family, the head of which was settled at Sodington, Worcestershire, and at Mawley, Shropshire, was a staunchly catholic house of ancient lineage. The father, who was second son of Sir Edward Blount, sixth baronet, of Mawley Hall, was active in the agitation for catholic emancipation, was secretary of the Catholic Association, joined with Daniel O'Connell in founding the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and was whig M.P. for Steyning, Sussex, in the unreformed parliaments of 1830 and 1831.

Of Edward Blount's four brothers, none of whom married, Walter Aston, the eldest (1807–1894), was Clarenceux king of arms. In spite of the catholic fervour of the family, Blount was sent as a child to the neighbouring grammar school of Rugeley, of which the vicar was master. At home at Bellamour he gained a useful knowledge of French from Father Malvoisin, an émigré priest. In 1819 he went to St. Mary's College at Oscott near Birmingham. There he stayed until 1827

After a short experience of commercial life in the London office of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, he entered the home office. Through his father's influence he went much in youth into whig society, and occasionally attended the breakfast parties at Holland House. In the autumn of 1829, the first Lord Granville, British ambassador in Paris, appointed him an attache to the Paris embassy. Next year he was transferred to the consulate at Rome. At Rome he made the acquaintance of Cardinals Weld and Wiseman; and at the palace of Queen Hortense he first met her son, the future Napoleon III. In 1831 he left Rome to join the Paris banking firm of Callaghan & Co. With his father's help, he soon started the bank of Edward Blount, Père et Fils, at No. 7 Rue Laffitte. The business proved successful, and he afterwards joined Charles Laffitte (nephew of the financier and statesman, Jacques Laffitte) in forming the new firm of Charles Laffitte, Blount & Co., Rue Basse du Rempart.

Meanwhile Blount mainly devoted his energies to the promotion of railway enterprise in France. In 1836 France had only one short line between Strassburg and Bâle. In 1838 the French government's bill for the construction of seven great trunk-lines under the control of the state was defeated, and the way thrown open to private enterprise. Blount offered M. Dufaure, then minister of 