Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/973

CAR  found him a cavalry officer, at a time when every young nobleman felt it incumbent on him to be in the king's service. He was arrested in 1793, but was liberated on the fall of Robespierre. Turning to the rising star of Napoleon after the 18th Brumaire, he became a member of the tribunate, and was, through the interest of Cambaceres, with whom he was connected by marriage, raised to the presidency of that assembly; which favour he repaid by supporting the ambitious wish of the first consul to be recognized emperor, and more signally by helping to extinguish what little appearance of constitutional liberty the tribunate still presented. He afterwards returned to the military profession, for which he proved his capacity by saving Junot in Portugal from being made prisoner. After the defeat of the French at Talavera, it was Carrion who was selected to bear the unhappy tidings to the emperor; and he put so good a face upon the matter, that he who entered a poor major with bad news, quitted the imperial presence a baron of the empire. That there was something better in him than command of plausible l anguage, he proved. When disgraced for having failed in an enterprise, he re-entered the army a private soldier, and fought his way up to a colonelcy. On the return of the Bourbons he was allowed to resume his old title of marquis, was made secretary-at-war, and having in that capacity done all he could to stop the miraculous progress of Napoleon on his escape from Elba, joined the conqueror as soon as he reached the Tuileries, for which he lost the favour of Louis XVIII. His literary attempts were not successful; for his two tragedies of "Peter the Great" and "Montmorency" failed. He died in 1841.—J. F. C.  CARROLL,, the latest surviving signer of the declaration of American independence, was of a Roman catholic family of Irish origin. He was born at Annapolis, Maryland, September 20, 1737. He studied at Paris and at Bourges, and in 1757 went to London, and became a member of the inner temple. In 1764 he returned to his native colony in the midst of the excitement consequent on the stamp act, in which he zealously espoused the cause of the colonies. Elected to congress in 1775, along with the other members, he signed the declaration on August 2nd of the following year. In 1778 he resigned his seat in congress, and returned to his place in the state legislature, where he was actively engaged in settling the difficult questions consequent on the revolution. In 1804 he withdrew to private life at Carrollton, his patrimonial estate, where, as his life advanced, he became an object of universal veneration. His mind was highly cultivated, and his manners were graceful and attractive. He survived by six years all the other signers of the declaration of independence, and in his 96th year died at Baltimore, November 14, 1832.—F. B.  CARROLL,, D.D., LL.D., brother of the preceding, and first Roman catholic bishop in the United States, was born at Upper Marlborough in Maryland in 1734. He was sent to Europe at the age of thirteen for his education, which he received chiefly at the famous institution at St. Omer. When the order of the jesuits, to which he belonged, was suppressed by the pope, he went to England, and acted as secretary to the dispersed fathers in their efforts to obtain, from the various courts in Europe, a mitigation of their sentence. In 1775 he returned to America, and acted for some time as a parish priest in Maryland. When it was first determined to establish a catholic spiritual hierarchy in the United States in 1786, Mr. Carroll was appointed vicar-general, and took up his residence in Baltimore. Three years afterwards he was made bishop, and went to England in 1790 to be consecrated. He was made an archbishop a few years before his death in 1815.—F. B.  CARRON,, l'Abbé, a celebrated French moralist, was born at Rennes in 1760; died in 1821. Carron early manifested an earnest and enlightened spirit of philanthropy. Driven from France in 1792, he went first to Jersey and then to London, where he opened a college and a school—the one for the sons and the other for the daughters of French emigrants; built chapels, established hospitals, and in many ways wrought unweariedly for the benefit of his exiled countrymen. After his return to France he obtained from Louis XVIII. the endowment of l'Institut Royal de Marie Thérèse, in which were educated the children of those who had died in exile. Carron found time to write many books of practical religion, which, with many recommendations, boast none so weighty as the name of the venerable author.—R. M., A.  CARRUCI. See.  CARRUTHERS, A., an American novelist, born in Virginia about 1800, and educated in part at Washington college in that state. He began to publish in New York about 1834. Among his works are—"The Cavaliers of Virginia, a Historical Romance of the Old Dominion;" "The Kentuckian in New York;" and "The Knights of the Horseshoe." Carruthers passed the latter years of his life at Savannah, Georgia, where he practised medicine, and wrote for the southern magazines.—F. B.  CARSON,, LL.D., rector of the High school of Edinburgh, born about the year 1778, in the county of Dumfries. At the age of twenty-four he was appointed head-master of the grammar school of Dumfries, and four years afterwards, having already given proof of the acuteness of intellect and energy of character which distinguished him throughout his professional career, he was promoted to a mastership in the High school of Edinburgh, of which he was rector for twenty-five years previous to his retirement in 1845. He published "Exercises on Attic Greek." He died in 1851.—J. S., G.  CARSTAIRS,, an eminent Scotch divine and politician, and one of the most remarkable men of the Revolution era, was born at Cathcart, near Glasgow, in 1649. His father was presbyterian minister of the High church, Glasgow, and was ejected from his church at the Restoration. Young Carstairs was educated first at the university of Edinburgh, and afterwards at Utrecht, under the celebrated professors Leusden, Witsius, and Grævius. In the distracted state of his native country, he resolved to remain in Holland, and was there licensed as a preacher of the gospel. Having been introduced to William of Orange, he so completely gained the confidence of that prince, that nothing of importance was undertaken by him respecting the British court without the advice of Carstairs. He was repeatedly sent on important missions to Scotland and England, and was admitted into the councils of William Lord Russell, Sydney, Argyll, and the other patriots who were in constant correspondence with the prince of Orange. After the discovery of the Rye-house plot in 1684, and the execution of Lord Russell, Carstairs was apprehended and brought before the privy council; but as he steadfastly refused to make any disclosures, he was illegally sent down to Scotland, to be tried and examined by torture before that infamous tribunal, the Scottish privy council. He bore the excruciating suffering inflicted by the thumbscrew for an hour and a half with the utmost fortitude. But on being threatened with a repetition of the question, and having learned that the government had made certain discoveries by torturing Spence, the earl of Argyll's secretary, he gave way, and answered the questions put to him, on condition that his answers should not be used as evidence against any person. He confessed, however, nothing more than the government already knew, and the council had no suspicion that he withheld from them secrets of vast importance, which had been intrusted to him by Pensionary Fagel, the discovery of which, at this time, might not improbably have been fatal to the Revolution. On his release from prison he returned to Holland, and was appointed one of the chaplains of the prince of Orange, and was elected minister of the English protestant congregation at Leyden. He accompanied William to England in 1688; and when the landing of the troops had taken place at Torbay, performed divine service at their head. He was mainly instrumental in procuring the peaceable settlement of the presbyterian church in his native country; and became, indeed, the real prime minister for Scotland. He was appointed his majesty's chaplain for that kingdom; and as he was constantly in attendance upon the king, he had apartments assigned him in the palace when at home, and when abroad with the army was allowed £500 a year for camp equipage. He enjoyed more of William's confidence and esteem than any other Scotchman, or indeed than any other of his councillors, except Bentinck. In consequence of his vast influence, he obtained the significant nickname of Cardinal Carstairs. On one occasion in 1693, when a collision between the Scottish church and the government was imminent, he ventured even to stop the messenger who was about to hasten down to Scotland with instructions, which the king and his ministers had agreed to issue in the absence of their confidential adviser. William, though highly displeased at first, when Carstairs showed him the packet which he had taken from the messenger and confessed what he had done, speedily yielded to the remonstrances of his trusty <section end="973Zcontin" />