The New York Times/Napoléon Daru

AS TO NAPOLEON DARU

Paris dispatch to the London Daily Telegraph.

The ex-statesman who has just died in Paris in his eighty-fourth year, Count Napoléon Daru had a title to fame not only by his political career, but also by reason of the fact that he was held at the baptismal font by Napoleon I. and the empress Josephine. The deceased was the son of the statesman of the First Empire, and, after having studied in the Polytechnic School, he joined the artillery that being, as is well known, the branch of the service in which his famous godfather first won his laurels at the siege of Toulon. After having served some time in Africa M. Daru, then a Captain, gave up his rank in 1818. He had previously entered the House of Peers by hereditary right, and at the Luxembourg became the fast friend of Montalembert and other Catholic Liberals. M. Daru was one of the most prominent of the organizers of the railways in France, but identified himself more closely with politics in December, 1851, when he was one of the most energetic opposers of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat. For this, the Count was imprisoned in the Fortress of Vincennes, and on his liberation retired into private life until 1870, when the Emperor induced him to join Ollivier's LIberal Cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs. M. Daru, however, could not swallow the plébiscite. He had also failed in his endevours to have France represented at the Vatican Council for the proclamation of the "Papal infallibility," either by an Ambassador Extraordinary or by a Bishop attached to the Imperial Government who should be capable of urging its claims. Cardinal Antonelli opposed this doggedly, and France therefore remained neutral in the affair. In 1871 M. Daru was elected a Deputy, and in 1876 became Senator, but lost his seat in 1879. His title of "Count," which was given to his father, who had been Commisary General in the Napoleonic armies, now goes to his nephew, an artillery officer.