Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/307

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COBCELLES-COBDOVA.

Struggle for the Last Diamond^" was perhaps the earliest purchase of a work of Mrt by the Prince of Wales; but that from Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur," in 1864, pur- chased by her Majesty and pre- sented to the Princess Louise, is generally considered his best work. COKCELLES, Ci*audb Fran- cois Philibebt Tibecuib db, a French diplomatist, was born at Mareilly d Azergue, in the depart- ment of the Rhdne, June 27, 1802. His father was an ardent politician^ and on being elected a Deputy Yoted with the Extreme Left, who offered so determined a resistance to the Bestoration and the Monar- chy of July. The younger M. de Corcelles was first returned to the Chamber of Deputies in 1837 by. the arrondissement of S^z, in the department of the Ome, and he usually voted with that section of independent Liberals of, which M. de TocqueviUe was the leiskder. He gave his attention mainly to politico-economical subjects and the Algerian question; and being a fervent Catholic, his UberaUsm attracted him to the political school of M. de Montalembert. After the Revolution of February he was elected a representative of the people, his name appearing second on a list of 11 members chosen for the dei>artment of the Ome. No- minated a member of the Con^nit- tee of Finances, he voted as a rule with the Bight, and always adopted the Bepublican Constitution in its integrity. After the election of the 10th of December, 1848, he supported the Gt>vemment of Louis Napoleon. As a matter of course he thoroughly approved the design of despatching an expedition to Bome, and he personally took part in the events which occurred in Italy at this period. Being sent on a mission to Pope Pius IX., he disavowed the treaty which had been concluded by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps with the Boman Trium- virs, and, after the capture of Bome

by the French troops, he presided at the re-establishment of the Papal regime. M. de Corcelles was re- elected to the Legislative Assembly, and took his seat among the mem- bers of the anti-revolutionary ma- jority, though he declined to pledge himself to the policy adopted by the "Elys^." After the coup d'Stat of the 2nd of December, 1851, he retired into private life, and did not again take part in the manage- ment of public affairs until the fall of the Second Empire. At the elections of Feb. 8, 1871, he was elected by the department of the Nord as a member of the National Assembly, and he voted regularly with the Extreme Bight. He was nominated Ambassador of the French BepubUc to the Holy See, in succession to M. Bourgoing, in Dec. 1872. He resigned that post in Oct. 1876, in consequence of ill- health, and was replaced by M. Baude,French Minister in Belgium. COBDOVA, Gbnbbai. Don Feb- NANDO Fbbnandbz db, the com- mander appointed to succeed Ge- neral de Boidas as Captain-General of Cuba, is a distinguished milUaire and politician of Spain. He was bom at Madrid in 1792. His studies were conducted at the Madrid Military School, and in 1810 he entered the army, where, in the Napoleonic wars, he acquired all the military g^rades. After having survived all the governments that succeeded that era in Spain, in 1841, in oonjimction with General Concha and Don Die^o Leon, he was seriously involved m the insur- rection against Espartero whidi was excited by General O'Donnell. He afterwards attached himself to the party of Moderate Progresistas, called Salamancans. In St^ytember, 1847, he was for two months Minis- ter of War, and became General Commanding the Spanish infantry. He was in Italy in 1849 with the corps of SpaniuL troops which had been dispatched to that country to aid in re-establishing the Pope. On