R017HER, EUGENE, a very eminent French statesman, was b. at Riom, on Nov. 30, 1814. He first distinguished himself as an advocate at the bar of his native town, at which lie practiced up to 1848. The attention of the country was first drawn to him by the ability he showed in a press prosecution, in which lie was engaged for the defense. In 1848 lie was returned by the department of Puy-de-Dome to the constituent assembly, which was summoned after the revolution of that year, and in the following year he was returned to the corps legislatif by the same department. On the break-up of Odillon Barrot's cabinet, the first iniuistry of Louis Napoleon, toward the end of 1849, Rouher was appointed minister of justice; and with slight interruptions, he has been since then a member of the French government. In the corps legislatif he showed himself a moderate politician; and he never affected to consider the republic an improvement on the constitutional system which had preceded it. In 1852 he was appointed vice-president of the council of state, with the oversight of the departments of legislation, justice, and foreign affairs. In 1855 he was appointed minister of agriculture, commerce, and public. works, and in this office he found .extraordinary opportunities for the exercise of his. administrative ability-. In the negotiation of the treaty of commerce with England, which—much decried both in France and in England at first—is now admitted to have conferred immense advantages upon both countries, the negotiations were conducted by Si. Rouher and M. Baroche on the part of France, by lord Cowley and Mr. Cobden on the part of England; the treaty was signed on Jan. 22, 1860. The arrangements conse quent upon the treaty involved immense labor and manipulation of details, and the chief part in adjusting them devolved upon .31. Mather and Sir. Cobden. In 1863 he nego
tiated a treaty of commerce between France and Italy, receiving from the king of Italy, in acknowledgment of his merits, the orders of St. Maurice and St. Lazaire. He has thus been the chief instrument in the introduction, or in preparing the way for the introduc tion, of free trade as the commercial policy of France and the neighboring continental countries.
In .June, 1863, M. Rouher retired from theministry of agriculture and commerce, and was appointed president of the council of state in succession to 31. Baroche. Soon after, he took the office of minister of the interior; and in Oct., 1863, on the death of 31. Bil lault, he was appointed minister of state. In this office he had to represent the govern ment as "talking-minister" in the corps legislatif; and it is admitted that he had no superior as a debater among the great orators trained under the constitutional system, and these were able rivals. His reputation as a debater stands as high as his reputation as an administrator; and it may safely be said that he has no superior, if any equal.. for abilitv among the French politicians of the time. In Jan., 1867, when the late emperor, by a 'decree, introduced certain modifications of the privileges of the corps legislatif, and of the relations between that body and the ministers, Rouher, with the other members of the cabinet, resigned office, but be was immediately reinstated in it. Ito was appointed a member of the French senate on June 18, 1856: He became grand officer of tile legion of honor in 1856, and gained the grand cross in Jan., 1860. He was returned to the national assembly for Corsica in 1872.