FOULD, ACHILLE, was b. in Paris on the 31st of Oct., 1800, and was educated at the Lycee Charlemagne, one of the most celebrated establishments of Paris. He originally belonged to the .Jewish creed, his family being wealthy Jew bankers, but he adopted the Protestant faith. Early in life, he was initiated into financial transactions by his father, and his natural talents were developed by travel in Europe and the east. In 1842, he began his political career, being then chosen as a member of the council-general of the Hautes Pyrenees, and inpnediately after elected a deputy for Tarbes, the chief town of that department. He soon acquired a high position in the chamber of deputies for the peculiar talent with which he handled questions of finance and political economy. In 1844, lie was appointed reporter to the commission on stamps on newspapers, and his views were adopted, in spite of the opposition party, he being at that period a stanch supporter of M. Guizot's home and foreign policy. After the revolution of 1848, F. accepted the new regime of the republic, and offered his services to the provi sional government. In July, 1848, he was elected representative for the department of the Seine, and continued to rise in public estimation by the elevated views he expressed in the chamber, while opposing among other things a proposed issue of assignats.
During the presidency of Louis Napoleon, F. was four times minister of finance, and his repeated resignations for state reasons did not prevent him from being again appointed on the occasion of the coup d'etat, 2d Dec., 1831. He once more resigned his position on the 25th Jan. following, in consequence of the decree ordering the confisca tion of the property of the Orleans family. The same day, however, he was created a senator, and shortly afterwards returned to power as minister of stale. In this capacity, he superintended the universal Paris exhibition in 1853, the completion of the palace of the Louvre, and other great measures. He remained one of the most confidential min isters of Napoleon III. till Dec., 1860, when he was succeeded as minister of state by comte Walewsky. He was out of office up to the 1421] Nov., 1861, at which date he was reappointed finance minister, his long experience and well-known ability as a financier pointing him out as the man to manage the crisis of the French finances at that time. He died in 1867.