MORNY, torw'me, CHARLES .1I111'STE Lolls JosEpli nE. Duke ( 1S11-05), A noted French politician of the second Empire. Ile was the illegitimate son of Queen Hortense and of the Comte de Flahault. and eonsequently half-brother to Louis Napoleon (later Napoleon 1111. He was horn in Paris, October 23, 1511. The secret of his parentage was well kept for a time and the Conde de Morny received 500.(100 francs to adopt )aim; hut lie was educated IT his 'grand mother; Madame de Souza-Flahanll ; and Queen Hortense left him at her death, in 1837, an annuity of 40,000 francs. Morny took a nominal part in the Revolution of July, 1S30, and entered the army in 1832 as a sublieutenant. lie served with some distinction in Algeria, being made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; but he soon abandoned military life, and in 1838 made his appearance as a manufacturer of beet-root sugar, and published a pamphlet on the subject. From that time he was involved in all sorts of commer cial and financial speculations. Chosen a Deputy in 1842, he became the leader of fashion at Paris, but his financial schemes began to go wrong, and after the Revolution of 1848 he attached himself to the cause of his half-brother and was one of the prime instigators of the subtle and treasonable policy which cuhninated in the coup d'6tat of 1851. The morning after the deed was done
Morny was made Minister of the Interior. This office he soon•resigned, however, and in 1854 he became President of the Corps L6gislatif, and was Ambassador to Russia during 1856-57, where be married the rich and handsome Princess Trou betzkoi. Morny was created a duke in 1862, and continued his gay and extravagant life up to the time of his death on March 10, 1865. His char acter was sketched by Alphonse Daudet as the Due de Mora in Le nabob. An-extract from his memoirs appeared under the title, Une ambassade en Russie (1856). Consult: Castille, Al. de Monty (Paris, 1859) : De in (luerroniere, Etudes et portraits politiques (Paris, 1856) ; Hilbert de Saint-Amand, The Court of Napoleon III. and the AS'eeond Empire (Eng. trans., New York, 1890).