CREMIEUX, ISAAC .ADOLPHE (1796 1850). A French statesman and philanthropist. born at Nimes, of Jewish parents, April 30. 1796. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Aix in 1817. About 1830 he went to Paris, where he soon became famous as an advocate, particularly in the defense of political prisoners. Ile entered public life in 1842 as a Deputy from Chinon. and served till 1848, sitting always on the Left. Under the Republic of 1848 he was elected as Deputy to the Constituent Assembly and the Legislative Assembly, and was one of the first seven named by the Chamber on February 24 to form the Provisional Government, in which he acted as Minister of Justice. (In the night of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat (December 2, 1851) Cr6mieux was arrested and thrown into the prison of Mazas. lie was soon released and vol untarily retired into private life until November, 1869, when he was elected a Deputy to the Corps Lc'gislatif. On September 4, 1S70. he was pro claimed a member of the Government of National Defense, and the following day he was made Min ister of Justice. His name is connected with
many subsequent acts of legislation. Ile rendered the famous decree which expelled from their seat the infamous magistrates composing the 'mixed commissions' under the Empire, whose judgments had driven so many distinguished and gifted men from the country. Another decree bearing his name, the Decree CriAnieux, naturalized in mass 30,000 of his coreligionists in Algeria. In 1871 he subscribed 100,000 francs toward the payment of the war indemnity for the liberation of the French territory from the Germans. Tie appears always as a man of the highest sense of honor. In 1875 he was elected life Senator. lie was one of the founders of the Alliance Isrmlite Univer selle (q.v.) and its president from 1863 to 1866 and from 186S to 1880. Tie did much for the Jewish race the world over. He died, February 10, 1880. at Passy. Consult: Jaequot. LrN eon temporains (Paris. 1867) ; Blanc. Ilistoire de dix (Ins (Brussels, 1846).