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an ancient Legitimist family, was born at the château of Coucy-les-Eppes (Aisne), Sept. 12, 1838. Having at an early age entered the diplomatic service he was attached to the Legation at Lisbon, next to that at Munich, and afterwards to the Embassy at Vienna. An admirer of Napoleon III., the Count remained in the diplomatic service after the coup d'état, and accompanied the Comte de Moustier to Constantinople as secretary. The opportunity given him at the Turkic capital to display his talent as Chargé d' Affaires procured him the Under-Secretaryship of State on his return to Paris. On the demise of Comte de Moustier, who died when Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. de St. Vallier gave up his Under-Secretaryship and repaired to Stuttgart as Envoy (Feb., 1869). At this post he vigorously asserted French interests in the pregnant year preceding the war of 1870. Having in vain cautioned Napoleon touching Würtemberg's policy in the war, M. de Saint-Vallier, when his Government would not be warned, had to leave Germany, and was forthwith despatched to the then important post at Copenhagen. Upon the restoration of peace, being conversant with the German tongue and society, he was attached as diplomatic agent to Field-Marshal von Manteuffel, the Commander of the German Army of Occupation. Having come to the conclusion that the Republican form of government was, in the circumstances, the best for France, he became a candidate at the senatorial elections in the department of the Aisne, in concert with M. Waddington and M. Henri Martin, and was elected Jan. 30, 1876. M. de Saint- Vallier took his place among the party of the Left Centre. He was elected the first Secretary of the Senate, and held that post till the Marquis de Gontaut Biron, the Legitimist ambassador of the Republic at Berlin, was recalled (Dec., 1877), when M. de Saint-Vallier was appointed by Marshal MacMahon to be his successor, on the recommendation of M. Waddington, who had become Minister of Foreign Affairs. The appointment was most acceptable to the German Government. As second plenipotentiary of France he rendered valuable assistance to M. Waddington at the Congress of Berlin (1878).

SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE, Henri Etienne, was born March 11, 1818, in the island of St. Thomas, in the Antilles, and studied in France. On leaving college, he constructed, at his own expense, a chemical laboratory, and pursued his researches, without either master or pupils, for nearly nine years. In 1844 he was entrusted with the organization of the Faculty of Sciences at Besançon, of which he was, in 1845, named dean and professor. In 1851 he succeeded M. Balard in the chair of chemistry in the Normal School, supplied the place of M. Dumas in the Faculty of Sciences of Paris during the summer months in 1853, and succeeded him in 1859. In 1872 he accepted the office of Inspector General of the meteorological stations in France. He was elected memberof the Academy of Sciences in Nov., 1861, in the place of M. W. P. Berthier, created an officer of the Legion of Honour, March 13, 1855, and promoted to the rank of commander, Aug. 14, 1868. In 1849 he discovered and made known the preparation and properties of anhydrous nitric acid; in 1852 he published in the "Annales de Chimie et de Physique" an important paper upon the metallic carbonates and their combinations; and in 1853 he discovered a new method of mineral analysis. About that time M. Sainte-Claire Deville studied the new metal, aluminium, discovered by Wœhler, of Göttingen, then but imperfectly understood. Required by the emperor to inquire into the best means of producing aluminium at a