“ He was educated at the Collège Henri IV, and subsequently studied law, attending simultaneously the classes at the Paris conservatoire of music, for he was a good musician. He became sous-préfet of Nérac in 1830, and advanced rapidly in the civil service until in 1853 he was chosen by Persigny prefect of the Seine in succession to Jean Jacques Berger, who hesitated to incur the vast expenses of the imperial schemes for the embellishment of Paris. ”