Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/354

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DESMABEST.

337

PlenipotenUaiy, in order to rein- state the Hospodars, Hirbey and Ohika. The following year he was appointed <^ef commander of all the military schools of the Turkish empire ; and at the beginning of the year 1S56 he was delegated by the Porte to attend the great coun- cil <^ war which had been sum- moned to assemble in Paris. After the treaty of March 20, he was nominated Commissioner of the Porte for the rectification of the frontiere of Bessarabia. When the new Saltan Abd-ul-Aziz created in Turkey a Special Administration of Mines and Forests, he entrusted the direction of it to Dervish Pasha (Aug. 1861). The following year Dervish Pausha was engaged in the military operations which took place in Montenegro^ and in concert with Husein Pasha, he compelled by a series of successful encounters in the field the Prince Nicholas and his father Miako to sign the peace of Scutari in Aug. 1862. In Feb. 1866, he was sent to Syria as special otmimiBsioner charged with the pacification of the Lebanon. In the Bossian war of 1878 Dervish Pasha was engaged in the military defence of E&totmi, then besieged by the Bussians^ under Prince Mirsky. The siege was effectually repulsed ; but it was finally stipu- lated by the treaty of i>eace con- cluded at Constan^ople that Ba- toum should be ceded to Bussia. The civil governor of Batoum, how- ever, incited by the Lazis, 10,000 of whom were in arms, to defend the place, refused to surrender it to the enemy ; and it became the task of Dervish Pasha to put down the Lazis, and to deliver Batoum oFer to the Bussians. Two years later, in 1880, he was called upon to perform a very aimilar act in the case of Duldgno. The Albanian League were in arms to prevent the delivery of that Adriatic seaport to Montenegro in accordance with the decision of the European Con- ference. The repugnance of Turkey

to execute this promise was at last overcome either by the naval de- monstration in the Adriatic, or by a menace of the seizure of the Customs revenues at Smyrna ; and Dervish Pasha was then sent with a large Turkish force to put down the Albanian League. On April 20, 1881, the opposition of the Alba- nians was completely crushed by the decisive victory he gained over 10,000 troops of Uie League ; and the rebellious Beys of Albania were mulcted in heavy sums of money with which the Porte was content. At the beginning of June, 1882, a week before the deplorable riot and massacre at Alexandria, the Sultan of Turkey sent Dervish Pasha as special commissioner to Egypt to settle the dispute between the Khedive, Tewfik Pasha, and Arabi Pasha, leader of the military party, who had again forced him- self on the Khedive as Minister of War.

DESMABEST, Ebnebt Leon Joseph, born at Paris, May 17, 1815, joined the bar in that city in 1837. Having been appointed lieu- tenant of the National Guard in 1848, for his services during the insurrection in June, he received the Cross of the Legion of Honour in August of that year, and for some time after the establishment of the Bepublic fulfilled the duties of Adjunct to the Mayor of the 2nd arrondissement. He is a member of the Council of the order of Bar- risters, and has distinguished him- self in numerous political cases in which he has had to plead. At the banquet given to M. Berryer, Nov. 8, 1864, by the bar of Eng- land, M. Desmarest, as b&tonnier of tie French bar, was present. After the collapse of the Empire in Sept. 1870, the Bepublican Govern- ment appointed him a member of tiie Council of State> which was temporarily substituted for the Im- penal Council. He was also elected Maire of the ninth arrondissement of Paris. When the insurrection

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