Périer, Casimir Pierre

Périer, Casimir Pierre (käzēmēr` pyĕr pĕryā`), 1777–1832, French statesman. He was a member of a wealthy bourgeois family. His father, Claude Périer, a manufacturer and financier of Grenoble, was an important figure in the Bank of France. In 1801, Casimir Périer founded a bank at Paris with his brother Scipion. After the Bourbon restoration he, like many other bourgeois, opposed the reactionary policies of the government. He entered (1817) the chamber of deputies and bitterly fought the comte de Villèle and the prince de Polignac. Under King Louis Philippe he served (1830) as minister without portfolio. When the ministry of Jacques Laffitte fell, Périer became (1831) premier. His ministry was strong and conservative; he repressed republican sentiment, trying to check royal influence and maintain a constitutional monarchy. He quelled uprisings in Grenoble and Lyons and refused to aid the Polish and Italian revolutions, but he sent (1831) troops to Belgium to protect the new monarchy there from the Dutch invasion. Périer's exertions in the cholera epidemic (1832) led to his death. The family remained prominent, taking the name Casimir-Perier.