Charles Ernest Lullier was born in 1838, admitted into the Naval School in 1854, and appointed cadet of the second class in 1856. He was expelled the Naval School for want of obedience and for his irascible character. When on board the Austerlitz he was noted for his quarrelsome disposition and his violent behaviour to his superiors as well as his equals, which led to his removal from the ship and to his detention for a month on board the Admiral’s ship at Brest. He was first brought into notoriety by his quarrel with Paul de Cassagnac, the editor of the Pays, whom he challenged, and who refused his cartel. Lullier is celebrated for several acts of the most violent audacity. He struck one of the Government counsel in the Palais de Justice, and openly threatened the Minister of Marine. He was condemned several times for political offences and breaches of discipline. On the fourth of September he left Sainte-PÉlagie at the same time as Rochefort. He attacked the new government in every possible way; and when the events of the 18th March occurred, M. Lullier—the man of action, the man recommended by Flourens—seized the opportunity to justify the hopes formed of him by his political associates, who had not lost sight of him, and who elected him military chief of the insurrection. As General of the National Guard, he has given us the history of his deeds during the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd March. He has since complacently described the energy with which he executed his command, has explained the means he used, and the points occupied by the insurgents; and has described in the same style the occupation of the Paris forts by the National Guard.

When, on the 18th of March, the Central Committee offered him the command in chief of the National Guard, he would only accept it on the following conditions:—

1. The raising of the state of siege.

2. The election by the National Guard of all its officers, including the general.

3. Municipal franchises for Paris—that is to say, the right of the citizens to meet—to appoint magistrates for the city, and to tax themselves by their representatives.

On being appointed he made it a condition that the initiative should rest with him, and then he began to execute his duties with a zeal which never relaxed till his arrest on the 22nd March. By his orders, barricades were erected in the Rue de Rivoli, where he massed the insurgent forces. He ordered the occupation of the HÔtel de Ville and the Napoleon Barracks by Brunel, the commander of the insurgents. At midnight he took possession of the Prefecture of Police, at one o’clock of the Tuileries, at two o’clock of the Place du Palais Royal, and at four o’clock he was informed that the Ministry were to meet at the Foreign Office.—“I would have surrounded them,” he said, “but Jules Favre’s presence withheld me. I contented myself therefore with occupying the Place VendÔme, the HÔtel de Ville, and ordering strategical points on the right bank of the river and four on the left.”

He was subsequently accused of having sold Mont ValÉrien to the Versailles authorities, arrested, and thrown into the Conciergerie. He reappeared, however, on the 14th April as commander of the flotilla of the Commune. Furious with the Central Committee and the Commune he opposed them and was arrested, but contrived to escape from Mazas. From that moment the general of the Commune put himself in communication with Versailles through the mediation of M. Camus and Baron Dathiel de la Tuque, who agreed with him to organise a counter revolution. Lullier was now busily employed in endeavouring to make people forget the part he had taken in the insurrection of the 18th March. He had made it a condition that neither he nor his accomplices, Gomez d’Absin and Bisson, should be prosecuted. The expenses were calculated at 30,000 francs; of which M. Camus gave 2000 francs to Lullier, but the scheme did not succeed. Lullier undertook to have all the members of the Commune arrested, and to send the hostages to Versailles. Lullier is a man of courage, foolhardy even, who never hesitated to fight, and if at the end of the Commune he tried to serve the legitimate government, it was from a spirit of revenge against the men who had refused his dictation, and in his own interest.