When the white flag of Louis XVIII. floated above the tower of St. Denis, M. Pasquier offered his services to the king; he was included in the first ministry of Talleyrand as keeper of the seals, and exercised at the same time the functions of minister for the interior, an appointment of extreme delicacy and difficulty in the crisis of that period. France was invaded by 700,000 strangers, the public mind was in a state of constant agitation, and the principles of the restoration had excited a deplorable reaction in several of the provinces; it thus became necessary to organise the system of the prefects, to repress the too ardent zeal occasionally exhibited, prevent the sanguinary vengeance of parties, and prepare and advance the election of upright persons of moderate views, in order to heal the wounds of the country. Nothing is easier than to judge people with severity after a lapse of years, and when events are long over; and thus the services rendered by some statesmen in seasons of peril are soon forgotten, or are but imperfectly appreciated by people, who are in the full enjoyment of peace and security, and therefore inclined to exercise a mathematical rectitude in their judgment of facts. If we look back upon the year 1815, after the double invasion and heavy military contributions, we shall see that it was impossible for a government to display more exemplary moderation, before the face of a victorious party, to whose conditions it had been compelled to submit. M. Pasquier followed the fortunes of Prince Talleyrand; he gave in his resignation and was succeeded by M. de Barbé-Marbois. He had however, always been strongly inclined towards the moderate system which gained the ascendant under the Richelieu ministry, and shortly after its formation he was appointed one of the commissioners for the liquidation of the foreign debts; it was a post of great confidence, for if the laws of honesty were set aside, enormous fortunes might soon be amassed. M. Pasquier's integrity was unimpeachable, and he was the worthy colleague of M. Mounier, the most honest man belonging to the noble Richelieu school. He was elected by the department of the Seine as their representative, and on taking his seat in the chamber of deputies, after the ordonnance of the 3d of September, he was nominated president; from this parliamentary position, he again passed into the ministry in the month of January 1817, the Duc de Richelieu having caused him to be appointed keeper of the seals.