SARTIGES, EUGÈNE de. - Diplomat, b. at Gannat on 18 Jan. 1808, d. at Paris on 3 Oct. 1892.
He began his diplomatic career in 1830 in Rome as auditor of the embassy; he was then plenipotentiary of the French Empire at Washington and at The Hague, then (from Oct. 1862 to Nov. 1863) at the court of Turin, where he showed much tact in the "Aunis" affair. On the French ship of that name, the prefect of Genoa had had the brigand La Gala arrested, on whom a severe sentence hung; the imperial government wanted his immediate release. After lengthy negotiations, the brigand was subjected to a new trial, condemned to capital punishment and subsequently pardoned, in accordance with the commitments between Victor Emmanuel II and Napoleon III. A few weeks later S. was sent as ambassador to Rome, where he succeeded in making himself unwelcome to Pius IX and to Card. Antonelli. He insisted for a long time with his own government for the withdrawal of the French troops from the Papal State and induced the Emperor and the Foreign Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, to stipulate with the Italian government the September Convention (v.).
In the following years S., who was bound hand and glove with the secret innovating Committees, reiterated his reports to Paris in a sense unfavorable to the papal government. In 1867, at the time of the Garibaldian invasion of Latium, he was deliberately on leave and took no part in those events: he declared, however, that if he had been in Rome he would not have requested the intervention of the imperial forces as his chargé d'affaires Armand (v.) had done. At the beginning of 1868 he was recalled to his homeland, on the pretext of his appointment as senator. With the fall of the Second Empire (1870), he withdrew to private life.
Bibliography3 works
Renzo U. Montini