The Daily Telegraph

FAIDHERBE THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FRENCH ARMY OF THE NORTH.

Louis Leon Cæsar Faidherbe, now commander in chief of the French army of the North, was born at Lille on the 3d of June, 1818. He was educated at the college at that place, entered the polytechnic school in 1838, then went to the military school at Metz, which he left in 1842 with a lieutenant's commission in the first regiment of engineers. He served first in Algeria, where he remained throughout 1844 and 1845. Having obtained the rank of captain, he sailed, in 1848, for La Guadeloupe, where he acquired much colonial experience, and became inured to life in the tropics. Having failed in obtaining an appointment at Bengal, he returned to Algeria in 1850, where he constructed the outlying fort of Bou Saada; took part in the campaign of Kabylla, under Gen. Saint Arnaud, and also in the expedition of Gen. Bosquet to the Algerian highlands. The services he performed at the time of the disaster which then occurred, were rewarded by the Cross of the Legion of Honor. At the end of the year—1852—he was, at his reiterated request, sent to Senegal. Here he soon gave proof of remarkable administrative ability, and, after two years' residence, showed such knowledge of the needs, the economy, and the practical policy of the colony, that in 1854 he was made governor of the French possessions in Senegal. M. Faidherbe now devoted himself to the fulfillment of the task he had so long wished to take in hand—the thorough restoration of the colony. He carried on a successful warfare with the Moors of Fulza, but his principal warlike achievement was the struggle he carried on for some time, and over a great extent of territory, with the prophet El-Hadji-Omar, who had conceived the idea of founding a vast Mussulman empire in Central Africa, and driving out all foreign intruders. He compelled this apostle of Islam to submit in 1860, and left Senegal to command the subdivision of Sidi-bel-Abbes, having been made lieutenant colonel of engineers in 1855, and colonel in 1858. But his absence was soon felt in the colony, his policy was not maintained, his instructions were neglected, and everything retrograded. On the 20th of May, 1863, M. Faidherbe, raised to the rank of brigadier general, resumed the reins of government in Senegal. Two years after, his health requiring his return to a less murderous climate, he took the highest command in the sub-division of Bone. M. Faidherbe has written much on the manners, language and history of the African nations, as well as on the topography, geology and archæology of the districts they inhabit. He is a member of the Geographical societies of Paris, London and Berlin.