Charles de Freycinet

Charles de Freycinet
43rd Prime Minister of France
In office 28 December 1879 – 23 September 1880
Preceded by	William Waddington
Succeeded by	Jules Ferry
46th Prime Minister of France
In office 30 January 1882 – 7 August 1882
Preceded by	Léon Gambetta
Succeeded by	Charles Duclerc
51st Prime Minister of France
In office 7 January 1886 – 16 December 1886
Preceded by	Henri Brisson
Succeeded by	René Goblet
57th Prime Minister of France
In office 17 March 1890 – 27 February 1892
Preceded by	Pierre Tirard
Succeeded by	Émile Loubet
Personal details
Born	14 November 1828
Died	14 May 1923(1923-05-14) (aged 94)
Political party	None

Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl də fʁɛjsinɛ]; 14 November 1828 – 14 May 1923) was a French statesman and Prime Minister during the Third Republic; he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890, the fourteen member to occupy seat the Académie française.

Biography

Early years

He was born at Foix (Ariège) and educated at the École Polytechnique. He entered the government service as a mining engineer (see X-Mines). In 1858 he was appointed traffic manager to the Compagnie de chemins de fer du Midi, a post in which he showed a remarkable talent for organization, and in 1862 returned to the engineering service, attaining in 1886 the rank of inspector-general. He was sent on several special scientific missions, including one to the UK, on which he wrote a notable Mémoire sur le travail des femmes et des enfants dans les manufactures de l'Angleterre (1867).

Government service

On the establishment of the Third Republic in September 1870, he offered his services to Léon Gambetta, was appointed prefect of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, and in October became chief of the military cabinet. It was mainly his powers of organization that enabled Gambetta to raise army after army to oppose the invading Germans. He showed himself a strategist of no mean order; but the policy of dictating operations to the generals in the field was not attended with happy results. The friction between him and General d'Aurelle de Paladines resulted in the loss of the advantage temporarily gained at Orleans, and he was responsible for the campaign in the east, which ended in the destruction of the army of Charles Denis Bourbaki.

In 1871 he published a defence of his administration under the title of La Guerre en province pendant le siège de Paris. He entered the Senate in 1876 as a follower of Gambetta, and in December 1877 became minister of public works in the cabinet of Jules Armand Stanislaus Dufaure. He carried a great scheme for the gradual acquisition of the railways by the state and the construction of new lines at a cost of three milliards, and for the development of the canal system at a further cost of one milliard. He retained his post in the ministry of William Henry Waddington, whom he succeeded in December 1879 as prime minister and minister for foreign affairs. He passed an amnesty for the Communards, but in attempting to steer a middle course (between the Catholics and the anti-clericalists) on the question of the religious associations, he lost Gambetta's support, and resigned in September 1880.

In January 1882 he again became prime minister and foreign minister. His refusal to join England in the bombardment of Alexandria was the death-knell of French influence in Egypt. He attempted to compromise by occupying the Isthmus of Suez, but the vote of credit was rejected in the Chamber by 417 votes to 75, and the ministry resigned. He returned to office in April 1885 as foreign minister in Henri Brisson's cabinet, and retained that post when, in January 1886, he succeeded to the premiership.

He came to power with an ambitious programme of internal reform; but apart from settling the question of the exiled pretenders, his successes were chiefly in the sphere of colonial extension. In spite of his unrivalled skill as a parliamentary tactician, he failed to keep his party together, and was defeated on 3 December 1886. In the following year, after two unsuccessful attempts to construct new ministries, he stood for the presidency of the republic; but the radicals, to whom his opportunism was distasteful, turned the scale against him by transferring the votes to Marie François Sadi Carnot.

Minister of War

In April 1888 he became minister of war in Charles Floquet's cabinet—the first civilian since 1848 to hold that office. His services to France in this capacity were the crowning achievement of his life, and he enjoyed the conspicuous honour of holding his office without a break for five years through as many successive administrations—those of Floquet and Pierre Tirard, his own fourth ministry (March 1890 – February 1892), and the Émile Loubet and Alexandre Ribot ministries. To him were due the introduction of the three-years' service and the establishment of a general staff, a supreme council of war, and the army commands. His premiership was marked by heated debates on the clerical question, and it was a hostile vote on his Bill against the religious associations that caused the fall of his cabinet. He failed to clear himself entirely of complicity in the Panama scandals, and in January 1893 resigned the ministry of war.

In November 1898 he once more became minister of war in the Charles Dupuy cabinet, but resigned office on 6 May 1899.

Prime Minister of France

1st Ministry

• Charles de Freycinet – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Jean Joseph Frédéric Farre – Minister of War
• Charles Lepère – Minister of the Interior and Worship
• Pierre Magnin – Minister of Finance
• Jules Cazot – Minister of Justice
• Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry – Minister of Marine and Colonies
• Jules Ferry – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
• Henri Varroy – Minister of Public Works
• Adolphe Cochery – Minister of Posts and Telegraphs
• Pierre Tirard – Minister of Agriculture and Commerce

Changes

• 17 May 1880 – Ernest Constans succeeds Lepère as Minister of the Interior and Worship.

2nd Ministry

• Charles de Freycinet – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Jean-Baptiste Billot – Minister of War
• René Goblet – Minister of the Interior
• Léon Say – Minister of Finance
• Gustave Humbert – Minister of Justice and Worship
• Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry – Minister of Marine and Colonies
• Jules Ferry – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
• François de Mahy – Minister of Agriculture
• Henri Varroy – Minister of Public Works
• Adolphe Cochery – Minister of Posts and Telegraphs
• Pierre Tirard – Minister of Commerce

3rd Ministry

• Charles de Freycinet – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Georges Boulanger – Minister of War
• Ferdinand Sarrien – Minister of the Interior
• Marie François Sadi Carnot – Minister of Finance
• Charles Demôle – Minister of Justice
• Théophile Aube – Minister of Marine and Colonies
• René Goblet – Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
• Jules Develle – Minister of Agriculture
• Charles Baïhaut – Minister of Public Works
• Félix Granet – Minister of Posts and Telegraphs
• Édouard Locroy – Minister of Commerce and Industry

Changes

• 4 November 1886 – Édouard Millaud succeeds Baïhaut as Minister of Public Works

4th Ministry

• Charles de Freycinet – President of the Council and Minister of War
• Alexandre Ribot – Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Ernest Constans – Minister of the Interior
• Maurice Rouvier – Minister of Finance
• Armand Fallières – Minister of Justice and Worship
• Jules Roche – Minister of the Colonies and of Commerce and Industry
• Édouard Barbey – Minister of Marine
• Léon Bourgeois – Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
• Jules Develle – Minister of Agriculture
• Yves Guyot – Minister of Public Works

Publications

• Traité de mécanique rationnelle (1858)
• De l'analyse infinitésimale (1860, revised ed., 1881)
• Des pentes économiques en chemin de fer (1861)
• Emploi des eaux d'égout en agriculture (1869)
• Principes de l'assainissement des villes (1870)
• Traité d'assainissement industriel (1870)
• Essai sur la philosophie des sciences (1896)
• La Question d'Égypte (1905)
• Contemporain: 'Pensées contributed under the pseudonym of Alceste"

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Michel Graëff	Minister of Public Works 1877–1879	Succeeded by Henri Varroy
Preceded by William Waddington	Prime Minister of France 1879–1880	Succeeded by Jules Ferry
	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1879–1880	Succeeded by Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire
Preceded by Léon Gambetta	Prime Minister of France 1882	Succeeded by Charles Duclerc
	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1882
Preceded by Jules Ferry	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1885–1886	Succeeded by Émile Flourens
Preceded by Henri Brisson	Prime Minister of France 1886	Succeeded by René Goblet
Preceded by François Auguste Logerot	Minister of War 1888–1893	Succeeded by Julien Léon Loizillon
Preceded by Pierre Tirard	Prime Minister of France 1890–1892	Succeeded by Émile Loubet
Preceded by Charles Chanoine	Minister of War 1898–1899	Succeeded by Camille Krantz
Preceded by —	Minister of State 1915–1916	Succeeded by —

Persondata
Name	Freycinet, Charles De
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 November 1828
Place of birth
Date of death	14 May 1923
Place of death