Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour
Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour (
May 19,
1827 -
October 26,
1896) was a
French statesman.
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Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour |
He was born in
Avranches in the
Manche département of northwestern
France. After passing through the
École Normale Supérieure he became professor of
philosophy successively at
Pau and at
Limoges. The
coup d'état of
1851 by
Napoleon III caused his expulsion from France for his republican opinions. He travelled on the continent, gave conferences in
Belgium and in
1856 settled down as professor of French literature at the
Polytechnic of Zürich. The amnesty of
1859 enabled him to return to France, but a projected course of lectures on history and art was immediately suppressed. He now supported himself by his pen, and became a regular contributor to the reviews.
On the fall of the
Second French Empire in September
1870 the government of national defence appointed him prefect of the
Rhône département, in which capacity he had to suppress the
Communist rising at
Lyon. Resigning his post on the
February 5 1871, he was in January 1872 elected to the
National Assembly, and in 1876 to the
Senate. He sat at first on the Extreme
Left; but his philosophic and critical temperament was not in harmony with the recklessness of French radicalism, and his attitude towards political questions underwent a steady modification, till the close of his life saw him the foremost representative of moderate republicanism.
During
Léon Gambetta's lifetime, however, Challemel-Lacour was one of his warmest supporters, and he was for a time editor of Gambetta's organ, the
République française. In
1879 he was appointed French ambassador at
Bern, and in
1880 was transferred to
London; but he lacked the temperament of a successful diplomat. He resigned in
1882, and in February 1883 became
minister of foreign affairs in the
Jules Ferry cabinet, but retired in November of the same year.
In
1890 he was elected vice-president of the Senate, and in
1893 succeeded Jules Ferry as its
president, a position he held from
March 27, 1893 to
January 16, 1896. His clear and reasoned eloquence placed him at the head of contemporary French orators. In 1893 he also became a member of the
Académie française. He distinguished himself by the vigour with which he upheld the Senate against the encroachments of the chamber, but in
1896 failing health forced him to resign, and he died in
Paris.
He published a translation of
A Heinrich Ritter's
Geschichte der Philosophie (1861);
La Philosophie individualiste: étude sur Guillaume de Humboldt (1864); and an edition of the works of
Madame d'Epinay (1869).
In 1897 appeared
Joseph Reinach's edition of the
Å'uvres oratoires de Challemel-Lacour.
