Alexandre Ribot
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Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot (February 7, 1842 - January 13, 1923) was a French statesman, four times Prime Minister.
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[edit] Biography
He was born in Saint-Omer.
After a brilliant academic career at the University of Paris, where he was lauréat of the faculty of law, he rapidly made his mark at the bar. He was secretary of the conference of advocates and one of the founders of the Sociéte de legislation comparée. During 1875 and 1876 he was successively director of criminal affairs and secretary-general at the ministry of justice. In 1877 he entered politics, playing a conspicuous part on the committee of legal resistance during the Brogue ministry; in the following year he was returned to the chamber as a moderate republican member for Boulogne, in his native département of Pas-de-Calais.
His impassioned yet reasoned eloquence gave him an influence which was increased by his articles in the Parlement in which he opposed violent measures against the unauthorized congregations. He devoted himself especially to financial questions, and in 1882 was reporter of the budget. He became one of the most prominent republican opponents of the Radical party, distinguishing himself by his attacks on the short-lived Gambetta ministry. He refused to vote the credits demanded by the Ferry cabinet for the Tongking expedition, and helped Georges Clemenceau overthrow the ministry in 1885. At the general election of that year he was a victim of the Republican rout in the Pas-de-Calais, and did not re-enter the chamber till 1887.
After 1889 he sat for St Omer. His fear of the Boulangist movement converted him to the policy of "Republican Concentration," and he entered office in 1890 as foreign minister in the Freycinet cabinet. He had an intimate acquaintance and sympathy with English' institutions,' and two of his published works - an address, Biographie de Lord Erskine (1866), and Etude sur l'acte du 5 avril 1873 pour l'etablissement d'une cour supreme de justice en Angleterre (1874) - deal with English law; he also gave a fresh and highly important direction to French policy by the understanding with Russia, which was declared to the world by the visit of the French fleet to Kronstadt in 1891, and which subsequently ripened into a formal treaty of alliance. He retained his post in Émile Loubet's ministry (February-November 1892), and on its defeat he became president of the council, retaining the direction of foreign affairs. The government resigned in March 1893 over the refusal of the chamber to accept the Senate's amendments to the budget. On the election of Félix Faure as president of the Republic in January 1895, Ribot again became premier and minister of finance. On June 10 he was able to make the first official announcement of a definite alliance with Russia. On October 30 the government was defeated on the question of the Chemin de fer du Sud, and resigned office.
The real reason of its fall was the mismanagement of the Madagascar expedition, the cost of which in men and money exceeded all expectations, and the alarming social conditions at home, as indicated by the strike at Carmaux. After the fall of Jules Méline's ministry in 1898 M. Ribot tried in vain to form a cabinet of "conciliation." He was elected, at the end of 1898, president of the important commission on education, in which he advocated the adoption of a modern system of education. The policy of the Waldeck-Rousseau ministry on the religious teaching congregations broke up the Republican party, and Ribot was among the seceders; but at the general election of 1902, though he himself secured re-election, his policy suffered a severe check.
He actively opposed the policy of the Combes ministry and denounced the alliance with Jean Léon Jaurès, and on January 13, 1905 he was one of the leaders of the opposition which brought about the fall of the cabinet. Although he had been most violent in denouncing the anti-clerical policy of the Combes cabinet, he now announced his willingness to recognize a new régime to replace the Concordat of 1801, and gave the government his support in the establishment of the Associations culturelles, while he secured some mitigation of the seventies attending the separation.
He was re-elected deputy for St. Omer in 1906. In the same year he became a member of the Académie française in succession to the duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier; he was already a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science. In justification of his policy in opposition he published in 1905 two volumes of his Discours politiques.
Ribot was brought in as prime minister for a few days in June 1914 following the collapse of the Doumergue government, and returned to power again in March 1917, following the fall of Briand. Ribot's final ministry was during the most dismal part of the First World War, seeing the failure of the Nivelle Offensive and the famous mutiny of the French soldiers which followed. Dismissed in September and replaced by minister of war Paul Painlevé, Ribot continued as foreign minister for a month before resigning in October.
The main grammar school (lycée) in Saint Omer bears his name today.
[edit] Ribot's 1st Ministry, 6 December 1892 - 11 January 1893
- Alexandre Ribot - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Charles de Freycinet - Minister of War
- Émile Loubet - Minister of the Interior
- Maurice Rouvier - Minister of Finance
- Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Justice
- Auguste Bourdeau - Minister of Marine and Colonies
- Charles Dupuy - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
- Jules Develle - Minister of Agriculture
- Jules Viette - Minister of Public Works
- Jules Siegfried - Minister of Commerce and Industry
Changes
- 13 December 1892 - Pierre Tirard succeeds Rouvier as Minister of Finance.
[edit] Ribot's 2nd Ministry, 11 January - 4 April 1893
- Alexandre Ribot - President of the Council and Minister of the Interior
- Jules Develle - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Jules Léon Loizillon - Minister of War
- Pierre Tirard - Minister of Finance
- Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Justice
- Adrien Barthélemy Louis Henri Rieunier - Minister of Marine
- Charles Dupuy - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
- Albert Viger - Minister of Agriculture
- Jules Siegfried - Minister of Commerce, Industry, and the Colonies
[edit] Ribot's 3rd Ministry, 26 January - 1 November 1895
- Alexandre Ribot - President of the Council and Minister of Finance
- Gabriel Hanotaux - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Émile Zurlinden - Minister of War
- Georges Leygues - Minister of the Interior
- Ludovic Trarieux - Minister of Justice
- Armand Louis Charles Gustave Besnard - Minister of Marine
- Raymond Poincaré - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
- Antoine Gadaud - Minister of Agriculture
- Émile Chautemps - Minister of Colonies
- Ludovic Dupuy-Dutemps - Minister of Public Works
- André Lebon - Minister of Posts and Telegraphs and Minister of Commerce and Industry
[edit] Ribot's 4th Ministry, 9 June - 13 June 1914
- Alexandre Ribot - President of the Council and Minister of Justice
- Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Théophile Delcassé - Minister of War
- Paul Peytral - Minister of the Interior
- Étienne Clémentel - Minister of Finance
- Jean-Baptiste Abel - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
- Émile Chautemps - Minister of Marine
- Arthur Dessoyes - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
- Adrien Dariac - Minister of Agriculture
- Maurice Maunoury - Minister of Colonies
- Jean Dupuy - Minister of Public Works
- Marc Réville - Minister of Posts and Telegraphs and Minister of Commerce and Industry
[edit] Ribot's 5th Ministry, 20 March - 12 September 1917
- Alexandre Ribot - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Paul Painlevé - Minister of War
- Louis Malvy - Minister of the Interior
- Joseph Thierry - Minister of Finance
- Albert Thomas - Minister of Armaments and War Manufacturing
- Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions
- René Viviani - Minister of Justice
- Lucien Lacaze - Minister of Marine
- Théodore Steeg - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
- Fernand David - Minister of Agriculture
- Maurice Viollette - Minister of General Supply and Maritime Transports
- André Maginot - Minister of Colonies
- Georges Desplas - Minister of Public Works and Transport
- Étienne Clémentel - Minister of Posts and Telegraphs and Minister of Commerce and Industry
Changes
- 4 July 1917 - The office of Minister of Maritime Transports is abolished. Maurice Viollette remains Minister of General Supply.
- 10 August 1917 - Charles Chaumet succeeds Lacaze as Minister of Marine.
- 1 September 1917 - Théodore Steeg succeeds Malvy as Minister of the Interior
| Preceded by Eugène Spuller |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1890–1893 |
Succeeded by Jules Develle |
| Preceded by Émile Loubet |
Prime Minister of France 1892–1893 |
Succeeded by Charles Dupuy |
| Minister of the Interior 1893 |
||
| Preceded by Charles Dupuy |
Prime Minister of France 1895 |
Succeeded by Léon Bourgeois |
| Preceded by Raymond Poincaré |
Minister of Finance 1895 |
Succeeded by Paul Doumer |
| Preceded by Gaston Doumergue |
Prime Minister of France 1914 |
Succeeded by René Viviani |
| Preceded by Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu-Martin |
Minister of Justice 1914 |
Succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu-Martin |
| Preceded by Joseph Noullens |
Minister of Finance 1914–1917 |
Succeeded by Joseph Thierry |
| Preceded by Aristide Briand |
Prime Minister of France 1917 |
Succeeded by Paul Painlevé |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs 1917 |
Succeeded by Louis Barthou |
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Preceded by Edme-Armand-Gaston d'Audiffret-Pasquier |
Seat 16 Académie française 1906-1923 |
Succeeded by Henri Robert |
