Léon Bourgeois

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French politician Léon Bourgeois

Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (May 21, 1851 – September 29, 1925) was a French statesman.

He was born in Paris, and was trained in law. After holding a subordinate office (1876) in the department of public works, he became successively prefect of the Tarn (1882) and the Haute-Garonne (1885), and then returned to Paris to enter the ministry of the interior. He became prefect of police in November 1887, at the critical moment of Jules Grévy's resignation from the presidency. In the following year he entered the chamber, being elected deputy for the Marne, in opposition to General Boulanger, and joined the radical left. He was under-secretary for home affairs in Charles Floquet's ministry of 1888, and resigned with it in 1889, being then returned to the chamber for Reims. In the Pierre Tirard's ministry, which succeeded, he was minister of the interior, and subsequently, on March 18, 1890, minister of public instruction in the cabinet of Freycinet, a post for which he had qualified himself by the attention he had given to educational matters. In this capacity he was responsible in 1890 for some important reforms in secondary education.

He retained his office in Émile Loubet's cabinet in 1892, and was minister of justice under Alexandre Ribot at the end of that year, when the Panama scandals were making the office one of peculiar difficulty. He energetically pressed the Panama prosecution, so much so that he was accused of having put wrongful pressure on the wife of one of the defendants in order to procure evidence. To meet the charge he resigned in March 1893, but again took office, and only retired with the rest of the Freycinet ministry.

In November 1895 he formed his own cabinet, distinctively radical, which fell as the result of a constitutional crisis arising from the persistent refusal of the senate to vote supply. The Bourgeois ministry seemed to think that popular opinion would enable them to override what they regarded as an unconstitutional action on the part of the upper house; but the public was indifferent and the senate triumphed. The blow damaged Bourgeois's career as an homme de gouvernement. As minister of public instruction in the Brisson cabinet of 1898 he organized courses for adults in primary education. After this short ministry he represented his country with dignity and effect at the Hague peace congress, and in 1903 was nominated a member of the permanent court of arbitration.

He held somewhat aloof from the political struggles of the Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes ministries, travelling considerably in foreign countries. In 1902 and 1903 he was elected president of the chamber. In 1905 he replaced the duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier as senator for the department of Marne, and in May 1906 became minister of foreign affairs in the Sarrien cabinet. He was responsible for the direction of French diplomacy in the conference at Algeciras.

Following World War I he became President of the Council of the League of Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1920.

[edit] Bourgeois's Ministry, 1 November 1895 - 29 April 1896

Léon Bourgeois - President of the Council and Minister of the Interior
Marcellin Berthelot - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Godefroy Cavaignac - Minister of War
Paul Doumer - Minister of Finance
Louis Ricard - Minister of Justice
Édouard Locroy - Minister of Marine
Émile Combes - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship
Albert Viger - Minister of Agriculture
Pierre Guieysse - Minister of Colonies
Edmond Guyot-Dessaigne - Minister of Public Works
Gustave Mesureur - Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs

Changes

28 March 1896 - Bourgeois succeeds Berthelot as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ferdinand Sarrien succeeds Bourgeois as Minister of the Interior.

[edit] External link and references

About Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois
Initial text from a 1911 Encyclopedia.

Preceded by Ernest Constans	Minister of the Interior 1890	Succeeded by Ernest Constans
Preceded by Armand Fallières	Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts 1890–1892	Succeeded by Charles Dupuy
Preceded by Louis Ricard	Minister of Justice 1892–1893	Succeeded by Eugène Guérin
Preceded by Alexandre Ribot	Prime Minister of France 1895–1896	Succeeded by Jules Méline
Preceded by Georges Leygues	Minister of the Interior 1895–1896	Succeeded by Ferdinand Sarrien
Preceded by Marcelin Berthelot	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1896	Succeeded by Gabriel Hanotaux
Preceded by Alfred Rambaud	Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts 1898	Succeeded by Georges Leygues
Preceded by Paul Deschanel	President of the Chamber of Deputies 1902–1905	Succeeded by Paul Doumer
Preceded by Maurice Rouvier	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1906	Succeeded by Stéphen Pichon
Preceded by René Renoult	Minister of Labour and Social Security 1912–1913	Succeeded by René Besnard
Preceded by Gaston Doumergue	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1914	Succeeded by René Viviani
Preceded by —	Minister of State 1915–1916	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Étienne Clémentel	Minister of Labour and Social Security 1917	Succeeded by André Renard
Preceded by —	Minister of State 1917	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Antonin Dubost	President of the Senate 1923–1924	Succeeded by Gaston Doumergue