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BOURGEOIS, LEON VICTOR AUGUSTE (1851– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 330 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOURGEOIS, See also:LEON See also:VICTOR AUGUSTE (1851– ) , See also:French statesman, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 21st of May 1851, and was educated for the See also:law. After holding a subordinate See also:office (1876) in the See also:department of public See also:works, he became successively See also:prefect of the See also:Tarn (1882) and the Haute-See also:Garonne (1885), and then returned to Paris to enter the See also:ministry of the interior. He became prefect of See also:police in See also:November 1887, at the criticalmoment of See also:President See also:Grevy's resignation. In the following See also:year he entered the chamber, being elected See also:deputy for the See also:Marne, in opposition to See also:General See also:Boulanger, and joined the See also:radical See also:left. He was under-secretary for See also:home affairs in the See also:Floquet ministry of 1888, and resigned with it in 1889, being then returned to the chamber for See also:Reims. In the See also:Tirard ministry, which succeeded, he was See also:minister of the interior, and subsequently, on the 18th of See also:March 1890, minister of public instruction in the See also:cabinet of M. de See also:Freycinet, a See also:post for which he had qualified himself by the See also:attention he had given to educational matters. In this capacity he was responsible in 1890 for some important reforms in secondary See also:education. He retained his office in M. See also:Loubet's cabinet in 1892, and was minister of See also:justice under M. See also:Ribot at the end of that year, when the See also:Panama scandals were making the office one of See also:peculiar difficulty. He energetically pressed the Panama See also:prosecution, so much so that he was accused of having put wrongful pressure on the wife of one of the defendants in See also:order to procure See also:evidence. To meet the See also:charge he resigned in March 1893, but again took office, and only retired with the See also:rest of the Freycinet ministry.

In November 1895 he himself formed a cabinet of a pronouncedly radical type, the See also:

main See also:interest of which was attached to its fall, as the result of a constitutional crisis arising from the persistent refusal of the See also:senate to See also:vote See also:supply. The Bourgeois ministry appeared to consider that popular See also:opinion would enable them to override what they claimed to be an unconstitutional See also:action on the See also:part of the upper See also:house; but the public was indifferent and the senate triumphed. The See also:blow was undoubtedly damaging to M. Bourgeois's career as an homme de gouvernement. As minister of public instruction in the See also:Brisson cabinet of 1898 he organized courses for adults in See also:primary education. After this See also:short ministry he represented his See also:country with dignity and effect at the See also:Hague See also:peace See also:congress, and in 1903 was nominated a member of the permanent See also:court of See also:arbitration. He held somewhat aloof from the See also:political struggles of the Waldeck-See also:Rousseau and See also:Combes ministries, travelling consider-ably in See also:foreign countries. In 1902 and 1903 he was elected president of the chamber. In 1905 he replaced the duc d'Audiffret-See also: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 See also:diplomacy in the See also:conference at See also:Algeciras.

End of Article: BOURGEOIS, LEON VICTOR AUGUSTE (1851– )

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