Favre

Favre, JULES CLAUDE GABRIEL, a French advocate and statesman, was born at Lyons, 21st March 1809. He studied for the bar at Paris, and took an active part in the July revolution of 1830. As the defender of the Mutuellistes at Lyons in 1831, and in 1835 of those who had been impeached in April, he displayed a spirit of the most ardent and uncompromising republicanism; and in the February revolution of 1848 he wrote the notorious circular for which Ledru-Rollin's administration was so severely reproached, investing the commissioners of the republic with dictatorial authority in the provinces. On being elected deputy to the Constituent Assembly for the department of the Loire, Favre became a member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and advocated the prosecution of Louis Blanc. After the election of the 10th December he showed himself a persistent antagonist of Louis Napoleon, and after the flight of Ledru-Rollin became the virtual leader of the Mountain. The coup d'état closed his political career at this time, and compelled him to return to his profession. In 1858 he defended Orsini, on his trial for a conspiracy to murder; this procured his election as member of the Legislature for Paris, and he became one of the leaders of the republican party against Napoleon III. In September 1870, after the downfall of the empire, he was appointed minister of Foreign Affairs, and carried on negotiations, though fruitlessly, with Bismarck. But in January 1871, when settling the terms of the capitulation of the capital, he committed the very serious blunders of omitting Bourbaki's army from the armistice and allowing the National Guards of Paris, contrary to Bismarck's advice, to retain their arms, thus facilitating the outbreak of the Commune. He resigned office in July 1871, and resumed practice at the bar. Favre died at Versailles on 20th January 1880. He was greatest in political repartee, and though long accustomed to public strife, his language was noted for its Attic elegance. See Maritain, Jules Favre, Mélanges Politiques (1882).