Ledru-Rollin, ALEXANDRE AUGUSTE

Ledru-Rollin, ALEXANDRE AUGUSTE, 'the tribune of the revolution of February (1848), as Louis Blanc was its apostle and Lamartine its orator' (Victor Hugo), was born in the house of Scarron at Fontenay, near Paris, 2d February 1807. Admitted to the bar in 1830, he made a name as defender of Republican journalists and men of like views during the reign of Louis-Philippe, and subsequently obtained a great reputation as a democratic agitator and leader of the workingmen's party. He was elected in 1841 deputy for Le Mans, and sat of course on the extreme Left. Visiting Ireland at the height of O'Connell's agitation for repeal of the Union, he was present at several of the Liberator's monster meetings, and at Tara was hailed as a delegate from France. In 1846 he published an Appel aux Travailleurs, in which he declared 'universal suffrage' to be the only panacea for the miseries of the working-classes. He was an active promoter of the reform-meetings that preceded the commotions of 1848. On the outbreak of the revolution he became a member of the Provisional Government, as minister of the Interior, and in May was elected one of the five in whose hands the Constituent Assembly placed the interim government. But he offended his supporters, his colleagues, and the moderates by his arbitrary and injudicious conduct, and resigned his portfolio on 28th June. He next ventured on a candidature for the presidency against Louis Napoleon in December, but was ignominiously beaten. An unsuccessful attempt to provoke an insurrection against his fortunate rival, on 13th June 1849, put an end to his political activity and his influence. He fled to England, where he became one of the leaders of the party who sought to control from one centre the democratic agitations throughout Europe, and so give unity and consistency of purpose to their efforts; and he signed the manifestoes of the revolutionary committee along with Kossuth, Mazzini, and Ruge. But in less than a year he published a passionate invective against the land which had given him an asylum, De la Décadence de l'Angleterre. For the next twenty years he lived alternately in London and Brussels, being only amnestied in 1870. After his return to France he was elected to the Assembly in 1871, and again in 1874. He died on 31st December 1874, at Fontenay. His Discours Politiques et Écrits Divers appeared in 2 vols. 1879.