FAVRE, JULES. - Statesman, b. in Lyon on 21 March 1809, d. at Versailles on 20 January 1880.
A lawyer of wide renown, he always fought in the radical ranks and during the Second Republic opposed the Oudinot expedition against the Roman Republic in the press and in Parliament. Having remained outside political life for some years, he returned to the Chamber in 1858, and in the same year famously undertook the defense of Felice Orsini, who had attempted the life of Napoleon III. Although he was one of the leaders of the opposition, he supported the Italian campaign of '59: particularly harsh were his attacks on imperial policy at the time of the expedition to Mexico and as regarded relations with the papacy, to which F. was tenaciously hostile.
After Sedan, he became vice president of the provisional government and minister of Foreign Affairs, for which reason he had to conduct the negotiations with Bismarck for the Peace of Frankfurt of 1871.
Meanwhile the capture of Rome took place, and F., who, under the weight of his country's misfortune, had refused to denounce the September Convention (v.), nevertheless left the Italian government a free hand. And while he dissuaded Pius IX from leaving Italy, and made him understand that France would not support the reconstitution of the temporal power, he acted vigorously upon the government of Florence so that it would behave with extreme moderation toward the Pontiff. The part he took in this regard he set out in an interesting book: Rome et la République française (Paris 1871).
Having fallen out with Thiers, on 23 July 1871 he left the ministry, continuing to take part in public affairs as a deputy and later as a senator. His political and forensic speeches were published, and an apologetic work also deserves mention: Le gouvernement de la défense nationale; 1871-74 (Paris 1874).