Rouher, Eugène

ROUHER, EUGÈNE. - French politician, b. 30 Nov. 1814 at Riom (Puy-de-Dôme), d. 3 Feb. 1884 in Paris. He began his career in 1836 as a lawyer and ten years later stood for the first time as a candidate for Parliament, but was not elected. After the revolution of Feb. 1848 he was a member of the Constituent Assembly.

For the elections of 23 Apr. he had prepared himself with a program which, although it did not conceal the desire to preserve the traditional forms of French society, nevertheless tended toward the implementation of certain reforms favorable to the petty bourgeoisie and to the workers. R. proposed in it, in fact, a radical transformation of the existing tax system with particular regard to the abolition of indirect taxes and the institution of a progressive direct tax; and he declared himself, among other things, in favor of labor legislation and of State intervention in the event of public agricultural calamities. This electoral program won him the support of all those who feared the leap into the dark constituted by a democratic republic. The activity he carried on in the assembly revealed him ever more clearly as a man of order, and during the discussion of the draft of the new Constitution he broke away from the majority and advocated bicameralism against a single Legislative Assembly. Re-elected deputy on 13 May 1849, he became a supporter of Bonaparte, then still president of the Republic, and on 30 Oct. of the same year entered the government as minister of Justice. He remained a minister, with interruptions, until Jan. 1852. He was then vice-president of the Council of State, minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works from 1855 to 1863, and minister of State from 1863 to 1869. President of the Senate from 18 July 1869 to 4 Sept. 1870, after the defeat of Sedan he went to London, in the retinue of the empress Eugénie. Having returned to France, R. was elected deputy to the National Assembly in Feb. 1872 and, on the death of Napoleon III, took over the effective, if not official, leadership of the Bonapartist party. In 1881 he retired into private life.

R. was among the most faithful collaborators of Napoleon III. As minister of State he defended from 1863 onward the Emperor's domestic and foreign policy against the criticisms of Parliament. Particularly well known has remained the speech he delivered on 5 Dec. 1867 to the Legislative Body after Mentana (v.). On that occasion, replying to certain interpellations, he justified the French intervention against Garibaldi, because it was carried out with the intent of enforcing the September Convention. He said that, in the face of Rattazzi's inability to guarantee the Papal State against the machinations of the revolutionary party, France had felt obliged to send an expeditionary corps which would remain in Rome "until the moment when the safety of the Pope should have made the presence of French troops necessary... We declare that Italy will not take possession of Rome. France will never tolerate such violence done to her honor, done to Catholicity. She will demand of Italy the rigorous and energetic execution of the September Convention, otherwise she will see to it herself." These words greatly impressed and aroused Italian liberal public opinion, and R.'s resolute stand on that occasion contributed not a little to the failure of the negotiations for an Austro-French-Italian Triple Alliance in 1870.

Silvio Furlani