JEAN

See also:

• ANTOINE, ANDRE (1858- )

ANTOINE ERNEST

See also:

• JEAN ANTOINE ERNEST CONSTANS (1833– )

CONSTANS (1833– )  , French statesman, was born at Beziers . He began his career as professor of law, and in 1876 was elected deputy for Toulouse . He sat in the Left Centre and was one of the 363 of the 16th of May 1877 . Re-elected in October 1877, he joined Freycinet as minister of the interior in May 188o, holding this portfolio until the 14th of November 1881 . On the 22nd of February 1889 he again assumed the same office in the Tirard cabinet . He became prominent as a stalwart opponent of the Boulangist party, constituting the senate a high court of justice, and taking police measures against the Ligue des patriotes . He resigned on the 1st of March 1890, but his resignation involved the fall of the cabinet, and he resumed his portfolio in the Freycinet cabinet on the 17th of March . On the 29th of December 1889 he had been elected senator by the department of the Haute-Garonne . He was violently attacked by the press and the Boulangist deputies, but did not resign until the whole cabinet withdrew, on the 26th of February 1892 . In December 1898 he was appointed ambassador at Constantinople .