CHARLES

See also:

• ALEXANDRE, NOEL (NATALIS ALEXANDER) (1639-1724)

ALEXANDRE

See also:

• CHARLES ALEXANDRE DUPUY (1851– )
• DUPUY, PIERRE (1582-1651)

DUPUY (1851– )  , French statesman, was born at Le Puy on the 5th of November 1851, his father being a local official . After being a professor of philosophy in the provinces, he was appointed a school inspector, and thus obtained a practical acquaintance with the needs of French education . In 1885 he was elected to the chamber as an Opportunist Republican . After acting as " reporter " of the budget for public instruction, he became minister for the department, in M . Ribot's cabinet, in 1892 . In April 1893 he formed a ministry himself, taking as his office that of minister of the interior, but resigned at the end of November, and on 5th December was elected president of the chamber . During his first week of office an anarchist, Valliant, who had managed to gain admission to the chamber, threw a bomb at the president, and M . Dupuy's collected bearing, and his historic words: " Messieurs, la seance continue," gained him much credit . In May 1894 he again became premier and minister of the interior; and he was by President Carnot's side when the latter was stabbed to death at Lyons in June . He then became a candidate for the presidency, but was defeated, and his cabinet remained in office till January 1895; it was under it that Captain Dreyfus was arrested and condemned (23rd of December 1894) . The progress of l'a/Taire then cast its shadow upon M . Dupuy, along with other French " ministrables," but in November 1898, after M .

Brisson had at last remitted the case to the judgment of the court of cassation, he formed a cabinet of Republican concentration . In view of the apparent likelihood that the judges of the criminal division of the court of cassation—who formed the ordinary tribunal for such an appeal-would decide in favour of Dreyfus, it was thought that M . Dupuy's new cabinet would be strong enough to reconcile public opinion to such a result; but, to the surprise of outside observers, it was no sooner discovered how the judges were likely to decide than M . Dupuy proposed a law in the chamber transferring the decision to a full court of all the divisions of the court of cassation . This arbitrary act, though adopted by the chamber, was at once construed as a fresh attempt to maintain the judgment of the first court-martial; but in the interval President Faure (an anti-Dreyfusard) died, and the accession of M . Loubet doubtless had some effect in quieting public feeling . At all events, the whole court of cassation decided that there must be a new court-martial, and M . Dupuy at once resigned (June 1899) . In June 1900 he was elected senator for the Haute Saone .