CHARLES

See also:

• LOUIS
• LOUIS (804–876)
• LOUIS (893–911)
• LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
• LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian

LOUIS DE SAULCES DE

See also:

• CHARLES LOUIS DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET (1828- )
• FREYCINET, LOUIS CLAUDE DESAULSES DE (1779-1842)

FREYCINET (1828- )  , French statesman, was born at Foix on the 14th of November 1828 . He was educated at the lcole Polytechnique, and entered the government service as a mining engineer . In 1858 he was appointed traffic manager to the Compagnie de chemins de fer du Midi, a post in which he gave proof of his remarkable talent for organization, and in 1862 returned to the engineering service (in which he attained in 1886 the rank of inspector-general) . He was sent on a number of special scientific missions, among which may be mentioned one to England, on which he wrote a notable Memoire sur le travail des femmes et des enfants clans les manufactures de l'Angleterre (1867) . On the establishment of the Third Republic in September 187o, he offered his services to Gambetta, was appointed prefect of the department of Tarn-et-Garronne, and in October became chief of the military cabinet . It was mainly his powers of organization that enabled Gambetta to raise army after army to oppose the invading Germans . He showed himself a strategist of no mean order; but the policy of dictating operations to the generals in the field was not attended with happy results . The friction between him and General d'Aurelle de Paladines resulted in the loss of the ad-vantage temporarily gained at Orleans, and he was responsible for the campaign in the east, which ended in the destruction of Bourbaki's army . In 1871 he published a defence of his administration under the title of La Guerre en province pendant le siege de Paris . He entered the Senate in 1876 as a follower of Gambetta, and in December 1877 became minister of public works in the Dufaure cabinet . He carried a great scheme for the gradual acquisition of the railways by the state and the construction of new lines at a cost of three milliards, and for the development of the canal system at a further cost of one milliard . He retained his post in the ministry of Waddington, whom he succeeded in December 1879 as president of the council and minister for foreign affairs .

He passed an

amnesty for the Communists, but in attempting to steer a middle course on the question of the religious associations, lost the support of Gambetta, and resigned in September 1880 . In January 1882 he again became president of the council and minister for foreign affairs . His refusal to join England in the bombardment of Alexandria was the death-knell of French influence in Egypt . He attempted to compromise by occupying the Isthmus of Suez, but the vote of credit was rejected in the Chamber by 417 votes to 75, and the ministry resigned . He returned to office in April 1885 as foreign minister in the Brisson cabinet, and retained that post when, in January 1886, he succeeded to the premiership . He came into power with an ambitious programme of internal reform; but except that he settled the question of the exiled pretenders, his successes were won chiefly in the sphere of colonial extension . In spite of his unrivalled skill as a parliamentary tactician, he failed to keep his party together, and was defeated on 3rd December 1886 . In the following year, after two unsuccessful attemptsto construct new ministries he stood for the presidency of the republic; but the radicals, to whom his opportunism was distasteful, turned the scale against him by transferring the votes to M . Sadi Carnot . In April 1888 he became minister of war in the Floquet cabinet —the first civilian since 1848 to hold that office . His services to France in this capacity were the crowning achievement of his life, and he enjoyed the conspicuous honour of holding his office without a break for five years through as many successive administrations—those of Floquet and Tirard, his own fourth ministry (March 1890-February 1892), and the Loubet and Ribot ministries . To him were due the introduction of the three-years' service and the establishment of a general staff, a supreme council of war, and the army commands .

His premier-

ship was marked by heated debates on the clerical question, and it was a hostile vote on his Bill against the religious associations that caused the fall of his cabinet . He failed to clear himself entirely of complicity in the Panama scandals, and in January 1893 resigned the ministry of war . In November 1898 he once more became minister of war in the Dupuy cabinet, but resigned office on 6th May 1899 . He has published, besides the works already mentioned, Traite de mecanique rationnelle (1858); De l'analyse infinitesimale (186o, revised ed., 1881); Des pentes economiques en chemin de fer (1861) ; Emploi des eaux d'egout en agriculture (1869); Principes de l'assainissement des villes and Traite d'assainissement industriel (187o) ; Essai sur la philosophie des sciences (1896); La Question d'Egypte (1905); besides some remarkable " Pensees " contributed to the Contemporain under the pseudonym of " Alceste." In 1882 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890 to the French Academy in succession to Emile Augier .