JULES AUGUSTE

LEMIRE (1853— )  , French priest and social reformer, was born at Vieux-Berquin (Nord) on the 23rd of April 18J3 . He was educated at the college of St Francis of Assisi, Hazebrouck, where he subsequently taught philosophy and rhetoric . In 1897 he was elected deputy for Hazebrouck and was returned unopposed at the elections of 1898, 1902 and 1906 . He organized a society called La Ligue du coin de terre et du foyer, the object of which was to secure, at the expense of the state, a piece of land for every French family desirous of possessing one . The abbe Lemire sat in the chamber of deputies as a conservative republican and Christian Socialist . He protested in 1893 against the action of the Dupuy cabinet in closing the Bourse du Travail, characterizing it as the expression of " a policy of disdain of the workers." In December 1893 he was seriously injured by the bomb thrown by the anarchist Vaillant from the gallery of the chamber .