Élie Decazes

Élie , count then duke Decazes , born the September 28th 1788 with Saint-Martin-of-Bush hammer, dead the October 24th 1860 with Decazeville, was a French Politician.

Born in 1788 with Saint-Martin-of-Bush hammer in the Gironde, it studied the right to become judge with the court of the the Seine in 1806. It is then named to advise Louis Bonaparte in 1807, and becomes legal consultant at the Court of the Appeal of Paris in 1811. It was attached at the same time like council to the young king of Holland, Louis, and with the empress mother.

Immediately after the fall of the Empire, there did not accommodate of it less the Restauration with eagerness, refused to sign an address of congratulation to Napoleon i after his return of the isle of Elba and declares Royaliste, and remains faithful to the Bourbons during the Hundred Days. Via Joseph-Dominique Louis known as baron Louis , it can meet the king Louis XVIII for this period, which rewards it for its fidelity by appointing it prefect of police for Paris the July 7th 1815.

The friend of Louis XVIII

Although Louis XVIII had habit to discuss policy only with his ministers, it obtains the authorization to submit its reports/ratios directly with the king, without passing by Fouché (a Régicide!).

The king is caught of a strong friendship for him until calling it “ my son ”. He was named by Louis XVIII prefect of police the July 7th 1815, and soon on September 24th, was appointed Minister for the Police force in the ministry of the duke of Richelieu, to replace Fouché.

He took on this large prince ascending, whom he owed with the Aménité in his manners and with the charm of his spirit very as much as to the agreement of the sights; was opposed of all its forces to excesses of the reaction Ultra-royaliste.

Moderate royalist

Meanwhile, he had been elected appointed the Seine in August 1815, defending a royalism moderated by his functions of deputy and minister, his formula being “ royaliser France and to nationalize monarchy ”. The moderate royalists being in minority in the “untraceable Room” of 1815 vis-a-vis the ultra S, Decazes persuaded Louis XVIII to dissolve the assembly of the deputies. It made return to this end celebrates it ordinance of the September 5th 1816, which dissolved the untraceable Chambre. The elections of October 1816 gave him a majority closer to the desires of the ministry. Decazes played a crucial role in the government during the four following years.

Minister for the Police force

As Minister for the Police force, it repressed the insurrections caused by the royalists extremists (the white Terreur). It made abolish the majority of the laws of exception and amend the electoral law in a liberal direction by lowering the age and the taxable quota (1817). After the resignation of the duke of Richelieu in 1818, it took the effective direction of the government of the general-marquis Dessolle. The Afflicted ministry, including/understanding Decazes inside, the baron Louis with Finances, and the marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr with the War, was entirely liberal; and its first act was to remove the ministry for the Police force, because Decazes had felt its incompatibility with the mode of Freedom. Its reforms met a sharp hostility with the Chambre of the pars, where the extremists were majority, of which it broke the opposition and which it circumvented in incentive the king to create sixty new Pair S liberals (March 5th 1819); but became by there in hillock with the most violent attacks of the royalists.

It then made pass the laws on the press, removing the Censure. By the reorganization of finances, the protection of industry and the implementation of great public works, France found its economic prosperity, and the ministry became popular.

But the great powers of alliance observed the rise of the Libéralisme in France with an increasing concern. Metternich particularly deplored the “weakness” of the ministry, and when in 1819 the elections confirmed this tendency, in particular with the election of famous the Abbé Gregoire, the European governments reflected to implement the secret clauses of the Traité of Aachen (1818). It is this threat of foreign interposition, rather than the clamor of the “Extremists”, which obliged Louis XVIII with a modification of the electoral law in order to in the future make impossible a “scandal” such as the election of the Gregoire abbot.

He resorted to be maintained with a system of rocker which let dominate each party alternatively: he even agree to give up his own electoral law and to constitute a royalist ministry: Afflicted and the baron Louis, refused to embark in this policy and resigned; Decazes took the head of new the ministry, as a president of the council (November 19th 1819). The exclusion of Gregoire of the room and the changes of the Charte made the liberals hostile without to reconcile the “Extremists”. The news of the Spanish revolution of January 1820, caused by the policy idiot and criminal of the royal favorite, still worsened the situation. Decazes was denounced like new a Sejanus, the modern Catilina; and when the February 13rd, the Duc of Berry was assassinated, one showed it to be, directly or indirectly, accessory to the crime by its kindness of the king towards the liberals.

Decazes, envisaging the storm, immediately gave its resignation to the king, who refused it initially, while saying to him: “ they will tackle not your system, my expensive sons, but mine ”.

Finally constrained with the resignation, Decazes is high with the row of Duc, and is withdrawn honourably as ambassador in Great Britain. Chateaubriant, will write: The foot slipped to him into blood .

This put an end to its career in the executive. Recalled of this station under the ministry Villèle in December 1821 it takes seat with the Chambre of the pars, where it continued to preach a liberal policy. It adhered after 1830 to the Monarchie of July. It was named in 1834 large chief clerk of the Room of the Pars. It entirely left the businesses and the political life starting from 1848.

Independently of its political role, Decazes announced its administration by measurements favorable to arts, agriculture and industry: it restores in 1819 the quinquennial exposure of the products of industry. In 1826, it founds with its personal fortune a company to develop the coal and the Fer in the Aveyron. The city which sheltered the workmen took the name of Decazeville in 1829. It had as librarian the young person Jacques Reclus, future Pasteur and father of Élie Reclus and Elisee Reclus.

The king of the Denmark had done it duke of Glücksbierg in 1818.

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