View source for Eugène Rouher

{{Short description|French statesman (1814–1884)}}
{{One source|date=February 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}[[Image:Eugène Rouher Pierson BNF Gallica.jpg|right|thumb|Eugène Rouher]]
'''Eugène Rouher''' (30 November 1814{{snd}}3 February 1884) was a French [[wikt:statesman|statesman]] of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]].

[[File:Eugène Rouher painted by Alexandre Cabanel, ca. 1861.jpg|thumb|A portrait of Rouher by [[Alexandre Cabanel]], first exhibited at the Salon des Beaux Arts in 1861. One of the distinctive maps by [[Charles Joseph Minard]] is draped over a chair in the background. This version is a painted copy by Charles Brun, currently at the [[Mandet Museum]] in Riom, France.]]

He was born at [[Riom]] ([[Puy-de-Dôme]]), where he practised law after taking his degree in Paris in 1835.  In 1846 he sought election to the Chamber of Deputies as an official candidate of the [[François Guizot|Guizot]] ministry. It was only after the [[Revolutions of 1848 in France|Revolution of 1848]], however, that he became deputy for the department of Puy-de-Dôme. Re-elected to the Legislative Chamber in 1849 he succeeded [[Odilon Barrot]] as [[Minister of Justice (France)|minister of justice]], with the additional office of keeper of the seals{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} (20 December 1848 to 26 October 1851 and 3 December 1851 to 22 January 1852).

From the tribune of the Chamber he described the revolution of February as a "catastrophe," and he supported reactionary legislation, notably the bill (31 May 1850) for the limitation of the suffrage. After the ''[[coup d'état]]'' of 2 December 1851, he was entrusted with the redaction of the new constitution, and on his resignation of office in January became vice-president of the Council of State. After the formal establishment of the Empire, [[Napoleon III]] rewarded him with a grant of £40,000 and the estate of Cirey.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1855 he became minister of agriculture, [[Minister of Commerce and Industry (France)|commerce]] and [[Minister of Public Works (France)|public works]], and in 1856 senator. He created France's excellent system of railways without making them a state monopoly, and he conducted the complicated negotiations for the treaty of commerce with England which was concluded in January 1860, and subsequently arranged similar treaties with [[Belgium]] and Italy. On 23 June 1863 he became minister president of the Council of State, and on the death of [[Adolphe Billault]] on 18 October 1863 [[minister of state]] and chief spokesman of the emperor. before the ''Corps Législatif''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Although the government had a great majority in the Chamber, the opposition counted the redoubtable names of [[Adolphe Thiers]], [[Antoine Pierre Berryer|Berryer]] and [[Jules Favre]], and government measures were only passed by frequent resort to the closure. Rouher had to defend Napoleon's foreign adventures as well as the free trade treaties and the extravagances of [[Georges-Eugène Haussmann|Baron Haussmann]] for which he was directly responsible. After an attempted defence of the foreign policy which had aided the aggrandizement of [[Prussia]] at the expense of [[Austria]], Thiers told him in the Chamber that there were "no more blunders left for him to make."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He opposed the abortive Liberal concessions of January 1867, announced in a personal letter from Napoleon III to himself, and resigned with the rest of the cabinet, only to resume office after a short interval as [[Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (France)|minister of finance]] from 20 January to 13 November 1867. When concessions became inevitable Rouher, the "''vice-empereur''" resigned to make way after six months' interval for [[Emile Ollivier]]. He still fought for reaction in his new office of [[List of Presidents of the French Senate|President of the French Senate]] from 20 July, to 4 September 1870. After the fall of the Empire he fled to England, but returned to France a year later to work for the fortunes of the [[Napoléon, Prince Imperial|prince imperial]]. After serious disturbances he was elected member for [[Ajaccio]] on 11 February 1872, his election being characterized by the prefect of [[Corsica]] as a regular conspiracy in favour of the Empire.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In the Chamber, where he subsequently represented Riom, he formed the group of the ''[[Appel au Peuple]]''. His first speech in the House was the occasion (21 May 1872) of violent attacks by [[Audiffret-Pasquier]] and [[Léon Gambetta]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In the 1876 legislative elections for the Bastia constituency Rouher won 8,790 votes against 4,367 votes for [[Patrice de Corsi]], and was proclaimed elected on 25 February 1876.{{sfn|Hugot|1876|p=98}}

The death of the prince imperial in 1879 put an end to the serious chances of the Bonapartists, although Rouher sought to secure the recognition of [[Prince Napoléon Bonaparte|Prince Napoleon]], son of Napoleon's brother [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jerome]], as heir to the Imperial honours. Rouher lost his reason after a stroke of paralysis in 1883, and died a few months later.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Further reading==
*Marquis de Castellane, ''Les Hommes d'État français du XIXe siècle'' (1888), and generally the literature dealing with the Second Empire.
* The life and career of Eugene Rouher were fictionalized by [[Emile Zola]] in his 1876 novel ''[[Son Excellence Eugene Rougon]]''.

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{{succession box|title=[[Minister of Justice (France)|Minister of Justice]]|before=[[Alexandre Marie]]|after=[[Eugène Corbin]]|years=1848&ndash;1851}}
{{succession box|title=Minister of Justice|before=[[Alfred Daviel]]|after=[[Jacques Pierre Abbatucci (minister)|Jacques Pierre Abbatucci]]|years=1851&ndash;1852}}
{{s-end}}

{{Cabinet of Alphonse Henri d'Hautpoul}}
{{Cabinet of Léon Faucher}}
{{First and Second Cabinets of Louis Napoleon}}
{{Third Cabinet of Napoleon III}}
{{Finance Ministers of France}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{citation
 |author=Hugot|title=Annales du Sénat et de la Chambre des députés. Débats et documents|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ab2hCvUy7CMC&pg=RA1-PA98
 |access-date=2018-03-22|year=1876|publisher=Journal Officiel|language=fr}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Rouher, Eugène|volume=23|page=770}}
{{refend}}{{Minister of Justice (France)}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouher, Eugene}}
[[Category:1814 births]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Riom]]
[[category:French nobility]]
[[Category:Orléanists]]
[[Category:Party of Order politicians]]
[[Category:Bonapartists]]
[[Category:Appel au peuple]]
[[Category:Ministers of commerce and industry of France]]
[[Category:Ministers of justice of France]]
[[Category:Finance ministers of France]]
[[Category:Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly]]
[[Category:French senators of the Second Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the National Assembly (1871)]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Puy-de-Dôme]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Corsica]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]