Ernest Picard

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1821–1877 ○ Natural causes

Republican of "the Five", finance minister of the Government of National Defence and, as Thiers's interior minister, foe of the Commune

Born in Paris in 1821, he took his doctorate in law in 1846 and joined the Paris bar. Elected to the Corps législatif for the Seine in 1858, he became one of "the Five" republicans opposing the Empire and attacked the prefect Haussmann. On 4 September 1870 he joined the Government of National Defence as minister of finance, and in January 1871 went with Jules Favre to Versailles to negotiate the capitulation of Paris. In February he became minister of the interior in Thiers's cabinet and took an active part in the measures against the Commune and the provincial risings, but attacked by monarchists and republicans alike he resigned after the Commune's defeat. He was then ambassador in Brussels until 1873 and became a life senator in 1875. His brother Arthur Picard was deputy for the Basses-Alpes from 1876 to 1885.

Also known as: Louis Joseph Ernest Picard

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