Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure (February 27, 1767 - 1855) was a French lawyer and statesman.

He was born at Neubourg (Eure), in Normandy. In 1789 he was an advocate at the parlement of Normandy. During the republic and the empire he filled successive judicial offices at Louviers, Rouen and Evreux. He had adopted the principles of the French Revolution, and in 1798 began his political life as a member of the Council of Five Hundred.

In 1813 he became a member of the Corps Legislatif. During the Hundred Days he was vice-president of the chamber of deputies, and when the allied armies entered Paris he drew up the declaration asserting the necessity of maintaining the principles of government that had been established at the Revolution. He was chosen as one of the commissioners to negotiate with the allied sovereigns. From 1817 till 1849 he was, without interruption, a member of the chamber of deputies, and he acted consistently with the liberal opposition, of which he was the virtual leader. For a few months in 1830 he held office as minister of justice, but, finding himself out of harmony with his colleagues, he resigned before the end of the year and resumed his place in the opposition. At the revolution of 1848 Dupont de l'Eure was made president of the provisional assembly, being its oldest member. In the following year, having failed to secure his re-election to the chamber, he retired from public life.

His consistent firmness in the cause of constitutional liberalism throughout the many changes of his times gained him the respect of his countrymen, by whom he was styled the "Aristides of the French tribune".

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.