Edgar Raoul-Duval (9 April 1832 – 10 February 1887) was a French magistrate and politician who was Representative of Seine-Inférieure and then twice Deputy of Eure.
He had right-wing views, and for most of his career he was a
Bonapartist
Bonapartism (french: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In thi ...
. He was a passionate orator, but somewhat inconsistent in his politics.
Early years
Edgar Raoul Raoul-Duval was born on 9 April 1832 in
Laon
Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
History
Early history
The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. ...
, Aisne.
His father was Charles-Edmond Raoul-Duval (1807–93), a senator from 1876 to 1879.
His father's surname was originally Duval, later changed to Raoul-Duval.
His mother was Octavie Say (1804–65).
She was the daughter of the economist
Jean-Baptiste Say
Jean-Baptiste Say (; 5 January 1767 – 15 November 1832) was a liberal French economist and businessman who argued in favor of competition, free trade and lifting restraints on business. He is best known for Say's law—also known as the law of ...
, and he was the cousin of
Léon Say
Jean-Baptiste-Léon Say (6 June 1826, Paris – 21 April 1896, Paris) was a French statesman and diplomat.
One of the 19th-century's noted economists, he served as French Finance Minister from 1872 until 1883.
Biography
The Say family is a mos ...
.
He was a Protestant.
His father and grandfather were both magistrates.
Raoul-Duval completed his law studies and in 1853 was appointed a substitute magistrate in Nantes at a very early age.
On 8 January 1857 at Le Havre he married Catherine Foerster (1834–1922).
Their children were Marianne (1857–1940), Valentine (1860–1932), Edmond (1862–1932) and André (1870–1927).
Edgar Raoul-Duval was in turn advocate-general at Angers, at Bordeaux, and from 1866 to 1870 at Rouen.
He resigned on 4 September 1870 to register at the bar in Rouen as a prelude to entering militant politics.
Political career
Raoul-Duval ran unsuccessfully for election to the legislature on 8 February 1871.
He was elected later that year as conservative candidate in a by-election for
Seine-Inférieure
Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Infé ...
, where there were four vacant seats.
He was a representative in the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
for Seine-Inférieure from 2 July 1871 to 7 March 1876, and sat with the Union des Droites parliamentary group.
He later joined the
Appel au peuple
The Appel au peuple (Plebiscite) was a Bonapartist parliamentary group during the early years of the French Third Republic. They advocated a plebiscite by which the people would choose the form of government, which they assumed would be a revival ...
group.
Raoul-Duval was soon one of the most active deputies of the conservative majority and one of its favorite speakers.
He adopted
Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principa ...
's definition, "Freedom is the right to do anything the law does not prohibit."
Raoul-Duval was rather inconsistent in his politics.
A critic wrote of him, "M. Raoul Duval has plenty of ''entrain'', of ''élan'', of fire, of repartee, but he lacks the power of continued pursuance of one subject. ... He begins with a good and substantial address; he finishes with rolling fire of passionate responses to attacks hurled at him."
Raoul-Duval was responsible for forcing the retirement from office of the Minister of the Interior,
Victor Lefranc
Bernard Edme Victor Etienne Lefranc (3 February 1809 – 12 September 1883), French lawyer and politician, moderate republican, was under the French Third Republic Minister of Agriculture and Trade, then Interior Minister.
Life
Victor Lefranc w ...
.
He did not succeed in an attack on the treaty
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
had made with Germany after the
Franco-Prussian War.
In 1872 Raoul-Duval intervened in several important debates.
On economic questions Raoul Duval always defended the principles of free trade.
He opposed the first constitutional laws and the "great council" proposed by
Albert de Broglie
Jacques-Victor-Albert, 4th duc de Broglie (; 13 June 182119 January 1901) was a French monarchist politician, diplomat and writer (of historical works and translations).
Broglie twice served as Prime Minister of France, first from May 1873 to M ...
, and also fought the proposal to extend the powers of
Marshal MacMahon
Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta (; 13 June 1808 – 17 October 1893) was a French general and politician, with the distinction of Marshal of France. He served as Chief of State of France from 1873 to 1 ...
for seven years.
He once said that any person who ventured to hint at dissolution was fit to be classed with Communists.
However, several times between 1873 and 1875, when he sat with the Bonapartist group, he called for the dissolution of the Chamber.
He demanded a plebiscite to sanction the constitution, and voted against the constitutional laws on 25 February 1875.
In the 1876 legislative elections Raoul-Duval ran both in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and in the
Louviers
Louviers () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in north-western France.
Louviers is from Paris and from Rouen.
Population
History
Prehistory
In the ...
district of Eure.
He failed in Paris but was elected in the second round in Louviers.
He rejoined the Bonapartist group.
He was rapporteur of the budget of the navy and colonies for 1877, and intervened several times in the budget discussions.
After the
16 May 1877 crisis he was one of 11 deputies who abstained from the vote of confidence requested by the Broglie ministry.
He held office until 25 June 1877.
In the elections of 14 October 1877 after the dissolution of the House he was defeated in his attempt to be reelected in Louviers.
He tried again on 21 August 1881, but was again defeated.
Raoul-Duval won in a by-election on 25 May 1884 in the
Bernay district of Eure to replace Eugène Janvier de La Motte
( fr), who had died.
On 4 October 1885 he was elected on the conservative list of the Eure department.
He broke with the Bonapartists.
In mid-1886 he proposed to
Lucien Millevoye
Lucien Millevoye (1 August 1850 – 25 March 1918) was a French journalist and right-wing politician, now best known for his relationship with the Irish revolutionary and muse of W.B. Yeats, Maud Gonne.
Millevoye was born in Grenoble in 1850, the ...
that a broad conservative coalition should be formed that would include conservative republicans and Protestants.
The idea was discussed vaguely by the conservatives but did not have much effect.
Most monarchists were not interested apart from a small clique of business-related northern deputies.
In 1886 Raoul-Duval was a member of the Central Committee of the newly founded French Association for the Propagation of Volapük.
The association was authorized on 8 April 1886 as a union of French enthusiasts of the
Volapük
Volapük (; , "Language of the World", or lit. "World Speak") is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an i ...
constructed language.
Due to poor health Raoul-Duval went to
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
in December 1886, where he died of a chill on 10 February 1887 at the age of 54.
A bronze statue of Edgar Raoul-Duval was erected in 1890 in
Notre-Dame-du-Vaudreuil, Eure.
Publications
Numerous reports, proposals and speeches by Raoul-Duval were published. A sample:
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Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Raoul-Duval, Edgar
1832 births
1887 deaths
People from Laon
French Protestants
Politicians from Hauts-de-France
Appel au peuple
Members of the National Assembly (1871)
Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
French general councillors
French magistrates
Volapük