Louis Charles Eugène Protot (27 January 1839 –17 February 1921) was a French lawyer (''avocat'') and a political opponent of the Second Empire. During the Paris Commune in 1871, he was minister of justice for a month before going into exile until 1880. After his return to France he was prevented from working at the Bar and earned a living as a specialist in Oriental languages.

Under the Second Empire

Protot was born in

Carisey Carisey () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourg ...

in the province of Yonne into a peasant family. Despite the poverty of his background he was able to study law and came to Paris to gain his legal qualifications in 1864. He was an active follower of Auguste Blanqui and wrote articles for the publications ''Rive gauche'' and ''

Candide ( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...

''. At the beginning of 1866 he was arrested at a gathering in the Café de la Renaissance in the

Place Saint-Michel The Place Saint-Michel is a public square in the Latin Quarter, on the borderline between the fifth and sixth arrondissements of Paris, France. It lies on the left bank of the river Seine facing the Île de la Cité, to which it is linked by ...

, together with

Gustave Tridon Gustave Tridon (1841–1871) was a French revolutionary socialist, member of the First International and the Paris Commune and anti-Semite. Blanquism and the International Edme Marie Gustave Tridon was born in Châtillon-sur-Seine on January 1, 184 ...

, Raoul Rigault, the Levraud brothers, Gaston Da Costa, Alfred Verlière, Longuet, Genton, Largilière, and Landowski. They were defended by Gustave Chaudey. Protot was sentenced to 15 months in prison. After qualifying as a lawyer (''avocat'') he defended opponents of the Second Empire, which brought about his renewed imprisonment. On 1 May 1870 he was arrested for having defended the

syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...

Edmond Mégy, who had murdered a policeman. Protot was found guilty by the High Court sitting at Blois on 30 May for "conspiracy against the life of the Emperor" ( Napoleon III).

The Paris Commune

During the Siege of Paris (September 1870 - March 1871), Protot was elected a commandant in the National Guard, and defended certain participants in the uprising of 31 October 1870 against the

Government of National Defence The Government of National Defense (french: Gouvernement de la Défense nationale) was the first government of the Third Republic of France from 4 September 1870 to 13 February 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. It was formed after the proclam ...

. On 18 March 1871, he was called to the Hôtel de Ville by the ''Comité central'' ("Central Committee"). On 24 March 1871, with

Maxime Lisbonne Maxime is a French given name that may refer to: As a name * Maxime Bernier (born 1963), former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs *Maxime Bôcher, American mathematician *Maxime Boyer, Canadian professional wrestler *Maxime Du Camp, French write ...

and

Paul Antoine Brunel Paul-Antoine Brunel (; 12 March 1830–1904) was a French general. He was a French lieutenant who became a leader of the Paris Commune during the Siege of Paris in 1870. He broke into Paris through the Prussian siege. Biography As the sec ...

, he commanded the demonstration against the '' mairie'' of the

1st arrondissement of Paris The 1st arrondissement of Paris (''Ier arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le premier'' (the first). It is governed locally toge ...

. On 26 March 1871, he was elected to the Council of the Commune (''Conseil de la Commune'') by the 11th arrondissement, where he proposed and voted on the Decree on Hostages. He sat on the Commission of Justice to which he was delegated as minister on 18 April. He led a major policy of reforms and was much concerned with removing from the justice system its aristocratic character. The principal measures he inspired were free justice delivered by elected

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

s while ensuring guarantees of individual freedom. In particular, he abolished the fees of the

usher Usher may refer to: Several jobs which originally involved directing people and ensuring people are in the correct place: * Usher (occupation) ** Church usher ** Wedding usher, one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony ** Fiel ...

s and the notaries and ordained that all public offices should prepare without charge the legal documentation within their jurisdiction. However, he had first to overcome the disruption caused by the departure of many officials to Versailles occasioned by the creation of a Chamber of Summary Judgements () (26 April) and the appointment of justices of the peace () (3 May) and of examining magistrates () (7 and 16 May), pending the complete reconstruction of the civil courts caused by universal suffrage. Protot also tried to obtain a definitive schedule of places of remand and pushed the Commune to establish a commission responsible for visiting the prisons in order to log the complaints of prisoners. Always with the intention of removing everything arbitrary from the legal system, he asked to be kept informed of all the movements of inmates of lunatic asylums. Lasprotot

He fought on the barricades during the " Bloody Week" (; 21–28 May 1871). Although injured and disfigured, he managed to escape and fled to Geneva in October 1871 and then Lausanne. He was sentenced to death in his absence by the Council of War in November 1872.

Exile and return

Lucien Descaves Lucien Descaves (16 March 1861– 6 September 1949) was a French novelist. Selected works * ''Le Calvaire de Héloïse Pajadou'' (1883) 'Héloïse Pajadou's Calvary.'' Sunny Lou Publishing , 2021 Further reading * * External links * ...

in his novel ''Philémon'' (1913) describes his life of exile in Switzerland: "Protot, former delegate to the Justice, who lodged, with André Slomszynski, with Pastor Besançon, received a tiny pension from his relatives, did his washing in a basin and assiduously perfected himself in the study of foreign languages, while Slom drew for the ''Suisse illustrée''." He returned to France after the amnesty of 1880, but the council of the Ordre des avocats (the French equivalent of the Bar Council) refused to reinstate him to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

. After unsuccessfully seeking the nomination of the Parisian Blanquistes (who preferred Frédéric Boulé) for the legislative by-election of 27 January 1889 he was a candidate a few months later in Marseille for the seat of

Félix Pyat Félix Pyat (4 October 1810 – 3 August 1889) was a French socialist journalist, playwright, politician and a leading figure of the Paris Commune. Biography He was born in Vierzon ( Cher), the son of a Legitimist lawyer. Called to the bar in Pari ...

. A determined adversary of Jules Guesde and the

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

s, his opposition focussed on and against the celebration of

Labour Day Labour Day ('' Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for ...

on 1 May by the Marxist socialists of the French Workers' Party. His judgement of Paul Lafargue was severe: His analysis of Marxism was implacable in its condemnation. In 1892, he wrote in ''Chauvins et réacteurs'': Protot was also a renowned orientalist, a graduate of the

École spéciale des langues orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

in the Arabic and Persian languages, his knowledge of which helped him to gain a living in his last years, and to which he would have liked to have given more time. He contributed to the ''Revue du monde musulman''''Revue du monde musulman'', in December 1922, obituary page 225
/ref> from 1906 until his death in Paris in 1921.

Under the Second Empire

The Paris Commune

Exile and return

References

Further reading