Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Broglie, Charles Jacques Victor Albert, Duc de
BROGLIE, Charles Jacques Victor Albert, Duc de, eldest son of the eminent French statesman Achille Charles Léonce Victor, Duc de Broglie (who died Jan. 25, 1870), was born in Paris, June 13, 1821. He was educated in the University of Paris, where, at an early age, he gained a high reputation as a publicist, and became one of the principal editors of the Correspondant, in which journal he defended Catholic interests and the doctrines of moderate constitutional liberalism. He was Secretary of the French embassies at Madrid and Rome, prior to the revolution of 1848, at which period he retired altogether from public life, in consequence of his political opinions, until Feb., 1871, when he was elected Deputy for the department of the Eure, and nominated by M. Thiers's government French Ambassador in London. While holding this appointment he made frequent journeys to Paris, and took an active part in the debates in the National Assembly. In March, 1872, he was instructed to communicate to the English government the denunciation of the Treaty of Commerce. At this period the Duke, who, it may be remarked, entertains enlightened views on commercial questions, was accused by the Republican party in the Chamber with not having shown sufficient respect for the form of government which he had undertaken to represent at a foreign court. Accordingly the Duke, who had accepted a diplomatic appointment with reluctance, asked to be recalled from the Court of St. James's, and his request was acceded to. As the acknowledged leader of the Conservative party in the National Assembly, he moved the order of the day which led to the resignation of M. Thiers and the acceptance by Marshal MacMahon of the Presidency of the Republic, April 24, 1873. The Duc de Broglie now became Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Council; and for more than a year he directed the policy of the new government, but having undertaken a project of a new Constitution, including the establishment of a Grand Council or Second Chamber, which was to be invested with the power of dissolving the Assembly, he was defeated on a question of procedure, and resigned with his ministry, May 16, 1874. At the elections of Jan. 30, 1876, M. de Broglie was elected a Senator by the department of the Eure; his term of office expires in 1885. On May 17, 1877, he succeeded M. Jules Simon as President of the Council of Ministers, Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice, which posts he resigned in December of the same year after the elections had given a large majority to the Republican party. As a writer, the Duc de Broglie is well known by a translation of Leibnitz's "Religious System," 1846; his "Études Morales et Littéraires," 1853; "L'Église et l'Empire Romain au Quatrième Siècle," 6 vols., 1856, a work which passed through five editions; "Une Reforme Administrative en Algérie," 1860; "Questions de Religion et d'Histoire," 1860; "La Souveraineté Pontificale et la Liberté," 1861; "La Liberté Divine et la Liberté Humaine," 1865; "Le Secret du Roi: Correspondance Secrète de Louis XV. avec ses Agents Diplomatiques," 2 vols., 1878; and "Fréderic II. et Marie Thérèse," 1882. He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1862, on a vacancy being occasioned by the decease of Father Lacordaire. The Sultan conferred upon the Duc de Broglie the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Osmanië in Oct., 1873.