Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Buffet, Louis Joseph
BUFFET, Louis Joseph, a French politician, born at Mirecourt (Vosges), Oct. 26, 1818, practised as an advocate before the revolution of 1848, when, being returned as a representative of the people by the department of the Vosges, he voted as a rule with the old dynastic Left, which became the Right of the Constituent Assembly, and distinguished himself by his zealous opposition to socialism. He accepted the republican constitution, and declared that General Cavaignac had deserved well of his country. After the election of Dec. 10, he gave in his adhesion to the Government of Louis Napoleon, who entrusted him with the portfolio of commerce and agriculture after the dismissal of M. Bixio. Both as minister and as representative he supported the party of order, but he refused to follow completely the policy of the Élysée, and accordingly he quitted the Ministry with the late M. Odilon Barrot, Dec. 31, 1849. Re-elected by his department, at the head of the poll, he exercised a great influence in the Legislative Assembly. After the crisis which followed the dismissal of General Changarnier, he returned to office with M. Léon Foucher, April 10, 1851, and in that parliamentary cabinet he represented the ideas of the majority. He resigned with his colleagues (Oct. 14, 1851), when the President declared in favour of the withdrawal of the law of May 31. A few days later he was nominated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. After the coup d'état of Dec. 2, 1851, M. Buffet declined to accept any public appointment for several years, except that of member of the Conseil-Genéral for the canton of Thillot. In 1863, however, he came forward as an opposition candidate in the first circonscription of the Vosges, and was elected. M. Buffet quickly became one of the most prominent members of the Corps Législatif, where he was one of the leaders of a "Tiers Parti," which endeavoured to reconcile Liberal reforms with loyalty to the dynasty. He was re-elected for his department in May, 1869, and in the short session which commenced in the following month, he greatly contributed to the victory of the Liberal centre, and was one of the promoters of the famous demand of interpellation, signed by 116 deputies, which elicited the message and the project of the senatus consulte, containing the promise of a return to parliamentary government. After the prolonged negotiations in connection with which his name was so constantly mentioned, respecting the formation of the first parliamentary ministry, M. Buffet became a member, as Finance Minister, of the cabinet formed by M. Emile Ollivier, on Jan. 2, 1870. His financial policy gave general satisfaction; but when M. Ollivier consented to the plébiscite, M. Buffet deemed it his duty to resign at the same time as his colleague, M. Durer (April 10). After the disaster of Sédan, and the revolution of Sept. 4, he retired for a short time into private life. However, at the elections of Feb. 8, 1871, he was returned by his department—again at the head of the poll—to the National Assembly. M. Thiers offered him the portfolio of Finance, but he declined it, for fear of the susceptibilities which might be wounded on account of his having held office under the Empire. M. Buffet took his seat in the Right Centre, and soon assumed an attitude of marked hostility towards M. Thiers. On April 4, 1873, he was elected President of the National Assembly in the place of M. Grévy, resigned; and he was re-elected to that office May 13, 1874. He was again elected, and for the last time, to the same office, March 1, 1875, although at that date he was officially engaged in the formation of a new cabinet to replace the Chabaud-Latour Ministry. On March 10, 1875, M. Buffet was appointed Vice-President of the Council, and Minister of the Interior. While holding this office he made himself extremely obnoxious to the Bepublican party. At the elections of Jan., 1876, he did not succeed in obtaining a seat in the Assembly, his candidature failing at Mirecourt, Bourges, Castelsarrasin, and Commercy. He therefore resigned the Vice-Presidency of the Council of Ministers. On June 16, 1876, the Senate elected him a Life Senator by 144 votes against 142.