Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (19 August 1805 – 24 November 1895) was a Frenchphilosopher, journalist, statesman, and possible illegitimate son ofNapoleon I of France.
Jules was born in Paris.Marie Belloc Lowndes, in the second volume of her autobiographyWhere Love and Friendship Dwelt (1943), made claims regarding his paternity. He was reportedly ashamed of and did not talk about it. Lowndes did not say who his mother was.
In his early years he worked for the Ministry of Finance (1825–1828), and was an active journalist. From 1826 to 1830 he opposed the policies ofCharles X of France inLe Globe. At therevolution of 1830 he signed the protestation of the journalists on 28 July 1830.[1]
After 1830, he contributed to different newspapers,Le Constitutionnel,Le National andLe Courrier français until 1833, when he gave up politics in order to devote himself to the history of ancient philosophy, undertaking a translation ofAristotle, which occupied him the greater part of his life. The reputation he gained from this work won him the chair of ancient philosophy at theCollège de France (1838) and a seat at theAcademy of Moral and Political Science (1839).[1]
After therevolution of 1848 he was elected as a republicandeputy from thedépartement ofSeine-et-Oise. He was named by the Minister of Public Instruction,Carnot, head of the commission preparing the draft for the education reforms. However, after Carnot's resignation and replacement byAlfred de Falloux, the commission was dissolved. Nevertheless, Barthélémy-Saint-Hilaire deposed to the National Assembly the report and the propositions written by the commission, which were ignored. After theMay 1849 legislative election, won by the conservativeParti de l'Ordre, he was however re-elected and named again as a member of the parliamentary commission on education. During three years, he thus played an important role during the debates leading to the adoption of theFalloux Laws in 1850–1851, which greatly increased the clergy's influence on education, to the dismay of Republicans such as Saint-Hilaire.
He was obliged to withdraw after theDecember 1851coup d'état ofLouis Napoleon. In 1855 he went as member of the international commission toEgypt to report on the possibility of the proposedSuez Canal, and by the articles which he wrote he contributed largely to making the project popular in France.[1]
Elected deputy again in 1869, he joined the opposition to theSecond Empire, and in 1871, as a member of theCentre gauche parliamentary group, bent all his efforts to the election ofThiers asPresident of the Republic, acting afterwards as his secretary. Appointedsenator for life in 1875, he took his place among the moderate republicans (akaOpportunist Republicans), and from 23 September 1880 to 14 November 1881 wasminister of foreign affairs in the cabinet ofJules Ferry. The most important event of his administration was the annexation ofTunis under the form of a Frenchprotectorate, which he actively promoted.[1]
In 1882 the village ofSt. Hilaire, Minnesota, in the United States, was named in his honor.[2]
He died in Paris in 1895. His principal works, besides the translation of Aristotle and a number of studies connected with the same subject, areDes Védas (1854),Du Bouddhisme (1856) andMahomet et le Coran (1865).[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Jules".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 449.| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1880–1881 | Succeeded by |
