Arthur de Cumont

Arthur Thimotée Antoine Victor de Cumont (different spelling of the name: Decumont ; born April 19, 1818 in Angers , Maine-et-Loire department ; † February 10, 1902 in Saint-Georges-sur-Loire , Maine-et-Loire department) was a French politician who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1871 to 1876 and Minister of Public Education from 1874 to 1875 .

Life

De Cumont, who was originally called Decumont, was raised to the nobility as Viscount and, with the support of Alfred Frédéric, Comte de Falloux, founded the conservative and Catholic - liberal newspaper Union de l'Ouest , of which he became editor-in-chief. The newspaper had lively discussions with the newspaper L'Univers, founded by Jacques Paul Migne in 1833, and was banned by Prime Minister Louis Jules Trochu in 1870 for its attacks on Léon Gambetta , Minister of the Interior in the Government of National Defense (Gouvernement de la Défense nationale) .

In the elections of February 8, 1871, De Cumont ran in the Maine-et-Loire department for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. With 96,495 list votes out of 120,174 votes cast out of 151,688 eligible voters, he was elected as the eleventh and last candidate for this department as a member of parliament. In the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly became one of the influential representatives of the moderate right, the Réunion Colbert .

On May 22, 1874, de Cumont was appointed by Prime Minister Ernest Courtot de Cissey as Minister of Public Education, Religion and Fine Arts (Ministre de l'Instruction publique, des Cultes et des Beaux-arts) in his cabinet. His opponents repeatedly criticized him for not having a university degree. In addition, the so-called Chauffard incident (L'Incident Chauffard) occurred during his tenure after he had appointed the staunch Catholic Chauffard as inspector for medical training and proposed his son, who had been his cabinet chief for just four months , for the Legion of Honor . This sparked fierce criticism, so that Chauffard stepped down as head of cabinet and became a member of the Conseil d'État , which is both an administrative court and an advisory body to the government of France. In addition, after the suicide of the former interior minister and MP Charles Beulé, he advocated that Charles Bruas should be his successor in the next election to the Chamber of Deputies. He held the office of Minister of Education until the end of de Cissey's tenure on March 10, 1875.

After leaving the government de Cumont remained until the end of the first legislative period of the Third Republic on March 7, 1876 member of the Chamber of Deputies, in which he represented the political right (Center Droit) .

After the end of this legislative period, he was editor of the Union de l'Ouest newspaper , but did not run for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the National Assembly
• French Ministeries (rulers.org)