Pierre Magne (politician)

Pierre Magne

Pierre Magne (born December 3, 1806 in Périgueux , † February 17, 1879 in Montaigne Castle , Dordogne ) was a French statesman. He served as finance minister four times.

Life

Pierre Magne, who came from a modest background, was the son of the dyer Louis Magne (* 1765; † 1836) and Jeanne Buis (* 1780; † 1854). After attending high school in Périgueux, he worked as a clerk in the prefecture of his hometown , supported by General Bugeaud , and saved the funds to study law in Toulouse . From 1830 he worked for a short time as a lawyer in Périgueux. His marriage to Célestine Maigne in 1833 resulted in three children, Alfred (* 1834; † 1878), Émile (* 1836; † 1867) and Marie (* 1851; † 1916). In 1835, at the instigation of the Prefect of the Dordogne, Auguste Romieu , he became a councilor of the local prefecture. On August 19, 1843 he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies in Périgueux and belonged to the conservative majority here. In his reports on extraordinary loans for Algeria , he was very loyal to his patron, Marshal Bugeaud, who served as Algeria's governor-general from 1840 to 1847. He then became rapporteur for the revenue budget. In negotiating financial matters he showed an outstanding talent, achieved his re-election as deputy on August 1, 1846 and received the post of director of the Committee for Disputes in the Ministry of Finance. In November 1847 he was appointed Undersecretary of State in the War Ministry led by General Trézel and therefore had to face another election, which was successful for him on December 18, 1847, but he lost his post due to the February Revolution in 1848 .

Subsequently, Magne joined the Prince-President Ludwig Napoleon , became Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Finance in November 1849 and Minister of Public Works on January 9, 1851. He toured Germany, the Austrian states and Italy on behalf of the government and was elected on July 6, 1851 as representative of the Dordogne department. When the cabinet was installed on October 26, 1851, he gave his ministerial portfolio to Lacrosse , received it again on December 3, 1851, the day after the coup d'état of Napoleon III, but placed it on January 22, 1852 as a result of the confiscation of the goods of the house of Orléans . But soon afterwards he was promoted to President of the Department of Public Works, Agriculture and Commerce in the State Council and on December 31, 1852, Senator of the Second Empire . On July 28, 1852, he had been reappointed Minister of Public Buildings, and on June 23, 1853, he was also given responsibility for the agendas of agriculture and trade. On February 3, 1855, he exchanged these three branches of administration for the Ministry of Finance. In August 1855 he received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor . On November 26, 1860, he abdicated as finance minister, whereupon Adolphe de Forcade Laroquette succeeded him. From then until March 30, 1863, Magne was a minister with no portfolio defending the policies of Napoleon III. Commissioned in the chambers, then gave up this post due to differences with Achille Fould and was appointed by the Emperor on April 1, 1863 as a member of the Privy Council.

When the imperial government needed a new loan, Magne, who had as much financial skill as he had confidence in the stock market, was reappointed finance minister on November 13, 1867. He had the triumph that this 700 million franc bond was subscribed 34 times. Not averse to a more liberal turn in policy, he remained in office during the restructuring of the ministry on July 12, 1869. However, on December 27, 1869, he and his colleagues were dismissed because, although a friend of the liberal empire, he was too unpopular and too compromised as an assistant to absolutism to be a member of Émile Ollivier's cabinet . He rejoined the Palikao cabinet on August 10, 1870, as Minister of Finance, countersigned a law regulating the legal course of banknotes, and directed the subscription of a bond worth 750 million francs. On September 4, 1870, however, he disappeared with the fall of Napoleon III. from the political arena.

In the Third French Republic , Magne was elected to the National Assembly on July 2, 1871 as a candidate for the Dordogne department , where he belonged to the right-wing center. He voted with the conservative monarchists, especially on May 24, 1873, for the overthrow of Thiers , was a member of several finance committees and was Minister of Finance for the fourth time in the cabinet of Albert de Broglie on May 25, 1873, which he also retained as Ernest Courtot de Cissey took office on May 22, 1874. He had to pay the last billion of the war burdens, tried to reduce the obligation of the state debt and advocated, among other things, the collection of the salt tax and the increase of various indirect taxes. Since the National Assembly did not approve his budget estimate for 1875, he resigned his ministerial post on July 15, 1874.

Magne voted for the amendment by Henri-Alexandre Wallon , which was adopted on January 30, 1875, to elect the state president and, in the course of the same year, also for the three constitutional laws that firmly established the Third Republic. On January 30, 1876, he was elected to the Senate of the Dordogne, was part of the Bonapartist parliamentary group Appel au peuple and, in particular, voted for the new reactionary cabinet set up on May 16, 1877, led by Albert de Broglie, and in June 1877 for dissolution the Chamber of Deputies. However, due to illness, he had to stay away from the Senate meetings more and more often and died on February 17, 1879 at the age of 72 in his Montaigne Castle, where he had retired.

literature

• Pierre Magne (politician) . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 75.