Jules Favre: political views and activities of the "blue" Republican in France of the XIX century

Ignatchenko Igor' V. ORCID: 0000-0001-5362-3621 PhD in History Assistant Professor, Department of World History, Institute of Social Sciences, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration 119571, Russia, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo str., 82, of. p.1 ignatchenko_igor@mail.ru

Gabriel Claude Jules Favre (1809-1880) can rightly be called one of the founding fathers of the Third Republic in France, which laid the solid foundations of the republican tradition in this state. This major Republican politician survived many regimes in France in the XIX century, and was directly related to almost all of them: the Restoration, the July Monarchy, the Second Republic, the Second Empire, and, finally, the Third Republic. A witness of three French revolutions — July 1830, February 1848 and September 1870 — he fought on the barricades against the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte on December 2, 1851 and, on the contrary, reacted favorably to the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871.

In Soviet historiography Zh . Favre was only occasionally mentioned and always with a negative connotation. A. Z. Manfred called him "a bourgeois Republican of the right wing, who even during the revolution of 1848 proved to be an ardent enemy of the working class" ^{[1, p. 400]}. Soviet researcher V. I. Antyukhina-Moskovchenko, relying on the class approach, critically noted that the Government of National Defense, seeking to make peace with Prussia, "defended itself not from Prussian soldiers, but from Parisian workers" ^{[2, p. 39]}. Meanwhile, a full-fledged political portrait of Zh. Favre as a prominent republican figure of France of the XIX century has not yet appeared in our country.

Jules Favre was born on March 21, 1809 in Lyon in the family of a wealthy merchant who was engaged in wholesale draperies. His father Auguste founded a large shopping center in Livorno, and with his help conducted business in the north of the Apennines ^{[3, p. 16-17]}. However, the fall of the empire of Napoleon I ruined the family and undermined the health of his father. Therefore, the mother was engaged in the upbringing of her son. Since childhood, Jules was distinguished by a good memory and diligence, he read a lot and became a brilliant student in the class, knew ancient Greek and Latin ^{[4, p. 7]}. The desire to become a famous lawyer came at the age of twelve ^{[5, p. 40]}. He defended his bachelor's degree in Roman law in Paris on August 7, 1830, almost immediately after the "three glorious days" of the July Revolution ^{[6, p. 77-103]}.

Speaking about the formation of his political views during his student days, the widow of Jules Favre noted in the preface to his parliamentary speeches that at the age of eighteen he was a Republican and hated the dictatorship of the Montagnards: "in the Convention he would have been a Girondist, in the Chamber of Deputies he would have sat next to Manuel (Jacques Manuel was the leader of the opposition group of liberals in the chamber deputies under the Restoration regime in France – note I.I.)" ^{[7, p. VI]}.

The encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron gives a somewhat distorted impression of this politician: "He took an active part in the July Revolution; in an article published on July 29, 1830 in the National, he demanded the destruction of the monarchy and the convocation of the constituent assembly" ^{[8, p. 222]}. In fact, Favre's article was not published in the liberal newspaper Le National on July 29, 1830 — at that time the young student was still unknown to anyone ^{[9, p. 671]}. In fact, Favre wrote a long letter on August 2, but it was not published anywhere: "The revolution that has just taken place belongs entirely to the people: they paid for it with their blood; after their heroic victory, the work of legislators begins. [...]. As things stand, the Chamber of Deputies is the only national authority. [...]. It's time to act, not talk. Action requires, first of all, unity in decisions and discussions. […]. Thus, the Chamber of Peers should be abolished. [...]. The House of Peers is a feudal relic. Its establishment was the result of false theories... and perhaps Bourbon prejudice. She never took root in the country [...] her reign ended with the reign of Charles X" ^{[10, p. 18]}. In his autobiographical essay, Favre recalled at the end of his life that in 1830 he sympathized with the parliamentary opposition ^{[11, p. 87]}. Apparently, Favre, who rejected violence, did not take part in the street battles of the "three glorious days", however, like all the students of that time, warmly welcomed the July Revolution of 1830. We also note that an actual mistake was made on the Internet — allegedly Favre participated in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. (Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Favre, Jules // [Electronic resource]: http://niv.ru/doc/dictionary/brockhaus-efron/articles/212/favr-zhyul.htm (accessed 23.05.2023).  In fact, this is not the case, if only because at that time he was studying at a law school in Paris.

In a letter dated August 6 , 1830 , Favre wrote: "The French people have just covered themselves with glory, defending their rights at the cost of their blood [...]. The fall of the previous government is legitimate [...]. However, the universal interest lies in democracy [...]. We did not disperse the old court so that its prejudices and vices would push our leaders to the same mistakes [...]. The Charter was just a deal. People from all sides demanded that it be changed, and today, when it was violently violated [...]. This is not the role played by the Chamber of Deputies. With constant rapid progress, staying still for one day means becoming a retrograde. [...]. In times of revolution, one cannot remain in power with impunity. Every mistake has terrible consequences and bears the brunt on those who committed it. Therefore, the Chamber must courageously accept all the consequences of the inevitable reform or give way to someone who is more worthy of it: half-measures endanger its existence and ours." The next day, August 7, 1830, Favre wrote in a letter: "The Chamber of Deputies is hesitating when to act. The people who shed their blood for her ... consider themselves betrayed!" ^{[12, p. 22]}. It can be said that in the early 1830s Favre was ideologically close to the left liberals, the so-called movement party led by J. Laffite and O. Barrault, who demanded deepening reforms.

Immediately after completing his studies in Paris, Favre returned to his native Lyon, lived there for several years and took a prominent position in the city bar association. The first serious case did not take long to wait. On March 25, 1833, he defended the famous local newspaper Le Pr?curseur ("Harbinger"), which served as a reliable support for the liberals during the Restoration years, when they were in opposition ^{[13, p. 142]}. The journalists were then accused of "inciting hatred and disrespect for the government" ^{[14, p. 15]}. The newspaper's editorial office, to the surprise of many, was condemned, but Favre was remembered for a vivid defensive speech in which he raised a social issue. In response, Jules published an article critical of the July monarchy and its political institutions, because of which he appeared before the Royal Court of Lyon. He was acquitted, but the bar association decided to suspend him for a month as a warning ^{[15, p. 103-199]}.

The critical attitude towards the policy of the July monarchy intensified as the regime ruled more and more. After the brutal suppression of the Paris Uprising of 1834 and the famous massacre on the Rue Transnonin, Favre expressed indignation in his court speeches. "The government, which always has the sacred words of legality on its lips, brazenly took advantage of this. The daughter of the Constitution, she violated the Constitution. [...]. Thus, the July throne, which was by no means strengthened, was greatly shaken before our eyes... and incurred eternal hatred. We wanted to avoid this fatal outcome at all costs. Today the fact has happened, we have nothing more to return to" ^{[16, p. 31]}.

In the 1830s, his Republican views began to take shape, which he expressed during the trials of 1834. So, on July 22, 1835, Jules Favre, defending his clients, exclaimed: "I am a Republican!" ^{[17, p. 88]}. At a time when the established monarchical system was actively fighting the Republican threat in the 1830s, this was a bold act. Obviously, the hard life of the Lyon workers, which Favre could follow for many years in his hometown, prompted the desire to somehow change their lives for the better. Perhaps this explains the fact that Favre, according to I. Chernov, received a political and social education in the Saint-Simon salons and imbued with the basic ideas of this school, in particular, the idea of a socio-political revolution carried out by the scientific aristocracy ^{[18, p. 279]}.

The real fame came to him in 1835, when he acted as a defender at the famous trial of the Lyon weavers, who were accused of participating in the Lyon uprising in April 1834. The attention of the whole country was focused on this case. "One cannot ascend to the throne with impunity through the smoke of popular triumph [...]. It must be said bluntly that after the July Revolution, the people found themselves at the mercy of two illusions that could damage their peace of mind. At first, he believed that the new government would take care exclusively of his interests. He thought that if he was deceived, he would still have the opportunity to resort to force to regain his illegally violated rights" ^{[19, p. 50]} — with these words Favre appealed to French justice.

After this process, which made him famous, Favre moved to the capital in 1836. There he quickly attracted attention due to his eloquence during the trials. This helped him stand out from other lawyers and make a career first in his profession, and then in politics; especially since the July monarchy (1830-1848) was a unique time when the gift of eloquence often opened the doors to big politics.

After the adoption of the so-called "September laws" of 1835, which restricted the freedom of the press, it became clear that the July monarchy, established under liberal banners, evolved towards a certain reaction. Therefore, a number of lawsuits were initiated against the editorial offices of opposition newspapers that did not agree with the policy of the authorities. At one of these trials Favre defended the editor-in-chief of the Republican provincial newspaper Patriote de Sa?ne—et-Loire Julien Duchene: "such accusations have nothing to do with the eternal ideas of order and justice ..." ^{[20, p. 104]} - he stated.

A few months later, Favre defended the metropolitan newspaper National, whose editor-in-chief and co-founder Armand Carrel had died in a duel the day before at the hands of the founder of the newspaper La Presse, E. de Girardin. In his speech, Jules Favre showed how the government can, at its discretion, qualify newspaper articles unpleasant to it as an "encroachment on morality", since "the morality of a monarchical government is not to fight it. It is necessary to scare away those who hold views that contradict the authorities, and who will be tempted to express them too loudly" ^{[21, p. 117]} — Favre said during the court session.

Jules Favre warmly welcomed the February Revolution of 1848 ^{[22, p. VII]}. Favre's biographer E. Benoit-Levy even believed that Favre was one of those people who prepared society for this revolution with his speeches ^{[23, p. 29]}. Immediately after the establishment of the Second Republic in France, Favre became the Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, he was called to this position by the head of this ministry, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, with whom they probably already knew since the trial of the April 1834 defendants ^{[24, p. 486]}.

Immediately after the revolution in Paris, it was necessary to accelerate the establishment of the Republic in the rest of the French provinces. Therefore, the elections to the Constituent Assembly were scheduled for April 23. Since one of the first and main achievements of this revolution was universal suffrage for men, in just a few weeks it was necessary to convince all Frenchmen to follow the example of Paris. To do this, it was necessary to involve active government propaganda, because there was no time left for political education of fellow citizens.

To this end, groups of responsible persons were created in the departments from ideological Republicans who had exclusive powers and were ready to defend the advantages of the republican system ^{[25, p. 134]}. These commissioners had to simultaneously distribute the manifestos published locally every two days. In total, in fact, three such proclamations appeared, they were called Bulletins de la R?publique (Bulletins of the Republic). Communication between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the commissars of the Republic was carried out through circulars containing instructions and principles on which they had to build communications with local residents. It was Favre who compiled the manifestos and circulars. At first, it was supposed to maintain confidential relations with their agents in the departments. However, this idea was quickly abandoned; apparently, the principle of transparency won. As a result, three manifestos were published in the official Moniteur edition on March 8 and 12, as well as on April 19 ^{[26, p. 280]}.

However, Jules Favre was more interested in something else — he wanted to be elected a deputy to the Constituent Assembly and speak there on behalf of moderate, "blue" Republicans. He was elected there from the Loire department and therefore left his former position quite quickly in order to actively participate in parliamentary debates.

The British ambassador to France, Lord Normanby, wrote in his diary that Favre could then have been appointed to the post of Minister of the Interior instead of his departed patron Ledru-Rollin, but intrigues prevented. He noted that "Jules Favre is a man of great ambition and great talent [...] is a close friend of Ledru-Rollin, shares his views and has much more skill in applying them in practice." Ledru-Rollin and Alphonse de Lamartine, who headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government, supported Favre's candidacy, but F. Arago, L.-A. Garnier-Pages and Pierre Marie de Saint-Georges were against it, so the plan failed ^{[27, p. 379-381]}. This testimony of an outsider shows what a big role Favre played in the Republican movement already during the Second Republic, his services to the cause of the Republic were recognized by almost all the leaders of this movement.

Later J. Favre was re-elected to the Legislative Assembly from the Rhone department in 1849 and proved himself there as an ardent opponent of the socialists and the "red" republic, as well as an ideological man of order ^{[28, p. 54]}. Therefore, it is not surprising that after the demonstration of the Socialists on May 15, 1848, Favre voted for the prosecution of the Socialist deputy Louis Blanc and supported General Eugene Cavaignac in suppressing the June workers' uprising of 1848 ^{[29, p. 53, 122; 30, p. 618]}.

On the other hand, during the brief period of the Second Republic, Favre's political discourse also had left-wing notes: he supported the right of the people to association, as well as freedom of the press, freedom of elections and reform of higher education ^{[31, p. VII]}.

MP Favre categorically opposed the coup d'etat on December 2, 1851. Together with Victor Hugo, he even tried to organize armed resistance on the streets of Paris, but without success ^{[32, pp. 340-342]}. However, unlike V. Hugo, who went into forced emigration and from there attacked Napoleon III in his brilliant works, Favre remained in France. Saying goodbye to friends who decided to leave France and return only after the regime change, J. Favre told them: "I admire you, but I cannot imitate you. I will never leave my country and will remain in it to devote all my strength to the fight against the disgusting despotism that is triumphant today" ^{[33, p. VIII]}.

However, Favre had to leave politics indefinitely. At the same time, Jules did not have a personal dislike for the emperor of the French. When the famous positivist Hippolyte-Philemon Deroisan asked him, who became a deputy of the Legislative Corps in 1858, about his intentions regarding the oath to the emperor that had to be taken, Jules easily answered him: "the emperor committed disgusting acts, but I personally feel sympathy for him and nothing else" ^{[34, p. 280]}.

Unable to engage in politics, Favre returned to the bar. Being one of the recognized leaders of the Republican opposition, J. Favre participated in high-profile political trials as a lawyer. Thus, during the Second Empire, he supported the opponents of the regime of Napoleon III and his policies.

A high-profile case was the trial of Captain Doisneau in August 1857. Several travelers who were traveling from the Algerian town of Tlemcena to Oran were killed, among them was agha Si-Mohammed bin Abdullah, a high-ranking subject of the Ottoman Empire. The investigation led to Captain Doisneau. This French officer was the sovereign ruler of Tlemcen, a city located in the north—west of Algeria. Favre defended the defendants in this case, which had a great resonance in French society, in the Oran jury trial. The name of Favre's lawyer immediately became popular in Algeria upon completion of the case.

The French military leaders were ready to treat the territory of Algeria as a conquered country, which was due to them by right of the winner. They wanted to be full masters there and demanded unquestioning obedience from the locals. Favre, on the contrary, did not recognize the military administration. According to the Paris lawyer, the army should not have gone beyond its role as defender of the Fatherland and the law in Algeria. "The time has come for France to show itself in Algeria differently than with fire and iron. The aga's blood will not be spilled in vain. The dawn of a new day is dawning and in this shining dawn I see the image of the law blossoming, which replaces arbitrariness. Force will be replaced by the rule of written rules and law" ^{[35, p. 522]}.

As noted by Zh . Dagilon-Pujol, in his praise of Jules Favre, which he delivered in 1882 at a conference of lawyers, the Doisneau trial influenced the further reform of the management system in Algeria ^{[36, p. 26-27]}. It was Jules Favre who, with his speeches and the gift of persuasion, made a great contribution to the future reorganization of Algeria.

However, the greatest success came in 1858. Then Jules defended in court the carbonari and the revolutionary Felice Orsini, who attempted to kill the emperor Napoleon III. Favre made a famous speech: "I am one of those who hates violence, who condemns force whenever it does not serve the law. I believe that the nation is reborn by morals, not by blood" ^{[37, p. 153]}. Initially realizing the futility of the defense and the impossibility of an acquittal, Favre used the trial as a public platform to promote his political ideas. The accused was expected to be sentenced to death and guillotined. According to Pierre Dagilon-Pujol, Favre did not so much fight for Orsini's life in court, as he defended his memory before his descendants ^[38]. Thanks to his eloquence, Favre managed to turn the executioner Orsini into a victim of political circumstances.

However, something else was more important: with the help of this process, Favre persuaded Napoleon III to support the Italian revolutionary movement against the Austrian Empire. So, it was Favre who advised Orsini to write a famous letter to the emperor, in which it was about the need to unite Italy, and then, with the permission of the French authorities, read it out in the courtroom.

In 1860, Favre was elected batonnier, i.e. head of the college of Parisian lawyers, and this saved him several times from repression by the authorities. On December 3, 1860, he opened with a solemn speech the conference of lawyers — a meeting of young trainee lawyers who, under the chairmanship of Batonier, practiced oratory and competed for honorary awards. At the same time, he first met the aspiring lawyer Leon Gambetta; later, on June 8, 1861, it was Favre who introduced Leon Gambetta to the bar association and, in fact, opened the world to the future famous Republican politician Leon Gambetta. Throughout the 1860s, he supported the latter ^{[39, p. 413-423]}.

Zh. Favre also acted as a lawyer at the famous "trial of the thirteen" in August 1864, defending the distinguished Republican Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages. The fact is that the police dispersed a private meeting and conducted searches in the homes of a number of oppositionists, as a result of which a case was launched with the aim of intimidating the political opposition ^{[40, p. 342]}. After the acquittal of Garnier-Pages, this "trial of the thirteen" brought Favre considerable popularity in opposition circles and became one of the most memorable and successful cases in the law practice of J. Favre.

Jules Favre returned to big politics when the gradual liberalization of the political regime began. He was elected deputy of the Legislative Corps from Paris in a by - election in April 1858 . This is how the famous liberal "Five" arose, where, in addition to Zh. Favre included deputies Emile Olivier, Alfred Darimon and Ernest Picard elected from Paris, as well as Jacques-Louis Hainon elected from Lyon. According to the general opinion of contemporaries and researchers concerned with the life and work of Favre, it was the latter who secretly led this republican grouping in parliament ^{[41, p. 51; 42, p. VIII; 43, p. 278-279]}. This circumstance goes against the established point of view in Russian historiography that it was Emile Olivier who headed the "group of five" from the very beginning ^{[44, p. 22]}. If we compare these two leaders, we can say that the younger and more energetic Olivier proved himself to be an able speaker, but the more experienced and well-deserved Favre in the late 1850s was at the peak of his popularity after the high-profile Orsini case. Emile was known in Republican circles rather as the son of his father, Demosthenes Olivier, a more radical Republican than himself. In addition, Emile, unlike Favre, was ready from time to time, including for career reasons, to reconcile with political opponents, in particular, with the Bonapartists and the Caesarist regime of Napoleon III - the reason why many of his former Republican colleagues turned away from Olivier in the 1860s. especially when he headed the government of the Emperor of the French in 1870 ^{[45, p. 237-264]}.     

In the 1860s Favre played an active role in the public life of the Second Empire. He co-founded first the newspaper L'?lecteur ("Voter"), and then L'?lecteur libre ("Free Voter") ^{[46, p. 166]}, and on April 23, 1867, he was elected to the French Academy to replace the deceased philosopher Victor Cousin, whose pupil he was back in the 1820s in the famous Sorbonne ^{[47, p. 261]}. Along with him, another well-known lawyer of his time, the legitimist Pierre Antoine Berrier, was already at the Academy. As Favre's biographer Benoit-Levy noted, "at this time, Jules Favre is at the peak of fame and popularity; everywhere his name is pronounced only with admiration and respect. He takes the first place in the bar association. In the legislature, he is the leader of the opposition" ^{[48, p. 53-54]}.

As new people who spoke on behalf of the opposition began to be elected to the Legislative Corps, such as the experienced Adolphe Thiers or the younger generation of ambitious speakers like Leon Gambetta and Jules Ferry, Favre's influence gradually weakened. So, in the parliamentary elections of 1869, he had a hard time in the fight against the more radical Republican Henri Rochefort, whom he still managed to beat with difficulty. In the 1860s Favre still professed a very moderate, cautious republicanism, even voting in 1864 against a law initiated by colleague Emile Olivier that decriminalized the right to strike. His asynchrony with the nascent wave of young radical Republicans, whose leader was L. Gambetta, and his unwillingness to accept many of their bold demands made Favre a less popular politician in Republican circles. 

Nevertheless, he actively criticized the foreign policy of the Second Empire, in particular, he spoke out against the Mexican expedition of 1861-1867 ^{[49, p. 167-181]} and the continuation of the occupation of Rome by French troops who had been there since July 1849 ^[50]; along with A. Thier, he opposed the war with Prussia in 1870 ^{[51, p.. 34-45, 170-211]}. Having received the news of the surrender of Napoleon III at Sedan, Favre demanded the deposition of the emperor ^{[52, p. 1-3]}.

In the Government of National Defense, which was spontaneously formed after the September Revolution of 1870, Favre took the responsible position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and was the first deputy chairman of the Government of General Louis Jules Trochu. His main task was to make peace with Prussia on decent terms. However, Favre was not the most talented and skillful diplomat. His famous statement of September 6, 1870 that "not a single inch of our land, not a single stone of our fortresses" would be transferred to Germany ^{[53, p. 385]} was met with a subsequent ultimatum by Bismarck at a meeting in Ferriere. The Prussian Chancellor declared the need for France to cede the whole of Alsace, as well as part of Lorraine, as a necessary condition for peace. On January 28, 1871, Favre signed an armistice on behalf of the French government ^[54], then on February 26, 1871, a preliminary peace with Germany at the Palace of Versailles, and finally, on May 10, 1871, the Frankfurt Peace ^[55]. During the negotiations on the preliminary peace treaty, Favre showed almost no high diplomatic skill, and unconditionally subscribed to all the points that Bismarck insisted on. It was a complete and unconditional surrender. Apparently, Favre did not know the whole military situation and did not consult with the government mission in Bordeaux, which is why later Gambetta, who insisted on further resistance to the Prussians, considered himself betrayed. As a result, the Franco-Prussian War turned into a national catastrophe for France.

During the war, Jules Favre made a number of serious strategic mistakes.  He could either end the war before the Prussian army advanced even further into French territory, or leave Paris with the whole government further to Tours or Bordeaux and from there decide on a guerrilla war, as Gambetta suggested. Neither was done. Moreover, Favre opposed the departure of the government from besieged Paris, which drove himself and his colleagues into a trap. In addition, Favre ignored the message of L. Gambetta that the Eastern Army of eighty thousand people was not included in the armistice, and thus was forced to hide in neutral Switzerland until it was interned. Later, monarchists accused Favre of not signing peace with the Germans back in September 1870 ^{[56, p. 114]}. It can be concluded that Jules Favre did not possess the qualities necessary for a major political figure – the gift of eloquence alone was not enough for complex diplomatic activities.

Among Favre's contemporaries and colleagues, there were many who believed that Jules did everything he could in those critical circumstances. Thus, unlike the radical L. Gambetta, Favre's colleague in the Government of National Defense, the moderate Republican Jules Simon, wrote in his memoirs that "it took less courage to fight for five months than to discuss peace conditions with the enemy when all resources were exhausted. At the beginning of the struggle, he (Favre – note I.I.) wanted what everyone wanted from him in France; during the catastrophe, he did what everyone wanted from him and for which, undoubtedly, very few people would have had the courage" ^[57].

In February 1871, elections to the National Assembly were held and then a new government was formed, which included Favre with the rank of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jules proved himself a resolute opponent of the Paris Commune of 1871, declaring from the rostrum of the Assembly on March 21: "One should not put up with riots. We must suppress them, we must punish Paris!" ^{[58, p. 63-73]}.

Jules Favre resigned from the government in the summer of 1871. One of the probable reasons is due to the fact that the clerical-monarchical National Assembly voted to send a petition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, whom Favre was at that time, in favor of restoring the secular power of the Pope, despite the fact that Favre has always consistently opposed the political influence of the Pope in Italy ^[59]. Another possible reason is a small corruption scandal that Favre got into. As journalists of the left-wing newspaper Le Vengeur ("The Avenger") found out, Jules at one time forged official marriage documents with his cohabitant, from whom they had children together ^[60]. He wanted to hide his adultery, which was considered a shameful thing for the society of that time, and for this he went to forgery, which was soon revealed. Favre's reputation was somewhat damaged, but this did not prevent him from remaining as a deputy from the Rhone department in the National Assembly. Being one of the leaders of moderate Republicans and the Republican Left group, he was elected to the Senate, which arose on the basis of the adopted constitutional acts of 1875, from his native department of the Rhone on January 30, 1876. There he continued to support moderate Republicans in their fight against the monarchists. Among other things, he made a heartfelt speech for the abolition of the death penalty and introduced several bills, including a bill on judicial reform ^{[61, p. 237-250, 277-309]}. However, his public activity gradually faded away, probably due to his advanced age. Favre died in 1880 and was buried at the Notre-Dame Cemetery in Versailles.

In Republican circles, Jules Favre gained a good reputation for his defensive speeches, which traditionally in his case had the character of an open political protest. Even when it was clear that the accused would be unconditionally convicted (as in the case of F. Orsini), Favre always used the courtroom as a political platform in conditions when the political regime did not allow dissent to be expressed in another way, as it was during the Second Empire. 

Jules Favre made a name for himself during the July monarchy as a lawyer who defended the cause of the republic even before it was established in France. Considering, like all Republicans of that time, the Orleanist regime too conservative, during the years of the Second Republic it quickly evolved to the right. Remaining a moderate "blue" Republican, he saw his main task as the need to put a barrier in front of the "red republic" — left radicals, neo-Jacobins and socialists. Hence the bet on the Republican General Cavaignac - this personification of the "blue" Republic and certain flirtations with Louis Napoleon Bonaparte before he committed a coup d'etat. So, in particular, Favre voted for allowing Napoleon I's nephew to be elected a deputy in 1848 ^{[62, p. 72]}. In the so—called liberal period of the Second Empire, Favre appears as a veteran and bonze of the Republican movement, a worthy citizen who became a member of the French Academy of Sciences - an infrequent case for a lawyer. However, the peace talks with Germany, one might say, put an end to Favre's political career. The shameful peace with Germany on humiliating terms remained a stigma, making him a kind of scapegoat in the popular memory of the French. Favre took some intermediate position in the peace negotiations: under the pressure of blind public opinion, he decided to continue the war with Prussia after the collapse of the Empire, although it was possible to blame the previous political regime for unleashing the war and thereby avoid losing even more territories as a result of the victorious Prussian march. On the other hand, Favre, unlike Gambetta, who became a national hero because he demanded the continuation of the war to the "victorious end", when the entire generals had already admitted defeat, stopped halfway. In the end, I lost. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the development of the republican movement in France of the XIX century, J. Favre occupies an important place, and therefore should be inscribed in the republican tradition of the French republic.