Édouard Lockroy

He commanded a battalion during the siege of Paris, and in February 1871 was elected deputy to the National Assembly where he sat on the extreme left and protested against the preliminaries of peace.

For the first ten years of his parliamentary life he voted consistently with the extreme left, but then adopted a more opportunist policy, and gave his unreserved support to the Brisson ministry of 1885.

During his tenure of the portfolio of commerce and industry he made the preliminary arrangements for the Exposition of 1889, and in a witty letter he defended the erection of the Eiffel Tower against artistic Paris.

His drastic measures of reform alarmed moderate politicians, but he had the confidence of the country, and held the same portfolio under Henri Brisson (1898) and Charles Dupuy (1898–1899).

[3] Lockroy gave his support to the Waldeck-Rousseau Administration, but actively criticized the marine policy of Camille Pelletan in the Combes ministry of 1902–1905, during which period he was again vice-president of the Chamber.