The coup d'état of that year aroused the strenuous opposition of Floquet, who had, while yet a student, given proof of his republican sympathies by taking part in the fighting of 1848.

He delivered a scathing indictment of the Empire at the trial of Pierre Bonaparte for killing Victor Noir in 1870, and took a part in the revolution of 4 September as well as in the subsequent defence of Paris.

[1] There is controversy regarding an episode that took place at the Palais de Justice in June 1867 when Russian Emperor Alexander II had visited the institution in Paris.

", and when the Tzar turned his head, Maurice Joly, a fellow lawyer of the Paris Bar, had said: "Oui, Vive la Pologne, monsieur!

Having approached the Russian ambassador in such a way as to remove the prejudice existing against him in Russia since the incident of 1867, he rendered himself eligible for office; and on the fall of the Tirard cabinet in 1888 he became president of the council and minister of the interior in a radical ministry, which pledged itself to the revision of the constitution, but was forced to combat the proposals of General Boulanger.