Henri-Alexandre Wallon

Although remaining a republican, he exhibited decided clerical leanings in his Jeanne d'Arc (2 vols., 1860; 2nd ed., 1875); La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus (1865) – a reply to the Vie de Jésus of E. Renan; and Saint Louis et son temps (1871; 4th ed., 1892), which still ranks among hagiographical works.

[1] Returning to politics after the Franco-Prussian War, Wallon was re-elected by the department of the Nord in 1871, took an active part in the proceedings of the Assembly, and finally immortalized himself by carrying his proposition for the establishment of the Republic with a president elected for seven years, and then eligible for re-election, which, after violent debates, was adopted by the Assembly on 30 January 1875.

Upon the definitive establishment of the Republic, Wallon became Minister of Public Instruction, and effected many useful reforms, but his views were too conservative for the majority of the Assembly, and he retired in May 1876.

[1] Returning to his historical studies, Wallon produced four works of great importance, though less from his part in them as author than from the documents which accompanied them: Besides these he published a number of articles in the Journal des savants; for many years he wrote the history of the Académie des Inscriptions in the collection of Memoirs of this academy, and he composed obituary notices of his colleagues, which were inserted in the Bulletin.

[3] On his death on 13 November 1904, Henri Wallon was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.