Louis Marie de la Haye, Vicomte de Cormenin

In 1822 appeared his Questions de droit administratif, in which he for the first time brought together and gave scientific shape to the scattered elements of administrative law.

As he was not gifted with the qualifications of the orator, he seldom appeared at the tribune; but in the various committees he defended all forms of popular liberties, and at the same time delivered, in a series of powerful pamphlets, under the pseudonym of Timon, the most formidable blows against tyranny and all political and administrative abuses.

After the revolution of July 1830, Cormenin was one of the 221 who signed the protest against the elevation of the Orléans dynasty to the throne; and he resigned both his office in the council of state and his seat in the chamber.

The discussions on the budget in 1831 gave rise to the publication of his famous series of Lettres sur la liste civile, which in ten years ran through twenty-five editions.

After the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, Cormenin, who had undertaken the defence of Prince Louis Napoleon after his attempt at Strasbourg, accepted a place in the new council of state of the empire.

One of the most characteristic works of Cormenin is the Livre des orateurs, a series of brilliant studies of the principal parliamentary orators of the restoration and the monarchy of July, the first edition of which appeared in 1838, and the eighteenth in 1860.