He helped to repel the English invasion of the islands of South Beveland and Walcheren (August 1809), and afterwards directed the defence works of Antwerp, but resigned this post (March 1813) in consequence of the complaints of the inhabitants and the exacting demands of the Emperor.

Not re-elected in 1824 on account of his liberal ideas, he returned to the chamber under the Martignac Ministry (1828), and resolutely persisted in his championship of the liberty of the press and of public worship.

He became the mouthpiece of the advanced ideas; subsidized the opposition newspapers, especially Le National; received into his house Philippe Buonarroti, who in 1796 had been implicated in the conspiracy of "Gracchus" (François Noel Babeuf); and became a member of the committee of the Society of the Rights of Man.

He was even sued in the courts for a pamphlet called Boutade d’un homme riche à sentiments populaires, and delivered a speech to the jury in which he displayed very daring social theories.

But he gradually grew discouraged and retired from public affairs, refusing even municipal office, and living in seclusion at La Grange in the forest of Guerche [fr], where he devoted his inventive faculty to devising agricultural improvements.