The amnesty of 1859 enabled him to return to France, but a projected course of lectures on history and art was immediately suppressed.

On the fall of the Second French Empire in September 1870 the government of national defence appointed him prefect of the Rhône département, in which capacity he had to suppress the Communist rising at Lyon.

He resigned in 1882, and in February 1883 became minister of foreign affairs in the Jules Ferry cabinet, but retired in November of the same year.

In 1890 he was elected vice-president of the Senate, and in 1893 succeeded Jules Ferry as its president, a position he held from 27 March 1893 to 16 January 1896.

He distinguished himself by the vigour with which he upheld the Senate against the encroachments of the chamber, but in 1896 failing health forced him to resign, and he died in Paris.