Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Batbie, Anselme Polycarpe
BATBIE, Anselme Polycarpe, born at Seissan, in the department of Gers, France, May 31, 1828. He studied classics at Auch and law at Toulouse. At the competition, in 1849, he became Auditor to the Council of State, and was created Doctor of Law by the Faculty of Paris in the following year. When, after the events of Dec. 1851, the Council of State was re-modelled, M. Batbie's services were no longer required as Auditor, and he then applied himself to the teaching of law, in connection with the Faculties of Dijon and Toulouse. In 1853 he was elected a member of the Academy of Legislation in the latter town, and he published in the "Transactions" of this learned body a dissertation on the "Forum Judicum" of the Visigoths. He delivered at Toulouse (1854–56) a series of lectures on public and administrative law compared. In Jan. 1857, he became Assistant-Professor at Paris, where, in 1862, he commenced a course of lectures, which has been continued to the present time, on administrative law, and also another course on political economy. In 1860, at the request of M. Rouland, Minister of Public Instruction, he visited the universities of Belgium, Holland, and Germany, in order to study the methods adopted by them for teaching public and administrative law. In the same year the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences awarded to him the Faucher prize for a dissertation on the life and works of Turgot, published under the title of "Turgot, philosophe, économiste, et administrateur." In 1861 he began the publication of a "Traité théorique et pratique du droit publique et administratif," which was to be completed in six volumes. The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences showed their appreciation of M. Batbie's studies by awarding him, in 1862, the grand Beaujour prize for a treatise on the institutions of popular credit, published under the title of "Le Crédit populaire," and one of the ordinary prizes of the year for a dissertation on "Le Prét à intérêt." At the elections of Feb. 1871, M. Batbie, who until then had scrupulously held aloof from political life, was elected a member of the National Assembly by the department of Gers, receiving 59,860 votes, which placed him at the head of the poll. He took his place among the members of the Right Centre, and his great ability soon caused him to be regarded as one of the leaders of the Monarchical party. He was a member of many important commissions, including the Commission of Fifteen, which was appointed to watch the negotiations for the Treaty of Peace, the Commission of Inquiry into the Organisation of the City of Paris and the Department of the Seine, the Commission of Thirty, the Commission of Pardons, and the Commission for the Reform of Legal Studies. He was also the reporter of the Bill for the reorganisation of the Council of State. M. Batbie was one of the delegates of the Right who, on June 20, 1872, were authorised to present to M. Thiers, President of the Republic, the ultimatum of the majority in the Chamber. He was also the reporter of the Kerdrel Commission, which was charged with the task of replying to the Presidential message of Nov. 13, 1872. In the administration of the Duc de Broglie, M. Batbie was Minister of Public Instruction and Public Worship. He resigned with his colleagues, Nov. 26, 1873. He was next nominated President of the Commission of Thirty, which was engaged in examining the supplementary constitutional laws. In Dec. 1875, he was elected a Senator by the department of Gers; his term of office expired in 1879. In addition to the works already mentioned, M. Batbie is the author of "Doctrine et Jurisprudence en matière d'Appel comme d'abus," 1852; "Précis du cours de droit public et administratif," 1863; "Nouveau cours d'économie politique," 2 vols., 1864–65; and "Mélanges d'économie politique," 1865.