Bastide studied law for a time, and was afterward engaged in business as a timber merchant. In 1821, he became a member of the French "la Charbonnerie", modelled on that of the Italian Carbonari, and took a prominent part in the Revolution of 1830. After the July Days uprising, he received an artillery command in the National Guard. For his part in the riots in Paris (5 June 1832) on the occasion of the funeral of General Maximilien Lamarque, Bastide was sentenced to death, but he escaped to London.