He sat in the Left Centre, and steadily supported republican principles. He entered the Senate in 1876, and was minister of agriculture in the Dufaure-Ricard cabinet of that year, retaining his portfolio in the Jules Simon ministry which fell on 16 May 1877. In 1878, when he joined the new Dufaure cabinet, he opened the Paris exhibition of agriculture and manufactures, the original suggestion of which had been made by him during his 1876 ministry. In 1879 he was sent as ambassador to Vienna, whence he was next year recalled on the score of health. Two years later he re-entered the Senate, where he did good service to the cause of "Republican Defence" during the Boulangist agitation.