In the new Freycinet cabinet formed in January 1886 he held the portfolio of commerce and industry, which he retained in the Goblet ministry of 1886–1887. In 1885 he had been returned at the head of the poll for Paris, and his inclusion in the Freycinet ministry was taken to indicate a prospect of reconciliation between Parisian Radicalism and official Republicanism. During his tenure of the portfolio of commerce and industry he made the preliminary arrangements for the Exposition of 1889, and in a witty letter he defended the erection of the Eiffel Tower against artistic Paris.