Charles de Freycinet Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet ( ; 14 November 1828 – 14 May 1923 ) was a French statesman and Prime Minister during the Third Republic ; he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction . He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences , and in 1890 , the fourteenth member to occupy a seat in the Académie française . Biography . Early years . Freycinet was born at Foix ( Ariège ) of a Protestant family and was the nephew of Louis de Freycinet , a French navigator . Charles Freycinet was educated at the " École Polytechnique " . He entered the government service as a mining engineer ( see X - Mines ) . In 1858 he was appointed traffic manager to the " Compagnie de chemins de fer du Midi " , a post in which he showed a remarkable talent for organization , and in 1862 returned to the engineering service , attaining in 1886 the rank of inspector - general . He was sent on several special scientific missions , including one to the UK , on which he wrote a notable " Mémoire sur le travail des femmes et des enfants dans les manufactures de l ' Angleterre " ( 1867 ) . Government service . On the establishment of the Third Republic in September 1870 , he offered his services to Léon Gambetta , was appointed prefect of the department of Tarn - et - Garonne , and in October became chief of the military cabinet . It was mainly his powers of organization that enabled Gambetta to raise army after army to oppose the invading Germans . He showed himself a strategist of no mean order ; but the policy of dictating operations to the generals in the field was not attended with happy results . The friction between him and General d ' Aurelle de Paladines resulted in the loss of the advantage temporarily gained at Orleans , and he was responsible for the campaign in the east , which ended in the destruction of the army of Charles Denis Bourbaki . In 1871 he published a defence of his administration under the title of " La Guerre en province pendant le siège de Paris " . He entered the Senate in 1876 as a follower of Gambetta , and in December 1877 became minister of public works in the cabinet of Jules Armand Stanislaus Dufaure . He carried a great scheme for the gradual acquisition of the railways by the state and the construction of new lines at a cost of three milliards , and for the development of the canal system at a further cost of one milliard . He retained his post in the ministry of William Henry Waddington , whom he succeeded in December 1879 as prime minister and minister for foreign affairs . He passed an amnesty for the Communards , but in attempting to steer a middle course ( between the Catholics and the anti - clericalists ) on the question of the religious associations , he lost Gambetta ' s support , and resigned in September 1880 . In January 1882 he again became prime minister and foreign minister . His refusal to join England in the bombardment of Alexandria was the death - knell of French influence in Egypt . He attempted to compromise by occupying the Isthmus of Suez , but the vote of credit was rejected in the Chamber by 417 votes to 75 , and the ministry resigned . He returned to office in April 1885 as foreign minister in Henri Brisson ' s cabinet , and retained that post when , in January 1886 , he succeeded to the premiership . He came to power with an ambitious programme of internal reform ; but apart from settling the question of the exiled pretenders , his successes were chiefly in the sphere of colonial extension . In spite of his unrivalled skill as a parliamentary tactician , he failed to keep his party together , and was defeated on 3 December 1886 . In the following year , after two unsuccessful attempts to construct new ministries , he stood for the presidency of the republic ; but the radicals , to whom his opportunism was distasteful , turned the scale against him by transferring the votes to Marie François Sadi Carnot . Minister of War . In April 1888 he became minister of war in Charles Floquet ' s cabinet — the first civilian since 1848 to hold that office . His services to France in this capacity were the crowning achievement of his life , and he enjoyed the conspicuous honour of holding his office without a break for five years through as many successive administrations — those of Floquet and Pierre Tirard , his own fourth ministry ( March 1890 – February 1892 ) , and the Émile Loubet and Alexandre Ribot ministries . To him were due the introduction of the three - years ' service and the establishment of a general staff , a supreme council of war , and the army commands . His premiership was marked by heated debates on the clerical question , and it was a hostile vote on his Bill against the religious associations that caused the fall of his cabinet . He failed to clear himself entirely of complicity in the Panama scandals , and in January 1893 resigned the ministry of war . In November 1898 he once more became minister of war in the Charles Dupuy cabinet , but resigned office on 6 May 1899 .