Ledru Rollin

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre Auguste (1807-74), a French politician and revolutionist, was born and educated at Paris, where he was called to the bar. After the revolution of 1830 he pleaded the causes, of defendants in political trials, wrote political tracts, and edited republican newspapers, and in the. years preceding the movement of 1848 gained the title of "Tribune of the Revolution." Elected deputy in 1841, he advocated liberty of labour and universal suffrage. Under the provisional government he was Minister of the Interior, but lost his former influence. In 1849 his determined opposition to Louis Napoleon caused him to leave France and settle in London, where he joined the Revolutionary Committee of Europe and wrote a book, on the Becadence de VAngleterre. - In 1870 he returned to Paris, but would not sit till 1874. His works were published in 1879.