He was educated as a civil engineer and was a highly distinguished student at both the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées. After his academic course, he obtained an appointment in the public service. His hereditary republicanism caused the Government of National Defense to entrust him in 1870 with the task of organizing resistance in the of the Eure, Calvados and Seine-Inférieure, and he was made prefect of Seine-Inférieure in January 1871. In the following month he was elected to the French National Assembly by the Côte-d'Or. He joined the Opportunist Republican parliamentary group, . In August 1878 he was appointed secretary to the minister of public works. He became minister in September 1880 and again in April 1885, moving almost immediately to the ministry of finance, which post he held under both the Ferry and the Freycinet administrations until December 1886.
He was educated as a civil engineer and was a highly distinguished student at both the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées. After his academic course, he obtained an appointment in the public service. His hereditary republicanism caused the Government of National Defense to entrust him in 1870 with the task of organizing resistance in the of the Eure Calvados and Seine-Inférieure, and he was made prefect of Seine-Inférieure in January 1871. In the following month he was elected to the French National Assembly by the Côte-d'Or. He joined the Opportunist Republican parliamentary group, . In August 1878, he was appointed secretary to the minister of public works. He became minister in September 1880 and again in April 1885, moving almost immediately ,to the ministry of finance which post he held under both the Ferry and the Freycinet administrations until December 1886.