Jules Bara (23 August 1835 – 26 June 1900) was a Belgian statesman and liberal politician.

Early years

He was born in

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

and pursued the study of law in his native town, showing remarkable intellectual gifts and a fine power of oratory.

Career

Shortly after he had begun his professional practice he was summoned to be

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of law at the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

and established his reputation by a

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

on the relations of church and state, the ''Essai sur les rapports de l'etat et des religions au point de vue constitutionnel'' (1859). He succeeded Tesch as Minister of Justice in 1865, being appointed to that position by King Leopold II. In line with his extremely Liberal tendencies, he attempted, in 1868, to bring about the abolition of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

, but failed because of a powerful opposition in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. After the failure of the Frère-Orban cabinet in 1870 Bara reëntered the Chamber of Representatives and by his great power of invective caused the resignation of the Clerical Ministry of D'Anethau in 1871 and helped to overthrow the Ministry of Malou in 1878. Bara became once more Minister of Justice under Frère-Orban, resigning in 1884 after the overwhelming defeat of the Liberals at the polls. From 1884 to 1894 he was leader of the Opposition in the Lower Chamber, but in the latter year failed of reëlection, entering the Senate soon afterward.

Death

He died in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, 26 June 1900.

Mason

He was a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, raised in 1859 in the lodge ''Les Vrais Amis de l'Union et du Progrès'' from Bruxelles.

Sources

Liberal Archive
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External links

1835 births 1900 deaths Politicians from Tournai Belgian writers in French {{Belgium-politician-stub