WALLON, HENRI ALEXANDRE ( 181 2-1904), French historian and statesman, was born at Valenciennes on Dec. 23, 1812. Wallon succeeded Guizot as professor at the Sorbonne in 1846. Returning to politics in 1871 he immortalized himself by carrying his proposition for the establishment of the Repub lic with a president elected for seven years, and then eligible for re-election, which, after violent debates, was adopted by the Assembly on Jan. 3o, 1875. "Ma proposition," he declared, "ne proclame pas la Republique, elle la fait." Upon the definitive establishment of the Republic, Wallon became Minister of Public Instruction, and effected many useful reforms, but his views were too conservative for the majority of the Assembly, and he retired in May 1876. He had been chosen a life senator in December 1875.
Returning to his historical studies, Wallon produced four works of great importance, though less from his part in them as author than from the documents which accompanied them : La Terreur (1873) ; Histoire du tribunal revolutionnaire de Paris avec le journal de ses acts (6 vols., La Revolution du 3r mai et le federalisme en 1793 (2 vols., 1886) ; Les Representants du people en mission et la justice revolutionnaire dans les departe ments (5 vols., 1880-1890). Besides these he published a number of articles in the Journal des savants; for many years he wrote the history of the Academie des Inscriptions (of which he became perpetual secretary in 1873) in the collection of Memoirs of this Academy. He died at Paris on Nov. 13, 1904•