ose
members should be irremovable, the right of oral defence, and publicity
of trial. In 1822 appeared his _Questions de droit administratif_, in
which he for the first time brought together and gave scientific shape
to the scattered elements of administrative law. These he arranged and
stated clearly in the form of aphorisms, with logical deductions,
establishing them by proofs drawn from the archives of the council of
state. This is recognized as his most important work as a jurist. The
fifth edition (1840) was thoroughly revised.

In 1828 Cormenin entered the Chamber of Deputies as member for Orleans,
took his seat in the Left Centre, and began a vigorous opposition to the
government of Charles X. As he was not gifted with the qualifications of
the orator, he seldom appeared at the tribune; but in the various
committees he defended all forms of popular liberties, and at the same
time delivered, in a series of powerful pamphlets, under the pseudonym
of "Timon," the most formidable blows against tyranny and all political
and administrative abuses. After the revolution of July 1830, Cormenin
was one of the 221 who signed the protest against the elevation of the
Orleans dynasty to the throne; and he resigned both his office in the
council of state and his seat in the chamber. He was, however, soon
re-elected deputy, and now voted with the extreme Left. The discussions
on the budget in 1831 gave rise to the publication of his famous series
of _Lettres sur la liste civile_, which in ten years ran through
twenty-five editions. In the following year he was elected deputy for
Belley. In 1834 he was elected by two arrondissements, and sat for
Joigny, which he represented till 1846. In this year he lost his seat in
consequence of the popular prejudice aroused against him by his
trenchant pamphlet _Oui et non_ (1845) against attacks on religious
liberty, and a second entitled _Feu! Feu!_ (1845), written in reply to
those who demanded a retractation of the former. Sixty thousand copies
were rapidly sold.

Cormenin was an earnest advocate of universal suffrage before the
revolution of February 1848, and had remorselessly exposed the corrupt
practices at elections in his pamphlet--_Ordre du jour sur la corruption
electorale_. After the revolution he was elected by four departments to
the Constituent Assembly, and became one of its vice-presidents. He was
also member and president of the constitutional commission, and for some
tim