Alphonse-Marie-Marcellin-Thomas Bérenger

Who was Alphonse-Marie-Marcellin-Thomas Bérenger?

Alphonse-Marie–Marcellin–Thomas Bérenger, known as Thomas Bérenger or Berenger de la Drôme, was a French lawyer and politician. He was the son of a deputy of the third estate of Dauphiné to the Constituent Assembly, born in Valence.

He entered the magistracy and became procureur général at Grenoble, but resigned this office on the Bourbon Restoration. He then devoted himself mainly to the study of criminal law, and in 1818 published La justice criminelle en France, in which with great courage he attacked the special tribunals, provosts' courts or military commissions which were the main instruments of the Reaction, and advocated a return to the old common law and trial by jury. The book had a considerable effect in discrediting the reactionary policy of the government; but it was not until 1828, when Bérenger was elected to the chamber, that he had an opportunity of exercising a personal influence on affairs as a member of the group known as that of constitutional opposition.

His courage, as well as his moderation, was again displayed during the revolution of 1830, when, as president of the parliamentary commission for the trial of the ministers of Charles X, he braved the fury of the mob and secured a sentence of imprisonment in place of the death penalty for which they clamoured.