Les présidents du corps législatif du Second Empire Quatre tempéraments au cœur ­d’une évolution

Unlike in the parliamentary tradition, the president of the legislative body was closer to the head of state than his colleagues, but evolved between the dictatorship of public salvation and the liberal empire: little liked, Billault pushed the zeal for control as far as extracting the minutes of deliberations, while Morny was cunning enough to marry the esprit de corps of the Assembly with the liberal growth of his prerogatives, an evolution that Walewski and Scheider pursued until the semi-parliamentary regime.