George Antoine Adolphe Gautier de Rasse, born the 30 December 1834 in Arlon and died on 8 janvier 1915 in Ellezelles, is a Belgian magistrate and administrator of Public Security. He is the son of Georges Adolphe Ferdinand Gautier, mining engineer in the province of Namur, and Marie Catherine Printz.

He studies at the Faculty of Law of the Free University of Brussels. 1852 to 1857, at the same time as the future Minister of Justice Jules Bara. He graduated with a doctorate in law with the greatest distinction.. After his studies, he joined the Arlon bar. He was then appointed deputy of the King's prosecutor on 6 janvier 1861 at the Court of First Instance of Tournai, where he succeeds Louis-Frédéric Babut de Marès.

In Tournai, he gets married on 25 august 1863 with Léopoldine de Rasse, daughter of Alphonse de Rasse, liberal mayor of Tournai. By royal decree of 22 December 1885, he obtains authorization to add his partner’s last name to his own and pass it on to their children, Georges and Leopold. The 14 september 1867, the Minister of Justice, Jules Bara, promotes him to the King's Attorney in Tournai. He leaves this position on 16 october 1879 following his induction as administrator of Public Security, where he succeeds Victor Berden who becomes Jules Bara's right-hand man.

Under his mandate, serious problems, quasi-revolutionaries, start in 1886 in Hainaut (Borinage and Charleroi region). He must then fight against social unrest led by the major figure of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. (PSR), Alfred Defuisseaux. To make yourself, he uses agents in the pay of the Sûreté like Pourbaix (who spontaneously offered his services to Public Security) or Jean Laloi, a declared socialist who will preside over the Châtelet congress in 1887. Faced with this phenomenon, he also wrote the book Economic study on worker coalitions and strikes (Paris, 1886).

In 1888, a series of insurrectional actions break out again, in line with the worker unrest that has plagued Hainaut since 1886. A whole series of leaders of Alfred Defuisseaux's PSR are arrested after demonstrators used dynamite. The case experienced a twist on 26 janvier 1889 : Paul Notelteirs, director of public security, reveals that Jean Laloi is in reality an agent in the pay of the Sûreté. Gradually, it appears that the administration entered the PSR environment via agents and that these indicators (e.g. Pourbaix, Below) are more like agents provocateurs responsible for discrediting the strikes. This implies that there is no conspiracy against the State because Auguste Beernaert, leading figure of the Belgian government, is aware of these actions.

The trial opens on 6 may 1889 before the Assize Court of Mons. The 10 may 1889, Adolphe Gautier de Rasse is called to testify in the case. Quickly, the latter turns in favor of the PSR accused defended by personalities such as Eugène Robert, Jules Destrée or Edmond Picard. The latter goes so far as to declare that “the plot is only in the imagination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office”. The accused were acquitted on 25 may 1889. From the moment Auguste Beernaert must justify himself before the House of Representatives, he immediately dismisses Adolphe Gautier de Rasse from his position as administrator. He is accused of :

  • Not having immediately reported to the Catholic Minister of Justice Jules Le Jeune that, during their arrest, some PSR leaders were in reality undercover agents.
  • Having knowingly allowed these informers to commit provocative acts.
  • Having revealed sensitive information to former minister Jules Bara sitting in the liberal opposition.

Alongside his position as administrator, Adolphe Gautier de Rasse shows a keen interest in criminology. In 1885, he is part of the Belgian delegation to the prison congress in Rome with Adolphe Prins. It is also part of the social defense movement, arguing that society must think about its defense against workers' strikes in Hainaut.

Its end of life is much more discreet. In 1891, he writes a criminology article on the criminally insane in the journal La Belgique judiciaire. Gazette of Belgian and foreign courts. In 1892, while his father-in-law Alphonse de Rasse has just died, he and his wife Léopoldine sell the family home in the center of Tournai. He ended his life in Ellezelles, where he died 8 janvier 1915.

Sources:

  • « Postcard from Tournai, s.d. », Private family archives (Sint-Genesius-Rode).
  • “Notice of Adolphe Gautier de Rasse in a family chronicle of the de Rasse, s.d. », Private family archives (Sint-Genesius-Rode).
  • Alfred Defuisseaux et le Grand Complot, a page from the history of borain socialism (1889), http://fr.calameo.com/books/00104647922a435564539 (Consulted the 18 november 2017).
  • Gautier de Rasse, Georges, Antoine, Adolphe, http://www.arlonide.be/Magistrats/gautier.php (Consulted the 5 December 2017).
  • The echo of Parliament, 19 october 1879.
  • The Public Good, 19 December 1885.
  • Marc REYNEBEAU, Belgian history : 1830-2005, Brussels, 2005, p. 91.
  • Pourbaix Leonard and the Great Plot, http://www.goens-pourbaix.be/multima-pourbaix/leonart/POURBAIX%20Leonard.htm (Consulted the 18 november 2017).
  • Role of registrations at the Free University of Brussels during the first thirty years (1834-1835 – 1863-1864), Archives of the Free University of Brussels.

Quentin Arrigoni

Notice written as part of the Seminar on the History of the Contemporary Period of the Catholic University of Louvain (LHIST2280, teacher Emmanuel Debruyne). 

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