In 1847 he was appointed governor at the Hague, and commandant in South Holland.
He attended every spring the meetings of the militia at Southampton, and rose successively to the rank of major and lieutenant-colonel commandant; but was each year " more disgusted with the inn, the wine, the company, and the tiresome repetition of annual attendance and daily exercise."
He was promoted to commodore in 1898, to rear-admiral on the 3rd of March 1899, and was made commandant of the Boston (Charlestown) Navy Yard in October of the same year.
The marquis Lafayette, doubly popular as a veteran of the American War and as one of the nobles who heartily upheld the cause of the Assembly, was chosen commandant of the new civic force, thenceforwards known as the National Guard.
Then the Commune named as commandant of the National Guard, Hanriot, a man concerned in the September massacres.