Description

The French Prefectoral Corps was Napoleon's creation. Building on the framework of local government inherited from the Revolution, he installed a rigidly centralized administrative system, running from the Sub-Prefect in the arrondissement, through the Prefect in the department, to the Minister in Paris. The return of the Bourbons threatened this organization. There was the upheaval of the years 1814-15, and as the mechanics of parliamentary government evolved in the years after the Second Restoration, the Corps acquired a political importance which necessarily affected the prefectoral career. There was also a change in rectruitment. To staff this indispensable organ of government the Bourbons called on men of their own choice and service, in particular members of the pre-revolutionary nobility. Dr Richardson has analysed the history of the Prefectoral Corps during the sixteen years of the Restoration.