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In the Public Interest: Charitable Association, the State, and the Status of utilité publique in Nineteenth-Century France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

Christine Adams
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In her work on the bourgeois male of the nineteenth century, Carol E. Harrison argues that “Although French law made no distinction between male and female associations, administrative practice ignored women in groups.” Most historians accept this point of view—that French administrators generally ignored the associational activities of women, and, indeed, most female groups appear to have garnered little notice from authorities. While Annie Grange suggests that this may be because so few female as-sociations existed throughout much of the nineteenth century, Catherine Duprat has uncovered numerous female societies, especially sociétés de bienfaisance, many of which received more generous treatment from municipal and national officials than their male counterparts. However, she suggests that their official “silence”–the absence of general assemblies and frequent publications, as well as their careful cultivation of the traditional, non-threatening image of dames de charité—kept these associations largely out of public view. Furthermore, for the most part, those female associations that did exist lacked visible political and financial clout.

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Law and History Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 283 - 321
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Copyright © the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 2007

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References

1. Harrison, Carol E., The Bourgeois Citizen in Nineteenth-Century France: Gender, Sociability, and the Uses of Emulation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 22–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. The chief exception would be associations that called into question the existing social structure—for example, Saint-Simonian or workers' organizations. See Resnick, Evelyne Lejeune, Femmes et associations (1830/1880): Vraies démocrates ou dames patronesses? (Paris: Publisud, 1991), 15–19Google Scholar.

3. According to Annie Grange, in her study of associational life in Villefranche-sur-Saône, “Les hommes sont pendant toute cette période les principaux acteurs de la vie associative, pour ne pas dire les seuls car les femmes en sont quasiment absentes.” She found that approximately 1.5 percent of the associations in the region she studied were exclusively female.L'Apprentissage de l'association, 1850–1914: Naissance du secteur volontaire non lucrative dans l'Arrondissement de Villefranche-sur-Saône (Paris: Mutualité française, 1993), 67, 94.Google ScholarSee also 92–93.

4. Duprat, Catherine, “Le Silence des femmes: Associations féminines du premier XIXe siècle,” in Femmes dans la cité, 1815–1871, ed. Corbin, A., Lalouette, J., and Riot-Sarcey, M. (Grâne: Editions Créaphis, 1997), 79–100, esp. 96–97.Google ScholarAnnie Grange also suggests that it was difficult for women to exercise public responsibility, which restricted the visibility of their associational activities. L'Apprentissage de l'association, 94.

5. Duprat, “Le Silence des femmes.”

6. Jean-Pierre Chaline, “Sociabilité féminine et ‘maternalisme,’ les sociétés de Charité Maternelle au XIXe siécle,” in Femmes dans la cité, 1815–1871, 69.Google ScholarCatherine Duprat also emphasizes the high profile of the Société de charité maternelle inUsage et pratiques de la philanthropie: Pauvreté, action sociale et lien social, à Paris, au cours du premier XIXe siècle, (Paris: Association pour l'étude de l'histoire de la Sécurité sociale, 1996–1997), 2:615–35Google Scholar.

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8. Archives nationales (hereafter AN) F15 2565, Compte rendu à S.M. l'Impératrice-Reine et Régente, Protectrice et Présidente de la Société de la charité maternelle, par S.A. Em. le Secrétaire général et S.Ex. le Trésorier général de la situation de la Société dans tout l'empire, et de l'Emploi de ses fonds; et par les Dames du Conseil d'Administration de Paris, des opérations de ce conseil. Imprimé et publié avec l'autorisation de Sa Majesté (Paris, 1813).Google ScholarOther copies exist in some provincial archives, including the Archives départementales de la Gironde (ADG) 4J 728.See also the Almanach royal et national pour l'An M DCCC XXXI, présenté à Sa Majesté et aux Princes et Princesses de la Famille royale (Paris, 1831), 886Google Scholar;Almanach impérial pour M DCCC LIII, présenté à Leurs Majestés (Paris, 1853), 1081Google Scholar;Almanach impérial pour M DCCC LXII, présenté à Leurs Majestés (Paris, 1862)Google Scholar;Lejeune-Resnick, Evelyne, Femmes et associations, 175Google Scholar;andKlaus, Alisa, “Women's Organizations and the Infant Health Movement in France and the United States, 1890–1920,” in Lady Bountiful Revisited: Women, Philanthropy, and Power, ed. McCarthy, Kathleen D. (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 167.Google ScholarRollet-Echalier, Catherine notes that these societies multiplied especially under the Second Empire. La Politique à l'égard de la petite enfance sous la IIIe République (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1990), 9–10Google Scholar.

9. Stuart Woolf argues that from the time the society was appropriated by the Napoleonic court, it became an appendage of the imperial administration.See “The Société de charité maternelle, 1788–1815,” in Medicine and Charity before the Welfare State, ed. Barry, Jonathan and Jones, Colin (London: Routledge, 1991), 109Google Scholar.

10. During the first half of the nineteenth century, subsidies never constituted less than 65 percent of the total revenues of the Paris branch of the Society for Maternal Charity.Duprat, , Usage et pratiques de la philanthropie, 2:622Google Scholar.

11. See Klaus, Alisa, Every Child a Lion: The Origins of Maternal and Infant Health Policy in the United States and France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 129–35,Google Scholar“Depopulation and Race Suicide: Maternalism and Pronatalist Ideologies in France and the United States,” inMothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States, ed. Koven, Seth and Michel, Sonya (London: Routledge, 1993), 196–98;Google ScholarRollet-Echalier, , La Politique à l'égard de la petite enfance, 245–47Google Scholar.

12. Klaus argues that French women were excluded from policy making because of centralized state structures and a tradition of social intervention; she notes that “The specific political conditions under which women organized for ‘maternalist’ goals in France prevented them from becoming a distinctive female political force,” while Lejeune-Resnick sees dames patronesses, like the ladies of the maternal societies, as simply reinforcing the political goals of men and upholding the bourgeois social structure.Klaus, , Every Child a Lion, 92Google Scholar;Lejeune-Resnick, , Femmes et associations, 15, 19Google Scholar.

13. Cohen, Jean L. and Arato, Andrew, Civil Society and Political Theory (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992), ix,Google Scholarquoted inLynch, Katherine A., “The Family and the History of Public Life,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24.4 (Spring 1994): 674.CrossRefGoogle ScholarEvelyne Diebolt also asserts that “… participation in philanthropic organizations offered numerous women … the possibility of participating in various civil and public activities. This made it possible for them to exercise a certain authority in social, economic, and political life in France.”See “Women and Philanthropy in France from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries,” in Women, Philanthropy and Civil Society, ed. McCarthy, Kathleen D. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001), 29Google Scholar.

14. Lynch, , “The Family and the History of Public Life,” 675Google Scholar;McCarthy, Kathleen D., “Women and Political Culture,” in Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History, ed. Friedman, Lawrence J. and McGarvie, Mark D. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 179–97Google Scholar.

15. Smith, Bonnie G., Ladies of the Leisure Class: The Bourgeoises of Northern France in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 134.Google ScholarSee chap. 6 for an analysis of the political implications of women's domestic and social charitable activities.

16. See Desan's, Suzanne review article, “What's after Political Culture? Recent French Revolutionary Historiography,” French Historical Studies 23.1 (2000): 170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. See Adams, Christine, “Maternal Societies in France: Private Charity before the Welfare State,” Journal of Women's History 17.1 (Spring 2005): 87–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. ADG 4J 727, Copy of legal opinion rendered by Lacoste, St. Marc, and Vaucher, 4 June 1850, attached to Compte rendu des opérations de la Conseil d'adminstration de la Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux pour l'année 1853. Several other copies exist in the same dossier containing the correspondence dealing with the issue of the Bordeaux society's legal status, and efforts to obtain the appellation of utilité publique.

19. Pinkney, David H., Decisive Years in France, 1840–1847 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 64.Google Scholar

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21. Joyce, Patrick, The Rule of Freedom: Liberalism and the Modern City (London and New York: Verso, 2003), 1–3.Google Scholar

22. For a more detailed theoretical discussion of strategies of liberal rule,see Rose, Nikolas, “Governing ‘Advanced’ Liberal Democracies,” in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. Barry, Andrew, Osborne, Thomas, and Rose, Nikolas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 37–64Google Scholar.

23. Gerson cites numerous examples of this resistance in The Pride of Place; see esp. chap. 6 See alsoSmith, Timothy B., Creating the Welfare State in France, 1880–1940 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's Press, 2003), 33–36Google Scholar.

24. Nourrisson, Paul, Histoire de la liberté d'association en France depuis 1789 (Paris: Librairie de la Société du Recueil Sirey, 1920), intro., 1:16.Google Scholar

25. Religion had long played a political role in France, especially since the Revolution. Women, possessing few political outlets, frequently used religious ritual to signal and justify political resistance. For one example of this,see Desan, Suzanne, Reclaiming the Sacred: Lay Religion and Popular Politics in Revolutionary France (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990), chap. 5.Google ScholarOn tensions between the ministers of Louis-Phillippe and the Catholic church,see Collingham, H. A. C., The July Monarchy: A Political History of France, 1830–1848 (London and New York: Longman, 1988), chap. 22Google Scholar;on relations between Legitimists and the regime of Napoleon III,see Price, Roger, The French Second Empire: An Anatomy of Political Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), chap. 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. Catherine Duprat outlines the affiliations of the members of the Paris society in Usage et Pratiques, 2:616–35. In one well-known example of political protest, Madame de Pastoret, whose spouse was linked with the Bourbons, stepped down from the vice-presidency of the Paris Society for Maternal Charity in 1830, at the time of the July Revolution, although she continued to serve on the administrative council.Bassan, Fernande, Politique et haute société à l'époque romantique: La Famille Pastoret d'après sa correspondance (1788–1856) (Paris: Lettres modernes Minard, 1969), 22Google Scholar.

27. See Casteljau, A. de Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association de 1789 à 1901 (Paris: Libraire Nouvelle de droit et de jurisprudence, Arthur Rousseau, éditeur, 1905), 154.Google Scholar

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29. On the development of civil society,see Nord's, Philip introduction to his The Republican Moment: Struggles for Democracy in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1995), 1–14,Google Scholaras well as his introduction toCivil Society before Democracy: Lessons from Nineteenth-Century Europe, ed. Bermeo, Nancy and Nord, Philip (Lanham and New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), xiii–xxxiiiGoogle Scholar.

30. Novak, William J., “The American Law of Association: The Legal-Political Construction of Civil Society,” Studies in American Political Development 15 (Spring 2001): 163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. Raymond Huard points out that “Admittedly, political societies were the most feared by the government, but it must be considered that, more or less, all associations could become political in certain circumstances. … As a consequence the authorities wished to be in control of all and not just of some of the associations.” See Huard, “Political Association in Nineteenth-Century France: Legislation and Practice,” inBermeo, and Nord, , Civil Society before Democracy, 135–36Google Scholar.

32. Duprat, , “Le Silence des femmes,” 83Google Scholar;Evelyne Lejeune-Resnick notes that authorities were more comfortable when women's associations pursued strictly philanthropic goals and did not stray into policy.Femmes et associations, 15Google Scholar.

33. Douyère-Demeulenaere, Christiane, “Femmes et associations dans les archives publiques,” in Un siècle de vie associative: Quelles opportunités pour les femmes? ed. Diebolt, Evelyne and Douyère-Demeulenaere, Christiane (Paris: Colloque international tenu à l'Assemblée nationale et au Centre historique des Archives nationales, le 14–15 mai 2001 pour la commémoration du centenaire de la loi 1901), 180.Google ScholarI thank Karen Offen for the reference.

34. Léon Béquet notes that, “Aucun établissement privé de bienfaisance ne peut être fondé, par des particuliers, sans l'autorisation du gouvernement. Sous l'ancienne monarchie, cette règle avait été établie, de la manière la plus précise, par les édits de décembre 1666 et d'aôut 1749.”Béquet, Léon, Régime et législation de l'Assistance publique et privée en France (Paris: Société d'Imprimerie et Librairies administratives et des Chemins de fer, Paul Dupon, Editeur, 1885), 300Google Scholar.

35. See Jaume, Lucien, “Une Liberté en souffrance: L'Association au XIXe siècle,” in Associations et champ politique: La loi de 1901 à l'épreuve du siècle, ed. Andrieu, Claire, Béguec, Gilles Le, and Tartakowsky, Danielle (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2001), 79.Google Scholar

36. Nourrisson, , Histoire de la liberté d'association, 1:176.Google ScholarCharles Beaumont notes concerning the Napoleonic government that “Il est bien certain qu'au début du XIXe siècle, le législateur du Code Civil s'est montré extrêmement sévère vis-à-vis des associations en général. Seuls, en effet, les établissements publics ou d'utilité publique avaient quelques droits; seuls, il pouvaient recevoir à titre gratuit et cette prohibition pour les associations de recevoir les dons et legs cadrait donc fort bien à l'époque avec l'état d'esprit du législateur, avec les principes généraux du droit.”See Beaumont, , Extension de la capacité civile des associations privées de bienfaisance (Avesnes-sur-Helpe: Editions de l'Observateur, 1936), 52Google Scholar.

37. This legislation included Articles 910 and 938 of the Code civil; the laws of 2 January 1817 and 24 May 1825; and the Law of 10 April 1834.Béquet, , Régime et législation de l'Assistance publique et privée en France, 300Google Scholar.

38. The penal code read in part: “Nulle association de plus de vingt personnes dont le but sera de se réunir tous les jours ou à certain jours marqués pour s'occuper d'objects religieux, littéraires, politiques ou autres, ne pourra se former qu'avec l'agrément du gouvernment, et sous les conditions qu'il plaira à l'autorité publique d'imposer à la société.” Cited inAgulhon, Maurice, Le Cercle dans la France bourgeoise, 1810–1848: Etude d'une mutation de sociabilité (Paris: Armand Colin, 1977), 21.Google ScholarArticle 294 required municipal permission prior to meetings.Casteljau, Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association, 173–81, 207Google Scholar;Nourrisson, , Histoire de la liberté d'association, 1:184Google Scholar.

39. Articles 292–94 enumerated sanctions to be imposed in case of infractions of Article 291. For the text of the law,see Bequet, Léon et al., editors, Répertoire du droit administratif (Paris: Société d'imprimerie et des chemins de fer, 1884–1911), 2:490Google Scholar.

40. Béquet, , Régime et législation de l'Assistance publique et privée en France, 304.Google ScholarEvelyne Lejeune-Resnick notes that, in the nineteenth century, women became active in a wide variety of associations that focused specifically on women's needs and issues—“en faveur des enfants, de l'éducation populaire, des prisonnières, mais aussi, tout simplement, pour la défense de leurs intérêts.”See Femmes et associations, 15Google Scholar.

41. Catherine Duprat suggests that the government preferred this quasi-legal regime of “tolerance.” “Que les sociétés ne soient pas autorisées permet au gouvernement de les interdire, quand il le juge bon, sans avoir à en donner d'autre raison que l'infraction à l'article 291 du Code pénal.” Usage et pratiques, 2:1100.

42. Nourrisson, , Histoire de la liberté d'association, 1:24.Google Scholar

43. Drouin, H., Gory, A., and Worms, F., Traité théorique et pratique d'assistance publique (Paris: Librairie de la Société de Recueil général des lois et des arrêts, 1900), 1:4, n. 1.Google Scholar

44. Béquet, , Régime et législation de l'Assistance publique et privée en France, 307–8.Google Scholar

45. Terrat, Barthélemy, Quelques considérations sur les biens de mainmorte (Lille: Imprimerie Victor Ducoulumbier, 1897), 13.Google Scholar

46. On the concept of “police,”see Tomlins, Christopher L., “Law, Police, and the Pursuit of Happiness in the New American Republic,” Studies in American Political Development 4 (1990): 3–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47. Garcin, Félix, La Mainmorte, le pouvoir, l'opinion de 1749 à 1901 (Paris and Lyon: Librairie de la Société du Recueil général des Lois et des Arrêts, and Librairie A. Cote, 1903), 194–95.Google Scholar

48. Vuillefroy, Charles Amédée and Monnier, Léon, Principes d'administration, extraits des avis du Conseil d'état et du Comité de l'intérieur, des circulaires ministérielles, etc., etc. (Paris: Joubert, Librairie-Editeur, 1837), 443.Google Scholar

49. A number of sources provide information on the founding of the Society for Maternal Charity of Paris.See, for example, Duprat, Catherine, “Pour l'amour de l'humanité”: Le Temps des philanthropes. La Philanthropie parisienne des Lumières à la monarchie de Juillet (Paris: Editions du C.T.H.S., 1993), 75–80;Google ScholarandWoolf, Stuart, “The Société de charité maternelle,” 98–112.Google ScholarThe classic source, despite a number of errors, isGille, F., La Société de charité maternelle de Paris (Paris: V. Goupy et Jourdan, 1887).Google ScholarOn Madame de Fougeret, see la baronne de Beauverger, “Madame de Fougeret, première présidente de la Société de Charité Maternelle, et deux des Présidentes qui lui ont succédé,” Revue médicosociale de l'enfance (1er année, no. 4, 1933): 250–56; and a biography written byMaussion, Madame de, Fougeret, née, published in Portrait et histoire des hommes utiles, hommes et femmes de tous pays et de toutes conditions qui ont acquis des droits à la reconnaissance, par des travaux, des tentatives, des perfectionnements, des découvertes utiles à l'humanité, etc. (Paris: La Société Montyon et Franklin, n.d.)Google Scholar.

50. Archives de l'Assistance publique (AAP) B-83217,Réglemens de la Société de la charité maternelle, arrêté à l'Assemblée du 13 février 1789 (Paris, 1789), 48–49Google Scholar.

51. Forrest, Alan, The French Revolution and the Poor (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981)Google Scholar;Hufton, Olwen H., Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 53–88.Google ScholarIsser Woloch takes a rather more positive look at the accomplishments of the Revolutionary government in the area of poor relief, at least within Paris. “From Charity to Welfare in Revolutionary France,”Journal of Modern History 58 (December 1986): 779–812Google Scholar.

52. See Forrest, , The French Revolution and the Poor, 116–37;Google ScholarHufton, , Women and the Limits of Citizenship, 82–83; andGoogle ScholarLynch, Katherine A., Family, Class, and Ideology in Early Industrial France: Social Policy and the Working-Class Family, 1825–1848 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 119–20,Google Scholaron the disastrous fate of the enfants trouvés during the years of Revolution and war.

53. Chaptal, Léonie, “Le Centenaire de 1814: Le Mouvement social en 1814,” La Revue hebdomadaire, no. 9 (28 February 1914): 514.Google Scholar

54. Duprat, , Le Temps des philanthropes, 413–19.Google Scholar

55. Ibid., 422–25.

56. For example, the former conventionnel, Camus, speaking for the Conseil des hospices, boasted that the Conseil strongly encouraged “les établissements de bienfaisance volontaire et les libéralités particulières.” See Laborie, L. de Lanzac de, Paris sous Napoléon, vol. 5, Assistance et bienfaisance approvisionnement (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1908), 134.Google Scholar

57. Duprat, , Le Temps des philanthropes, 422.Google Scholar

58. Isser Woloch discusses the reconstitution of the Société maternelle and other philanthropic associations inThe New Regime: Transformations of the French Civil Order, 1789–1820s (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1994), 279–80Google Scholar.

59. More detailed information on this period in the history of the Society for Maternal Charity can be found inAdams, Christine, “Constructing Mothers and Families: The Society for Maternal Charity of Bordeaux, 1805–1860,” French Historical Studies 22.1 (Spring 1999): 65–86;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedWoolf, Stuart, “The Société de charité maternelle”;Google ScholarFlacassier, Annie, “La Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux de 1805 à 1815,” in 105e Congrès, Comité d'histoire de la Sécurité sociale (Caen, 1980)Google Scholar;Chaline, , “Sociabilité féminine et ‘maternalisme,’” 69–78;Google ScholarandDuprat, , Le Temps des philanthropes, 430–78, passimGoogle Scholar.

60. Watteville, Ad. de, Législation charitable, ou recueil des lois, arrêtés, décrets, ordonnances royales, avis du Conseil d'état, circulaires, décisions et instructions des ministres de l'intérieur et des finances, arrêts de la Cour des comptes, etc., etc., qui régissent des établissements de bienfaisance, mise en ordre et annotée, avec une préface par Ad. de Watteville (Paris: Alexandre Heois, 1843), 178–79.Google Scholar

61. AAP 4771. The legal opinion requested by the Society for Maternal Charity of Bordeaux in 1850 noted that “Cependant jamais cette capacité n'a été contestée à la Société de charité maternelle de Paris, et elle s'est constamment livrée à tous actes de la vie civile sans la moindre empèchement.” ADG 4J 727, legal opinion rendered by Lacoste, St. Marc, and Vaucher, 4 June 1850. Catherine Duprat verifies this point. SeeUsage et pratiques, 2:1094–95Google Scholar.

62. For example, the comptes rendus of Bordeaux's society list each year's returns from rentes and any extraordinary legacy or donation. In 1832, M. Verneuilh bequeathed a building to the society;see ADG 4J 710, Compte Rendu des opérations du Conseil d'administration de la Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux pour l'année 1832 (1833), 9.Google ScholarVarious prefects of the Bouches-du-Rhône authorized Marseilles's maternal society to accept at least five legacies between 1825 and 1844—it was not until 1844 that the minister of the interior objected to the prefect's recommendation to accept the donation, because the Marseilles society lacked public utility status. Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône (hereafter ADBR) X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Legs fait à la Société.

63. This was in accordance with Articles 910 and 937 of the Code civil. Article 910 reads “Les dispositions entre-vifs ou par testament, au profit des hospices, des pauvres d'une commune ou d'établissement d'utilité publique, n'auront leur effet qu'autant qu'elles seronts autorisées par un arrêté du Gouvernement.”Article 937 states that “Les donations faites au profit d'hospices, des pauvres d'une commune, ou d'établissement d'utilité publique, seront acceptées par les administrateurs de ces communes ou établissements, après y avoir été dûment autorisés.” Code civil des français. Edition originale et seule officielle (Paris: De l'imprimerie de la République, 1804), 221 and 228.Google ScholarThis authorization was necessary to insure “la tutelle de l'Etat sur les institutions, l'autorisation gouvernmentale, et la protection des familles.”Marais, , Histoire du don, 27Google Scholar.

64. The Ministry of the Interior was responsible for the surveillance of associations. Douyère-Demeulenaere, “Femmes et associations dans les archives publiques,” 181.

65. A letter signed by the Sous-secrétaire d'état for the minister of the interior to the prefect of the Gironde dated 25 May 1842 summarizes the previous correspondence between the minister and the prefect and outlines the arguments on both sides. See ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854.

66. The heated three-way correspondence concerning these issues can be found in ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, and 4J 727, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, 1847–1874. The emphasis on the “particular circumstances” and customs of the Bordeaux region reflects the heightened awareness of regional particularism at a time of growing Parisian centralization that Gerson, Stéphane discusses in The Pride of Place, 95–97.Google ScholarTimothy Smith also highlights this point in his analysis of the Lyons municipal council's resistance to prefectoral interference in the operation of local charity and public assistance.See Creating the Welfare State, 31–40Google Scholar.

67. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, Statuts et règlements, Letter of 8 March 1851.

68. Catherine Duprat cites the case of the Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse, a diocesan establishment, with royal patrons. In 1846, the Infirmerie—which had already received several legacies—requested permission to receive another. According to Duprat, “un fonctionnaire pointilleux, chargé de préparer l'autorisation d'acceptation de celui-ci, imagina de rechercher si la fondation avait jamais été pourvue d'une autorisation lui conférant la capacité de recevoir des dons et legs.” Finding no mention of the Infirmerie's legal status in the Bulletin des lois, he refused approval, which resulted in two years of correspondence between the archbishopric, the Ministry of Religion, the Prefecture of the Seine, and the Mayor of Paris. A compromise was reached after June of 1848 with the new ministry. Usage et pratiques, 2:1097.

69. ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Letter of 31 January 1844.

70. Ibid.Règlement pour la Société de la charité maternelle de Marseille (Marseille, 1844). See especially 10–11.

71. Her letter reads in part, “Notre Société n'a pas négligé dans le tems, de soumettre ce règlement à l'approbation ministerielle. Mais en réponse à cette envoi, et dans une lettre du 10 février 1816, dont il nous fut donné communication, M. le Comte de Vaublanc, alors ministre de l'Intérieur, s'exprima ainsi: “Les dons de la charité particulière sont d'autant plus abondans qu'on laisse plus libre leur emploi et les sentiments qui ont réuni les Dames composant les sociétés de charité maternelles pour venir au secours des mères indigentes, doivent être considérés comme un garant suffisant du soin qu'elles apporterons à régler leurs dépenses avec économie & à faire l'emploi le plus utile des fonds á leur disposition. D'après ces motifs, M. le Prefet, je crois de voir dispenser la Société de charité maternelle de Marseille de soumettre à mon approbation son règlement & ses comptes annuels, & ils seront arrêtés, suivant les formes, que la Société jugera le plus convenable.” See ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Letters of 17 April and 10 May 1844.

72. AN F15 2564, Letter from the minister of the interior, 21 June 1816: Instructions sur la comptabilité des hospices et établissements de charité. Correspondence between the Ministry of the Interior and the prefects of both the Gironde and the Bouches-du-Rhône demonstrates that the ministry required detailed accounts from the various branches of the maternal societies in exchange for yearly subsidies. See ADG 3X 17 and 3X 18, 1814–1839 and 1822–1860; ADBR X2 26 Secours and Expenses 1817–1825 and 1824–1831.

73. ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Letter of 28 August 1847.

74. Ibid. Letter of 11 December 1847. The prefect transmitted the request to the minister of the interior, but without offering any words of support on the society's behalf. Letter of 20 December 1847.

75. Ibid. Letter of 15 January 1848.

76. Collingham, , The July Monarchy, chap. 10.Google Scholar

77. Thureau-Dangin, Paul, Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 5th ed. (Paris: Plon, 1914), 2:217.Google Scholar

78. See Pilbeam, Pamela, Republicanism in Nineteenth-Century France, 1814–1871 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 97–100;Google ScholarThureau-Dangin, , Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 2:220–21Google Scholar.

79. Bechtel, Edwin De T., Freedom of the Press and l'Association Mensuelle: Philipon versus Louis-Philippe (New York: The Grolier Club, 1952), 31.Google Scholar

80. Thureau-Dangin, , Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 2:228–29.Google Scholar

81. Robert J. Bezucha looks at uprisings in Lyons, the second largest city in France, in the 1830s, including the uprising of 1834, the largest urban disturbance in France between the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The Law on Associations was signed into law on 10 April 1834, the second day of the Lyons uprising.See Bezucha, , The Lyon Uprising of 1834: Social and Political Conflict in the Early July Monarchy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), esp. 135CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82. Casteljau, Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association, 226–61;Google ScholarThureau-Dangin, , Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 2:235Google Scholar.

83. Thureau-Dangin, , Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 2:236Google Scholar;Casteljau, Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association, 277Google Scholar.

84. Casteljau, Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association, 285–87, 301.Google ScholarPaul Nourrisson sees this legislation as “un recul dans l'histoire de la liberté d'association,” one which “consacrait l'arbitraire et renforçait la prohibition du Code pénal.” Histoire de la liberté d'association, 1:286.See Bequet, , Répertoire du droit administratif, 486 and 490Google Scholarfor the text and explanation of the Law of Associations of 1834.

85. Williams, Roger L., The World of Napoleon III, 1851–1870 (New York: The Free Press, 1957), 40–41;Google ScholarHarrison, , The Bourgeois Citizen, 30–31;Google ScholarThureau-Dangin, , Histoire de la Monarchie de Juillet, 2:236–37Google Scholar.

86. Duprat, , Usage et pratiques, 2:1095–97.Google ScholarOn the Société philanthropique,see Duprat, , Le Temps des philanthropes, 65–75Google Scholar.

87. Ferdinand-Dreyfus, , L'Assistance sous la Second République (1848–1851) (Paris: Edouard Cornély et Cie., Editeurs, 1907), 14.Google Scholar

88. Duprat, in Usage et pratiques, discusses both the background of misery in the nineteenth century and the ongoing response through the creation of voluntary associations.See also Gerson, , The Pride of Place, 124Google Scholar.

89. According to Vuillefroy and Monnier, “On doit chercher à prévoir toutes les difficultés qui pourraient amener de fâcheuses collisions entre ces sociétés et les fonctionnaires publics chargés de la direction ou de la surveillance des services analogues.”Vuillefroy, and Monnier, , Principes d'administration, 444Google Scholar.

90. Terrat, , Quelques considérations sur les biens de mainmorte, 13–14;Google ScholarGarcin, , La Mainmorte, le pouvoir, l'opinion, 131–83Google Scholar.

91. See Terrat, , Quelques considérations sur les biens de mainmorte, 4.Google Scholar

92. This was part of the justification for requiring that the Council of State approve charitable legacies of more than 300 francs to hospitals. Isser Woloch notes that “According to a report on ‘legal charity’ in the early nineteenth century, ‘the action of the Council of State tends … to moderate the exaggerated zeal of the benefactors and to restore to the dispossessed family the portion which seems beneficial for its needs.’”See The New Regime, 276Google Scholar.

93. In the case of Bordeaux, more men than women left money to the Society for Maternal Charity. However, some of the most generous legacies—including 25,000 francs from the Widow Strekeysen in 1819, subsequently invested in a rente—came from women. Archives municipals de Bordeaux (AMB), 312 Q 1, Assemblée générale annuelle des bienfaiteurs de la Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, rapport sur l'exercice 1883.

94. See Desan, Suzanne, The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004), chap. 4.Google Scholar

95. Marais, , Histoire du don, 28.Google ScholarAdolphe Thiers would stress this point in a debate in 1848: “Dans tous les temps, par les Parlements comme par le Conseil d'Etat, l'Etat se réserve son droit d'examen et d'autorisation pour les sociétés charitables et religieuses, dans l'intérêt de la propriété des familles.”See Ferdinand-Dreyfus, , L'Assistance sous la Second République, 138Google Scholar.

96. Marais, , Histoire du don, 28–29.Google Scholar

97. Terrat, , Quelques considérations sur les biens de mainmorte, 4.Google Scholar

98. Smith, , Creating the Welfare State in France, 15–16.Google Scholar

99. Collingham, , The July Monarchy, 304Google Scholar;Fugier, Anne-Martin, La Vie quotidienne de Louis-Philippe et de sa famille (Paris: Hachette, 1992), 206.Google ScholarAntonetti, Guy describes Louis Philippe as “Agnostique sans angoisse.” Louis-Philippe (Paris: Fayard, 1994), 850Google Scholar.

100. As Lucien Jaume points out, liberals were often as suspicious of associations as were conservatives—although for different reasons. See “Une Liberté en souffrance,” 82–84. Catherine Duprat agrees that the July Monarchy was less favorable toward Catholic associations than the Restoration government had been, although she denies that Catholic foundations disappeared with the July Revolution. Usage et pratiques, 1:473–83.

101. Marais, , Histoire du don, 38.Google Scholar

102. See Terrat, , Quelques considérations sur les biens de mainmorte, 19.Google Scholar

103. Klaus, , Every Child a Lion, 114–16;Google ScholarRollet-Echalier, , La Politique à l'égard de la petite enfance, 378.Google ScholarThe Archives départementales du Rhône (ADR) preserve correspondence and deliberations of the Conseil municipal de Lyon from 1873 debating this issue, especially whether the municipal government should subsidize a charity that required proof of a religious marriage on the part of the recipients of aid. See ADR 3X 1848, records of the Conseil municipal and Commission municipale, 1873.

104. Duprat, , Usages et pratiques, 2:1217.Google Scholar

105. Marais, , Histoire du don, 38–43.Google Scholar

106. Maréchal Soult was the official head of government, as the président du conseil and minister of war, but Guizot, as foreign minister, effectively controlled the government.Collingham, , The July Monarchy, 289–302Google Scholar.

107. Adams, , “Maternal Societies in France,” 88.Google Scholar

108. This translation was accessed at <http://www.readprint.com/chapter-574/Honorede- Balzac>, 30 April 2006. The original reads as follows: “On compte environ quarante mille employés en France … pour ce prix, la France obtient la plus fureteuse, la plus méticuleuse, la plus écrivassière, paperassière, inventorière, contrôleuse, vérifiante, soigneuse, enfin la plus femme de ménage des Administrations connues! Il ne se dépense pas, il ne s'encaisse pas un centime en France qui ne soit ordonné par une lettre, prouvé par une pièce, produit et reproduit sur des états de situation, payé sur quittance; puis la demande et la quittance sont enregistrées, contrôlées, vérifiées par des gens à lunettes.”See Balzac, Honoré de, Etudes de moeurs. 3e livre. Scènes de la vie parisienne, T. XI [sic]. Les Employés ou La Femme supérieure.Google ScholarDocument fourni par les editions Acamedia, <http://www.acamedia.fr.> Accessed at <www.gallica.fr>, 30 April 2006. I thank the reviewer at the Law and History Review for this reference.

109. ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Letter of 6 June 1848; ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letter of 16 June 1848.

110. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letters of 22 June and 1 July 1848.

111. See Ferdinand-Dreyfus, , L'Assistance sous la Second République, especially chap. V.Google Scholar

112. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letters of 8 and 28 December 1848; 29 January, 8, 12, and 24 February, 12 and 16 March, 28 July, 1 and 25 August, and 7 November 1849; and 27 March 1850.

113. For a list of the donations made to the Society for Maternal Charity of Bordeaux between 1843 and 1853 (and whose acceptance was delayed by its disputed legal status), see (AMB), 312 Q 1, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Conseil d'administration, Assemblée générale des bienfaiteurs de la Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, présidée par S.G. Mgr, l'Archevêque de Bordeaux, rapport sur l'exercice 1883, 13.

114. Casteljau, Faget de, Histoire du droit d'association, 319–44.Google Scholar

115. Jaume, , “La Liberté en souffrance,” 85–86.Google Scholar

116. The prefect supported the society in its resistance; he believed that it would be possible to establish an annual budget “comme une mesure de comptabilité qui peut être imposée à la Société de Bordeaux sans qu'il soit nécessaire de l'inscrire dans le règlement.” As for the “receveur salarié & soumis à une cautionnement,” he argued that the society “ne pouvant jamais manquer de trouver parmi ses membres quelqu'un d'honnête et de soluable qui se chargera gratuitement des fonctions de trésorier,” and that a paid treasurer would add nothing to the security of the society's funds. However, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of the Interior disagreed and ordered the society to bring itself into conformity with the models provided. Until then, he would not authorize acceptance of the legacies left to the society by Madame Arnozan and le Sieur Fayolle. The prefect passed the permanent secretary's message on to Madame Guestier. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letters of 12 and 16 March 1849.

117. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letter of 28 July 1849.

118. The assets were listed as follows: “Cette Société possède 2,873 francs de rente 5%, provenant de sommes à elle léguées, avec cette destination; plus, une maison dont la propriété lui a également été tranmises par testament. L'acceptation de ces divers libéralités a été autorisée par ordonnances royales.” According to the notes attached to the legal opinion, the society had been authorized to accept a bequest from Verneuilh on 31 December 1831, and from Capelle on 20 May 1834. ADG 4J 727, Correspondance, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, 1847–1874.

119. The relevant section, quoted in the legal opinion of Lacoste, St. Marc, and Vaucher reads: “… ces établissements, doivent être régularisés et surveillés et qu'en conséquence le Ministre de l'Intérieur, après s'être fait rendre compte de ces établissements, doit, par un rapport à Sa Majesté, lui soumettre leurs règlements, et la mettre à portée de décider, en son Conseil d'état quels sont ceux qu'il est nécessaire de supprimer, quels sont-ceux que l'on peut conserver et quels moyens il est convenable de prendre pour la régularisation et l'administration de ces derniers.”

120. ADG 4J 727, Legal opinion rendered by Lacoste, St. Marc, and Vaucher, 4 June 1850.

121. Madame Guestier had forwarded the mémoire to the prefect, noting that the consultation was prepared by “trois membres éminent de notre Barreau,” who were in complete agreement with the contention of the administrative council that their society “est regulièrement et légalement organisée et qu'elle est apte à recueillir des libéralités comme à faire tous autres actes de la vie civile, sans être préalablement réorganisée et reconnue établissement d'utilité publique.” ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, Statuts et règlements, Letters of 3 August 1850 and 20 February 1851.

122. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, Statuts et règlements, Letter of 8 March 1851.

123. Ibid. Letter of 11 March 1851.

124. Ibid. Letter of 20 September 1853.

125. Payne, Howard C., The Police State of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1851–1860 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966), 153.Google Scholar

126. Marais, , Histoire du don, 44Google Scholar;Nourrisson, , Histoire de la liberté d'association, 2:62 and 102Google Scholar.

127. Harrison, , The Bourgeois Citizen, 32–33.Google Scholar

128. Victoire Bidegain, “L'Origine d'une réputation: l'image de l'impératrice Eugénie dans la société française du Second Empire (1853–1870),” inFemmes dans la cité, 61Google Scholar.

129. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, demande de déclaration d'utilité publique, 1842–1854, Letters of 12 April and 20 October 1854.

130. See Delaunay, Paul, La Société de charité maternelle du Mans et ses origines (Le Mans: Imprimerie Monnoyer, 1911), 20.Google Scholar

131. ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, Statuts et règlements, Letter of 16 April 1853.

132. Ibid. Decree signed by Napoleon, 24 February 1855. A modification was made to Article 10 of the statutes: the empress wanted to retain the right to name the president and vice-president of the society herself. Letter of 5 March 1855.See also ADG 4J 727, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Statuts et règlement (Bordeaux, 1909), 9–10.Google ScholarThe bylaws were adopted by the administrative council on 28 March 1854. See page 13. The minister of the interior had informed the prefect in a letter sent on 27 May 1853 that only the statutes needed imperial approval. When the prefect forwarded approval of the statutes to Madame Guestier on 8 March 1855, he noted that he would now need to approve the bylaws that had been adopted by the Conseil d'administration on 28 March 1854. However, the minister noted on 8 May 1855 that he had found a couple of problems with the bylaws as submitted, and they needed to be brought into conformity with Article 18 of the statutes.

133. ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Letter of 5 November 1848.

134. Ibid. Letter of 23 December 1848.

135. Ibid. Letter of 15 January 1849.

136. See ibid. Letters of 16 and 31 March, 18, 27 and 28 April, 12 and 19 May, 18 June, 4 July, and 8 August 1849; and 9 February 1850.

137. Ibid. Decree issued by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the Republic, 2 January 1851.

138. Ibid. Statuts de la Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Articles 9, 12 and 13; Règlement de la Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Articles 12 and 14.

139. Merriman's, JohnPolice Stories: Building the French State, 1815–1851 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006),CrossRefGoogle Scholaris a particularly effective look at this process of centralization, in this case, examining the evolution of the provincial commissaires de police.

140. Payne, , The Police State of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 3–4.Google ScholarAs Christopher Tomlins points out, the paradigm of “police” as a function of the state suggested “purposive administrative activity” to promote human happiness, the public good, and eventually, social order. Tomlins, “Law, Police, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” 6–11.

141. This was not true only in the case of “strong” or highly centralized states, like France. William Novak argues that there was also a strong connection between purportedly independent voluntary associations and the machinery of the government in the United States. “The American Law of Association,” esp. 171–72.

142. See Gerson, , The Pride of Place, chap. 8.Google Scholar

143. Smith, , Creating the Welfare State in France, 40–41.Google Scholar

144. Cass, Lewis, France: Its King, Court and Government (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1840), 74–75.Google Scholar

145. See, for example, ADBR X2 26, Société de charité maternelle de Marseille, Correspondance, 1844–1858, Decree issued by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the Republic, 2 January 1851; and ADG 3X 16, Société de charité maternelle de Bordeaux, Correspondance, Statuts et règlements, Decree signed by Napoleon, 24 February 1855.

146. Béquet, , Répertoire du droit administratif, 2:459.Google Scholar

147. Adams, , “Maternal Societies in France,” 87–88.Google Scholar

148. Marais, , Histoire du don, 29.Google Scholar

149. Nourrisson, , Histoire de la liberté d'association.Google Scholar

150. Harrison, , The Bourgeois Citizen, 233.Google ScholarPeter Mandler notes that, over the course of the nineteenth century, “Not only the receiving but also the giving of charity was recast as a domestic function. Early in the century, men and women of the middle classes collaborated in charitable activity, and public relief schemes were run by men only. In the latter half of the century, when most premodern public relief facilities had been extinguished, the organization (and, increasingly, the funding) of charity was largely a private and female function.”See “Poverty and Charity in the Nineteenth-Century Metropolis: An Introduction,” in The Uses of Charity: The Poor on Relief in the Nineteenth-Century Metropolis, ed. Mandler, Peter (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1990), 20Google Scholar.

151. Duprat, , “Le Silence des femmes,” 90.Google Scholar

152. See Smith, , Ladies of the Leisure Class, 134–35.Google Scholar

153. For a more detailed discussion of this conflict,see Adams, , “Maternal Societies in France,” 101Google Scholar.