The French Prefectorial Corps 1814-1830

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 ...