Police and Education in the 18th Century France : N.Delamare and his Successors

Abstract

This is a historical study on police and education in the 18th century France. In the ancien regime, different from today, police treated all marginal problems; immorality, insanity, pauperism, and so on. M. Foucault often emphasized its importance, but police have been largely neglected in historical research on education. Even if education was studied by police, it was frequently mistaken for discipline without sufficient historical sources. This paper concretely defines police by examining famous texts on police by J. J. Rousseau, Montesquieu and N. Delamare. Initially, the concept of police was referred to in the political writings of Rousseau and Montesquieu. Both orthodox historians and Foucault curiously made no mention of the relation between police and them, though Rousseau often used the word 'police' and Montesquieu allotted one ohapter of De I'Esprit de Lois to police. For example, Rousseau said that police were close to the education of children. According to Montesquieu, the affairs of police covered everything trivial, and must quickly be brought to conclusions not by law but by regulation. These are important sources on police. In addition, I discuss police administration by use of Delamare's work. Nicolas Delamare(1639-1725) was a professional police officer. His Traite de la Police(1705-1719) is the most interesting source to know facts regarding police. Delamare said that police aimed at all details to make people happy in their life. It was the art of government to promote welfare. He regarded many things as its object for this purpose: religion, custom, health, food, security, highway, science, commerce, manufacture, domestic affairs, and paupers. The category of police also included education: College, charity school, child care and lettres de cachet. All these things were objectives of police administration. College were so dangerous that police inspected them to prevent disorder. Charity school also experienced many disturbances not only by students, but also by parents. Many teachers were insulted, threatened and even attacked in the classroom by parents, and police orders heavily fined them. Child care was the most important problem of police. Orphanages and shortage of wetnurse were social problems in Paris. In 1769, lieutenant Generale de Police established public institutions for wetnurses. Furthermore, dealing with lettres de cachet was also the duty of police lieutenants. Many families petitioned police to protect themselves from troublesome members by this warrant. It must be emphasized that education was a police objective. Its administration by police was considered from various aspects such as poor relief, public health, and prevention of crime. Police thought of education as a part of the total government to improve social welfare. In this history, moreover, family grew to be a main field of action to defend society through education. Any trivial disorder must be purged from family, because social disorder came from there. This felicity of families was considered essential not only to personal life but also to societal life. The strategy of education by police focused on family against social marginality; family must be filled with moral, health and wealth by police.