DECAZE (Élie, comte), Minister of the Interior under Louis X - Lot 34

DECAZE (Élie, comte), Minister of the Interior under Louis XVIII (1780-1860). [Rapport au roi sur l'état des prisons]. Paris, 1819. Signed manuscript. In-4, 20.5 x 31.5 cm, 10 ff. on laid paper, paperback. Manuscript of the famous "Rapport au roi relatif à la Société royale pour l'amélioration des prisons" (Report to the King on the Royal Society for the Improvement of Prisons), which led to the creation of the Society, chaired by the Duc d'Angoulême, in April 1819. It is signed by Decaze, with a handwritten apostille signed by Louis XVIII, in the margin of the last page "approuvé. Louis". The future Duke Decazes, a lawyer, was advisor to Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and to Madame Mère. A supporter of the Restoration, he was appointed Prefect of Police in July 1815. Noticed by Louis XVIII, he joined the government as Minister of Police two months later. Close to the King, he held the Interior Ministry from December 1818 to February 1820, before becoming President of the Council. The aim of this society was to make proposals to "ensure the proper administration of prisons in France [in accordance] with the great and beneficent views of improvement which Your Majesty has often expressed to me". During its short existence, it advocated innovative ideas, notably in favor of the education of young prisoners and prison labor as a means of inmate reform and rehabilitation.