Ordinance issued by the king concerning Government of Bourbon island and its dependencies. (21st August 1825.). Charles X (1757-1836; King of France). Paris, Royal printing press, 1825.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis radical change in fact reflects a more general tendency of mistrust in respect of the colonies by the executive power in mainland France: allowing them certain liberties as regards their administration amounted to leaving the executive power once more open to dangerous decisions taken by revolutionary colonial assemblies. In order to leave no possibility of having an excuse for sedition, power had to be concentrated in the hands of the governor, or at least apparently so. In fact, while the latter occupied a prestigious and very highly paid post, he actually had very little power over his subordinates. He could appoint virtually no civil servant without the approval of the king, while his status prevented him from creating links (for example marriage) with the settlers. Thus, any risk of connivance or conflict appeared to have been removed. The governor enjoyed a large amount of freedom as regards public order (notably concerning slavery), but regarding purely administrative issues he could do virtually nothing without the approval of the private council, which he chaired but did not control.<\/p>\n
Finally, it seems that Vill\u00e8le was the one who \u2018inspired\u2019 <\/span> the ordinance (with the active support of Desbassayns at his right hand). His intention was to reduce the autonomy of the settlers on the island, while leaving the governor with sufficient power for the latter to be able to maintain public order without it being possible for him to totally take it over or create links with the locals, which might lead to certain movements towards independence. The colony could then efficiently fulfil its role of enriching mainland France (and thus the settlers), by maintaining the system of Exclusivity, which was by no means something new. Thanks to his control over those drawing up the ordinance, Vill\u00e8le could be assured of his wishes being achieved, as well as preventing Members of Parliament from influencing the provisions of a text that might not serve his interests or those of his clan. <\/span><\/p>\nIn this respect, the ordinance has at times been highly criticised: \u201cThe private council was only set up by M. de Vill\u00e8le through the 1825 ordinance with the aim of making the governors of the colony dependent on his family and his creatures, whom he made sure occupied the majority of the Council. According to the letter of the ordinance, the governor is declared to be alone responsible, even regarding exceptional measures debated by the private council, but in reality he always gives in under the powerful influence of the faction; this is how an oligarchy threatening the freedom of all takes over all the powers on the island.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nLongevity: a synonym of success?<\/h3>\n The 1825 Royal Ordinance remained applicable for over one century, surviving two revolutions, three constitutions, four different political regimes and even the abolition of slavery. Such longevity leads us to believe that its organisation had been well thought out, to the extent that it was later adopted in several other colonies. However, this flexibility is due to the many adjustments made to the initial version of the text, adjustments due as much to political adaptations as to evolutions occurring in the colony itself.<\/p>\n
Application of the ordinance in other colonies<\/h4>\n Very soon, the three other \u201cold colonies\u201d were given a new administrative organisation based on that applied on Bourbon island <\/span>:The main modifications applied to the text for Reunion<\/h4>\n As from 1828, small amendments were brought to the text, with the aim of adapting it to the important reform of the local system of justice. <\/span>s\u00e9natus-consulte<\/em> (consulting senate), itself modified on 4th July 1866. <\/span> Only the role of public prosecutor was conserved. As regards the Colonial Controller, as from 1833, he was renamed \u201cColonial Inspector\u201d. This function was finally abolished in 1873.Saint-Denis, Government residence (now the Prefecture). Jean Legros. 1955-1960. Photograph. In application of the law dated 19th March 1946, Reunion became a French department and, through the decree dated 7th June 1947, was granted a Prefect. <\/span> On 15th August, the governor Andr\u00e9 Capagorry was replaced by Paul Demange, the first Prefect of the department of Reunion. The colonial organisation was abolished, which put an end to the Royal Ordinance of 21st August 1825.<\/p>\nLearn more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6595,"parent":8176,"menu_order":10,"template":"","class_list":["post-8173","documentaire","type-documentaire","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire\/8173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/documentaire"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire\/8176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}