The difficult birth of the 1841 law gave a hint of the obstacles to come during the period of enforcement. The crusading fervour of the reformers had exposed the complacent attitude to child labour of Ministers in the Government, and the opposition to State intervention of many industrialists. The passage of the law did at the outset provoke a flurry of activity within the administration. A body of Inspectors was created, and a campaign of enforcement launched at both the national and the municipal levels. Nonetheless, the early experience of social legislation was fraught with difficulties, against which successive régimes made little headway.

The period of illusions and disappointments, 1841–3

In August of 1841 the Minister of Commerce requested Prefects to draw up lists of firms covered by the 1841 law, and others to which it might usefully be extended. The Prefects in turn consulted the Mayor of each commune, and examples of their replies survive in all of the major manufacturing areas. The Minister then set about organizing a system of inspection. He chose to ignore the considerable pressure for salaried Inspectors, on the lines of those established in Britain by the 1833 law. Instead he opted for voluntary, unpaid Commissions of Inspection, recruited mostly from the notables of industry, commerce and the liberal professions. The twelve members of the Commission covering the arrondissement of Colmar, for example, included three manufacturers, three doctors, two lawyers, a landowner, a former merchant and a retired army officer.