The officers

The Reform of 1720 created an institution divided within itself. On one side of an unbridgeable gap were the men appointed to the lower ranks who could be dismissed at will. On the other side were the officers, who retained the right to buy their posts and leave them to their heirs. These ‘cowardly intruders scarcely amenable to discipline’, it was claimed, the result of police work remaining a venal occupation, would bring about ‘the bastardization of a force which should be vigorous, proud and terrifying to Rogues’. The government could see the problem, and imposed an important proviso to the right of survivance. When the Riom Lieutenant du Jouannel was retired in 1742, the Minister of War refused to confirm the appointment as successor of his son, on the grounds that he had had no previous military experience. The nominee of the intendant and prévôt-général, the Sr Cellier, one of the army's accountants for ten years and treasurer of the maréchaussée itself for a further thirteen, was rejected for the same reasons and du Jouannet was told to find a buyer within a period of six months. After a year had elapsed the Minister asked Rossignol, the intendant, to look for a suitable candidate, for ‘in the sales made by private contract, there are always arrangements which are harmful to the service and which eliminate the best candidates’.