ABOUT A PARISIAN
Road guards

The study of history makes you humble. It proves that our ancients were smart, perhaps smarter than us. You will see how much!
I read, with a little delay, the story of a ceremony which just took place a few days ago, in the suburbs, under the presidency of Mr. Brunet, president of the general council, and Mr. Poncet, mayor. We celebrated the gardes-messiers of Montreuil (Seine).
These “gardes-messiers” have existed in the small town, on the outskirts of Paris, since the year 1369. An institution that has lasted for 554 years is entitled to our hat tip.
Montreuil has always been a land of small crops, responsible for supplying the big city with its fruits, vegetables and cereals. Harvest thieves have always been rife there. Given the size of the municipality, a paid policy would have been insufficient or too expensive. It was then that, thanks to an edict from Charles V, the first company of “gardes-messiers”, that is to say harvest guards, was organized in Montreuil. They were volunteers chosen from among those interested. They had the right to monitor and fine. The result was excellent.
Why, copying this ancient institution, would we not create, for the road police, so difficult, because of the extent of the territory, road guards, as Charles V organized his gardes-messiers? Motorists, carefully chosen from among serious volunteers, would have the right to issue citations against traffic offenders. Order, therefore, would quickly reign on our roads. This would be an effective and free policy.
Note that the idea of road guards came to many specialists who reflect on the difficulties of implementing the highway code; but we are routine, enemies of innovations; and this is why, recalling the guardsmen of Montreuil, it is not bad, both for those who only decide to march when they are certain to follow, and for those who ask for precedents for everything, to show that the new idea is old.

Louis Forest