A document signed 'Napoléon', confirming the appointment of a Lutheran pastor

Very Good. Folio (314 × 201 mm), one page of printed text with manuscript insertions, on 'Ministere de l'Instruction publique et des Cultes' letterhead, 10 May 1856. The lengthy decree is written in a neat secretarial hand; two folds, a few creases and short sealed tears at the top and bottom edges; slight traces of prior mounting on the verso; in very good condition. The decree confirms the appointment of Georges Frédéric Fallot as Lutheran pastor in the parish of Dampierre-les-Bois near Audincourt, Doubs. It is countersigned by Hippolyte Fortoul, Ministre de l'Instruction publique et des Cultes. The decree was apparently cancelled soon after it was issued; it is crossed out, with the word 'annulé' added in ink in the left-hand margin, and a pencilled cross through the blank registration stamp. Napoleon III, 'the nephew of Napoleon I, was the first President of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last French monarch from 1852 to 1870. First elected president of the French Second Republic in 1848, he seized power in 1851, when he could not constitutionally be re-elected, and became the Emperor of the French. He founded the Second French Empire and was its only emperor until the defeat of the French army and his capture by Prussia and its allies in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870' (Wikipedia).

Provenance: Collection of The Hon Barry Jones AC.