Autograph letter signed
4to. 1¼ pp. on bifolium.
€ 200.00
Interesting letter to a subprefect of the Gard concerning Teste's schedule in the summer in connection with the legislative election on 9 July 1842 and a local election in the department. Teste excuses himself for not being able to return to his constituency for the election due to important appointments in his function as Minister of Public Works. On 26 July 1842 he was supposed to lay the first stone of the "direct line" in Strasbourg together with the Duc d'Orléans. This must be in connection with the direct train line Paris-Strasbourg that would be inaugurated in 1849. Although the company that built and operated the line was only formed in 1845, the construction of the line was codified in the law of 11 June 1842, the day the letter at hand was sent, which was the basis of the so-called Étoile de Legrand, a star-shaped system of trainlines that connected French major cities with Paris.
Teste's plans certainly changed as the crown prince Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans died in a tragic carriage-accident on 13 July 1842 and was buried on 30 July, 4 days after the constituent session of the chambers of the French parliament. Interestingly, the concession to build the Paris-Est–Strasbourg-Ville railway went to Amédée Despans-Cubières and his partners, a former general, politician, and businessman who was at the heart of the so-called Teste-Cubières scandal that erupted in 1847. Despans-Cubières had bribed Jean-Baptiste Teste to get the minister's approval for the renewal of the concession for a salt mine at Gouhenans. Teste's involvement came to light during a trial in 1847 involving Despans-Cubière's associates and he was subsequently tried and convicted to three years in prison and a fine amounting to the sum of the bribe.
On stationery with lithogr. letterhead of the "Ministère des Travaux publics".
Some browning.
