Beneficence in the Journal de Paris, 1783–1784

This article considers the way beneficence was treated in an important journal toward the end of the Old Regime. It finds that the Journal de Paris during the years 1783 and 1784 not only publicized acts of beneficence, but also mediated between members of the public who, on their own initiative, contributed to those in need and officials and organizations which in practice cared for the disadvantaged, especially a committee that freed prisoners for debts to wet nurses and the Société philanthropique of Paris. While the notion of beneficence has sometimes been found to offer a secularized version of the traditional value of charity, this article finds that in practice religious and secular people worked together to support those they deemed worthy of aid. The relation of beneficence to self-interest is also considered, and it is suggested that the initiatives of the better-off members of civil society rather than government opened the way toward something approaching a welfare state.