PRUD'HOMMES, COUNCIL OF (from Latin homo prudens), municipal tribunals. which existed first in the middle ages at Marseilles, Lyons, and perhaps elsewhere in France, exercising an equitable jurisdiction as arbiters of disputes• between masters and work men. Similar tribunals, under the same name, were re-introduced by Napoleon I. in 1806, and have been found of great practical utility. exist—or recently existed— in Lyons and Paris. They were instituted in the former town in 1806, in favor of the silk trade and other trades immediately connected with it. The council consists of manufacturers, mercers, master-workmen, foremen, dyers, and common workmen, elected among themselves. The council is empowered to dispose finally of all differ ences between manufacturers and their workmen, or between master-workmen, corn paulons, and apprentices, where the sum in dispute does not exceed 200 francs; and it may also take cognizance, subject to an appeal to the tribunal of commerce or tribunal of first instance, of similar disputes. whatever their amount. Other functions of a
miscellaneous nature belong to the council of prud'hommes, including the inspection of the workshops, in order to obtain information regarding the number of looms and of workmen, and the giving an opinion, when required by the administrative authorities, on any question submitted to it. In 1844 a council of prud'hommes was established in Paris in favor of the metal trade, and all trades connected with it; and three new coun cils of the same kind were instituted in Paris in 1847—one connected with the manufac ture of tissues of ad kinds, another with the manufacture of chemicals, and a third having jurisdiction in all other trades.