At the head of the administrative government of each maritime division is a Vice-admiral bearing the title of 'Préfet maritime.' According to the budget estimates for 1889 the French navy, in all its departments, had 15 vice-admirals; 30 rear-admirals; 100 captains of first-class men-of-war; 200 captains of frigates; 350 lieutenants; 420 ensigns; 305 cadets; and 27,506 warrant officers and men, besides naval engineers, constructors, surgeons, dockyard police, &c. Including officers, there are 19,565 men in the marine infantry, and 5,774 in the marine artillery.

The total sum allotted in the budget of 1889 for the navy is 220,873,804 francs. The total value of the French fleet on January 1, 1888, is estimated in the budget at 502,000,000 francs. Area and Population.

The following statement gives the area and population of France at the census enumerations of May 1866, of May 1872, of December 31, 1876, of December 18, 1881, and of May 30, 1886 :—

The decrease in area and population between 1866 and 1872 was due to the cessions made to Germany in the terms of the Treaty of Peace concluded May 10, 1871. By its terms France lost one entire department, that of the Bas-Rhin; two arrondissements, with fractions of a third, of the adjoining department of the Haut-Rhin; and the greater portion of the department of the Moselle. The increase of population between 1872 and 1876 was ascribed in part to immigration from the provinces ceded to Germany. Between 1872 and 1876 there was an increase in the population of 802,867, or 2.2 per cent. in four years, equal to 5 per cent. per annum. Between 1876 and 1881 the increase was 766,260, or 2.1 per cent. in five years, equal to 42 per cent. per annum, and between 1881 and 1886 the increase was 546,855, or at the rate of 29 per cent. per annum. In 1851 the population of France was 35,783,170, and in 1801, 27,445,297.

The following table gives the area, in English square miles, and the legal population (i.e. including those temporarily absent) of the present 87 departments of France-or 86, excluding the small district of Belfort, remnant of the old department of Rhin-according to the ensus returns of December 18, 1881, and May 30, 1886:

In 1886 there were 362 arrondissements, 2,871 cantons, and 36,121 communes in France; the number of communes is constantly on the increase by the creation of new ones.

The population present on the 18th of December 1886 numbered 37,930,759-18,900,312 males and 19,030,447 females, the excess of females over males being less than in any other State of Western Europe. The number of families (ménages) was 10,563,782, being

an average of 3.9 individuals to a family. The number of dwellinghouses was 7,706,137, containing 4.93 persons on an average.

Of the total population, 1,230,000 of the inhabitants of Brittany are estimated, unofficially, as speaking the Breton Celtic, and of these, 768,000 are stated not to understand French. In the Pyrenean departments are 116,000 Basques, and in Corsica and Nice about 300,000 Italian-speaking population.

The increase of population between 1881 and 1886, amounting to 546,855, did not extend over all the departments. In 32 departments there was a decline of population (as compared with 34 between the two previous censuses) amounting in all to 110,838, the greatest in Orne, which had 8,878 inhabitants less in 1886 than in 1881.

The increase of population in France within the last century and a half has been comparatively less than in any other State of Western Europe. The natural increase, from the surplus of births over deaths, amounted, when at its highest, between the years 1820 and 1830, to not quite 280,000 per annum, and during part of the decennial period 1850-60 sank to 51,200 per annum. In 1870 and 1871 the deaths exceeded the births, the excess of deaths amounting to 103,394 in 1870, and to 444,889 in 1871, due mainly no doubt to the war. The birth-rate per hundred inhabitants was 3.11 in 1827, and had fallen to 2.62 in 1868. It fell to 2.57 per cent. in 1869, and to 2:26 per cent. in 1871, and was 2.61 in 1873, 2.64 in 1875, 2.38 in 1886, and 2.35 in 1887 of living births—a birth-rate lower than that of any other country in Europe.

The following table, compiled from the last official returns, gives the number of births, deaths, and marriages, with the surplus of births over deaths, in each of the ten years from 1878 to 1887:

Not included under either the births or deaths of the above table are the still-born. The number of still-born was 39,778 in 1863,

and, gradually increasing, reached 43,875 in the year 1879, 43,581 in 1886, and 42,930 in 1887. The living births of 1887 consisted of 825,479 legitimate, and of 73,854 illegitimate children, the latter forming 8.20 per cent. of the total. In the capital, represented by the department of the Seine, the proportion of illegitimate children was 26.77 in the year 1880, 24.5 in 1885, 24:41 in 1886, and 24:44 in 1887. In thirty-seven departments the deaths were in excess of the births in 1887: for example, in Bouches-du-Rhône the excess is 718; Calvados, 1,864; Eure, 2,432; Lot-et-Garonne, 1,618; Manche, 1,232; Orne, 2,950; Var, 797; Somme, 110; Seine-et-Oise, 1,636; Rhone, 539. In the 37 departments the excess of deaths over births was 31,399, while in the remainder the excess of births over deaths was 87,935. The suicides have increased from 4,661 in 1861 to 6,741 in 1881, and 7,905 in 1885.

There is comparatively little emigration from France. The total number of emigrants from French ports to countries beyond Europe during the three years 1882-84 was 154,333, of whom, however, only 14,969 (6,100 in 1884) were French, while 61,584 were Italians and 34,374 Swiss. In 1885 the number of emigrants was 6,013. The majority of the emigrants go to the United States and the Argentine Republic. There is little migration also within the country; at the census of 1881 it was found that of the total population, 22,702,356 were born within their communes.

In 1846 the rural population constituted 75.58 per cent. of the total, and the urban 24-42 per cent.; while in 1886 the former was 64.05 and the latter 35 95. In 1881, of the total increase of 766,260, more than two-thirds, or 561,869, belonged to the 47 towns of more than 30,000 inhabitants. The average density of the population is 187 per square mile. In the department of Seine (Paris) it is 16,000 per square mile, and in the other departments varies from 761 in Nord to 46 in Basses-Alpes.

At the census of 1886 the population was divided as follows, according to occupation: