Chamber of high treason, in which case the Senate acts as a High Court of Justice. The same function is vested in the Senate for all other cases of high treason.

Senators and Deputies are paid 9,000 francs (£360) a year, and the Presidents of the two Chambers receive, in addition, 72,000 francs (£2,840) for the expense of entertainment. Members of both Chambers travel free on all railways by means of a small annual payment. The dotation of the President of the Republic is 600,000 francs, with a further allowance of 600,000 francs for his expenses.

France has, besides, a special institution under the name of Conseil d'Etat, which was introduced by Napoleon I., and has been maintained since. It is presided over by the Minister of Justice or (in his absence) by a vice-president, and is composed of Councillors, Masters of Requests (Maîtres de Requêtes), and Auditors, all appointed by the President of the Republic. Its duty is to give opinion upon such questions, chiefly those connected with administration, as may be submitted to it by the Government. It is judge in the last resort in administrative suits, and it prepares the rules for the public administration.

The Arbitration Treaty of October 14, 1903, provides for the settlement of differences of a juridical order or such as relate to the interpretation of treaties, but do not affect the vital interests or honour of the two states, nor the interests of a third power, by arbitration.

II. LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

For administrative purposes France is divided into 86 departments, or 87 if the territory of Belfort (a remnant of the department of Haut-Rhin) be considered as a separate department. Since 1881 the three departments of Algeria are also treated, for most purposes, as part of France proper. The department has representatives of all the Ministries, and is placed under a Prefect, nominated by Government, and having wide and undefined functions. He is assisted by a Prefectorial Council, an administrative body, whose advice he may take without being bound to follow it. The Prefect is a representative of the Executive, and, as such, supervises the execution of the laws, issues police regulations, supplies information on matters which concern the department, nominates subordinate officials, and has under his control all officials of the State. There is a Sub-prefect in every arrondissement, except in those containing the capitals of departments and the department of the Seine.

The unit of local government is the commune, the size and population of which vary very much. There are 36,192 communes, and new ones cannot be created otherwise than by law. Most of them (31,690) have less than 1,500 inhabitants, and 18,471 have even less than 500; while 124 communes only have more than 20,000 inhabitants. The local affairs of the commune are under a Municipal Council, composed of from 10 to 36 members, elected by universal suffrage, and by the scrutin de liste for 4 years by Frenchmen after 21 years and 6 months' residence; but each act of the Council must receive the approval of the Prefect, while many must be submitted to the Council

General, or even to the President of the Republic, before becoming lawful. Even the Commune's quota of direct taxation is settled by persons (répartiteurs) chosen by the Prefect from among the lists of candidates drawn up by tle Municipal Council.

Each Municipal Council elects a Mayor, who is both the representative of the commune and the agent of the central government. He is the head of the local police and, with his assistants, acts under the orders of the Prefec*.

In Paris the Municipal Council is composed of 80 members; each of the 20 arrondissements into which the city is subdivided has its own Mayor. The place of the Mayor of Paris is taken by the Prefect of the Seine, and, in part, by the Prefect of Police. Lyons has an elected Mayor, but the control of the police is vested in the Prefect of the department of the Rhone.

The next unit is the canton (2,908 in France), which is composed of an average of 12 communes, although some of the largest communes are, on the contrary, divided into several cantons. It is a seat of a justice of the peace, but is not an administrative unit.

The district, or arrondissement (362 in France), has an elected conseil d'arrondissement, with as many members as there are cantons, its chief function being to allot among the communes their respective parts in the direct taxes assigned to each arrondissement by the Council General. That body stands under the control of the Sub-prefect. A varying number of arrondissements form a department, which has its conseil général renewed by universal suffrage to the extent of one-half every three years (one Councillor for each canton). These conseils deliberate upon all economical affairs of the department, the repartition of the direct taxes among the arrondissements, the roads, normal schools, and undertakings for the relief of the poor. Their decisions are controlled by the Prefect, and may be annulled by the President of the Republic.

Area and Population.

I. PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDITION.

The area of France has changed but little since the treaties of 1815. In 1860, after the Italian War, it was increased by the annexation of Savoie and Nice from Italy; and by the treaty of May 10, 1871, France lost the entire department of the Bas-Rhin, two arrondissements, with a fraction of a third, of the Haut-Rhin, and the greater portion of the department of Moselle, making altogether an area of 5,590 square miles and 1,600,000 inhabitants, part of whom emigrated into France during the next few years.

The legal population of France at the census of March 29, 1896, was 38,517,332; at the census of March 24, 1901, it was 38,961,945. The population present at the date of the census of 1896 was 38,228,969; at that of 1901 it was 38,600,000 (19,087,000 males and 19,513,000 females). The following table. gives for the 87 departments, the legal population at the date of each enumeration :

Q Q

Notwithstanding a moderate death-rate, the population of France increases more slowly than that of most States of Western Europe, owing to the low rate of births. Between the years 1811 and 1820 the average annual surplus of births over deaths was 57 per thousand of population; between 1851 and 1860 it was 29; and between 1881 and 1885 it was 16. The average number of births per marriage was (1881-85) about 3; in 1891 it was 2.1.

The changes of area and population since 1801 (date of the first census taken) are seen from the following table. The third, fourth, and fifth columns give [in brackets] for the first five censuses the population, its density, and its

average annual increase on the present territory of France, and are thus compar able with the data for the censuses posterior to the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.

The foreigners residing in France in 1901 numbered 1,037,778; in 1896 1,051,907. În 1901 Paris contained 45,765 naturalised Frenchmen and 157,565 foreigners. Among the latter, the nationalities most numerously represented were:

According to the results of the census of 1891, the actual population according to occupations was as follows: