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The French penal institutions consist, first, of Houses of Arrest (3,094 chambres de sûreté and 35 dépôts de sûreté). Next come 380 Departmental Prisons, also styled maisons d'arrêt, de justice and de correction, where both persons awaiting trial and those condemned to less than one year's imprisonment are kept, as also a number of boys and girls transferred from, or going to be transferred to, reformatories. The reformatories are 11 for boys and 3 for girls, belonging to the State, and 12 for boys and 7 for girls rented to private persons and institutions. The Central Prisons (maisons de force et de correction), where all prisoners condemned to more than one year's imprisonment are kept, provided with large industrial establishments for the work of prisoners, are 12 for men and 3 for women. To the same category belong 2 agricultural penitentiaries for men in Corsica.

All persons condemned to hard labour and many condemned to 'reclusion' are sent to New Caledonia or Guiana (military and récidivistes); the dépôt de forçats of St. Martin-de-Ré is a dépôt for transferred hard-labour convicts. The prison population in France on December 31, 1901, consisted of 6,097 men and 708 women condemned to lengthened imprisonment, 13,681 men and 2,125 women condemned to short imprisonment; 3,568 boys and 690 girls in reformatories, 44 prisoners in houses of arrest, and 120 in the dépôt for hard labour prisoners; total 27,039 prisoners. There are about 13,000 in New Caledonia and Guiana.

Pauperism.

In France the poor are assisted partly through public bureaux de bienfaisance' and partly by private and ecclesiastical charity. They are partly under the care of the communes and partly of the departments, both of which contribute, and ultimately under the supervision of Government. The funds of the bureaux de bienfaisance' are partly derived from endowments, partly from communal contributions, and partly from public and private charity. In 1902 these bureaux expended 44,882,917 francs, and assisted 1,390,251 persons. Public assistance is rendered to poor or destitute children.

At the end of 1902 the institutions for this purpose contained 117,406 children; their expenditure during the year 1902 amounted to 29,642,292 francs. In 1902 the hospitals for the sick, infirm, aged, or infants, numbered 1,774; they contained 174,161 beds, and at the end of the year had 59,594 patients, besides 68,485 aged and infirm inmates; their expenditure for 1902 amounted to 148,810,191 francs. At the end of 1902 the asylums for imbeciles, national, departmental, and private, had 69,271 patients.

Finance.

I. STATE FINANCE.

The ordinary revenue of France is derived chiefly from direct and indirect taxation and from State factories and monopolies. About 15 per cent. of the revenue is from direct taxes, of which the more important are the real property tax (contribution foncière) levied on lands and on buildings; trade licences, and a variety of taxes, including taxes on property in mortmain, on royalties

rom mines, on carriages and horses, verification of weights and measures, the military tax, and the tax on velocipedes. About 57 per cent. of the revenue is from indirect taxes, of which the most important are those on registration (of changes in the ownership of property, obligations, &c.), stamps, customs; the State monopolies and domains yield about 21 per cent. of the revenue. For departmental and communal purposes additional centimes' are levied in association with both branches of the land tax and with the personal and property tax, doors and windows tax, trade licences, and taxes on carriages, horses, velocipedes.

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The total revenue and expenditure for the years 1901 and 1902 as shown in the General Budget for 1905 were as follows:

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The following tables show the budget estimates of the revenue and expenditure for 1905 and the estimates adopted for 1904 :

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The estimated expenditure on subventions to various French industries is shown in the following table for 5 years :

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The following figures, published in May, 1904, do not include the 'budget sur ressources spéciales,' and represent the actual verified revenue (inclusive of loans) and expenditure for 10 years :-

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The accounts of revenue and expenditure are examined by an administrative tribunal (Cour des Comptes).

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Since 1869 the ordinary budget has more than doubled, but outside the ordinary budgets are comptes spéciaux,' or budgets for special purposes, such as the expedition to China in 1900. The extra-budgetary expenditure on railways in the 25 years, ending 1899, amounted to 1,315 million francs, or an average of 52,600,000 francs a year. To the budget of 1905 is annexed a statement, showing the deficits of the ordinary budgets from the period anterior to 1814 down to the end of 1903, as follows:

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These figures, however, do not represent the actual deficits arising from the difference between the ordinary revenue and the total expenditure, nor even those arising from the differences between the total revenue and total expenditure. Moreover, almost uninterruptedly, so as to make it the rule and not the exception, the budgets voted by the representatives of the nation have

shown a small surplus, while the 'compte définitif,' published a number of years afterwards, has exhibited a large deficit.

The following table shows the progress of the French national debt and its yearly charge since 1800:

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On January 1, 1904, the debt of France stood approximately as follows:

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The following table shows the interest and annuities to be paid under the various heads of the public debt, according to the budget estimates for 1905 :-

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The total debt amounts to 1,215,001,8007. sterling, and the interest and annuities to 48,813,4007., or the capital is about 317. 3s. 8d. per head, and the charge about 17. 5s. per head of population.

II. LOCAL FINANCE.

For 1901 the revenue of the departments of France amounted to 334,478,805 francs, and the expenditure to 333,060,969 francs. The departmental debt stood at 496,433,054 francs. For 1903 the ordinary revenue of the communes amounted to 815,485,482 francs, and expenditure to 784,575,915 francs, while the debt on December 31, 1902, amounted to 3,834,103,182 francs. For the year 1904 the revenue of the City of Paris was put at 322,166,868 francs, and the expenditure to the same amount. Of the receipts, 109,828,800 francs were from the octroi. Of the expenditure 116 million francs were for municipal debt charges. The debt of Paris in 1903 amounted to 2,297,698, 891 francs.

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