FRANCE. 



241 



the Naples Museum and the Durazzo Palace at 

 Genoa, and another was lately in the Ashburton 

 Collection, London. There are also numerous late 

 copies. The Princeton picture is said to have 

 been bought in Rome several years ago by a Mr. 

 Tilton, and to have previously belonged to a 

 Venetian landscape gardener, who exhibited it in 

 London and Paris. The critics pronounce it a 

 valuable work of the Venetian school of the time 

 of Titian if not by the master himself. 



The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has acquired 

 Frans Hals's Portrait of a Woman, formerly one 

 of the treasures of the collection of the Duke of 

 Buckingham. It passed thence to Mrs. Whatman, 

 of Maidstone, from whom it was purchased by 

 Lawrie & Co., of London, who sold it to T. J. 

 Blakeslee, of the Blakeslee Galleries, New York. 

 The price paid for it by the museum is said to 

 have been $30,000. The picture, which measures 

 40 'by 50 inches, is undoubtedly one of the finest 

 of the few genuine examples of the master in 

 this country. It represents a woman in a white 

 cap and broad ruff, and with white cuffs turned 

 back at wrists, seated, holding a book in the right 

 hand, and with the left on the arm of the chair. 

 It will hang in the main gallery of the museum. 



The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has also ac- 

 quired, for about $80,000, an important painting 

 by Velasquez, The Prince Balthazar Carlos and his 

 Dwarf, from the collection of the Earl of Car- 

 lisle, at Castle Howard, York. The work was 

 painted soon after Velasquez's return to Madrid 

 from his first visit to Italy, when Prince Bal- 

 thazar was about three years old. The quaint 

 baby figure, clad in a dark green skirt and coat, 

 embroidered with gold, with a white collar and 

 a steel gorget over his chest, stands in the middle 

 of the canvas. The dwarf, in the lower left-hand 

 corner, holds in his right hand a large silver rat- 

 tle, and in the left a red apple. The work be- 

 longs to Velasquez's second or intermediate pe- 

 riod. 



FLORIDA. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



FRANCE, a republic in western Europe, pro- 

 claimed Sept. 4, 1870, after the surrender of Na- 

 poleon III at Sedan. The legislative power is 

 vested in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, 

 and the executive power in the President of the 

 Republic and the Council of Ministers. The 

 Chamber and the Senate when they meet in joint 

 session form the National Assembly, which elects 

 the President of the republic for seven years and 

 has power to revise the Constitution. The Senate 

 has 300 members, elected for nine years by elect- 

 oral bodies in the departments composed of the 

 members of the departmental councils and dele- 

 gates from the communal councils, with the 

 Senators and Deputies of the department. The 

 Chamber of Deputies has 584 members, elected by 

 arrondissements, which are divided into two elect- 

 oral districts when their population exceeds 100,- 

 000. Every Frenchman twenty-one years of age 

 has the right to vote excepting soldiers in active 

 service, and every one who has fulfilled his mili- 

 tary duty is eligible excepting functionaries of 

 the state. The ministers are responsible to the 

 Chamber, and when defeated on a vote of con- 

 fidence they usually resign, in which case the 

 President of the republic selects a new Prime 

 Minister who is able to command a majority, and 

 the latter in consultation with the President 

 selects his colleagues. 



The President of the republic for the term 

 ending Feb. 18, 1906, is Emile Loubet, born Dec. 

 31, 1838. The ministry, constituted on June 22, 

 1899, was composed at the beginning of 1901 as 

 follows: President of the Council and Minister of 

 VOL. XLI. 16 A 



the Interior and of Public Wo.rsliij,. M. \Valdeck- 

 Rousseau; Minister of Finance;, M. (,'siilluux Min- 



i,.4,,.. I-.-, r.4-1 .. AT A /I . . ' . \\' - 



ister of Justice, M. Monis; Minis) i 



foreign 



Affairs, M. Delcasso; Minister of War. Gen. An- 

 dre; Minister of Marine, M. do Lanc^i n ; .vlinw- 

 ter of Public Instruction, Georges Ley^j s, Min- 

 ister of Public Works, P. Baudin; Minis). er of 

 Agriculture, Jean Dupuy; Minister of Commerce, 

 Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs, M. Millerand; 

 Minister of the Colonies, M. Decrais. 



Area and Population. The area of France is 

 204,092 square miles. The legal population at the 

 census of March 29, 1896, was 38,517,975. The 

 resident population was 38,269,011, of whom 37,- 

 014,389 were French by birth, 202,715 were natu- 

 ralized Frenchmen, and 1,051,907 were foreigners. 

 The number of marriages in 1899 was 295,752; of 

 births, 847,627; of deaths, 816,233; excess of 

 births, 31,394. The population of Paris was 

 2,536,834;. of Lyons, 466,028; of Marseilles, 442,- 

 239; of Bordeaux, 256,906; of Lille, 216,276; of 

 Toulouse, 149,963; of St. fitienne, 136,030; of 

 Roubaix, 124,661; of Nantes, 123,902; of Havre, 

 119,470; of Rouen, 113,219; of Reims, 107,963. 

 The number of divorces in 1899 was 7,179, making 

 a total of 87,269 since the divorce law was en- 

 acted in 1884. The quinquennial census taken 

 on March 23, 1901, shows the population of France 

 to be 38,641,333, an increase of 412,364, compared 

 with 133,819 between 1891 and 1896. Paris shows 

 an increase of 148,000; Marseilles increased by 

 47,000; Havre by 11,000. 



Finances. The budget estimate of revenue for 

 1900 was 3,547,932,981 francs, of which 3,492,014,- 

 270 francs were receipts in France and 55,918,711 

 francs revenue collected in Algeria. Of the re- 

 ceipts in France 185,842,339 francs were from the 

 land tax, 96,821,864 francs from the personal and 

 property tax, 62,005,143 francs from -the tax on 

 doors and windows, 132,206,471 francs from li- 

 censes, and 1,068,350 francs from the first adver- 

 tisement, making the total from direct contribu- 

 tions 477,944,167 francs; 7,106,700 francs came 

 from taxes on property in mainmort, 2,730,070 

 francs from mining royalties, 5,240,000 francs 

 from verification of weights and measures, 336,- 

 000 francs from inspection of pharmacies, etc., 12,- 

 929,480 francs from the tax on horses and car- 

 riages, and 9,434,899 francs from the taxes on 

 societies, billiard-tables, velocipedes, etc., and the 

 military tax, making the total from taxes assimi- 

 lated to direct contributions 37,777,149 francs; 52,- 

 523,300 francs were the income from domains and 

 forests, 21,647,300 francs coming from domains and 

 30,876,000 francs from forests; 533,085,001 francs 

 came from registration, 184,536,201 francs from 

 stamps, 5,104,501 francs from the tax on bourse 

 operations, 70,647,500 francs from the tax on in- 

 come from securities, 445,148,850 francs from cus- 

 toms, 401,584,000 francs being import duties, 

 7,209,000 francs charges for statistics, 7,899,000 

 francs navigation dues, 6,013,850 francs divers 

 other dues, and 22,443,000 francs the tax on im- 

 ported salt; 659,867,000 francs came from indirect 

 taxation, 508,128,000 francs being the tax on 

 drinks, 11,219,000 francs the salt tax, 5,905,000 

 francs charges on shipments of dutiable articles, 

 1,784,300 francs the duty on oil, 8,281,000 francs 

 the duty on candles, 2,856,000 francs the vinegar 

 duty, 63,741,000 francs the tax on traveling by 

 express-trains, and 52,525,700 francs various other 

 taxes; and 182,982,500 francs came from the ex- 

 cise and customs duties on sugar, making the 

 sum of the tariff and internal revenues 2,081,371,- 

 553 francs; 713,825,363 francs were the profits 

 from monopolies and Government industrial es- 

 tablishments, 448,851,000 francs coming from 



