364 



FRANCE. 



William Marvin, late Provisional Governor of the 

 State of Florida, whereby he has been relieved of the 

 trust heretofore imposed in him, and directed to de- 

 liver into your Excellency's possession the papers 

 and property relating to that trust. 



I have the honor to tender to you the cooperation 

 of the Government of the United States whenever it 

 mav be found necessary in effecting the early resto- 

 ration and the permanent prosperity and welfare of 

 the State over which you have been called to preside. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, your 

 most obedient servant, 



W. HUNTER, Acting Secretary. 



On transferring the office to Governor "Wjalker, 

 Provisional Governor Marvin thus described 

 the condition of affairs : 



It is not intended that the militia or volunteer 

 troops shall appear under arms before they have re- 

 ceived special orders from myself or the Constitu- 

 tional Governor, unless hi some unforeseen case of 

 justifiable necessity. The admirable disposition 

 made of the white troops of the United States by the 

 General in command will secure the peace and quiet 

 of the State, if the civil authorities do their duty, as 

 I have no doubt they will. The colored troops have 

 nearly all been removed from the interior of the State 

 to the seaboard, and I am assured that the remainder 

 will be just as soon as the interest of the public ser- 

 vice will permit it. 



He represented the State Government as en- 

 tering on its new career under great difficulty 

 and embarrassment. The people were greatly 

 impoverished by the war and poorly prepared 

 to pay taxes. The State Treasury was empty. 

 Taxes upom the lands of the State were due to 

 the United States Treasury nearly to the amount 

 of $77,520. The labor of the State was dis- 

 organized and demoralized, and the whole 

 fabric of society more or less disturbed by the 

 constant friction and irritation produced by the 

 new state of affairs. Martial law continued 

 to exist for the higher crimes, and might at any 

 time be extended. He recommended that the 

 Treasury should be replenished by taxation, and 

 that a temporary loan should be obtained for 

 immediate necessities. He further said : " We 

 need to look calmly, dispassionately, and ear- 

 nestly at our real and true condition, and realize 

 it in all its force, and then we ought patiently, 

 enduringly, and faithfully to labor to improve 

 it" 



FRANCE, an empire in Europe: Emperor, 

 Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.), born April 20, 

 1808, chosen hereditary Emperor by a "Ple- 

 biscite" of 7,864,189 against 231,145 votes, 

 November 21 and 22, 1852 : son, Napoleon 

 Eug6ne Louis Jean Joseph, born March 16, 

 1856. 



There are in the Government of France five 

 divisions : the Emperor, the Ministers, the 

 Council of State, the Senate, and the Legisla- 

 tive Body (Corps Legislatif). The Ministers, 

 the Members of the Council of State, and those 

 of the Senate, are all nominated solely by the 

 Emperor. The Senate is to consist of no more 

 than one hundred and fifty members, and the 

 Cardinals, Marshals, and Admirals of the Em- 

 pire belong to it by right of their dignity. The 

 members of the Legislative Body are elected 



for the term of six years by general suffrage, at 

 the rate of one member to every 35,000 

 electors. The Legislative Body, which was 

 chosen in 1863, consists of three hundred and 

 eighty-three members. Its President is Count 

 Walewski, appointed September 1, 1865. At 

 the general election, in 1863, the combined 

 Opposition succeeded in electing about thirty- 

 five of its candidates. Since then, until Jan- 

 uary, 1866, twenty-seven partial elections have 

 been held in the Departments of the Cote d'Or, 

 Seine, Pyrenees Orientales, Bas-Rhin, Vosges, 

 Nord, Gard, Dordogne, Ardeche, Aude, Bas-de- 

 Calais, Finisterre, Charente Infdrieure, Calva- 

 dos, Marne, Puy-de-D6me, Landes, Oise, Basses- 

 Pyrenees, Aisne, and Yonne. These divers 

 electoral districts are spread over all France, 

 and may therefore be considered as indicative 

 of the progress of public opinion throughout 

 the country. In 1863 those twenty-seven dis- 

 tricts g&ve 546,000 votes to the Government, 

 and only 200,000 to the independent candidates ; 

 whereas the same districts gave in the partial 

 elections 455,000 votes to the former, and 298,- 

 000 to the latter, showing a transfer of about 

 100,000 votes from the one to the other, and 

 reducing the difference to the credit of the 

 official nominees, which was 346,000 votes, to 

 157,000. In 1863 the independent candidates 

 obtained a majority in only three of the twenty- 

 seven districts, namely, those of the Seine. In 

 the partial elections, the independent or Oppo- 

 sition candidates were elected in eleven of those 

 districts, viz., those of the Seine, in the Cote- 

 d'Or, Bas-Rhin, Vosges, Nord, Charente In- 

 ferieure, Marne, Puy-de-Dorne, Aisne. 



The area of France amounts to 207,232 square 

 miles. The population, according to the census 

 of 1861, was 37,382,225 souls. The French Gov- 

 ernment takes a census every five years, or twice 

 as often as that of the United States or Great 

 Britain. It appears from comparative returns 

 that the French population increases very slowly 

 compared with some other countries. The fol- 

 lowing statistics exhibit the number of inhabit- 

 ants in France, at each census, from 1836 to 

 1861: 



From these returns it appears that during the 

 period from 1851 to 1861 the population of 

 France has increased only about 2.7 per cent, 

 while the population of the United States during 

 the ten years from 1850 to 1860 increased 35.58 

 per cent. The French census furnishes some 

 singular facts, showing the disinclination of the 

 population of the empire to emigrate. Of the 

 36,864,678 souls composing the purely French 

 population of the empire, but 3,883,579 were 

 domiciled out of the departments where they 



