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FRANCE. 



31st, 1861, by an imperial decree of December 

 2d, 1852, and an " organic decree " of December 

 18th, 1852. According to the statutes there 

 are five divisions in the state government: the 

 Emperor, the Ministers, a Council of State, a 

 Senate, a Legislative Body. The ministers, the 

 members of the council of state and of the 

 senate, are all nominated solely by the em- 

 peror. The cardinals, marshals and admirals 

 V)f the empire belong, by right of their dignity, 

 to the senate, whose total membership shall not 

 exceed 150. The senate alone has the right to 

 receive petitions, and no act of the legislative 

 body is valid without the approval of the senate. 

 The members of the legislative body are elected 

 by general suffrage, at the rate of one member 

 to every 35,000 electors. The legislative body, 

 which was chosen in 1863, contains 383 mem- 

 bers, of whom 35 belong to the opposition 

 party, while all the other members were the 

 official candidates of government. France is at 

 present divided into 89 departments, with 373 

 arrondissements, 2,938 cantons, and 37,510 com- 

 munes. The area amountsto 207,232 English 

 square miles. The total population of France 

 amounted, in 1861, to 37,382, 225 souls. 



According to a Belgian paper, La Discussion, 

 the following languages are spoken in France, 

 besides the French: German, by 1,160,000; 

 Breton, by 1,070,000; Provencal, by 14,000,- 

 000; Italian, by 200,000; Catalonian, by 100,- 

 000; Flemish, by 200,000 ; Basque, by 160,000 

 persons. The area and population of the French 

 colonies, in 1864, was as follows : 



Under the protectorate of France are the fo* 

 lowing countries : 



The budget for 1865, as voted by the senate 

 and the legislative body, was as follows : 



The Emperor has live times raised loans from 

 the population at large. The loans thus created 

 are specified in the following statement : 



The public debt of France, was, on January 

 1st, 1864, as follows : 



Funded debt 9,719,000,000 



Floating debt 1,250,000,000 



Ancient special debts and annuities 50,000,000 



Obligations, treaties, etc. 150,000,000 



Life rents and pensions, representing a capital 



of 733,000,000 



Total 11,902,000,000 



According to the budget of the minister of war, 

 for 1865, the army was composed as follows : 



The navy, on January 1st, 1864, was, accord- 

 ing to the Gotha Almanac for 1865, as follows : 



' 100 hectares -1 geographical square mile. 



