306 



FORSTER, JOHN. 



FRANCE. 



electors caused notice to be served on the 

 Canvassing Board that they should apply on 

 the 9th of January to the Supreme Court for 

 a mandamus to compel them to make a re- 

 canvass of the votes tor electors and members 

 of Congress, but with the change of administra- 

 tion the officials constituting the board went out 

 of office. The Legislature passed an act, ap- 

 proved January 17th, directing the Secretary of 

 State, Attorney-General, and Controller, or any 

 two of them, together with any other " mem- 

 ber of the cabinet" who might be designated 

 by them, to canvass the returns of the election 

 for electors of President and Vice-President. 

 Thus the new Canvassing Board, which was 

 composed of Democrats, received authority of 

 law to canvass the result of the election in 

 November. Mr. Raney, the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, having been counsel for the Democratic 

 candidates, declined to act, and the Commis- 

 sioner of Lands and Immigration was desig- 

 nated in his place. The canvass made by this 

 board, on the 19th of January, showed 24,434 

 votes for the Tilden electors and 24,340 for 

 the Hayes electors, giving the former a major- 

 ity of 94. Another act was then passed by the 

 Legislature "to declare and establish the ap- 

 pointment by the State of Florida of electors 

 for President and Vice-President." This was 

 approved January 26th, and, after reciting the 

 result of the election, declared the Democratic 

 candidates by name to be the electors, and 

 authorized the Governor to make and certify 

 in due form under the great seal of the State 

 three lists of their names, and to transmit the 

 same, with an authenticated copy of the act, 

 to the President of the Senate of the United 

 States, and authenticating and validating the 

 said lists and certificates, ' as if they had been 

 made and delivered on or before the 6th day 

 of December, 1876, and had been transmitted 

 immediately thereafter," and declaring "ille- 

 gal and void " the certificates containing the 

 names of Charles H. Pearce, Frederick 0. 

 Humphries, William H. Holden, and Thomas 

 W. Long. Thus three sets of certificates of 

 the electoral votes of the State were sent to 

 Washington: first, that of the Republican 

 electors, bearing the signature of Governor 

 Stearns ; second, that of the Democratic elec- 

 tors as first made out, and signed by Attorney- 

 General Cocke, in December; and third, that 

 of the Democratic electors made in pursuance 

 of the act of the Legislature, and signed by 

 Governor Drew. 



During the greater part of the month of 

 December and the first week of January, 1877, 

 a committee from each branch of the Federal 

 Congress was in the State making investiga- 

 tions into the election and its results. Their 

 proceedings were for the most part private, 

 and will be noticed elsewhere. 



FORSTER, JOHN, a British writer, born in 

 Newcastle, in 1812; died February 1, 1876. 

 He was an extensive contributor to the Exam- 

 iner for more than eighteen years, during ten 



of which he was its editor. He also contrib- 

 uted largely to the Edinburgh and Quarterly 

 Reviews, the Foreign Quarterly Review, of 

 which he was for several years editor, and to 

 other leading periodicals. On the retirement 

 of Mr. Dickens from the editorship of the 

 Daily News, Mr. Forster succeeded him, but 

 resigned after holding it nearly a year. In 

 1855 he was appointed secretary to the Luna- 

 cy Commission, and in 1861 a Commissioner 

 in Lunacy. He wrote " Statesmen of the Com- 

 monwealth of England" (1831-'34); "Life of 

 Oliver Goldsmith" (1848); "Arrest of the 

 Five Members by Charles the First" (1860); 

 " Debates on the Grand Remonstrance " (1860) ; 

 "Sir John Eliot, a Biography, 1590-1632" 

 (1864); "Walter Savage Landor, a Biography, 

 1775-1864" (2 vols., 1868); and " The Life of 

 Charles Dickens " (3 vols., 1871-'74). 



FRANCE, a republic of Europe. President, 

 Marshal Marie Edmond Patrice Maurice de 

 MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, elected May 24, 

 1873. Chief of the cabinet, Colonel Robert; 

 Secretary of the President, Viscount d'Har- 

 court ; Vice-President of Council of Ministers, 

 at the close of the year 1876, Jules Simon. 



The legislative body consists of a Senate 

 and a Chamber of Deputies. The Senate con- 

 sists of 75 life-members, elected by the late 

 National Assembly (see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA 

 for 1875 for a complete list and the biographies 

 of the life-senators), and 225 elected for three, 

 six, and nine years respectively, by a direct 

 vote of the people. The President of the Sen- 

 ate in 1876 was the Duke d'Audiffret-Pasquier. 

 The Chamber of Deputies consists of 532 mem- 

 bers. The President of the Chamber of Depu- 

 ties in 1876 was Francois Paul Jules GreVy. 



The area of France, according to the official 

 report on the census of 1872 (" Statistique de 

 la France"), was 204,092 square miles. The 

 population, according to the census of 1872, 

 was 36,102,921. 



The table on page 307 exhibits the area and 

 population of each department, and the move- 

 ment of population during the year 1873. 



The relation of sexes, in the total population, 

 is as follows : 



CLASSES. Males to 100 Female 



Department of the Seine 102.4 



Population of the towns 104.3 



Rural population 105.0 



Total 105.0 



The movement of population from 1866 to 

 1873 was as follows : 



