310 



FRANCE. 



1,153 kilometres ; and of telegraphs, in 1876, 

 there were 5,588 kilometres, with 9,865 kilo- 

 metres of wires, including the Algero-Tunisian 

 net-work and the submarine cable. The num- 

 ber of telegraph-offices in 1879 was 163 ; and 

 that of the dispatches, 803,742. 



According to official returns, under date of 

 December 8, 1877, the area and population of 

 Algeria were as follows : 



CIVIL DEPARTMENT. 



MILITARY DEPARTMENT. 



In October, 1880, the area of the civil de- 

 partment had been extended to 738,388 square 

 kilometres, and the population had increased 

 to 1,884,124. The classification by nationali- 

 ties, for the entire colony, was as follows : 

 198,092 French; 33,506 naturalized Jews; 

 94,038 Spaniards ; 26,322 Italians ; 14,313 Eng- 

 lish; 6,513 Germans; 2,748 Swiss; 2,663 

 Turks; 792 Belgians; and 2,477,641 native 

 Mussulmans. 



Both Houses, formally opened on January 

 llth, instead of the 13th (the statutory open- 

 ing day), adjourned to the 20th, and on that 

 day proceeded to the election of office-bearers. 

 M. Leon Say was re-elected President of the 

 Senate by 170 votes, or 23 more than he had 

 received when originally appointed in May, 

 1880. M. Gambetta, elected for the third time 

 President of the Chamber, received 262 votes, 

 against 259 in 1880, and 314 in 1879. On the 

 21st both Presidents delivered their inaugural 

 addresses. That of M. Gambetta elicited warm 

 applause, and, on the motion of a deputy, was 

 ordered to be placarded throughout France. 

 The following extract from his discourse em- 

 bodies an interesting review of the labors, past 

 and future, of the Chamber : 



The session now opened, the crowning one of this 

 Parliament, will enable you, not without effort, to 

 complete the heavy task imposed on you by the coun- 

 try. Much has still to be done, but you have already 

 done a good deal. On the very morrow of the memo- 

 rable struggle of May to October, 1877, you inaugu- 

 rated the execution of the resolution of France. You 

 have put an end to the enterprises of personal rule 

 and or the old parties. You nave restored in all its 

 realitv the government of the country by the country. 

 You have restored Paris to the Parliament, and the 



Parliament to Paris. By a grand act of clemency and 

 political sagacity * you have drawn a veil over the 

 remains of our civil discords, and that without incur- 

 ring any peril to republican order. You have luvoml 

 the efforts that have been directed to national educa- 

 tion laws. After restoring in their integrity the too 

 long disregarded rights and laws of the state, you 

 have insured the education of all French youth. By 

 embodying for the first time in the law an absolute 

 respect for liberty of conscience, you have thoroughly 

 remodeled higher and intermediate education, richly 

 endowed the three branches of public instruction, and 

 thereby prepared a splendid croo of men for the fut- 

 ure. Public works have received from you a decisive 

 and unprecedented impulse. The populations who 

 had contributed to the creation of the old railways 

 are at length, by a just reciprocity, about to possess 

 new means of transport and exchange. The fine 

 works which France owes to nature and to the pa.-t 

 have assumed from your generous co-operation an 

 extension and power which will enable them, from 

 Dunkirk to Marseilles, to compete effectually with the 

 greatest entrepots in Europe. The roads and the 

 canals, largely subsidized and restored, broadened 

 and constructed, will complete that admirable system 

 of means of communication. Alongside the indus- 

 trial and economic machinery you have taken a jeal- 

 ous interest in reconstructing and refounding the 

 military and naval machinery of France ; vou have 

 taken a special interest in the men charged on land 

 and at sea with the custody and employment ot' that 

 vast machinery. The situation, both in active serv- 

 ice and as pensioners, of all the officers and soldiers 

 has been improved; that of the non-commissioned 

 officers has been and is still the subject of your con- 

 stant solicitude. The staff has beeH reorganized ; it 

 remains for you, by passing the bills laid before you, 

 to recast the recruiting law, organize the military ad- 

 ministration, fix the rules of advancement, and the 

 belief is warranted that you will not separate without 

 having given the last touch to the great work of na- 

 tional defense. You have been able to accomplish 

 such a programme, thanks to the wonderful industry 

 and thrift of the country, which for five years has 

 annually yielded you in surpluses the large remis- 

 sions of taxation by which you have lightened each 

 budget. You have set the budgets in equilibrium, 

 devoted large sums to all the public serviceSj and 

 rendered the credit of France beyond all comparisons. 

 A special law of the greatest moment for the different 

 branches of social economy, the total recasting of our 

 general customs tariff, the postal and telegraphic re- 

 form, the fusion of these two services, an'd a long 

 series of business laws will remain a standing proof 

 of your activity and competency. Lastly, while wait- 

 ing to place b"y law public liberties beyond reach of 

 attack, you have favored the exercise of them. You 

 have already secured the right of meeting. The 

 press will shortly be set free by your coming delib- 

 erations, and also the legal recognition of professional 

 associations. This you nave gone through amid pro- 

 found peace, both at home and abroad. More espe- 

 cially as regards the maintenance of peace abroad, 

 your harmony with the Government and the country 

 has been unbroken. In spite of assertions reposing 

 on no foundation, the whole world knows that the 

 foreign policy of France neither masks secret objects 

 nor adventures. This is a guarantee which resides in 

 the very form of the republican government, in 

 which all depends on the national sovereignty and on 

 a democracy, in the bosom of which external peace, 

 dignified and well sustained, is at once the means 

 and the object of democratic progress. At home this 

 policy, these reforms, these results, and these hopes 

 will enable you to submit yourselves with confidence 

 to the judgment of the country. Since you began 

 to occupy these seats, several times and hi divers 

 ways the nation has had occasion to pronounce itself 



* Allusion to the decree of July 11, 1S80, granting plenary 

 amnesty to the insurgents of the Commune. 



