FRANCE. 



371 



Deo. 31, 1881, was 37,405,290, comprising 18,- 

 656 518 males and 18,748,772 females. There 

 were 10,899,885 families, an average of 3 per- 

 sons in each family. The number of dwelling- 

 houses was 7,609,464, the number of individual 

 dwellings 10,720,826. Of the inhabitants of 

 Brittany 1,230,000 are estimated to speak the 

 Breton tongue. In the Pyrenees there are 

 116,000 Basques, and in Corsica and Nice about 

 300,000 persons who speak Italian. Of the 

 total population in 1881, 22,702,356 were na- 

 tives of the communes where they resided. 

 The number of marriages in 1883 was 284,519 ; 

 the number of births, 937,944 ; that of deaths, 

 841,101. The excess of births over deaths was 

 78,947 in 1884, 96,843 in 1883, 97,027 iii!882, 

 108,229 in 1881, 61,840 in 1880, 96,687 in 1879, 

 98,175 in 1878, 142,620 in 1877, 132,608 in 

 1876, 105,913 in 1875, and 172,943 in 1874. 

 The birth-rate, which was 31 ! per thousand 

 inhabitants in 1827, had fallen to 22-6 in 1871. 

 In 1873 it was 26-1, and in 1883, 25-0. While 

 the number of births increased very little be- 

 tween 1881 and 1884, the annual mortality 

 rose from 828,000 to 858,784. 



In 1884 the number of births was 937,758, 

 of deaths 858,784. In the departments rav- 

 aged by the cholera and some others, particu- 

 larly in Normandy, in thirty-nine departments 

 altogether, there was an excess of deaths, but 

 in the comparatively poor departments of Brit- 

 tany a considerable excess of births. The ratio 

 of illegitimate births was 1 in 11 of the whole 

 number ; the ratio of births to the population 

 29 per thousand; of deaths, 27 per thousand. 



The emigration in 1882, exclusive of Algeria, 

 was 5,100, the emigrants to the United States 

 numbering 2,737, those to the Argentine Re- 

 public 1,402. Emigration to Algeria averaged 

 8,000 a year in the lustrum ending with 1883. 

 The rural population in 1881 was 65'2 per 

 cent, of the total, the town population 34*8 

 per cent, as compared with 24*42 per cent, in 

 1846. Of the 37,405,290 inhabitants enumer- 

 ated, 18,249,209 were dependent on agricult- 

 ure, 9,324.107 on industry, 3,843,447 on com- 

 merce, 800,741 on transportation, 552,851 

 constituted the public forces, 1,585,358 de- 

 pendent on professions, 2,121,173 lived on their 

 incomes, 737,088 were without occupation, and 

 of 191,316 the occupations were unknown. The 

 agricultural population comprised 2,425,500 

 farmers working their own lands, with 1,583,- 

 283 employes and 5,167,749 persons in their 

 families ; 1,010,999 farmers renting their lands, 

 with 1,186,501 persons in their employ, and 

 2,834,925 in their families; 772,339 small pro- 

 prietors working for others, with employes 

 numbering 660,213, and families numbering 

 2,039,484 persons ; and 112,200 foresters, em- 

 ploying 105,043, and having families number- 

 ing 300,973 persons. Of the persons classed 

 as professional, one half were public officials. 

 More than one fifth of the owners of land are 

 women. There were 1,001,090 foreigners in 

 France at the time of the census, including 



279,351 Belgians in the department of the 

 Nord, and 374,498 Belgians altogether, 165,313 

 Italians, 62,437 Spaniards. 59,028 Germans, 

 50,203 Swiss, 30,077 English, 20,232 Dutch, 

 12,090 Austro - Hungarians, 10,489 Russians. 

 There were besides 77,046 naturalized foreign- 

 ers. The number of sentences for crime in 



1883 was 3,480; the number of convictions for 

 minor offenses, punishable with imprisonment, 

 122,833 ; the number of prisoners in the cen- 

 tral prisons 22,301, including 6,206 women; 

 the number of convicts in Guiana and New 

 Caledonia, 11,883. The following cities con- 

 tained over 100,000 inhabitants in 1881 : Paris, 

 2,239,928; Lyons, 376,613; Marseilles, 360,- 

 099 ; Bordeaux, 221,305 ; Lille, 178,144 ; Tou- 

 louse, 140,289 ;' Nantes, 124,319; St. Etienne, 

 123,813; Rouen, 105,906; Havre, 105,867. 



The Army. The army has been reorganized 

 since the Franco-German War, under the re- 

 cruiting law of 1872 and subsequent acts. 

 Every Frenchman is liable to serve in the 

 army or the reserves between the ages of 

 twenty and forty years. By the law of 1882 

 the annual recruit was divided into two classes, 

 one serving three years in the active army and 

 two in the reserve, and the other only one 

 year in the active army. Of 312,924 on the 

 conscription lists of 1883, 132,063 were drafted 

 into the army, and 7,206 into the navy. The 

 army, as provided for in the budget for 1885, 

 has a total strength of 524,797, including those 

 absent on leave, etc., and the gendarmerie, 

 which numbers 26,865 men; deducting the 

 number sick and absent, tHe strength was 483,- 

 933 men. The expenditure on the army in 



1884 amounted to 716,318,580 francs. The 

 strength of the army as given in the budget 

 for 1884 was as follows: staff, 4,083; schools, 

 2,720; administrative, medical, and unclassi- 

 fied, 3,463; infantry, 392,879; administrative 

 troops of the infantry, 19,306; cavalry, 68,- 

 778 ; artillery, 70,103 ; engineers, 11,039 ; train, 

 11,853; gendarmerie, 23,275; garde re"publi- 

 caine, 3,590; mixed companies, 3,708; total, 

 524,797 men, with 130,771 horses. The terri- 

 torial army and its reserves have their individ- 

 ual bodies attached to certain localities, while 

 the active army and its reserve are not local- 

 ized. The total military strength of the re- 

 public, inclusive of the various classes of re- 

 serves, is about 2,500,000 men. 



The IVavy. The French naval forces comprise 

 22 squadron ironclads with 345 guns, 10 sta- 

 tion ironclads with 171 guns, 8 guardships 

 with 27 guns, and 6 floating batteries with 37 

 guns ; or 46 ironclads in all, with 583 guns ; 

 9 battery, 17 barbette, and 21 third-class cruis- 

 ers, with 215,205 and 173 guns respectively, 

 and 143 avisos, transports, gunboats, and other 

 unarmored screw-steamers; 33 paddle-steam- 

 ers, 45 sailing-vessels, and 18 first-class and 

 40 second-class torpedo-boats and 9 vedettes : 

 total effective navy, 381 vessels, with 1,670 

 guns. The Amiral Duperr6 has 14-inch armor 

 and carries 4 guns of 13f inches and 11 of 5^ 



