378 



FRANCE. 



ciple of the bill, framed to suit the popular de- 

 sire. It reduced the nominal term of service 

 from five to three years. The peasantry were 

 pleased with the proposal for lightening the 

 *' blood-tax." The military authorities wished 

 to have the period of service longer, and to 

 retain for the sake of efficiency and economy 

 certain discretionary rights, the exercise of 

 which was a cause of inconvenience to the peo- 

 ple. The actual length of service was about 

 three years, and sometimes shorter. Often, to 

 save barrack expenses, soldiers were sent home 

 on short furloughs in the winter season. The 

 uncertainty with regard to the length of serv- 

 ice with the colors was the cause of much dis- 

 satisfaction. The new bill abolished the im- 

 munity from service of seminarists and teach- 

 ers, and granted exemption only to cripples 

 absolutely unfit to serve even as military clerks 

 or infirmary attendants. The Chamber re- 

 fused even to exempt priests from serving as 

 reservists. The consideration of the bill by the 

 Senate was postponed to the next session. 



A Premium to Large Families. The slow rate 

 of increase in the population of France has 

 long been the subject of patriotic forebodings 

 and regrets. The natural increment between 

 1876 and 1881 was only 0*42 per cent, per an- 

 num, two fifths of the rate in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, and one fifth of that in the United 

 States. As an encouragement to the people to 

 propagate larger families, the Chamber of Dep- 

 uties, on July 10, voted an appropriation of 

 400,000 francs, to be expended in supporting 

 and educating every seventh child of poor 

 parents. The same principle was contained in 

 an obsolete law of^ the First Republic, which 

 this action revived. 



The Recidivist Law. The law for the deporta- 

 tion of relapsed criminals and misdemeanants 

 finally passed the Senate on May 12. The 

 same day a law was enacted abolishing pub- 

 lic executions. The Radical and Clerical oppo- 

 nents of Waldeck-Rousseau's scheme for rid- 

 ding France of the criminal element stood 

 out for giving judges discretional authority 

 to transport or inflict other punishment ; yet 

 the majority of 329 to V9 accepted the min- 

 isterial measure. The principal contest was 

 about the site of the criminal colony. Deporta- 

 tion to the malarious coast of Guiana, the " dry 

 guillotine," was formerly held to be one of the 

 crimes of the Third Empire. The criminalists 

 found arguments to justify the re-establish- 

 ment of the only penal colony now possible 

 without creating foreign complications. M. 

 Leveille", who examined the locality, reported 

 that it was not so unhealthful as was supposed. 

 He proposed an amendment in the Senate that 

 was adopted by both houses, providing for a 

 probation period for the convicted recidivists, 

 and leaving it optional with the authorities to 

 send to the colony the incorrigible subjects and 

 exempt those who gave signs of improvement. 

 The dangerous and degraded class of entrete- 

 neurs, or male confederates of prostitutes, was 



included with the other categories of recidivist 

 offenders. Those detected in this offense who 

 have been guilty at any time of criminal of- 

 fenses against property or morality are liable 

 to deportation. The other classes of recidivists 

 are those who have been twice guilty of rob- 

 bery, theft, fraud, breach of trust, and crimes 

 against morality, or have committed certain 

 combinations of these offenses, as well as ex- 

 criminals who are habitual beggars or vagrants. 

 This Draconic law was strongly opposed by the 

 Extreme Left. To support it, statistics were 

 adduced to show an increase of crime and dis- 

 orderly conditions. In Paris particularly the 

 security maintained by the highly organized 

 police machinery of the empire had given place 

 to chronic disorder and a growth of crime that 

 had for its consequence the decrease of foreign 

 visitors and residents, to the prejudice of busi- 

 ness interests. Large gangs of professional 

 criminals had formed to plot burglary and rob- 

 bery. They were recruited from a numerous 

 class of idle and disorderly persons, associates 

 of thieves and prostitutes, which was dealt 

 with by the recidivist law in such wise as 

 to enable the authorities to break up the 

 schools of crime. The recidivist law abolished 

 police surveillance, substituting a power to pro- 

 hibit persons who have been convicted by the 

 tribunals from residing in particular places. 

 The police accordingly notified persons of the 

 criminal class that they would not be allowed 

 to remain in Paris or any of the large cities, 

 nor in the places where their crimes had been 

 committed. The Government was left to se- 

 lect a French colony that should be used as a 

 convict settlement. The colony of Guiana, and 

 especially the territory about Moroni, was fixed 

 upon as the locality where the first recidivist 

 colony is to be established. 



Socialistic Agitation. In the early part of 1885 

 a succession of demonstrations of a socialistic 

 character took place in Paris. Various ap- 

 peals were made to the Government for aid 

 to the unemployed. On Feb. 1 a meeting of 

 Anarchists was held, attended by representa- 

 tives from all the large towns. A deputation 

 from the meeting obtained a hearing from 

 members of the Chamber, and the same week 

 M. Tony Revillon proposed a credit of 25,000,- 

 000 francs for the 246,000 persons said to be 

 starving. A second resolution, moved by the 

 same deputy, to the effect that the public works 

 projected in Paris should be proceeded with 

 at once, was carried by a large majority. A 

 proposition to pass the interest on the city's 

 debt in order to relieve the laborers that were 

 out of work, was previously rejected by the 

 Municipal Council of Paris. 



On the 16th of February the Germans who 

 took part in the funeral of Jules Valles were 

 set upon by students, but defended by the 

 French Socialists. On the 21st of February 

 an imposing meeting was held in the Salle 

 Levis, the well-known assembly hall of Bati- 

 gnolles, followed by one in St. Denis on the 



