288 



FKANCE. 



eight feet below the surface and has an average 

 depth of about thirty inches. There is available 

 bailding-stone, but none of marked value. 



Coast Defense. In response to a call issued 

 by the Executive Committee of the Coast De- 

 fense Association of the coast cities of the 

 South, a convention of delegates from the 

 Southern Atlantic and Gulf States met at 

 De Funiak Springs on February 8 to organize a 

 movement for the better protection of the 

 Southern seaboard. The following memorial 

 to Congress \vas adopted : 



In view of the defenseless condition of the harbors 

 of the Atlantic Gulf States as well as the Pacific and 

 Lake States, we most respectfully memorialize Con- 

 gress of the United States to take such steps and en- 

 act such laws as are necessary to put our coasts in a 

 proper state of defense by building such fortifications 

 as trie engineering' skill of our army officers may de- 

 termine to be the oest and most important, and, fur- 

 ther, by supplying our navy with such ships and 

 armament as modern science renders necessary, and, 



Whereas, There is DO arsenal south of the Ohio 

 river ; and, whereas, steel-making ores abound in 

 Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia, as well 

 as other materials for the manufacture of all appli- 

 ances of war, we recommend to Congress the location 

 of a manufacturing arsenal at some point remote from 

 the sea-board and convenient to the steel-ore belts of 

 the South ; and, whereas, in our opinion, our navy 

 must be our chief means of defensive and offensive 

 warfare, we recommend that a navy-yard for the con- 

 struction and armament of the most improved modern 

 ships of war be established in some proper Southern 

 port, believing that, in case of war, our means of 

 building ships and manufacturing the appliances of 

 war should not be confined to one place, but should 

 be widely separated, so that the loss of one would not 

 be the loss of all. 



Later in the same month a meeting of the 

 Southern States Forestry Congress was held 

 at the same place, and measures were taken 

 toward insuring the preservation of the timber 

 wealth of the South. 



FRINGE, a republic in western Europe. The 

 republican form of government was proclaimed 

 Sept. 4, 1870. Under the law of Feb. 25, 1875, 

 the legislative power is exercised by two cham- 

 bers. The Senate consists of 300 members, 

 elected by the departments and the colonies 

 in accordance with a special law adopted Dec. 

 9, 1884. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 

 584 deputies, or one to every 70,000 inhabi- 

 tants, elected by universal suffrage for the 

 term of four years. The list of deputies for 

 each department is chosen by all the voters of 

 the department on a single ticket. The Presi- 

 dent of the republic is elected for seven years 

 by a majority of votes in a Congress or Na- 

 tional Assembly, consisting of the Senate and 

 the Chamber of Deputies united. While the 

 ministers are responsible to the Chambers for 

 the general policy of the Government, the 

 President is responsible only on impeachment 

 for high treason. 



The President of the republic in the begin- 

 ning of 1887 was Francois P. Jules Grevy, 

 born Aug. 15, 1813, who was President of the 

 Chamber of Deputies in 1876-'79, and was 

 elected to the chief magistracy in January, 



1879, and re-elected in December, 1885. On 

 his resignation the National Assembly elected 

 as his successor on Dec. 3, 1887, M. Sadi-Car- 

 not, formerly Minister of Finance (see CAKNOT, 

 MARIE FRANCOIS SADI). 



Area and Population. The table on next page 

 gives the area, in square kilometres, and the 

 population of the eighty-six departments of 

 France and the territory of Belfort, according 

 to the census taken on May 30, 1886. 



The increase of population between 1881 

 and 1886, amounting to 766,260, did not ex- 

 tend over all the departments. In thirty-two 

 there was a decrease, the greatest being in 

 Orne, which had 8,878 more inhabitants in 

 1881 than in 1886. 



The population of the cities having over 

 100,000 inhabitants in 1886 was as follows: 



CITIES. Population. | CITIES. Population. 



Paris '.. 2,344,550 I Nantes 127,482 



Lyons 401,930 I St. fitienne 117,875 



Marseilles 876,148 I Havre 112,074 



Bordeaux 240.582 Rouen 107.163 



Lilie 1*8,272 Roubaix 100,299 



Toulouse 147,611 1 



The number of marriages in 1886 was 283,- 

 193, as compared with 283,170 in 1885; the 

 number of births, 956,363, as compared with 

 966,319; the number of deaths, 903,803, as 

 compared with 880,855 ; the excess of births, 

 52,560, as compared with 85,464. The num- 

 ber of emigrants in 1884 was 6,100, of whom 

 2,564 went to the Argentine Republic, 2,485 

 to the United States, 386 to Brazil, 333 to 

 Chili, and small numbers to Mexico, Cuba, 

 and other countries. 



Commerce. The value of the special imports 

 in 1885 was 4,088,401,000 francs, and of the 

 special exports, 3,088,145,000 francs. The im- 

 ports of bullion and specie amounted to 480,- 

 000,000 francs, and the exports to 339,000,000 

 francs. The returns of the special commerce 

 for 1886 make the total value of merchandise 

 imports 4,234,363,000 francs, and the exports 

 3,300,230,000 francs. The imports of cereals 

 in 1886 were valued at 297,622,000 francs, and 

 the exports at 52,328,000 francs; imports of 

 wines and liquors, 557,432,000 francs, exports, 

 350,076,000 francs; imports of sugar, coffee, 

 etc., 192',835,000 francs, of tobacco, 33,569,- 

 000 francs, of vegetables, etc., 342,388,000 

 francs, of live animals and animal food prod- 

 ucts, 339,809,000 francs; exports, 252,004,000 

 francs; total imports of articles of consump- 

 tion, 1,763,655,000 francs; exports, 822,669,- 

 000 francs. The imports of fuel were 142,- 

 014,000 francs, of hides, etc., 242,286,000 

 francs, exports, 198,228,000 francs; imports 

 of textile materials, 869,045,000 francs, ex- 

 ports, 306,128,000 francs ; imports of timber, 

 167,723,000 francs; total imports of raw ma- 

 terials, 1,583,640,000 francs; total exports, 

 578,107,000 francs. The imports of textile 

 fabrics were 216,039,000 francs, exports, 907,- 

 678,000 francs; the exports of pottery and 

 glass, 34,655,000 francs; imports of ma- 

 chinery and metal manufactures, 77,721,000 



