290 



FRANCE. 



taxes, 1,802,850,300 francs; from domains and 

 forests, 47,560,880 francs; from monopolies 

 and industrial institutions, 580,447,925 francs. 

 The extraordinary expenditures are 191,000,- 

 000 francs for the army, 30,705,000 for the 

 navy, and 54,704,400 for public works. They 

 are provided for by loans. The budget of re- 

 ceipts and expenses from special resources 

 balances with the sum of 467,123,452 francs. 

 Apart from the other accounts is that of spe- 

 cial services, viz., the mint, printing establish- 

 ment, state railroads, and the invalid fund, 

 which shows 79,124,758 francs of expendi- 

 tures, balanced by the receipts. 



The capitalized value of the consolidated 

 debt amounted in 1887 to 21,449,066,123 

 francs, paying 769,908,038 francs of rente. 

 The total debt of the country was calculated 

 by M. Tirard in 1884 at 35,874,736,554 francs. 

 The conversion of the old 4^-per-cent. rentes, 

 of the capital amount of 840,000,000 francs, 

 into 3 per cents., was authorized by the Cham- 

 bers in November, and, notwithstanding the 

 presidential crisis, was successfully effected on 

 November 24. 



The Army The law of July 25, 1887, in- 

 creased the number of regiments of the line 

 from 144 to 162, and in the existing regiments 

 suppressed a battalion in each in order to form 

 complementary cadres. The same law author- 

 ized the formation of four regiments of dra- 

 goons, one of chasseurs, six of hussars, and two 

 of chasseurs d'Afrique. The new infantry 

 regiments are destined to garrison the princi- 

 pal fortresses. The peace effective of the 

 French army is as follows: Infantry, 12,200 

 officers and 290,000 rank and file; total, 302,- 

 200, with 6,400 horses; cavalry, 3,850 officers 

 and 73,000 men; total, 76,850, with 60,000 

 horses; artillery, 3,000 officers and 64,600 

 men; total, 67,600, with 29,600 horses; engi- 

 neers, 880 officers and 10,300 men ; total, 11,- 

 180, with 1,000 horses; military train, 408 offi- 

 cers and 7,720 men; total, 8,128, with 7,672 

 horses; general staff, 3 marshals, 100 generals 

 of division, 200 generals of brigade, and 33 

 generals of the cadres and reserve; total, 336, 

 with 392 servants and 2,100 horses; employes 

 of the general staff of officers' rank, 3,678 ; ad- 

 ministrative troops, military schools, etc., 18,- 

 474, with 2,470 horses; gendarmerie, 788 offi- 

 cers and 25,024 men; total, 25,812, with 13,- 

 152 horses. Total active army, 25,532 officers 

 and 489,118 men; together, 514,650, with 

 122,394 horses. 



The territorial army numbers 87,000 officers 

 and 579,000 men. The war effective is esti- 

 mated at 3,759,000 men, of whom 1,887,000 

 belong to the nine classes of the active army 

 and its reserve, 903,000 to the five classes of 

 the territorial army, and 969,000 to the re- 

 serve of that army. 



The strength of the active army, as provided 

 for in the budget of 1887, was 523,693 men, 

 including the sick and furloughed, and 130,920 

 horses. Of these 24,812 men belonged to the 



gendarmerie and Garde Republicaine, and 52,- 

 708 were quartered in Algeria. All soldiers 

 in the regular army who can read and write 

 and are properly trained in military exercises 

 may be sent on indefinite furloughs at the end 

 of a year. 



France is divided into eighteen military 

 regions, each under the command of a general 

 of division, and subdivided into districts, each 

 under a general of brigade. There is a sepa- 

 rate service for the strong places. Paris is 

 fortified as a central place of arms. The first- 

 class frontier fortresses are Lille, Dunkirk, 

 Arras, and Douai, on the Belgian frontier; 

 Bellfort, Verdun, and Briancon, on the Ger- 

 man; Lyons, Grenoble, and Besancon, on the 

 Italian; the naval harbor of Toulon, on the 

 Mediterranean coast ; Perpignan and Bayonne, 

 on the Spanish frontier; Rochefort, Lorient, 

 and Brest, on the Atlantic coast; and Cher- 

 bourg, on the Channel coast. 



The Navy. The French navy consists of 410 

 vessels. There are 52 armor-clads, of which 

 34 are line-of-battle ships, 21 of the first and 

 21 of the second class, and 18 are designed for 

 coast defense, comprising 12 coast-guards, 1 

 gunboat, and 6 floating batteries. The num- 

 ber of cruisers of the first, second, and third 

 classes is 54. There are 22 gunboats of the 

 first and second classes, 57 sloop gunboats, and 

 64 torpedo-boats. The vessels on the stocks 

 include 9 first-class ironclads, 7 armored gun- 

 boats, 4 cruisers, 8 torpedo avisos, and 13 tor- 

 pedo-boats. 



The Goblet Ministry. After the defeat of the 

 Cabinet of M. Freycinet in December, 1886, on 

 the question of abolishing the sub-prefectures, 

 it was reconstituted by the Minister of Public 

 Instruction in the defeated Cabinet, MM. de 

 Freycinet, Sadi-Carnot, and one or two others 

 going out, and was composed at the beginning 

 of 1887 as follows: President of the Council 

 and Minister of the Interior, Ren6 Goblet ; 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leopold Emile 

 Flourens; Minister of Finance, H. Albert Dau- 

 phin; Minister of Public Instruction, Pierre 

 Eugene Marcelin Berthelot ; Minister of Jus- 

 tice, Jean Marie Ferdinand Sarrien ; Minister 

 of War, General Boulanger; Minister of Ma- 

 rine and the Colonies, Admiral Aube; Minis- 

 ter of Posts and Telegraphs, Etienne Armand 

 Felix Granet ; Minister of Commerce, Edouard 

 Etienne Antoine Simon Lockroy ; Minister of 

 Public Works, Edouard B. P. Millaud ; Minis- 

 ter of Agriculture, Jean Paul Denelle. 



The programme of the new ministry was to 

 balance the budget by reducing the redemp- 

 tion of the debt and to abolish about one sixth 

 of the sub-prefectures. Special military cred- 

 its of 86,000,000 francs for the new rifles and 

 80,000,000 francs for the navy were voted with- 

 out discussion. The Radicals called on the Gov- 

 ernment to establish as the sole tax a progress- 

 ive income-tax, but the proposal for a progress- 

 ive tax was negatived by a vote of 221 to 110, 

 while a resolution for an income tax was agreed 



