304 



FRANCE. 



number of marriages was 18,845. The budget 

 of Paris for 1877 was as follows (in francs) : 



Ordinary receipts 218,845,277 



Extraordinary receipts 67,496,933 



Total 271,345,210 



Ordinary expenditures 211,848,277 



Extraordinary expenditures 69,496,933 



Total 271,346,210 



The French colonies and dependencies had, 

 according to the latest official reports, the fol- 

 lowing area and population : 



COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES. 



Area, q. m. Population. 



Colonies and dependencies 372,995 I 6,099,633 



All the railroads of France are private roads, 

 which are assumed by the Government at the 

 expiration of their charters. According to the 

 Statistique Centrale des Ghemins de Fer, the 

 number of kilometres in operation on January 

 1, 1875, 1876, and 1877, was as follows : 



YEAR. Kilometres. 



1875 TTTTT^r* 20.771 



1876 21,761 



1877 22,671 



The statistics of telegraphs were as follows : 



Government stations in 1875 2,817 



Length of lines in 1875 (kilometres) 51,700 



Length of wires in 1875 " 143,234 



Inland dispatches in 1876 7.018,452 



International dispatches in 1876 1,029,374 



Total dispatches in 1876 8,047,826 



Receipts in 1876 (francs) 17,461,986 



On December 31, 1874, there were 529 au- 

 thorized savings banks. Of these, 159 had 694 

 branches. Of the 529, 16 had not been in 

 operation during the year and one had not 

 reported, leaving 512 which had reported at 

 that date. The number of books out on De- 

 cember 31, 1874, was 2,170,066. On January 

 1, 1874, there was due to depositors 535,286,498 

 francs, and 195,495,861 francs were deposited. 



The session of the French Chambers was 

 opened on January 9th. The proceedings were 

 entirely formal, with the exception of a remark- 

 able speech by M. Gaulthier de Eumilly, on tak- 

 ing the chair in the Senate as senior member. 

 He said that, in the course of a long career, he 

 had seen many governments fall which made no 

 account of public opinion. He hoped the Sen- 

 ate, by moderate conduct, would avoid giving 

 occasion to the adversaries of a Second Cham- 

 ber to say that, since the two Chambers were 

 also in conflict, it was better to have only one. 

 The present ministry, in accord with the Con- 

 stitutional President of the Eepublic, had issued 

 a liberal programme. The hope of France was 

 in the loyal execution of this programme, which 

 was the only way to repair the disasters of the 

 insane war of the Empire, and to restore the 

 country to her proper rank among nations. 

 The Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier was reelected 

 President of the Senate, and M. Gre>y of the 

 Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, after adopt- 

 ing the new extradition treaty between Great 

 Britain and France, adjourned, a week later, 

 for an indefinite period. 



In the Chamber of Deputies, on January llth, 

 M. L6on Say, the Minister of Finance, laid on 

 the table his budget for 1878. It included uni- 

 form and lower rates of postage, made some 

 change in the tax on lucifer matches, and, 

 finally, abolished the tax on soaps and oils. 

 The expenditure was estimated at 2,785,716,713 

 francs, and the revenue at 2,971,427,804 francs. 

 On January 25th the Budget Committee was 

 elected in 1 1 bureaux, into which the Chamber 

 of Deputies is periodically divided by lot. M. 

 Gambetta was elected president of the com- 

 mittee by a vote of 29 out of 32 votes, and, on 

 returning thanks, disclaimed any hostility to 

 the ministry, and said he hoped to be a useful 

 auxiliary to it. On February 5th a proposition 

 in the Chamber of Deputies, by M. Madier de 

 Montjou, repealing the severe Press Decree of 

 January 17, 1852, was adopted; as well as an- 

 other, supported by M. Jules Simon, tempo- 

 rarily reviving the laws repealed by that de- 

 cree. The Government, said M. Jules Simon, 

 could not expose itself unarmed to the attacks 

 of the press, but experiments with the free- 

 dom of the press must be carefully made. The 

 whole force of law would be exerted to pre- 

 vent attacks on the Constitution and provoca- 



