FRANCE. 



607 



10. Bank. The Bank of France was established in its present form in 1801, with a cap- 

 ital of 30,000,000 francs. Its dividend has always exceeded 5 per cent. Its notes are not 

 a legal tender, and nearly all its business is transacted in gold and silver. It is strictly a 

 public institution, and tlie chief officer is appointed by the government. It is a bank of dis- 

 count, deposit, and circulation, but none of its notes are lower than 500 francs. Private 

 bankers in France do not issue notes. 



11. ^rmy and JVavy.* In 1838, the Budget exhibited the number of troops at 300,000 

 men. According to the same document, the French navy consists of 49 ships of the line ; 

 62 frigates ; 31 corvettes ; 49 brigs ; and above 130 smaller vessels, including 21 steamboats. 

 There is a royal marine college at Angouleme, a marine school at Brest, and several schools 

 of navigation. 



12. Population. According to the official estimates for 1837, the total population of 

 France, including Corsica, was 33,600,000. Two thirds of this number are engaged in 

 agriculture, and about half the remaining third are mechanics. The French empire in 1812, 

 previous to the Russian campaign, comprised a population of 43,000,000. France has en- 

 tirely recovered from the losses occasioned by the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, 

 and was never so populous as at present. 



13. Inhabitants^ Classes, &c. The principal part of the inhabitants are descended from the 

 Celts or Gauls, the Romans, and the Franks, but chiefly from the latter. The Bretons who are 

 mostly in Lower Brittany, are the descendants of the people who were driven from England by 

 the Anglo Saxons, in the fifth century. After a lapse of so many centuries, they are still distin- 

 guished from the French in dress, customs, and language. The German inhabitants of France 

 are in part Walloons, and live for the most part in Alsace, and a part of Lorraine. The 

 Basques are descended from the ancient Cantabrians, and dwell at the foot of the Pyrenees. 

 The remainder of the inhabitants are Jews ; Gypsies, who lead a settled life on the Rhine and 

 Moselle, and Savoyards who wander over the country. The French are a well formed and 

 active people. In complexion they are not so clear as the English, and ihey are less robust 

 in frame ; though there are many who would be considered corpulent even in England. In 

 the southern provinces, the skin is darker, and the eye more restless and brilliant. 



Hereditary peerage in France is abolished. The titles of nobility are princes, dukes, mar- 

 quises, counts, viscounts, and barons. There were formerly no less than 365,000 noble fami- 

 lies, though of these only 4,120 were of the ancient nobility. The most ancient order is that 

 of St. Michael, founded by Louis the Eleventh, and conferred on distinguished artists and sa- 

 vans. The order of the Holy Ghost, is like the last, limited to 100 chevaliers, and it includes 

 the royal family and the princes of the blood. Louis the Fourteenth established the Order of 

 St. Louis, as a reward for military services. Under the consulate, the Legion d'Honneur 

 was instituted, and the members were both military and civil. At the Restoration it was 

 reorganized. It has 80 grand crosses, 160 grand officers, 400 commanders, 2,000 officers, 

 and an unlimited number of chevaliers. There are three schools for the education of 900 of 

 the daughters of the members. 



14. Dress. France has long been looked up to as the standard from which there is no ap- 

 peal, in all matters of taste or fashion, whether as regards dress or cookery ; and it must be 

 owned, that the French have earned their reputation in this respect by the unremitting atten- 

 tion, which they have bestowed upon these subjects. From the highest to the lowest indi- 

 vidual, from the duchess to the grisette, there is a universal, and, it would seem, an intuitive 

 esprit de coquelterie, which in no way displays itself more forcibly than in the frequent and 

 tasteful arrangement of the toilet. The " Courrier des Dames," and the ".Tournal des 

 Modes," have carried their laws through every part of the civilized world. In all the great 

 cities, whether of Europe or America, the dress of the upper classes is an intended imitation. 



* The mountain party originated the military conscrip- 

 tion. Carnot, the revolutionary minister at war. or- 

 ganized in 1794 no less than 14 armies, amounting to 

 1,400,000 men. The decree of conscription was declared 

 a permanent law of the republic, and afterwards of the 

 empire, and this engine wliether wielded by a Cnrnot 

 or a Napoleon, like the lever of Archimedes, for a time 

 moved and overturned the balance of the political world. 

 The annual conscription after the incorporation of Bel- 

 gium and the Italian States with the empire, averaired 

 from 1806 to 1810, 300,000 men. By the ofncial report 



of January, 1809, the French army consisted of 900,000 

 inf'nntry, and 100,(11)0 cavalry, without including- auxil- 

 iaries. ]t was afterwards still more augmented. In 

 181"2 and 1813, France called out by extraordinary con 

 scriptions in her own territories, 1,^80,000 men; and 

 from other countries 700,000, making a tot.nl of 1 ,98(1,000. 

 In tlie beginning of 181":!, wlien Napoleon had reached 

 the pinnacle of his greatness, he had a standing army of 

 1,200,000 men, a force greater than RoiDe ever possessed 

 in the zenith of her power. 



