[1] By the _Service géographique de l'armée_.
[2] The etymology of this name (sometimes wrongly written Golfe de
Lyon) is unknown.
[3] In 1907 deaths were superior in number to births by nearly
20,000.
[4] The following list comprises the three most densely-populated and
the three most sparsely populated departments in France:
_Inhabitants to the Square Mile._
Seine 20,803 | Basses-Alpes 42
Nord 850 | Hautes-Alpes 49
Rhône 778 | Lozère 64
[5] Inspectors are placed at the head of the synodal
circumscriptions; their functions are to consecrate candidates for
the ministry, install the pastors, &c.
[6] _Cultures industrielles._--Under this head the French group
beetroot, hemp, flax and other plants, the products of which pass
through some process of manufacture before they reach the consumer.
[7] Fibre only. In the years 1896-1905, 8130 tons of hemp-seed and
12,137 tons of flax-seed was the average annual production in
addition to fibre.
[8] The chief breeds of horses are the _Boulonnais_ (heavy draught),
the _Percheron_ (light and heavy draught), the _Anglo-Norman_ (light
draught and heavy cavalry) and the _Tarbais_ of the western Pyrenees
(saddle horses and light cavalry). Of cattle besides the breeds named
the _Norman_ (beef and milk), the _Limousin_ (beef), the
_Montbéliard_, the _Bazadais_, the _Flamand_, the _Breton_ and the
_Parthenais_ breeds may be mentioned.
[9] The department is also entrusted with surveillance over
river-fishing, pisciculture and the amelioration of pasture.
[10] The metric ton = 1000 kilogrammes or 2204 lb.
[11] Includes manufactories of glue, tallow, soap, perfumery,
fertilizers, soda, &c.
[12] See the _Guide officiel de la navigation intérieure_ issued by
the ministry of public works (Paris, 1903).
[13] Includes horses, mules and asses.
[14] Except certain manufactures which come under the category of
articles of food.
[15] Includes small fancy wares, toys, also wooden wares and
furniture, brushes, &c.
[16] Decrease largely due to Spanish-American War (1898).
[17] The administration of posts, telegraphs and telephones is
assigned to the ministry of commerce and industry or to that of
public works.
[18] The province or provinces named are those out of which the
department was chiefly formed.
[19] The tax on land (_propriétés non bâties_) and that on buildings
(_propriétés bâties_) are included under the head of _contribution
foncière_.
[20] With revenues of over £1200.
[21] For a history of the French debt, see C.F. Bastable, _Public
Finance_ (1903).
[22] In 1894 the rentes then standing at 4½% were reduced to 3½%, and
in 1902 to 3%.
[23] Algerian native troops are recruited by voluntary enlistment.
But in 1908, owing to the prevailing want of trained soldiers in
France, it was proposed to set free the white troops in Algeria by
applying the principles of universal service to the natives, as in
Tunis.
[24] Kerguelen lies in the Great Southern Ocean, but is included here
for the sake of convenience.
[25] In 1906 the number of registered electors in these colonies was
199,055, of whom 106,695 exercised their suffrage.
[26] In the case of Madagascar by decree of the 11th of December
1895.
[27] The Indo-China budget is reckoned in piastres, a silver coin of
fluctuating value (1s. 10d. to 2s.). The budget of 1907 balanced at
50,000,000 piastres.
[28] St Eligius, bishop of Noyon, apostle of the Belgians and
Frisians (d. 659?).
[29] The _assurement_ (_assecuratio_, _assecuramentum_) differed from
the truce, which was a suspension of hostilities by mutual consent,
in so far as it was a peace forced by judicial authority on one of
the parties at the request of the other. The party desiring
protection applied for the _assurement_, either before or during
hostilities, to any royal, seigniorial or communal judge, who
thereupon cited the other party to appear and take an oath that he
would assure the person, property and dependents of his adversary
(_qu'il l'assurera, elle et les siens_). This custom, which became
common in the 13th century, of course depended for its effectiveness
on the degree of respect inspired in the feudal nobles by the courts.
It was difficult, for instance, to refuse or to violate an
_assurement_ imposed by a royal _bailli_ or by the parlement itself.
See A. Luchaire, _Manuel des institutions françaises_ (Paris, 1892),
p. 233.--(W. A. P.)
[30] Earl of Richmond; afterwards Arthur, duke of Brittany (q.v.).
[31] Olivier de Serres, sieur de Pradel, spent most of his life on
his model farm at Pradel. In 1599 he dedicated a pamphlet on the
cultivation of silk to Henry IV., and in 1600 published his _Théâtre
d'agriculture et ménage des champs_, which passed through nineteen
editions up to 1675.
[32] Ferdinand is reported to have said: "Le capucin m'a désarmé avec
son scapulaire et a mis dans capuchon six bonnets électoraux."
[33] Jean Orry Louis Orry de Fulvy (1703-1751), counsel to the
parlement in 1723, intendant of finances in 1737, founded at
Vincennes the manufactory of porcelain which was bought in 1750 by
the farmers general and transferred to Sèvres.
[34] Louis Robert Hippolyte de Bréhan, comte de Plélo (1699-1734), a
Breton by birth, originally a soldier, was at the time of the siege
of Danzig French ambassador to Denmark. Enraged at the return to
Copenhagen, without having done anything, of the French force sent to
help Stanislaus, he himself led it back to Danzig and fell in an
attack on the Russians on the 27th of May 1734. Plélo was a poet of
considerable charm, and well-read both in science and literature.
See Marquis de Bréhan, _Le Comte de Plélo_ (Nantes, 1874); R.
Rathery, _Le Comte de Plélo_ (Paris, 1876); and P. Boyé, _Stanislaus
Leszczynski et le troisième traité de Vienne_ (Paris, 1898).
[35] Charles Laure Hugues Théobald, duc de Choiseul-Praslin
(1805-1847), was deputy in 1839, created a peer of France in 1840. He
had married a daughter of General Sebastiani, with whom he lived on
good terms till 1840, when he entered into open relations with his
children's governess. The duchess threatened a separation; and the
duke consented to send his mistress out of the house, but did not
cease to correspond with and visit her. On the 18th of August 1847
the duchess was found stabbed to death, with more than thirty wounds,
in her room. The duke was arrested on the 20th and imprisoned in the
Luxembourg, where he died of poison, self-administered on the 24th.
It was, however, popularly believed that the government had smuggled
him out of the country and that he was living under a feigned name in
England.
[36] T.T. de Martens, _Recueil des traités, &c._, xii. 248.
[37] In the 14th volume of his _L'Empire libéral_ (1909) M. Émile
Ollivier gives a detailed and illuminating account of the events that
led up to the war. He indignantly denies that he ever said that he
contemplated it "with a light heart," and says that he disapproved of
Gramont's demand for "guarantees," to which he was not privy. His
object is to prove that France was entrapped by Bismarck into a
position in which she was bound in honour to declare war. (ED.)