Estimating the population at 350,000, Florida has a school for every 175 inhabitants. She expends $5 for every child of school age and $7.37 for every average attendant upon the schools. During 1885 and 1886 teachers' institutes were held in twenty-eight counties, bringing under their instruction 795 teachers. Normal departments for instruction of white teachers were conducted in the West and East Florida seminaries, and normal schools for colored teachers organized and conducted at Tallahassee and Gainesville, and continued for two months, giving 275 attendants the benefit of training for their work as educators. These short normal courses were the only instruction the State could offer for the training of teachers, until the Legislature this year provided for the erection of buildings and the maintenance of regularly equipped normal schools at De Funiak Springs and at Tallahassee, the former for white and the latter for colored pupils. The higher institutions, East and West Florida seminaries, and the State Agricultural College are making satisfactory progress.

Railroads. The Governor, in his message to the Legislature, says: "The two years last past have witnessed the building and equipment of more than 500 miles of new, and the renovation of more than 500 miles of almost worse than useless old road, thus substantially adding to first-class railroad facilities fully 1,000 miles. In no other equal time in the history of our State has such progress been made." The total number of miles of road assessed in 1886 was 1,701, with a total assessment of railroad property amounting to $11,372,016. During 1887 the Legislature granted letters of incorporation to nine new companies, and probably over 150 miles of road were constructed. The assessed value of railroad property for this year rose to $12,752,331, a gain of $1,380,315 over 1886.

By the railroad law passed this year, the duty of supervision was given into the hands of a board of three commissioners, appointed by the Governor, and holding office four years. They have power to make and establish reasonable rates of fare for passengers and freight, and to make any other reasonable regulations

applicable to all the railroads of the State. They can require railroads to produce books and papers for inspection, and they may examine such, as well as all agents or employés of the roads. Their decisions may be appealed from. The Governor appointed Ex-ChiefJustice McWhorter, Ex-Circuit Judge Enoch J. Vause, and William Himes as members of the board.

The Okeechobee Drainage.—By a contract made in 1881 between the trustees of the State Internal Improvement Fund and the Atlantic and Gulf Canal and Okeechobee Land Company, it was agreed that the company might drain and reclaim all the overflowed lands in the vicinity of or submerged by Lake Okeechobee or the Kissimmee river, or their tributaries or outlets, by permanently lowering the waters of the lake; and of the lands of the State so reclaimed the company shall be entitled to one half. In pursuance of this agreement the company constructed canals and other works upon a large scale, and by 1884 claimed to have drained a large area. In that year agents of the State sent to inspect the work reported that nearly 2,500,000 acres had been permanently restored to cultivation. The trustees, accordingly, conveyed to the company 1,174,942 acres as its share. But a committee appointed by the Legislature of 1885 made a report at the session of this year which denies the conclusions arrived at by the trustees, and represents that only 80,000 acres have been actually reclaimed. This report, implying that the company had unfairly obtained title to nearly all of its land, was the subject of extended discussion, and resulted in the passage of a bill giving the trustees power to bring suits to recover the lands so alienated or to enter into any compromise with the company that should seem advisable.

Minerals. A report upon the geology and mineralogy of the State was made to the Legislature of this year, from which the following facts are gathered: No deposits of the precious metals and but few of the lower metals except iron can be found. The iron-ore is not the best, being of the limonite variety. It is found in the largest quantities in Jackson County, but no attempt has yet been made to utilize it. Rich deposits of phosphates exist in several counties, notably Wakulla, Alachua, Marion, Hillsborough, and Manatee. These are as rich in phosphoric acid as the wellknown rocks on the Cooper and Ashley rivers in South Carolina. The largest deposit, in Wakulla County, is a triple phosphate of lime, iron, and alumina. Limestone is found in considerable quantities throughout the State, but is generally too siliceous to produce good lime. Clay suitable for making good brick exists in all parts of the State, the best quality being in Escambia County. A considerable deposit of soft brown or lignite coal has recently been discovered in Santa Rosa County, near the west bank of Black water river. The vein lies

eight feet below the surface and has an average depth of about thirty inches. There is available building-stone, but none of marked value. Coast Defense. In response to a call issued by the Executive Committee of the Coast Defense 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 was 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 Congress of the United States to take such steps and enact such laws as are necessary to put our coasts in a proper state of defense by building such fortifications as the engineering skill of our army officers may determine to be the best and most important, and, further, by supplying our navy with such ships and armament as modern science renders necessary, and,

Whereas, There is no 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 appliances 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 construction 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.

FRANCE, 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 chambers. 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 inhabitants, 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 President of the republic is elected for seven years by a majority of votes in a Congress or National 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 beginning of 1887 was François P. Jules Grévy, 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-Carnot, formerly Minister of Finance (see CARNOT, 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 extend 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:

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 number 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 imports 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 products, 339,809,000 francs; exports, 252,004,000 francs; total imports of articles of consumption, 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, exports, 306,128,000 francs; imports of timber, 167,723,000 francs; total imports of raw materials, 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 chinery and metal manufactures, 77,721,000

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