II. DIVISIONS, CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL.
Nothing can be more simple and uniform than the territorial divisions of France since the Revolution. Instead of old provinces or counties, disproportioned in size, and having frequently their chief town at one or other of the extremities, the departments of France have almost always the capital in the centre, and, in their extent, approximate in a great degree to equality. Each department is divided into three, four, five, or more arrondissements; each arrondisse ment into seven, eight, or nine cantons ; and each canton into twelve, fifteen, or more communes. The communes in France are nearly similar to our pa rishes, though they are constituted communes, by having a civil, instead of a clerical functionary. The numbers of each class are as follows: Departments since the peace of 1814 (in cluding Corsica), 86 Arrondissements,- 368 Cantons, 2,669 Communes, 38,990 A far different result this from the gigantic empire of Bonaparte, which, after his latest acquisitions in 1810, extended to Rome in the south, and to Ham. burgh and Lubeck in the north, comprising above 130 departments, and a population (sec our article EUROPE, p. 193) of forty-four millions. But of all these splendid conquests, none, with the exception of the Netherlands, formed a substantial addition to the power of France. The Italian provinces, sepa rated by a vast natural barrier, were inhabited by a people, who bore the ascendancy of their northern neighbours, only until circumstances should enable them to throw off the yoke, and become incorpora ted into one great and independent state; while the Germans, still more distinct in habits and language from the French, were indignant at their humilia tion, and eager to rise with the first appearance of foreign aid. Belgium alone had no natural barrier,
no political attachment, to 'oppose to a union France.
The ecclesiastical division of France is into bi shoprics and archbishoprics. These, before the Re volution, were numerous, there being 18 archbishops and 112 bishops; but as that great political change bore particularly hard on the clergy, of whom, as of the noblesse, the great majority were adherents to the Bourbons, the number of prelates was reduced first to 85, and eventually (in 1801) to 50, viz. 9 arch bishops and 41 bishops. On the restoration of the Bourbons, measures were taken to re-augment their number ; and, in 1817, a new Concordat, concluded with the court of Rome, pronounced the creation of 9 additional archbishoprics and 33 bishoprics, carry ing the totals respectively to 18 and 74. Such, how ever, is the division of opinion, and the habit of pro crastination in political affairs in France, that the new arrangement is as yet (1820) but partially car ried into effect. The 18 archbishoprics are, As there are in France 86 departments, and only 76 bishoprics, a diocese necessarily comprehends a larger tract of country than a department.
A farther distribution of the French territory is into military divisions, or great districts, comprising four or five departments. Of these there are in the whole kingdom twenty-two, each having a general of rank, and a body of officers, stationed in a central town.