Government. — The government of France is that of a republic, the present republic dating from 1870. The execu tive and judiciary powers are vested in a President, chosen by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, on joint ballot, and serving for seven years. The legis lative body consists of a Senate, one third of whose number is elected by the Senate itself, and the remainder by spe cial bodies in each department, and in the colonies, and a Chamber of Depu ties, the members of which are elected by popular suffrage, one from each arron dissement, and one additional for each 100,000 population or fraction of the same in the arrondissement, in excess of 100,000. The Cabinet of the President is composed of Ministers of Foreign Af fairs, of Interior, Justice, War, Marine, Finance, Colonies, Works, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor, Liberated Territories, Hygiene, of Assistance and Social Pre vision and of Pensions, Awards and War Grants. For administrative purposes France is divided into communes (local units), of which there are 37,946; can tons comprised of communes, 2,899; ar rondissements, 362; departments, 90, and provinces, 37. The communes are gov erned locally by a mayor and municipal council (in the case of Paris, by a Presi dent and Vice-President). The cantons, usually comprising 12 communes, have no administrative officers; the arrondis sement, usually consisting of 8 cantons, is governed by a sub-prefect. The de partments, usually comprising 4 arron dissements, are each governed by a pre fect, appointed by the President of the Republic. He superintends public commands the police, etc. Each depart ment has a local legislative council, elect ed from the cantons.
History.—France was originally known to the Romans by the name of Trans alpine Gaul; but after its conquest by Caesar it was divided into the four provinces of Provincia Romanorum (Provence), Gallica Aquitanica, Celtica, and Belgica. In the 5th century it was subdivided into 17 provinces, inclusive of all the territory on the E. bank of the Rhine. At this time the Germanic nations began to overrun Gaul; the Visi goths established themselves from the Loire to the Pyrenees, where they estab lished a kingdom that lasted till about 540. Burgundians settled in the E., from the Lake of Geneva to the Rhine, and afterward stretched along the Rhone to the Mediterranean. The independent sovereignty they erected lasted till about 532. The Franks, whose dominion swal lowed up those of both the foregoing tribes, had long been settled in the N.; and Pharamond, their chief in 420, is considered the founder of the French monarchy, as he was of the first or Merovingian race of Frankish kings. In 486 Clovis defeated Syagrius, the Roman general, at Soissons„ and in 507, by his victory over the Visigoths, he rendered himself master of all the country be tween the Loire and the Garonne. On the death of Clovis, in 511, his dominions were divided into four kingdoms—those of Paris, Metz, Soissons, and Orleans.
These, however, were reunited in 558. In 732 Charles Martel defeated the Saracens in the S. of France, and ex pelled them from the kingdom. Under Pepin and Charlemagne the country was relatively peaceful and prosperous; but after the latter's death things returned to their original state of confusion. Under his immediate successor France was again divided into four parts, and the Normans began to ravage its N. provinces; the power of the nobility also rapidly increased and the last sovereign of the Carlovingian dynasty, Louis V. in 986-987, possessed only the town of Laon. His successor, Hugh Capet, Count of Paris and Orleans, the founder of the third race of kings, governed only the Ile-de-France, Picardy, and the Or leannais; the dukes of Normandy, Brit tany, Aquitaine, Gascony, Lorraine, and Burgundy, the count of Flanders, Cham pagne, Vermandois, Toulouse, and sev eral minor seigneurs, shared among them the rest of the modern kingdom. Vermandois was united to the crown by Philip Augustus; Toulouse and Perche, by Louis IX.; Champagne, in 1274; the Lyonnais, Dauphiny, and Lan guedoc, in the 14th century; Berri, Nor mandy, Gascony, Burgundy, Anjou, Maine, and Provence, in the 15th; Bour bonnais, Auvergne, Brittany, Lorraine, and considerable territories in the S. W. in the 16th; and Flanders, Artois, Franche-Comte, and Alsace in the 17th century. While the monarchy gained in consistency and extent, the regal power was making constant advances. At length, under the administration of Richelieu, the nobles were stripped of all power; and there being no other body in the State, with the exception of the parliaments—which had degenerated in to little else than courts of law—that enjoyed any constitutional privileges, the power of the crown was raised above control. Under the vigorous, and for a lengthened period prosperous, govern ment of Louis XIV., the royal preroga tive arrived at a maximum. During the regency and the subsequent part of the reign of Louis XV., abuses of all sorts multiplied on all hands, and were no longer concealed by the dazzling splen dor and magnificence of the preceding period.
Louis XVI., who ascended the throne in 1774, was actuated by the best in eentions, but he wanted the firmness of purpose and capacity required in so des perate a crisis. At length, after a variety of futile expedients had been in vain resorted to, it was resolved, in 1789, to hold a meeting of the States General, which had not been convened since 1614, for effecting the necessary changes and averting a public bank ruptcy. This was the commencement of that tremendous revolution which cost Louis XVI. the crown and his life, and destroyed every vestige of the govern ment and institutions that existed when it broke out. The atrocities connected with the Revolution were in wild, but not unnatural excesses of an unin structed populace that had suddenly been emancipated from a state of ex treme degradation.