In each department there is a council general with as many members as the department contains cantons, but the number must not exceed thirty. Each canton elects a member whose qualifi cation consists in the payment of 200fr. a-year direct taxes. He is elected for nine years, but a third of the council is renewed every three years. The electors are the highest taxed inhabitants, in the proportion of 1 to 1000. The council assembles annually by virtue of a royal ordonnance which iixes the time and du ration of its sittings, which are private ; and on the demand of four members the votes may be taken by ballot. The council cannot deliberate except in the place assigned for its sittings, and on matters within its jurisdiction as deter mined by the law of 23rd June, l833; nor can it put itself in correspondence with the council of another department or of an arrondissement. On an infrac tion of these articles the council is sus pended by the prefect; and printers or others who publish the proceedings of a council which commits either of these infringements is liable to imprisonment for a period of from two to six months, to the loss of civil rights and of all public employment for ten years. The powers and functions of both the councils of a department and of an arrondissement are regulated by a law of 10th May, 1838. Their powers are not near so extensive as those of county magistrates in England assembled at quarter-sessions. The cen tral authority of the government pervades every part of the local administration from the commune to the department. The chief business of the council is to apportion between the arrondissements the direct taxes which are required by the general government ; to hear and determine upon appeals made by the councils of arron dissements against this assessment; to levy, within certain limits fixed by law, an additional tax, destined, like our county rates, to meet the expenses of the local administration ; to audit the account yearly rendered by the prefect of the ex penditure of this local revenue ; and to express, in a report addressed to the minister of the interior, an opinion upon the condition and wants of the depart ment.
The number of members of councils general is 2300, and of councils of arron dissements 3200.
The departments and arrondissements are electoral divisions. The members of the National Assembly are chosen for the departments, not for single towns, however important or populous ; so that the deputies are all, according to our phrase, county members. [CitenTE.]
Each arrondissement has a court of justice, entitled tribunal de premiere in stance, which, except in a very few cases. has its sittings at the capital of the arron dissement. These courts commonly con sist of three or four ordinary and two or three supplementary judges: a few ar rondissements which include large towns, such as Marseille or Bordeaux, have a considerably greater number of judges, who are divided into two or more sec tions. To each court there is a procureur du roi, or attorney-general ; and where the court consists of two or more sections there are deputy attorneys. Each de partment has a tribunal criminel (crimi nal court), or cour d'assize (assize court), consisting of a president, who is a coun sellor of the cour royale, to the jurisdic tion of which the department is subject, two ordinary and two supplementary judges : to each court is attached a pro cureur du roi, or attorney-general, and a greffier, or registrar. These courts, ex cept in a few instances, have their seat at the capital of the department. Besides these courts, there are in different parts of France twenty-seven higher tribunals, called tours royales, consisting of from twelve to thirty-three salaried judges. Each of these courts has under its juris diction several departments. There is an appeal from these courts on questions of law, not of fact, to the supreme court, cour de cessation, at Paris. The depart ments are also formed into twenty di visions militaires, or military districts : the head-quarters of these districts are fixed at some important town, usually at the capital of one of the included depart ments. The departments are also grouped Into divisions for other objects of central government : 1, as to bridges and high ways ; 2, forests ; 3, mines.
A department usually constitutes an ec clesiastical diocese. In a few instances two departments are comprehended in one diocese ; and in one or two cases a de partment is divided between two dioceses. The dioceses of France amount to eighty, of which fourteen are archbishoprics and sixty-six bishoprics.
The instruction of youth in France being under the surveillance of govern ment, has occasioned an arrangement of territory with a view to this object.