Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/550

 514 FRANCE of public works, and prepares the old students of the polytechnic school for civil engineering ; the ficolc dcs mines, towards which a stage in the polytechnic school is also a first and necessary step ; the Conservatoire dcs arts ct metiers, under the control of the minister of agriculture and commerce ; the ficolc centrale des arts ct manufactures, for the training of private engineers and manu facturers ; the schools of arts ct metiers, established at Chalons- sur-Marne, Augers, and Aix ; the iZcole forestterc, at Nancy, which trains the administrators of the forests belonging to the state and to the communes; the agricultural schools of Grignon (Seine-et-Oise), Graudjouan (Loire- Inferieure), and Montpellier (Herault) ; the. veter inary schools of Alfort (Seine), Toulouse, and Lyons ; the Maisons d education de la legion d honneitr at St Denis, Ecouen, and Les Loges, for daughters of knights of the Legion of Honour in straitened circumstances. Notice must also be taken of the College de France, in which 34 professors deliver lectures to the public on almost every branch of human knowledge ; the Museum d Histoire Naturelle, with 16 lecturers ; and the chair of archaeology attached to the national library of Paris. Government supports three great establishments devoted to astronomical study, the Bureau dcs Longitudes and the observatories of Paris and Marseilles. The In- The highest institution founded and kept up by the stitute. French Government on behalf of science and literature is the Institut de France, composed of five Academies as follows : Academies. Sections. Members. Honorary Members. Foreign Members. Academic Frangaise 40 Academic des Inscrip- ) tions et Belles-lettres 11 40 10 8 Academic des Sciences 11 63 10 8 Acade mit) des Beaux-Arts. 5 40 10 10 Academic des Sciences ) morales et politiques. 6 40 5 5 The Academie de Medecine is a separate body, divided into 11 sections; it is composed of TOO resident members, and a number of fellows and correspondents, chosen from among the medical celebrities of the world. VII. Charitable Institutions. Although there is no poor law in France, charitable esta blishments, either private or created and managed by the state, are very numerous, and, on the whole, efficient. Orphelinats (orphans houses) receive infants which have neither parents nor friends to care for them ; creches and salles d asile (infant schools) gratuitously give shelter and the first elements of education to poor children whose mothers must earn their daily bread by out-door work ; young girls of the destitute class may learn a trade in the ouvroirs or workshops freely open to them in many towns ; whilst lads find employment and agricultural training in such establishments as the colonies agricoles of Mesnil-St- Firmin (Oise), St Jean, Petit-Mettray (Somme), Lesparrc (Gironde), Montmorillon (Vienne), &c. There are also other charitable institutions, analogous to those which exist in other countries. Besides these private charities, more or less supported by Government grants, there is a special department, called assistance publique, a branch of the minister of the interior, established to superintend, and in some cases organize, the bureaux de bienfaisance and hospitals. The bureaux de bienfaisance give out-door relief to the poor when it is deemed necessary. They are 12,989 in number, or about 36 bureaux for every 100 com munes, a proportion quite inadequate there should be one for each commune. In 1873 these bureaux assisted 1, 312,847 people, or an average of 3 61 per cent.; but this help is still very unequally distributed, the average being 18 per 100 in the department of the North, and under 35 per 100 in the departments of Corsica, Ardeche, and Pyrenees Orien- tales. The total amount of their disbursements, covered by foundations, grants, a tax on the theatres, and private gifts, is about 12,500,000 francs which gives an average of less than 17 francs (13s. 8d.) for each pauper assisted. The same inequality appears here ; for, whilst in ths depart ment of the Seine the average is 26 95 francs (1, Is. 7d.) per head, it falls as low as G 45 francs (5s. 2d.) in less favoured districts. The number of hospitals, in addition to the Mai-son Hosp Municipale de /Sante and the seven great establishments tals. of Paris, is 1481, furnished with 101,520 beds, and em ploying 2673 physicians and surgeons, 3212 officials, 11,032 nuns, and 11,534 servants. In 1873 the number of patients received was 410,441, that is, 1 patient for 88 inhabitants. Out of 100 patients, 79 were discharged cured, at least for a time, and the death average was not above 9 per cent. Besides the patients who only pass through the wards (37 days is the average duration of their stay), 69,786 infirm, incurable, or old people live as in mates in some of the hospitals, which are specially desig nated by the name liospice ; this number is divided into 27,256 men, 31,037 women, and 11,493 children. This population of invalids, both in hdjntals and hospices, was maintained at a cost of 93,269,886 francs. It must be confessed that all these means of relief, good as they are, provide but very insufficiently for the wants of the million of poor which France reckons among her 36 millions of inhabitants. Pauperism is, there as else where, a sore which civilization has been as yet quite unable to heal. The census of 1872 shows that there were at that time LUI f 87,968 lunatics in France, an average of 2 44 for 1000 asy | inhabitants. Of these 51,004 were kept at home, and 36,964 in asylums, public or private. In 1873 the number of asylums in France was 102, of which 61 were public ; of the 41 private asylums 17 received the poor gratuitously. These asylums, at the end of the year, contained 41,064 inmates, of whom only about 8000 were able to pay for board and attendance ; the rest were paupers. The average number of cures was 6 per cent., and of these part only would be permanent. VIII. Finance. All the agents who have the charge of collecting taxes are Mi tq; under the minister of finance, who, besides, distributes to f ] the other departments the sums necessary for their expenses. lin * In each department a tresorier payeur general receives the taxes raised in his district, and is accountable for them to the central office of the treasury at Paris. These tresoriers payeurs generaux have a salary of 6000 francs a year, but they also get a percentage on the amount of taxes collected, and are allowed to transact private banking business with the funds of the state, as well as with their own. As security they have, before entering on their duties, to deposit with the treasury a sum, which varies with the importance of their situation, but on an average amounts to 800,000 francs. A part of their business is to pay the creditors of the state in their respective departments. They are assisted in their work by receveurs particidiers in each arrondissement, except that in which ike, tresorier payeur general resides. These officials have a salary of 2400 francs a year, and a percentage on the amount that they collect. The security which they are. bound to give is five times their total income. The taxes that pass through the hands first of the receveurs particidiers, then of the tresoriers payeurs gene raux, and finally into the treasury, are of two kinds, direct D ;t and indirect. The land tax, the poll and rent-tax, the tax tf on doors and windows, the licence tax, and the tax on money invested in public funds or in bonds of private companies (valeurs mobilises) are now the chief sources of the direct revenue of the French treasury. The land-tax or contribu tion fonciere is assessed on the net revenue of landed property.