Napoleon repaired on his return from Elba, when the citizens and soldiers immediately declared for him. In the vicinity lies the village of Chartreuse, from which the Carthusian monks derive their name, and where they originated. Vienne, on the Rhone, the capital of Dauphine, dating from the Roman times, is still a considerable industrial town, with paper, cloth, and ironworks. But it is distinguished by many ancient remains, and of interest as an early scene of western Christianity, whose professors here were associated with those at Lyon in the great persecution of the second century. The ecclesiastical council which condemned the Order of the Templars in 1307 was held at Vienne. Valence, lower down the river, trades in the sparkling St Peray wine produced on the opposite bank of the stream. Gap, the birthplace of Farel, the reformer, and Embrunn, formerly visited by royal and plebeian pilgrims to an image of the Virgin, are small towns in the valley of the Durance. Briançon, a first-class fortress, and the loftiest town in France, is on its head waters, at the height of 4285 feet above the sea. Forts crown the adjoining rocks to a much greater altitude, and guard the pass into Italy by the Mont Genèvre, forming a kind of inland Gibraltar. The winter here is long and rigorous. On the south-west rise the peaks of Mont Pelvoux, the highest of which reaches to 13,468 feet, and is the loftiest summit in the great range between Mont Blanc and the Mediterranean. The department is hence appropriately named Hautes Alpes.

The name, Dauphin, was a title of the Counts of Vienne which passed to their territory. It is derived from delphinus, dolphin, which they carried as their coat of arms. The origin of the insignia is quite unknown. Upon Count Humbert II. making a voluntary surrender of his domain to Philippe de Valois, he stipulated that it should be the appanage of the heir-apparent, the title of Dauphin going along with it. This was observed down to the Revolution. The cession was made in consequence of the death of his only son while a child, who sprung from his nurse's arms, fell into the Isère, and was drowned.

The newly-acquired district of SAVOY, long incorporated with the Italian kingdom of Sardinia, is properly a portion of France by geographical and ethnological relations. The position, surface, climate, people, and language have a much greater affinity to Gaul than to Italy. It lies wholly on the northern side of the main Alpine chain, and extends from it to the Lake of Geneva, the Rhone, and Dauphiné. Within these limits the natives are generally of French extraction, speak the language; and the entire drainage is conducted into France. The Isère follows a devious course through the province from east to west, starting from the foot of the Little St Bernard. The Arve, child of the glaciers, born on the Col de Balme, intersects it in the same general direction, but makes a more direct cut to the Rhone, entering just below its emergence from the Genevan Lake, in the Swiss canton. On the eastern border rises Mont Blanc, the monarch-mountain of Europe, with several principal summits of the Graian and Cottian Alps to the southward, Mont Iseran, 13,274 feet, and Mont Cenis, 11,460 feet. A pass adjoining the latter, long one of the most frequented routes between Savoy and Italy, culminates at the height of 6780 feet; and at a neighbouring site, the great railwaytunnel through the mountain mass has been excavated. The Savoyards are a hardy, frugal, and industrious race. Many wander far away to pick up earnings by music and shows in the streets of foreign cities, and then return to their native mountains. Chamberry, the principal town, the seat of an archbishop, is on the western side, nearly equidistant from Lyon and Geneva. It contains about 13,000 inhabitants, produces silk gauze, and is on the railway leading to the Mont Cennis tunnel. Annecy, midway towards Geneva, on the shore of a considerable lake, though much smaller, is more industrial, with glass, cotton, and bleaching works; and is said to be one of the oldest manufacturing sites in Europe. Chamouni, a village, in a valley of the same name, is at the northern foot of Mont Blanc, 3150 feet above the sea. Few places so small are so widely known, as the point from which travellers of all countries start for the ascent of the mountain. Modane, a hamlet, about eighteen miles from Mont Cennis, marks the northern opening of the great tunnel, seen on the side of the mountain upwards of 300 feet above the ordinary road. This vast work was authorised by the Sardinian legislature in 1857 at its sole expense, but since the cession of Savoy to France, a large portion of it will have to be borne by the French government. The total length is upwards of seven and a half miles, cut through extremely hard rock. It is expected to be in working order in the year 1872. At the beginning of 1863 there remained six and a quarter miles of tunnelling to be accomplished; but much time was necessarily spent in overcoming preliminary difficulties. Savoy was ceded to France by Sardinia in 1861, in compensation for military services in the war with Austria in 1859.

The principality of NICE, acquired at the same time from the Sardinian crown, lies on the Mediterranean, and occupies the space between its waters and the Maritime Alps. This cession advanced the French frontier from the river Var to the stream of the Roya,

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which descends from the mountains to the sea; and the included tract was incorporated with the old adjoining arrondissement of Grasse to form a new department.

Nice (Ital. Nizza), a seaport, pleasantly situated at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills, contains a population estimated at 38,000, engaged in the manufacture of silk, oil, perfumery, and other products, occupied also with visitors, of whom the great proportion are English, attracted to it as a winter residence. It has a palace, a cathedral, convents, and hospitals, and various bath establishments. Its reputation for salubrity has, however, declined, as piercing blasts occasionally descend from the snow-crowned Alps. Cassini, the astronomer, was a native, and so is Garibaldi—the hero, par excellence, of modern Italy. Mentone, eastward on the coast, a small town, is rising into notice as preferable for invalids, being well sheltered from cold winds, and open to the sea, with delightful scenery. Cannes, westward, is similarly distinguished. Its single street is the centre of an English colony in the winter, some members of which occupy villas of their own in the vicinity. Close to this small port Napoleon landed on his return from Elba. In a little woody island off shore, the Man in the Iron Mask underwent part of his long imprisonment, in the reign of Louis XIV. Grasse, nine miles inland from Cannes, receives from its nursery-grounds, and others, a vast quantity of aromatic herbs and odoriferous flowers for the supply of its perfume distilleries. More essences, scents, and pomades are said to be made here than in any other European town except Paris.

CORSICA (Fr. Corse), an island in the western basin of the Mediterranean, is incorporated with France as one of its departments, but belongs to Italy by proximity and the descent of the people. It extends rather more than 100 miles from north to south, by about half the distance where the breadth is the greatest, and is traversed in the line of its length by mountain-ranges, which attain the height of 9068 feet in the porphyritic mass of the Monte Rotondo. Forests of oak, pine, beech, and chestnut largely clothe the surface, with brushwood of arbutus, cistus, oleander, and myrtle, while the orange, citron, vine, olive, and mulberry flourish in the cultivated districts. The woods have for ages been the hiding-place of outlaws, or criminals escaped from justice, adopting the life of brigands, a class not yet extinct, and are in certain parts numerously inhabited by the wild boar. On the higher points the moufflon still exists, as well as in the neighbouring island of Sardinia, but is not known elsewhere in Europe. The animal, a species of wild sheep, is supposed by some to be the original stock whence sprung the domesticated race. Nearly half the surface lies waste, and the low grounds are unhealthy from the prevalence of malaria. The island is rich in minerals, but they are not wrought. Ajaccio, the capital, with 12,000 inhabitants, founded by the Genoese, is pleasantly situated on a promontory of the west coast. Its great and only distinction is that of being the birthplace of the first Napoleon. He was born in a modest-looking house, not now inhabited, but indicated by an inscription, and in the care of a custodian. Bastia, the largest town, with 17,000 inhabitants, is on the north-east coast, at the commencement of the finger-like projection which forms the north extremity. It has a small but convenient harbour; exports olive-oil, fruits, wine, fish, and the mineral produce of the island; imports corn and general merchandise.

In ancient times the Phoenicians and Romans successively held the island. The Moors, German emperors, the Pisan and Genoese republics had possession of it in the middle ages. The latter retained it to the middle of the last century, when they were succeeded by the French, but for a short time afterwards it was in the hands of Great Britain. The islanders are an Italian race, and speak a dialect allied to the Sicilian.

The foreign territories of France are distributed in every quarter of the globe, but with one or two exceptions, they are not singly of important extent or value. The African possessions consist of Algeria, settlements on the Senegal and dependencies, the island of Bourbon or Réunion, in the Indian Ocean, the isles of St Mary, Nosse-Be, and Mayotte, on the north-west of Madagascar; the Asiatic, are Pondicherry and various small districts on the coast of India, with a newly-acquired maritime part of Cochin China; the American, comprise French Guiana, the islands of Guadaloupe, Martinique, with dependencies, in the West Indies, and the isles of St Pierre and Miquilon, near Newfoundland; and in Oceania, the Marquesas, Society, Gambier, and Wallis groups, with New Caledonia. France, anciently called Gallia or Gaul by its Roman conquerors, acquired the present name from the Franks (perhaps 'freemen'), a confederation of Germanic tribes, who invaded the country in the 5th century after Christ. Their leader was called Merwig or

Merovæns, but the real founder of the Merovingian dynasty was Clovis or Chlodwig (the modern German Ludwig and French Louis). The Merovingian dynasty ceased to rule in 752, and was succeeded by the Carlovingian, the most famous sovereigns of which line, were its founder Pepin le Bref, and his son Charlemagne. Charles Martel and Pepin d'Heristall, the predecessors of these two, belonged to the same family, and were virtually, but not formally, the rulers of the Frankish states in Gaul. The Carlovingian gave way in 987 to the allied Capetian dynasty, founded by Hugo Capet, the most powerful nobleman of his day in France. This, in its turn, became extinct on the death. of Charles IV., le Bel, 1328, when the crown of France passed to his cousin Philip of Valois. The Valois dynasty next became extinct in 1589 by the assassination of Henry III., who was succeeded by his brother-in-law Henry IV., the first of the Bourbons, who ruled uninterruptedly, with absolute power, down to the Revolution, a period of exactly 200 years. That far-famed and terrible event, the French Revolution, was largely caused by the profligate selfishness of the court, the clergy, and nobility. The defunct imperial constitution, dating from the year 1852, ratified by the popular vote, practically clothed the emperor with supreme power in the direction of affairs, and was for some time associated with an unwonted measure of public prosperity.

The population of France somewhat exceeds 36,000,000. It advances at a very slow rate, and has recently in some single years positively retrograded, the deaths having exceeded the births. The greatest number of large towns is in the northern half of the country, which is generally more populous than the southern. The French proper are a mixed race, partly Teutonic, but chiefly Celtic. They form the vast majority of the people, speak the French language, which is founded upon a Gallo-Romanic idiom of the Latin tongue, and greatly modified by subsequent additions. It early branched into two characteristic dialects-the French spoken on the north of the Loire, or the Langue d'Oil, and the Romance, or Langue d'Oc, also called the Provençal. The latter dialect, though the vehicle of the joyous songs of the troubadours, was gradually supplanted by the former, as the northern power extended itself into the provinces of Provence and Languedoc. Its decline was accelerated by the ban of the church, which proscribed the popular poetry for espousing the cause of liberty in the religious wars, especially in the crusade against the persecuted Albigenses. In the departments towards Germany and Belgium, there are a considerable number of Germans and Flemings using their respective native tongues, while the Bretons in Brittany, and the Basques adjoining the Pyrenees, offer other varieties of race and speech. The Jews form an aggregate of 156,000, and the resident English average 60,000. The great bulk of the people belong to the Roman Catholic Church, or 35,000,000, who are under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of sixteen archbishops and sixty-five bishops, six of whom are cardinals appointed by the pope on the presentation of the emperor. There are about 1,000,000 Protestants of the Lutheran and Reformed communions, the former chiefly in the north-eastern departments, and the latter in the southern. Their ministers are subject to some crippling restrictions, but are paid by the state and exempt from military service, like the Catholic clergy and the Jewish rabbis. General instruction is promoted by collegiate institutions, superior normal schools, and primary communal schools, the expenses of which are partly defrayed by public funds, and the remainder by the departments. They are under the direction of a special branch of the government, and regularly inspected; but nevertheless great ignorance prevails, especially among the peasantry. The annals of French literature and science are adorned with numerous names brilliant in every branch. The people are temperate yet impulsive, patterns of courtesy in urban life, fond of pleasure, show, and spectacle, and passionately enamoured of military distinction.

GALLIA TRANSALPINA, the name given to France by the Romans, defined the position of the country as beyond the Alps in relation to themselves, and distinguished it from Gallia Cisalpina, or the northern part of Italy, in which Gallic tribes were established in the infancy of the Latin republic, and at times threatened its very existence. Upon the subjugation of the latter region, the Romans turned their attention to the former, and mastered the district on the lower course of the Rhone, which was constituted a Province of the state, and has ever since been popularly known by the name of Provence. The remainder of the country was conquered by Cæsar in eight hard-fought campaigns, 58–50, B.C., as narrated in his famous Commentaries, the first fact of moment recorded in French history. The natives are described as belonging to three great tribes or nations, the Aquitani in the south-west, the Celta in the west and centre, the Belge in the north and north-east. They had fortified towns, a regular civil and military polity presided over by chiefs, and were skilled in war, for which they had an ample supply of horses, chariots, and weapons. It is probable that the Aquitani were the oldest race, and the Celta the most numerous, for Celtic forms of speech were general; and through all the vicissitudes which have marked the history of the French people they have remained to this day essentially Celtic, like their ancestors, in disposition and habits, as described by Cæsar, 'lovers of novelty,' fond of display, brave but inconsiderate, bold to attack but soon discouraged by reverses, ingenious and tasteful, impulsive and inconstant.

Four great provinces were constituted by the Emperor Augustus, which were dismembered by succeeding emperors, and distributed into seventeen.

The Romans effected great improvements in the country by the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, and baths. They introduced, or at least extended and improved, the cultivation of the vine, olive, orange, lemon, fig, and other sub-tropical plants, which now flourish in the warm southern districts, and are staple products. Important remains of their architecture have survived the havoc of the middle ages, and also escaped the wanton destruction of ancient monuments which attended the first French Revolution. They are chiefly found in the south-east, at Nismes, Arles, Frejus, Orange, Vienne, St Remy, and St Chamas; likewise at Saintes, Poitiers, and St Paul de Dax, in the west and south-west; at Rheims, Autun, and other places, in more interior parts of the country. Rude stone structures, consisting of unhewn blocks, upright and prostrate, and of slabs piled one upon another in the form of tables, most numerous in Brittany, are so-called Celtic remains, but point to an origin and purpose of which no record has been preserved. The French government, in 1830, after the fall of the Bourbons, set apart a special fund for the preservation of such remains of other ages as seemed most worthy of it; and placed the 'monuments historiques' under the care of an inspector-general appointed by the Minister of the Interior. By virtue of this arrangement, under the auspices of M. Guizot, the Porta Martis at Rheims, a triumphal arch of the Romans, formerly used as one of the city gates, was cleared of the rubbish accumulated around it, and otherwise restored.

II. THE GALLICAN OR FRENCH CHURCH.

The Christian faith was introduced into France either in the age of the Apostles, or immediately afterwards, and rapidly superseded both the older forms of Celtic heathenism and the Roman superstitions, especially among the Greco-Gauls, who largely occupied the numerous cities and towns in the valley of the Rhone. The converts had their full share in the persecutions authorised by the imperial government previous to the establishment of Christianity as the profession of the empire. A narrative of the sufferings endured by the churches of Lyon and Vienne under Marcus Aurelius, in A.D. 171, sent by the survivors to their co-religionists in Asia, is one of the most authentic, artless, and touching monuments of early ecclesiastical history. In spite of severities designed to suppress the new faith, it triumphed in the struggle with pagan power; and the country passed under the rule of a regular body of Christian teachers, who, though inferior generally in intellectual ability to their oriental brethren, were not without names of deserved eminence in the literature of the second, third, and fourth centuries. The list includes Irenæus, bishop of Lyon, one of the most important of the early patristic writers; Hilary of Poitiers, and Hilary of Arles; Gregory of Tours, and Vincent of Lerins; along with Sulpicius Severus, Prosper, Victor, and Salvian. It is highly probable that the authorship of the most magnificent of uninspired hymns, Te Deum laudamus, may be assigned to some unknown member of the church of Gaul, perhaps in the fourth century, since allusions are made to its existence in the Rules of Cæsarius and Aurelian, two successive bishops of Arles, in the century following.

The Gallican Church, at a very early date, seems to have completed its hierarchical organisation, for a council, held at Arles in A.D. 314, was attended by prelates holding