to insure the social and economic progress of the threatened dependencies. The recommendations of this Commission were again annulled by a decree of the 3rd of May, 1854, which laid down that all colonial matters of a local character should be entrusted to the Governor; that those referring to property, to criminal jurisdiction, and to the military forces should be decided by the Senate; whilst the organisation of the legal courts, of the episcopal services, and services of public instruction should be reserved for the 'Conseil d'Etat.' At the same time the commercial system was modified. Up till 1854 France reserved to herself the right of furnishing her colonies with all goods of which they had need, the importation of foreign produce was interdicted, and the colonies were likewise compelled to send their produce to the mother country. The transport of merchandise between France and her colonies was also reserved for French vessels. It was not until the year 1861 that this absurd Protectionist doctrine was abolished, and even now, owing to the inequalities of the customs, foreign countries trading with French colonies, and foreign merchants residing therein, are placed at a very great disadvantage. The fall of the Empire witnessed great changes in the constitution of the colonies. A decree of the Senate of the 3rd of December, 1870, declared the establishment of universal suffrage throughout the French dependencies. Martinique, Guadaloupe, Réunion, Senegal, Guiana, and the East Indies were each permitted to send a representative to the National Assembly, and later on the same privilege was extended to Cochin China. Shortly after this Conseils Généraux' were established in all the large colonies, the internal administration of the lesser dependencies being entrusted to municipal councils, who lightened the labours of the Governors. 6 At the present moment the French colonies may be divided into two great classes :— I. Those endowed with representative institutions; these comprise Martinique, Guadaloupe, Réunion, Guiana, Senegal, the East Indies, and Cochin China; and II. Those where the Governor and the council have practically absolute power, as in New Caledonia, the Oceanic Islands, Mayotte, Nossi Bé, St. Pierre, and Miquelon. In the former category the administrative power is wielded by a governor, who has under him a chief justice, an inspector of the civil service, a chief of the medical department, an officer commanding the forces, naval and military, a bishop or other head of the Church ; these senior officials, aided by two of the inhabitants elected by the suffrages of their fellows, constitute as it were a supreme council to adjudicate on local matters which it is not considered advisable to refer to Paris. In these colonies all fiscal and financial questions are disposed of by the Conseils Géneraux,' which are composed of members elected by universal suffrage of all male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age. These councils legislate on all matters. which specially concern the colony. They vote the amount of rates and taxes; they deliberate and furnish reports on all questions which relate to the trade between the colony and the mother country; they decide on the local budget. Their sittings are public, and they can refer to the Minister of Marine all claims and protests with regard to their own local interests. The Conseils Généraux of colonies can discuss amongst themselves questions of mutual interest, either verbally, by means of delegates sent from other colonies, or by despatches. No decision can, however, be arrived at without the consent of the Minister of Marine or without the unanimous approval of the colonies interested. In addition to the Conseils Généraux the Governor of each of these colonies is aided in his duties by a colonial commission, which corresponds to the Commissions Départementales ' in France; it is elected each year, and is presided over by the senior member in point of age; it must consist of at least four, and of not more than seven, members, and they elect their own secretary. This commission meets once a month. Its services are gratuitous, and it is assisted in its labours by the chief of the civil administration, who is at liberty to call on the heads of other departments when matters affecting them are under discussion. This Commission Coloniale' relieves the Conseils Généraux of many of their functions; when the work of the latter is extremely heavy, a certain proportion of the questions are referred for decision to the commission, and as a general rule it fixes the mode of issue of local loans, the collection of local rates, and the contracts for public works. 6 6 The colonies of New Caledonia, the Oceanic Islands, Mayotte, Nossi Bé, St. Pierre, and Miquelon, which I have mentioned as coming under the second category, do not possess Conseils Généraux,' otherwise their administration is carried on much in the same manner as the large dependencies. In all, the Governor is assisted by a council which consists of the heads of all Government departments; to these official members are added two gentlemen elected by universal suffrage from amongst the members of the Municipal Council, who naturally can afford very valuable assistance on questions dealing with local budgets, with public works, or those relating to the internal administration of the colony, as well as on commercial topics. The civil administration of each colony is placed under an officer styled 'Directeur de l'Intérieur.' The duties of these officials were clearly laid down afresh in 1883, when a decree of the Senate was issued constituting a species of Civil Service,' the members of which were to receive a training qualifying them for the performance of all duties likely to be required in colonial offices. In order the more efficiently to supervise the working of these officials, permanent inspectors are appointed in Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Réunion, the East Indies, Guiana, New Caledonia, Senegal, and Cochin China. These inspectors are entrusted with the inspection and control of all civil and financial establishments, although subordinate to the governors of colonies as regards rank; they report direct to the Minister of Marine, and being, as it were, irresponsible to the colonial authorities, very great tension often exists between inspectors and governors. The main principle underlying the financial position of the French colonies is that the mother country charges itself with all expenses attendant on their government, their civil administration, and their protection, all other charges being arranged locally; thus the State is responsible for the salaries of the Governor, of all legal, financial, educational, and religious officials, as well as for the officers and men of the military services. The colonial budgets are prepared by the senior member of the Local Financial Service, and are voted by the Conseils Généraux in those colonies where such assemblies exist, and, in the minor dependencies by the Governor, assisted by his council. They comprise ordinary receipts and payments, and such extraordinary items as may occasionally require to be included. The ordinary receipts are :— a. Rates and taxes of all descriptions voted by competent assemblies. b. Customs dues, sanctioned by the colonial assembly. d. Loans or subsidies granted by the mother country. The extraordinary receipts consist as a rule of local loans issued for the purpose of carrying on public works of acknowledged utility, and extra rates demanded by the Conseils Généraux; these loans and rates must, however, receive the sanction of the Minister of Marine before collection. The expenditure of each colony is jealously watched over by the permanent inspectors appointed by the Minister of Marine; with the obligatory payments laid down by colonial statutes he has little to do, but all optional expenditure which require the consent of the Conseils Généraux is invariably strenuously opposed by these officials, whose aim and object seem to be not so much the material prosperity of the colonies as the growth of the reserve fund, which is laid down according to the following scale by a decree of the Senate, and which is formed by the investment in Rentes of the surplus, should there be any, in an annual budget: The maximum of the reserve fund is fixed in- Martinique Réunion Guiana 60,000 60,000 60,000 40,000 The object of these reserve funds is to provide a surplus on which to draw should unforeseen circumstances cause a deficit in the annual budget, or to enable the local government to meet any extraordinary expenditure which might become necessary. All loans, either to private or public institutions, from this fund are absolutely forbidden. In order to aid the colonies in maintaining an equilibrium between receipts and expenditure, the mother country annually accords subsidies, the amount of which varies, and is fixed by a decree of the Senate. In addition to the permanent inspectors of finance to whom I have alluded above, there is in each colony a Treasurer-General in charge of the Accountant-General's office at the chief town, and he is aided by subordinates scattered throughout the colonies. Besides his salary the Treasurer-General receives a percentage on the taxation, and has other inducements to the keen discharge of his duties; on the other hand, a deposit of 100,000 francs (4,000l.) is a sure guarantee for his honesty; and as he is responsible for the accuracy of the accounts of his subordinates it may readily be imagined that the supervision exercised over them is of the most searching nature. In fact, the French Government, by insisting on the deposit of heavy sums of caution money' by all Treasury officials, from the highest to the lowest, have hedged themselves in with safeguards which render the tampering with local cash-boxes a very losing game. The smallness of salaries of French officials renders honesty a difficult pursuit. It is but fair to say that cases of dishonesty to the State are few and far between. Bribery and corruption are the besetting sins of these gentlemen-not peculation. In dealing with the financial administration of the colonies, it will be necessary to glance at the great part the State banks and Land Mortgage Companies have played in what prosperity these dependencies possess. On the abolition of slavery in the colonies, by the decree of the 30th of April, 1849, it was laid down that one-eighth of the indemnity allotted to the impoverished landowners, by the manumission of men slaves, should be put on one side to aid in the formation of State banks. The capital of the banks of Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Réunion was fixed at 3,000,000 francs (120,000l.), of Guiana at 600,000 francs (24,000l.), and of Senegal at 230,000 3 francs (9,2001.). The State banks have the sole privilege of issuing bank-notes, which were to be considered legal currency, but the amount of notes in issue is never to exceed three times that of cash in reserve. They are permitted to lend money on the security of goods in the Customs warehouses, or on that of standing crops; and they are authorised, in event of the non-payment of advances, to proceed to a forced sale eight days after a simple summons has been served on the defaulting debtor. Still further to strengthen the security of advances upon crops, any proprietor, agent, farmer, tenant, or speculator who should be guilty of any fraud in regard to the crops under mortgage was liable to penal servitude for life. In order to supervise the working of these banks a standing committee of nine members sits in Paris to regulate their operations. One member represents the Conseil d'Etat, two are nominated by the Minister of Finance, two by the Bank of France, and four by the shareholders. Every six months, on the 30th of June and the 31st of December, the accounts of the colonial banks are made up and published, profits being disposed of as follows:-A sum equal to onehalf per cent. on the original capital is first set aside towards the strengthening of the reserve fund, then a dividend of five per cent. is declared on the shares; the surplus is now divided into two equal parts, one-half being distributed as a bonus on the shares, the other half being still further subdivided, eight-tenths being placed to the reserve fund, one-tenth as a douceur to the managing director, and one-tenth distributed amongst the employés. The history of these colonial banks has been marked by the most striking success. Their shares now stand at a very high premium, their reserve funds have long since reached the figure laid down by decree of the Senate, and they have contributed in no small degree to the financial progress of the colonies, though the penal clauses attendant on loans has operated with much hardship on unfortunate proprietors, to whom little grace and no mercy is shown. The Land Mortgage Companies are likewise institutions which require notice, their objects being 1. To make advances on the security of estates belonging to private individuals, or to the shareholders of Land Companies' for the construction of the factories or the renewal of plant. 2. To lend sums on mortgage to the proprietors of landed property. 3. To make advances to the Colonial Government, or to commercial authorities, with the sanction of the Government. The interest which these societies are empowered to charge on mortgage is eight per cent., and as this is in addition to the expenses attendant on the loan, and as the colonies are compelled to furnish offices for these companies, and to pay the voyages out and home of their employés, and to guarantee interest on their share capital to the extent of 24 |