municated by them to Mr. Gleason, who answered that, "After Governor Reed's formal impeachment by the Assembly, and the recognition of himself as Lieutenant and Acting Governor by both bodies of the Legislature," the Supreme Court had nothing to do in the matter, and he therefore "declined to submit any questions connected with the matter of impeachment to their honors." On November 16th Mr. Gleason issued another proclamation, in which, after detailing many reasons to show that, pending the impeachment, Mr. Reed could not exercise the functions of the Executive, and that they must be performed by himself, he concluded as follows: Now, therefore, I, William H. Gleason, Lieutenant and Acting Governor of Florida, do issue this, my proclamation, declaring that said Harrison Reed, Governor of Florida, is deemed by the constitution "under arrest, and disqualified from performing any of the duties of his office until acquitted by the Senate," and that "the power and duties of said office" have devolved upon me: I call upon all citizens to aid me in exercising the powers and discharging the duties thus devolved upon me by the constitution, and to put down the lawlessness and anarchy which must inevitably ensue if any man impeached or indicted, however exalted his station, may refuse to submit to the arrest imposed by the constitution, or to the only tribunal appointed by the constitution for his trial. If one man may do this, all may do it, and, this being done, law and order will cease to exist. Anarchy, lawlessness, and violence, will reign supreme. Against such a doctrine, leading most certainly to such dreadful results, I call upon all law-abiding citizens to sustain me, and stand by the constitution and laws of our State. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my [L. s.] hand, and caused the great seal of the State to be affixed, this 16th day of November, A. D. 1868, WM. H. GLEASON, Lieutenant and Acting Governor. By the Lieutenant and Acting Governor: On November 24th the Justices of the Supreme Court gave their written answers, separately, to the first of the two questions proposed by Governor Reed. They, especially two of them, consider the subject-matter at length and thoroughly, in regard to fact as well as law and precedents, and, though they consider it from different points of view, all three arrive at the same conclusion, which is unanimous. Their answers were published in the papers of December 3d. Associate-Justice James D. Westcott says: "It is, therefore, my opinion upon the facts submitted in your communication and upon the authorities and precedents cited, that twelve Senators did not constitute a quorum to do business; and hence that there was no Senate within the meaning of this clause of the constitution, and that "a Legislature of the State of Florida, consisting of a Senate and Assembly, vested with the Legislative authority of the State," did not convene in extraordinary session under your proclamation of November 3, 1868." Chief-Justice E. M. Randall, concurring fully in this, discusses the matter on his own ac count, and concludes: "We are, therefore, of the opinion that, even upon the assumption that the proceeding of impeachment is not properly "legislative business," and that it may be presented at a called session, without the actually-expressed consent of both Houses, there has not been an effective impeachment and suspension from the performance of official duties." Associate-Justice O. B. Hart entirely agrees with both of the others, and for himself condenses the whole matter in this sentence: "Until a majority of the Assemblymen and Senators provided for by the constitution assemble, there can be no Legislature." was On a writ of quo warranto, a suit of ouster instituted before the Supreme Court by the Attorney-General against Lientenant-Governor Gleason, on the ground that, at the time of his election, he was ineligible, he being a non-resident of Florida. He denied the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in his case; alleged, moreover, that he "could not obtain justice in this Court; " and used other means to escape; but these things availed not, and he having been granted a certain time "to show cause why final judgment of ouster should not be rendered against him," his counsel, on December 14th, filed a plea of eighteen counts, claiming that, before reconstruction, the constitution of Florida, and the State itself, did not exist, but was only provisional, and, therefore, that Mr. Gleason, though ineligible by the laws of Florida, was eligible by the law of Congress in the reconstruction acts, and by a the order of the district military commander. Monday of December, 1869. This reinstated The election ordered by Governor Reed's proclamation of October 28th, for the purpose of filling the many vacant seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, having been held on December 29th, and the vacancies filled, the Legislature assembled on January 5, 1869, the day fixed for its second session by the new constitution. the Senators and Assemblymen seemed animaUpon their meeting in January, 1869, both ted by a quite different spirit from that which guided them in November, 1868, in reference to Mr. Reed's impeachment. Whatever its grounds, they now regarded it as not existing, and considered Mr. Reed to be in the legal pos session of the Executive office of Florida. In the Senate, wherein Lieutenant-Governor Gleason was presiding again, the first resolution offered, and adopted by a vote of ten yeas to one nay, was a plainly-implied condemnation of the impeachment proceedings, as follows: Resolved, That the Senate recognize no other Journal of its proceedings for this session than the Journal commencing Tuesday, January 5, 1869, and that all other so-called Journals appearing in or attached to, be expunged from its records. Before the voting on this resolution, another Senator had even proposed a substitute, though it was withdrawn, declaring that "there was no Legislature convened in the State in extraordinary session in November last." As to the House of Assembly, where the impeachment had originated, its very first act, upon its meeting, was the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by the Speaker to wait upon his Excellency Harrison Reed, and notify him that the Assembly is in session, and ready to receive any communications he may wish to make. On the first two days of the session, several resolutions and substitutes were indeed offered in the House, purporting the appointment of more or less numerous committees to investigate the charges preferred against Mr. Reed, preparing, as it were, materials for future impeachment, if there was cause; but they were successively postponed, or not acted upon, till, on January 6th, the following preamble and resolution were adopted by a vote of 30 yeas to 5 nays: Whereas, It is known to this Assembly to be publicly alleged that Harrison Reed, Governor of Florida, done and committed acts wrongful and unlawful: therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of Florida, That a committee of five be appointed by the Speaker, to inquire into and investigate the conduct, acts, and doings of the said Harrison Reed, Governor of Florida, and that the said committee be empowered and authorized to send for persons and papers, and take testimony upon oath in the premises, and that the said committee be required to report the results of its investigation at its earliest convenience during the present session, and that it accompany its report with testimony taken in the said matter. Even this, however, had no result, as a motion was immediately made "to reconsider the vote just taken, and that the reconsideration be laid on the table," which was agreed to. As each House separately, amongst its own members, condemned the impeachment proceedings, and recognized Mr. Reed to be rightfully exercising the functions of Governor, so did they in joint action together. On January 7th the Assembly adopted the following resolution: Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That a committee of three be appointed Speaker, to act with a similar committee on the part of the Senate, to wait upon his Excellency the Governor, and inform him that the Senate and Assembly are organized, and ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make. And shortly after the Senate sent a message to the House that it had "appointed a committee of two to wait on the Governor, and inform him that both Houses are organized and ready to receive any communication he may wish to make." At noon on the same day the Senate entered the Assembly Hall for the purpose of receiving the Governor's message, when the president of the Senate took the chair, the State officers and some others being, on motion, invited to seats within the bar upon the occasion. A committee of three representing each House having then been appointed by the chair "to wait on the Governor, and inform him that the Legislature was assembled in joint meeting to receive any communication he might wish to make," they executed their mission, and on their return presented to the Assembly the Governor in person, when he delivered his message. In this document Mr. Reed speaks hopefully, and exhibits a pleasing picture of the condition of Florida, especially in that the animosity of her citizens against each other for political opposition had lost much of its sharpness and intensity, and their minds appeared now mutually softened, saying: "Throughout our beloved State violent opposition to Federal authority and republican government has ceased, and all classes of the people yield obedience to the laws. The newly-enfranchised citizen of color sits side by side with his white fellow in the Cabinet, the halls of legislation, the jury-box, and on the Boards of Commissioners occupies the magistrate's chair, and executes the decrees of courts, without exciting violence or occasioning asperity. The change since your last session is marvellous, and calls for grateful recognition. Political antagonisms still exist, and must ever exist among a free people; but toleration and concession have taken the place of intolerance and proscription." As to the finances, he sets down the State bonded debt at $578,045.08, and her resources, chiefly from new bonds and the estimated revenue for 1869, at $525,000, leaving a small balance to be provided for. To the $132,000 of the Florida bonds held by the United States Indian Trust Fund at Washington, he opposes her claim of nearly or quite that amount, against the United States, for expenditures in the Seminole war. The manner of paying her current expenses in scrip seems to have been highly detrimental to the State, since the Governor urges the necessity of forbidding all further issues of scrip and affirms: "If we once resume the payment of all expenses in cash, as they accrue, we shall reduce these expenses from 25 to 50 per cent., and place our bonds at par." He concludes this subject, saying: "Wise and judicious legislation at this session may establish the fact that no Southern State resumes its position in the Union under better financial auspices, or with more available re sources." On taxation, he recommends the establish ment of a Board of Equalization, in order to F secure uniform valuation of property, the same class of lands being now valued in some counties "at one-half the amount it is in others." He recommends also the punishment of revenue officers, "by fine and imprisonment," who fail "to make returns at the time prescribed by law." There being above ten million acres of the State domain yet undisposed of, and several millions more not even surveyed, the Governor calls upon the Legislature to take effective measures for making such vast resources available. As the best means for arriving at this result, he asks them to invite and encourage immigration of capital and labor into Florida, especially from the Northern States, even by ordering pamphlets to be gratuitously distributed, exhibiting distinctly "the resources and peculiar advantages of every portion of the State." In this connection he requests them to favor the promoters of a State Agricultural Society, which "is now in the full tide of successful experiment," and to encourage them by causing the "reports, transactions, essays, addresses, and other like papers of this society" to be published at the charge of the State. He recommends the construction of two railway lines, the one surveyed since 1857, and for which 600,000 acres of United States land were granted, the other only projected; as both of them, by connecting most important points within the State, and facilitating the communication with others, would add immensely to her population, and, of consequence, to her traffic and general prosperity. For a State penitentiary, Mr. Reed informs the Legislature that he has obtained from the proper authorities at Washington the use of the United States Arsenal property at Chattahoochee, where nine criminals are confined already, he having made for that purpose temporary arrangements; but says that "provision should be made at this session for fitting up the buildings with cells and accommodations for at least one hundred convicts." He requests them also to provide a home for friendless and helpless persons, either by taking care of them all in one common building at the expense of the State, or of the counties from which they severally come, or even by granting to each of the counties a suitable tract of State land, requiring them "to make permanent provisions" for those among their respective inhabitants who are in that condition. In regard to the militia, Governor Reed says that the presence of Federal troops rendered its organization unnecessary; adding, that "several volunteer companies of citizens, both white and colored, had been enrolled, and had selected their officers, but, in the sensitive condition of the popular mind, he had deemed it unwise to accept these organizations." He believes, however, that the establishment of republican government will soon take a firmer footing, "when a thorough enrolment and organization of the militia may be safely had." He renews the recommendation of his previous message "for the amendment of the constitution, by striking out Section 27 of Article XVI." This section provides that "owners of property sold under the sequestration act of the so-called Confederate Congress, subsequent to January 10, 1861, and prior to May 1, 1865," are entitled "to file a bill in equity, and obtain judgment against the State for all damages sustained by said sale and detention of property." In order to save for the State the cost of printing in matters which are brought before the Legislature, but in which she is not interested, the Governor recommends, "that all bills introduced for private or local purposes be required to be printed and furnished at the expense of the parties for whom the benefit is sought." There seems to be good reason to hope that Governor Reed's anticipations concerning the welfare of Florida will be realized. FORCE, PETER, an American historian, journalist and book-collector, born in New Jersey, November 26, 1790; died in Washington, January 23, 1868. When a child, he removed with his parents to New York City, where he learned the printer's art, and where he remaimed till he was twenty-five years of age. In November, 1815, he became a citizen of Washington, D. C., and five years later commenced the publication of the National Calendar, an annual volume of statistics, State and national, which he continued till 1836. Even before commencing the publication of this work he had begun to collect books and papers on American history and antiquities, and his views of the great importance and permanent value of a complete collection of every thing bearing on this subject were strengthened and increased with every year of his life. He was the earliest collector in the field on topics connected with American history, and his solicitude to obtain every thing relating to the subject ended only with his life. In 1823 he commenced the publication of the National Journal, a political newspaper, which was the official journal during the administration of John Quincy Adams. He continued to publish this paper until February, 1830. From 1836 to 1840 he was mayor of the city of Washington, and in 1840, on the organization of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, he was elected its first president. In 1833 he made a contract with the United States Government for the preparation and publication of a Documentary History of the American Colonies; a work for which his careful research, and his already large collection of newspapers, pamphlets, and official documents of the period of the Revolution and the years which preceded it, eminently qualified him. It was his plan, in the inception of this vast work, to collect, in six series of six or more volumes each, ali the documentary history of this country, from its discovery in 1492, to the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1789; but to secure the more ready coöperation of Congress-since no private means were adequate for such an undertaking-he commenced with the fourth series, covering the Stamp-Act controversy, and the initial history of the American Revolution (1765-1775). He prosecuted his work with so much vigor, that, between 1837 and 1844, he had completed this series in six folio volumes. He then entered with equal zeal upon the preparation of the fifth series, which was to extend from 1775 to 1778, and by the summer of 1853 had published three more volumes, bringing the history down to 1776, and had prepared for the press most of the remainder of this series, when the work was suddenly stopped by the refusal of Mr. Marcy, then Secretary of State, to approve the volumes thus prepared. Mr. Force was at this time sixty-three years of age, and this unexpected act of Secretary Marcy stunned him. He could not be persuaded to go on with the work, or to make any effort to have the Secretary's decision reversed. Thus it came to pass that the one man whose knowledge on this subject was encyclopædic, and whose collections and notes for its preparation were more complete than any other's could be, was prevented from putting into available shape the material from which our early national history must be drawn. But though Mr. Force never resumed the studies which had occnpied him for twenty of the best years of his life, he had not lost his interest in American history, as the publication of four large volumes of historical (political) tracts, of the Revolutionary period, and his eager investigations of all points of the early history of the country, fully evinced. Meantime his accumulation of books relative to the history of America went on. Five spacious rooms of a large building were occupied with his books and pamphlets, the former numbering over twenty thousand, and the latter thirty thousand; in addition to these he had over eight hundred volumes of newspapers, besides files innumerable, occupying the entire basement of his house. He had in person or through his agents ransacked the bookshops, and the farm-houses and garrets, from Maine to Savannah, for historical books and pamphlets, and though much of his collection was procured at a moderate expense, he never hesitated between paying a large price for a valuable book, and letting it pass out of his reach. He had actually mortgaged his real estate to obtain the means of making his collection more complete. It was, of course, rich in autographs, maps, portraits, and engravings, and among other things contained a copy of every army order issued by the War Department. But it is not so generally known that he had made another collection, on a different subject, which was more complete than perhaps any other in this country. He had a passion for the art of printing (his own early chosen profession), and had procured a very large number of books printed in the infancy of the art; thus he had nearly two hundred folios and quartos printed between 1467 and 1500, most of them remarkably fine copies, and several hundred volumes illustrating the printing of the sixteenth century. In 1866, the librarian of Congress began to agitate with great earnestness the question of purchasing this vast, valuable, and unique library, to be incorporated with the library of Congress. Mr. Force had hitherto been unwilling to dispose of it, during his lifetime, but, feeling the desirableness of having it kept together and in a place of safety, he finally consented to accept from Congress the price which had been offered by parties in New York, and refused-one hundred thousand dollars. The bill making the appropriation passed through Congress without an objection, and in the spring of 1867 the library was removed to its future home. But the loss of his accustomed companions preyed upon the spirits of the venerable old man, and though he was as free to use the library of Congress, and his own collection as a part of it, as if it had still been in his possession, he gradually pined away, losing his appetite and strength, homesick for the loss of what had been the ruling passion of his life, till at last he passed away quietly and peacefully. FRANCE, an empire in Europe. Emperor, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.), born April 20, 1808; chosen hereditary Emperor by the plébiscite of November 21 and November 22, 1852. Heir-apparent, Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph, born March 16, 1856. The ares amounts to 209,428 square miles. of the last A remarkable fact in the movement of population is the decrease in the agricultural districts. It appears, from the tables census (1866), that the population of France has increased in 178 arrondissements, and diminished in 185. This does not include the three departments annexed in 1860. In 50 arrondissements it has even considerably advanced, and in 128 the population has remained stationary. The specially agricultural arrondissements have suffered a diminution of two, four, six, eight, ten, and eleven thousand inhabitants. Thus, that of Argentin, in the Orne, has lost, during the twenty years, 14,000 (in 1846 it reckoned 110,000, and in 1866 only 96,000), and that of Vésoul suffered a decrease of 12,000 within the same period. On the other hand, all the arrondissements of which the population has increased possessed either important towns or some very active centres of manufacture. In the departments, in which an arrondissement includes a large town or manufacturing dis trict, and in which there are also agricultural arrondissements, we find that the population increases in the former and diminishes in the latter. The following table exhibits the population of each department (according to the census of 1 1866), and the number of deputies to which each department will be entitled during the next legislative period, which begins in 1869: No. of Inhabitants. Deputies. Alpes (Basses)...143,000.1 Ille-et-Vilaine.. 277,860.......2 tales... 592,609.......4 Pyrénées-Orien- 189,490.......2 Alpes Maritimes..198,8182 Indre-et-Loire 325,198.......3 Rhin (Bas).. 588,970.......4 Ardèche .387,174.......3 Isère 581,386.......5 Rhin (Haut) 530,285.......4 Ardennes. .326,864.. .3 Jura. 298,477.......8 Rhône. Ariège. .250,436.. .2 Landes 306,693.......2 Saône (Haut) ... 317,706....... Aube. 261,951.2 Loire-et-Cher.... 275,757.......2 Saône-et-Loire... 600,006.......5 Aude.. 288,626.3 Loire. 587,108.......4 Sarthe. 463,619.......4 Aveyron..........400,070.......8 Loire (Haute).... 312,661.......2 Savoie. 271,663.......2 Bouches-du-Rhône547,903.......4 Loire-Inférieure.. 598,598.......4 Savoie (Haute)... 273,768.......2 Charente..........378,218.......3 Lot-et-Garonne.. 327,962...8 Seine-et-Marne... 354,400.......8 Charente Inférieure479,559.......4 Lozère 187,263.......1 Seine-et-Oise 533,727.......4 Cher.. 336,613.8 Maine-et-Loire... 532,325......4 Sèvres (Deux)... 333,155.......8 Total of French colonies.......2,607,357 Under the protectorate of France are the kingdoms of Cambodia (1,000,000 inhabitants); 2,434,974 Porto Novo, on the Gold Coast in Africa; Tahiti, Gambier, and other islands in Oceanica, together with a population of 1,043,897. The aggregate population of colonies and countries under the protectorate amounts to 3,631,354. The apparent decrease of the population in the colonies, for which, in 1867, a population of 3,061,888, exclusive of the three new provinces in Cochin China, was reported, arises from the fact that a census in Cochin China showed the population to be considerably inferior to the former estimates. The territory of the Gaboon colony, on the African west coast, was enlarged, in 1868, so as to extend to the Fernand 607,398 Bay River, in consequence of treaties con133 cluded with the kings and chiefs of the Kamma 186,000 and the Rembo. 207,886 In the "Definite Budget, for 1867," the rev6,110 enue appears as 2,155,133,049 francs; expenditures, 1,971,527,231 francs; deficit, 183,605,818 francs, which will be met from the new loan 1,028,244 of 450,500,000 francs, contracted in 1868. The 29,000 "Rectifiéd Budget, for 1868," gives the receipts' 15,000 and expenditures each as 1,981,995,692 francs; 10,000 but 126,701,850 francs of the loan of 450,500, 477,000 Possessions in Oceanica 54,000 000 francs are employed for the budget of ex |