East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1862-09-09
The French systc,s oG Drafting.

Under French law every birth in the
Empire must be registered within forty
eight hours, under pain of several pen
altics for any attempted violation Of the
code. France is divided into 10000
communes, each Of which has Mayor,
holding his appointment from the De.
partment of the Interior at Paris, which,
by the way, is in all respects tho most
important branch of the French Gov.
ernment. 1t is in the presence Of the
Mayor that births are declared and
formally placed upon record for future
reference and use. The law requires
that the child itself be brought before
the civil functionary, the name of the
infant given, the names and condition
of both parents, when known, given,
also the sex Of the child declared, and
all the facts certified to by two credible
witnesses, whose names, residences and
occupations are also carefully recorded
1t will be seen at glance that the in.
formation thus obtained is of immense
utility to the Government, in conducting
the operations Of the conscripticn, whose
mechanism may be described in very
few words: The Government calls for
contingent, let us suppose of 100000
recruits for 1862. The Legislative
Body authorizes the levy to be made.
Each department of the Empire Of
which there are now eighty.nine, is re-
quired to furnish a quota, based upon
the amount of it's population. The
Mayors hold lists of all individuals born
in their respective oommunes, and mott.
ficaiions are sent to every male child
born in 1912 (the drafting age being
twenty years. that he is to present him
self on such day, at the nsairie, to
take part in the drawing.
This notification is mere formality,
as every young man knows when he
will be required to come forward, and
it frequently happens that youthful
Frenchmen, residing abroad, return to
their native land at this poriod, for the
special purpose of fulfilling a duty,
which, if they chose, might be readily
avoided, by simply remaining out OF
France. *ff es
To illustrate the mode in which the
drawing takes place, we will suppose
that a particular commune is required
to furnish one hundred conscripts-the
total number of eligible young men
being, gay five hundred. Five hundred
bits of paper are placed in an urn, Of
which four hundred are blanks, and the
remainder, marked from one to one
hundred, oblige their holders to " fal
in" The four hundred who have es
capped are now exempt from militar,
service, unless some extraordinary even
such as an invasion of France--shoulC
demand the calling out the entire arm,
bearing population. ff
The mode of raising recruits, as hal
been seen, is simple enough all being
afforded fair chance. AS regards ex
emptions, the French system is scarcely
less simple. In the first place the con
scripts undergo rigid medical examin
alton, and if any We're found laboring
under physical disability, they arc a
once discharged Next in order are tn,
exemptions of soutiens dc .familte, o
individuals with families dependent up
on them. Thus. tho only son of wild
owed mother is exempted. So also i:
tho only brother of an orphan sister,
Brothers Of soldier still serving in tn
ermy are exempted until the latter
term shall expire, only one of famil,
being drawn at ono time. A wife can
not exempt her husband, even if ther,
be children, as the law holds that young
men ought not to marry until they hav,
fulfilled their military obligations to the
State.
"A last class of exemptions has pc
cuniary feature. In former years--tha
is to say, up to ls56--no conscript no
exempt by physical debility, or by tn
other causes above enumerated coul,
escape service, except by procuring
subst itute. This had given rise to a dc
grading species Of trade or speculation
in which large numbers of man-seller
and buyers wero engaged. But, unde
the system referred to- the conscrip
who bought a substitute was responsi