Dutch fleet-thirteen vessels in the Nieuwe Diep-the sailors having refused to fight for the republic. In spite of the failure on land, the expedition did much to confirm the naval supremacy of Great Britain by the entire suppression of the most seamanlike of the forces opposed to it. AUTHORITIES.-Chevalier, Histoire de la marine française sous la première République (Paris, 1886); James's Naval History (London, 1837); Captain Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and the Empire (London, 1892). - The French schemes of invasion are exhaustively dealt with in Captain E. Desbrière's Projets et tentatives de débarquements aux Iles Britanniques (Paris, 1900, &c.). (D. H.) FRENCH WEST AFRICA (L'Afrique occidentale française), the common designation of the following colonies of France:(1) Senegal, (2) Upper Senegal and Niger, (3) Guinea, (4) the Ivory Coast, (5) Dahomey; of the territory of Mauretania, and of a large portion of the Sahara. The area is estimated at nearly 2,000,000 sq. m., of which more than half is Saharan territory. The countries thus grouped under the comrnon designation French West Africa comprise the greater part of the continent west of the Niger delta (which is British territory) and south of the tropic of Cancer. It embraces the upper and middle course of the Niger, the whole of the basin of the Senegal and the southwestern part of the Sahara. Its most northern point on the coast is Cape Blanco, and it includes Cape Verde, the most westerly point of Africa. Along the Guinea coast the French possessions are separated from one another by colonies of Great Britain and other powers, but in the interior they unite not only with one another but with the hinterlands of Algeria and the French Congo. have expressly legislated. To it is confided financial control over the colonies, responsibility for the public debt, the direction of the departments of education and agriculture, and the carrying out of works of general utility. It alone communicates with the home authorities. Its expenses are met by the duties levied on goods and vessels entering and leaving any port of French West Africa. It may make advances to the colonies under its care, and may, in case of need, demand from them contributions to the central exchequer. The administration of justice is centralized and uniform for all French West Africa. The court of appeal sits at Dakar. There is also a uniform system of land registration adopted in 1906 and based on that in force in Australia. Subject to the limitations indicated the five colonies enjoy autonomy. The territory of Mauretania is administered by a civil commissioner under the direct control of the governorgeneral. The colony of Senegal is represented in the French parliament by one deputy. Since the changes in administration effected in 1895 the commerce of French West Africa has shown a steady growth, the volume of external trade increasing in the ten years 1895-1904 from £3,151,094 to £6,238,091. In 1907 the value of the trade was £7.097,000; of this 53% was with France. Apart from military expenditure, about £600,000 a year, which is borne by France, French West Africa is self-supporting. The general budget for 1906 balanced at £1,356,000. There is a public debt of some £11,000,000, mainly incurred for works of general utility. See SENEGAL, FRENCH GUINEA, IVORY COAST and DAHOMEY. For Anglo-French boundaries east of the Niger see SAHARA and NIGERIA. For the constitutional connexion between the colonies and France see FRANCE Colonies. An account of the economic situation of the colonies is given by G. François in Le Gouvernement général de l'Afrique occidentale française (Paris, 1908). Consult also the annual Report on the Trade, Agriculture, &c. of French West Africa issued by the British foreign office A map of French West Africa by A. Meunier and E. Barralier (6 sheets on the scale 1:2,000,000) was published in Paris, 1903. In physical characteristics French West Africa presents three types: (1) a dense forest region succeeding a narrow coast belt greatly broken by lagoons, (2) moderately elevated and fertile plateaus, generally below 2000 ft., such as the region enclosed in the great bend of the Niger; (3) north of the Senegal and Niger, the desert lands forming part of the Sahara (q.v) The most FRENTANI, one of the ancient Samnite tribes which formed elevated districts are Futa Jallon, whence rise the Senegal, an independent community on the east coast of Italy They Gambia and Niger, and Gon-both massifs along the south-entered the Roman alliance after their capital, Frentrum, was western edge of the plateau lands, containing heights of 5000 taken by the Romans in 305 or 304 B.C. (Livy ix. 16. 45). This to 6000 ft. or more. Among the chief towns are Timbuktu and town either changed its name or perished some time after the Jenné on the Niger, Porto Novo in Dahomey, and St Louis and middle of the 3rd century B.C., when it was issuing coins of its Dakar in Senegal, Dakar being an important naval and com- own with an Oscan legend. The town Larinum, which belonged mercial port. The inhabitants are for the most part typical to the same people (Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 103), became latinized Negroes, with in Senegal and in the Sahara an admixture of before 200 B.C., as its coins of that epoch bear a legendBerber and Arab tribes. In the upper Senegal and Futa Jallon LARINOR(VM)—which cannot reasonably be treated as any. large numbers of the inhabitants are Fula. The total population thing but Latin. Several Oscan inscriptions survive from the of French West Africa is estimated at about 13,000,000. The neighbourhood of Vasto (anc. Histonium), which was in the European inhabitants number about 12,000. Frentane area. The French possessions in West Africa have grown by the On the forms of the name, and for further details see R.S.Conway, extension inland of coast colonies, each having an independent Italic Dialects, p. 206 ff and p. 212: for the coins id. No. 195-196. origin. They were first brought under one general government FREPPEL, CHARLES ÉMILE (1827-1891), French bishop and in 1895, when they were placed under the supervision of the politician, was born at Oberchnheim (Obernai), Alsace, on the 1st governor of Senegal, whose title was altered to meet the new of June 1827. He was ordained priest in 1849 and for a short situation. Between that date and 1905 various changes in the time taught history at the seminary of Strassburg, where he had areas and administrations of the different colonies were made, previously received his clerical training. In 1854 he was apinvolving the disappearance of the protectorates and military pointed professor of theology at the Sorbonne, and became territories known as French Sudan and dependent on Senegal. known as a successful preacher. He went to Rome in 1869, at These were partly absorbed in the coast colonies, whilst the central the instance of Pius IX., to assist in the steps preparatory to the portion became the colony of Upper Senegal and Niger. At promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility. He was conDuring the Franco-German the same time the central government was freed from the direct secrated bishop of Angers in 1870. administration of the Senegal and Niger countries (Decrees of war Freppel organized a body of priests to minister to the French Oct. 1902 and Oct. 1904) Over the whole of French West prisoners in Germany, and penned an eloquent protest to the Africa is a governor-general, whose headquarters are at Dakar emperor William I. against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine He is assisted by a government council, composed of high In 1880 he was elected deputy for Brest and continued to functionaries, including the lieutenant-governors of all colonies represent it until his death. Being the only priest in the Chamber under his control. The central government, like all other French of Deputies since the death of Dupanloup, he became the chief colonial administrations, is responsible, not to the colonists, but parliamentary champion of the Church, and, though no orator, to the home government, and its constitution is alterable at was a frequent speaker. On all ecclesiastical affairs Freppel will by presidential decree save in matters on which the chambers voted with the Royalist and Catholic party, yet on questions in which French colonial prestige was involved, such as the expedi 1 The organization of the new government was largely the work of tion to Tunis, Tong-King, Madagascar (1881, 1883-85), he E. N. Roume (b 1858), governor-general 1902-1907, an able and He always remained a energetic official, formerly director of Asian affairs at the colonial supported the government of the day. ministry. staunch Royalist and went so far as to oppose Leo XIII 's policy 4000 disaffected Boers, had been formed near Pretoria, and they were terrorizing the country. Frere visited them unarmed and practically alone. Even yet all might have been well, for he won the Boers' respect and liking. On the condition that the Boers dispersed, Frere undertook to present their complaints to the British government, and to urge the fulfilment of the promises that had been made to them. They parted with mutual good feeling, and the Boers did eventually disperse on the very day upon which Frere received the telegram announcing the government's censure. He returned to Cape Town, and his journey back was in the nature of a triumph. But bad news awaited him at Government House on the 1st of June 1879 the prince imperial had met his death in Zululand-and a few hours later Frere heard that the government of the Transvaal and Natal, together with the high commissionership in the eastern part of South Africa, had been transferred from him to Sir Garnet Wolseley. When Gladstone's ministry came into office in the spring of 1880, Lord Kimberley had no intention of recalling Frere. In June, however, a section of the Liberal party memorialized Gladstone to remove him, and the prime minister weakly complied (1st August 1880). Upon his return Frere replied to the charges relating to his conduct respecting Afghanistan as well as South Africa, previously preferred in Gladstone's Midlothian speeches, and was preparing a fuller vindication when he died at Wimbledon from the effect of a severe chill on the 29th of May 1884. He was buried in St Paul's, and in 1888 a statue of Frere upon the Thames embankment was unveiled by the prince of Wales. Frere edited the works of his uncle, Hookham Frere, and the popular story-book, Old Deccan Days, written by his daughter, Mary Frere. He was three times president of the Royal Asiatic Society. His Life and Correspondence, by John Martineau, was published in 1895. For the South African anti-confederation view, see P. A. Molteno's Life and Times of Sir John Charles Molteno (2 vols., London 1900). See also SOUTH AFRICA: History. FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM (1769-1846), English diplomatist and author, was born in London on the 21st of May 1769. His father, John Frere, a gentleman of a good Suffolk family, had been educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and would have been senior wrangler in 1763 but for the redoubtable competition of Paley; his mother, daughter of John Hookham, a rich London merchant, was a lady of no small culture, accustomed to amuse her leisure with verse-writing. His father's sister Eleanor, who married Sir John Fenn (1739-1794), the learned editor of the Paston Letters, wrote various educational works for children under the pseudonyms " Mrs Lovechild "and" Mrs Teach well." Young Frere was sent to Eton in 1785, and there began an intimacy with Canning which greatly affected his after life. From Eton he went to his father's college at Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1792 and M.A. in 1795. service in the foreign office under Lord Grenville, and sat from He entered public 1796 to 1802 as member of parliament for the close borough of West Looe in Cornwall. From his boyhood he had been a warm admirer of Pitt, and along with Canning he entered heart and soul into the defence of his government, and contributed freely to the pages of the Anti-Jacobin, edited by Gifford. He contributed, in collaboration with Canning, "The Loves of the Triangles," a clever parody of Darwin's "Loves of the Plants," "The Needy KnifeGrinder" and "The Rovers." board of trade in 1799 he succeeded him as under-secretary of On Canning's removal to the state; in October 1800 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Lisbon; and in September 1802 he was transferred to Madrid, where he remained for two years. recalled on account of a personal disagreement he had with the He was duke of Alcudia, but the ministry showed its approval of his action by a pension of £1700 a year. He was made a member of the privy council in 1805; in 1807 he was appointed plenipotentiary at Berlin, but the mission was abandoned, and Frere was again sent to Spain in 1808 as plenipotentiary to the Central Junta. The condition of Spain rendered his position a very 207 responsible and difficult one. on Madrid it became a matter of supreme importance to decide When Napoleon began to advance whether Sir John Moore, who was then in the north of Spain, merely make good his retreat, and if he did retreat whether he should endeavour to anticipate the occupation of the capital or should do so by Portgual or by Galicia. Frere was strongly of opinion that the bolder was the better course, and he urged his that on one occasion at least overstepped the limits of his views on Sir John Moore with an urgent and fearless persistency commission. After the disastrous retreat to Corunna, the public accused Frere of having by his advice endangered the British by the government, he was recalled, and the marquess of army, and though no direct censure was passed upon his conduct Wellesley was appointed in his place. take an embassy to St Petersburg, and twice declined the honour Thus ended Frere's public life. He afterwards refused to undercountess of Erroll, and in 1820, on account of her failing health, of a peerage. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Jemima, dowager he went with her to the Mediterranean. There he finally settled in Malta, and though he afterwards visited England more than of his choice. In quiet retirement he devoted himself to literaonce, the rest of his life was for the most part spent in the island Hebrew and Maltese. His hospitality was well known to many ture, studied his favourite Greek authors, and taught himself to his Maltese neighbours. He died at the Pietà Valetta on an English guest, and his charities and courtesies endeared him the 7th of January 1846. Frere's literary reputation now rests entirely upon his spirited verse translations of Aristophanes, which remain in many ways unrivalled. The principles according Mitchell's Aristophanes, which he contributed to The Quarterly to which he conducted his task were elucidated in an article on Review, vol. xxiii. The translations of The Acharnians, The Knights, The Birds, and The Frogs were privately printed, and in the Classical Museum for 1847. They were followed some were first brought into general notice by Sir G. Cornewall Lewis poet Theognis, reduced from an analysis of his existing fragments. time after by Theognis Restitutus, or the personal history of the In 1817 he published a mock-heroic Arthurian poem entitled Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket in Suffolk, Harness and Collar Makers, intended to comprise the most interesting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table. vehicle for semi-burlesque poetry five years earlier, but Frere's William Tennant in Anster Fair had used the ottava rima as a experiment is interesting because Byron borrowed from it the measure that he brought to perfection in Don Juan. Frere's complete works were published in 1871, with a memoir edition in 1874. Compare also Gabrielle Festing, J. H. Frere and his by his nephews, W. E. and Sir Bartle Frere, and reached a second Friends (1899). studied under Delaroche, entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Belgian statesman, was born at Liége on the 24th of April 1812. |