Superior to the Courts of Assize are those of Appeal and the _Cour de Cassation_, which became so well known to the English public during the famous trial of Dreyfus. This court, as its name implies, can abrogate the ruling of any other tribunal, with the exception of the administrative courts. This high authority decides on matters of legal principle or whether the court from which appeal has been made was competent to make the decision in question. It does not concern itself primarily with the facts of the case, and if it should annul any finding the case is sent to a fresh hearing of a court of the same authority. The administrative police, or _gardiens de la paix_, are approximately equivalent to British police constables, and must not be confused with the _gendarmerie_, which is a military body carrying out civil duties in times of peace. The _gendarmerie_ are recruited from the army, there being one legion in each army corps district. Their strength is roughly 22,000 men, equally divided between cavalry and infantry. In Paris there is a separate force known as the _Garde republicaine_, which carries out police duties very much the same as the _gendarmerie_ in the Departments. They number about 3000, of whom 800 are mounted. The French prison system was in a very antiquated state in 1874, when a commission on prison discipline issued its report in favour of cellular confinements. Prisons were therefore reconstructed, and after many years had elapsed some of the older ones were demolished, the prisoners thereafter being removed from the disadvantages they encountered in association. The system of isolation required the construction of a huge new prison at Fresnes-les-Rungis. It contains 1500 cells, and when it was completed in 1898 the historic Paris prisons of Grande-Roquette, St. Pelagie, and Mazas were swept away. [Illustration: FIVE O'CLOCK TEA IN PARIS.]