IVERSON, ALFRED. 



JAPAN. 



389 



nounced to amonnt to 110,000,000 lire. On De- 

 cember oth the prime-minister proposed a finan- 

 cial reform which produced a great sensation 

 in financial circles. Hitherto only the bank- 

 notes of the National Bank have been legal 

 tenders in the whole kingdom, while those of 

 several other principal banks, as the Neapoli- 

 tan, the Sicilian, the Roman, were legal ten- 

 ders in their own district ; hereafter the six 

 principal banks of the kingdom, the National, 

 Neapolitan, Sicilian, Roman, Tuscan, National, 

 and Tuscan Cre.lit Bank, are to form an asso- 

 ciation and will issue paper money to the 

 amount ofonemilliardlire(900,000,000 at once), 

 which will have a forced circulation through- 

 out Italy. Among the bills introduced by the 

 Government is one for the enforcement of civil 

 marriage. In 1866 the Italian Parliament made 

 registration by the state officer essential to the 

 validity of marriage ; bnt those who were con- 

 tent with a marriage by the priest, were under 

 no further obligation to have the process of 

 registration observed and the marriage legal- 

 ized. The clergy, in Italy, so generally hostile 

 to the Government, were left at liberty to con- 

 tinue to act as sole persons authorized to cele- 

 brate marriage, and this course they adopted 

 to such an extent, exhorting the people to be 

 content with the religions marriage, and not to 

 register their marriages before the civil officer, 

 that already 120,400 unregistered, and there- 

 fore invalid, marriages are reported by the 

 Government officers in various districts of 

 Italy. The new bill proposes to remedy this 

 state of things by requiring the civil marrtage 

 to take place first. A priest who celebrates 

 the religious marriage before the civil mar- 

 riage is liable to a fine varying from 200 lire 

 to 500 lire for the first offense, and for the 

 second to imprisonment for four or six months. 

 The parties, too, who get married by the priest 

 before going to the registrar incur a fine of 100 

 lire to 500 lire ; and to complete the legislation 

 it is enacted that marriages hitherto unregis- 

 tered under the old law may be made legiti- 

 mate by registration within four months of the 

 present bill. There is no fee charged for the 

 civil marriage. 



In October a question of great importance 

 was decided by the Municipal Council of Rome, 

 namely, the plan of the city proposed by the 



Syndic and the Giunta, which is to be carried 

 into execution within twenty-five years. The 

 plan was unanimously approved in its sub- 

 stance by the council. The sum required for 

 the execution of such plan is 163,000,000 lire. 

 It consists of a great many public works, 

 streets to be opened, large lots of land to be 

 built upon, and houses to be pulled down. The 

 Syndic declared that he would resign should the 

 plan, after the discussion, be rejected. Rome 

 is to be restored to its ancient splendor within 

 twenty-five years at a cost of $25,000,000. 



Brigandage is still far from being rooted out, 

 bnt continues to infest many districts of South- 

 ern Italy. In October a band of thieves was 

 broken up close nnder Vesuvius. They had 

 long been the torment of the neighborhood of 

 Viola, Ottajano, and Kassa, carrying off cattle 

 and rendering property insecure. 



IVERSON, ALFRED, a Georgian jurist and 

 statesman, born in Burke County, Ga., De- 

 cember 8, 1798 ; died at Macon, Ga., March 

 4, 1873. Obtaining his early education in 

 Georgia, he entered Princeton College at the 

 age of eighteen, and graduated there in 1820 ; 

 studied law, was admitted to the bar and prac- 

 tised his profession at Columbus, Ga. He soon 

 took an interest in political matters, was three 

 times a member of the House of Representa- 

 tives of the State, and once a State Senator. 

 He was twice elected Judge of the Superior 

 Court of the Columbus Circuit, for terms of 

 three and four years ; was one of the electors 

 at large in the presidential election of 1844 ; 

 was elected to the Thirtieth Congress and 

 served from 1847 to 1849; served his second 

 term as Judge from 1851 to 1855; in 1855 

 was chosen TJ. 8. Senator, and just before the 

 close of his term in 1861, after advocating dis- 

 union on the floor of the Senate, withdrew 

 and joined the Southern Confederacy. He 

 raised a regiment for tne Confederate army, 

 of which he became colonel, and in Novem- 

 ber, 1862, was commissioned brigadier-gen- 

 eral. He enjoyed a high reputation in Georgia, 

 as a man of ability and learning, and was one 

 of the Southern candidates for the presidency 

 in 1852. While in the Senate he was chair- 

 man of the Committee on Claims, and a mem- 

 ber of the Committee on Military Affairs and 

 the Pacific Railroad. 



JAPAN, an empire in Eastern Asia. The 

 appellation by which the Emperor is general- 

 ly known in foreign countries is the ancient 

 title of Mikado, or the Venerable. Present Mi- 

 kado, Mntsu Ilito, born at Yeddo, September 22, 

 1852; Hucoeeded his father, KomciTenno, 1867; 

 married, December 28, 1868, to Princess Hnru- 

 ko. born April 17, 1850, daughter of Prince 

 Itchidgo. The first child of the Emperor was 

 born in 1873, but died soon after. There is 



no regular law of succession, and the throne 

 generally devolves not on the son of the 

 Mikado, but on the eldest or the most dis- 

 tinguished member of the house. It is only 

 necessary that the new Mikado belong to one 

 of the four royal families : Kntzura, Arisuga- 

 wa, Fushimi, or Kannin. Of the house Kat- 

 zura, only one scion, Princess Sumiko, born 

 1828, is still alive. To the house Arisugawa 

 belong the Princes Takdnito (born 1812), and 



