ITALY. 



JAPAN. 



407 



by 219 against 149 votes, by which the con- 

 duct of the ministry was approved. 



On June 3d the Chamber of Deputies began 

 the discussion of a ministerial bill, asking for 

 more extended powers in the interest of public 

 safety. The Government published official re- 

 ports giving a terrible description of the law- 

 less condition of Calabria, the Romagna, and 

 especially of Sicily. Several deputies of Sicily 

 brought violent charges against the Govern- 

 ment, and accused some of the Sicilian prefects 

 of collusion with the chiefs of robbers. On 

 June 15th an order of the day was proposed, 

 which was agreed to by the ministry, and 

 passed by a majority of seventeen. On the 

 next day a resolution was passed providing for 

 the appointment of a committee for the inves- 

 tigation of the condition of Sicily ; the com- 

 mittee to be appointed partly by the Govern- 

 ment and partly by the Presidents of the Sen- 

 ate and the .Chamber of Deputies. On June 

 30th the Public-Safety bill was adopted by 

 the Senate, by 66 yeas against 29 nays. No 

 outbreaks took place in Sicily, as had been 

 feared, after the adoption of the bill, but the 

 Government deemed it necessary to reenforce 

 the garrison of Palermo. 



The municipal elections, which were held in 

 the first days of August, resulted, in many large 

 cities, as in Genoa, Venice, Florence, Bologna, 

 Naples, Palermo, and Rimini, in favor of the 

 Catholic party. 



On October 18th the German Emperor ar- 

 rived at Milan, on a visit to the King of Italy. 

 He met with a cordial and enthusiastic recep- 

 tion, and all political parties, with the exception 

 of the Catholic, expressed their hope of the 

 continuance of the most intimate relations be- 

 tween the Governments of Germany and Italy, 

 as well as between the people. 



On October 31st the prime-minister, Min- 

 ghetti, made a speech at Bologna, in which he 

 expressed the hope that the deficit in the 



budget of 1876 would not exceed 6,000,000 

 lire. He denied that he held protectionist 

 views, and that the visit of the German Em- 

 peror would influence the attitude of the Gov- 

 ernment with regard to church matters. The 

 Government would, however, continue its ef- 

 forts to protect the lower clergy from being 

 oppressed by the bishops, and to strengthen 

 the influence of the laity in the administration 

 of ecclesiastical property. 



The Chamber of Deputies met again on No- 

 vember 15th, to discuss the budget for 1876. 

 The attendance was so slim that on several 

 days a quorum was not present. Members of 

 the Opposition again moved a vote of censure 

 against the ministry, but, as usual, without re- 

 sult. An effort to consolidate the two sections 

 of the Left also failed. In the last days of De- 

 cember the Chamber adjourned, to meet again 

 on January 20, 1876. 



The official paper, in December, stated that 

 the sales of monastic property, from October, 

 1867, to November, 1875, had yielded 502,600,- 

 000 lire. 



The Government, in December, announced 

 that the preparations for disconnecting the 

 North-Italian railroads from the South-Aus- 

 trian, and for placing the former under the 

 control of the Italian Government, had been 

 completed. 



General Garibaldi, on February 12th, de- 

 clared that he accepted the dotation which 

 had been voted by the Chamber of Deputies, 

 but that he desired to employ it for the regu- 

 lation of the Tiber. An elaborate plan for car- 

 rying out this national enterprise was submit- 

 ted by Garibaldi to the Chamber of Deputies 

 on May 26th, adopted by the Chamber of Dep- 

 uties as well as the Senate, and sanctioned by 

 the Government on July 6th. The prime-min- 

 ister, in December, asked for an appropriation 

 of 9,000,000 lire in the budget of 1876, to be 

 devoted to this work. 



JAPAN, an empire in Eastern Asia. The 

 appellation by which the Emperor is generally 

 known in foreign countries is the ancient title 

 of Mikado, or the venerable. Present Mika- 

 do, Mutsu Hito, born at Yeddo, September 22, 

 1852, succeeded his father, Komei Tenno, 

 1867; married December 28, 1868, to Prin- 

 cess Haruko, born April 17, 1850, daughter of 

 Prince Itchidgo. The first child of the Em- 

 peror 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 : Katzura, Arisuga- 

 wa, Fushimi, or Kannin. 



After Japan, by the treaty concluded with 



Russia, had ceded to Russia its share of the 

 island of Saghalien, and received in return the 

 Kurile Islands, heretofore belonging to Russia, 

 the empire consists of the Japanese Islands, 

 the island of Yesso, the Kuriles, and the Liu- 

 Khiu Islands. The area and population of the 

 several divisions are as follows : 



The number of foreign residents in the ports 

 of Japan was, in 1874, 2,408, of whom 1,170 

 were English, 298 German, 260 French, 238 



