GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 





the executive to call the Parliament together 

 annually. Each of the Chambers has the righ 

 of introducing new bills, the same as the Gov- 

 ernment ; but all money bills must originate ir 

 the House of Deputies. The ministers have 

 the right to attend the debates of both the 

 Upper and the Lower House ; but they have no 

 vote unless they are members. The sittings 

 of both Chambers are public ; and no sitting is 

 valid unless an absolute majority of the mem- 

 bers are present. 



The executive power is exercised, under the 

 King, by a ministry divided into 11 depart- 

 ments, as follows : 



1. President of (he Council and ^fi>nster 

 Interior. 



2. Minister of Foreign Affairs 



3. Minister of the Treasury, 

 4- Minister of Finance. 



, 5. Minister of Justice ami of Ecclesiastical 

 Affairs. 



0. Minister of War. 



7. Minister of Marine. 



8. Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Agri- 

 culture. 



9. Minister of Public Instruction. 



10. Minister of Public Works. 



11. Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. 



Local Government. The two principal elective 

 local administrative bodies are the communal councils 

 and the provincial councils. According to the law of 

 February 10, 1889, each commune has a communal coun- 

 cil, a municipal council, and a syndic. Both the com- 

 munal councils and the municipal councils vary accord- 

 ing to population, the members of the latter being 

 selected by the former from among themselves. The 

 syndic is the head of the communal administration, and 

 is a Government official ; he is elected by the com- 

 munal council from among its own members, by secret 

 vote, in all the chief communes of provinces and dis- 

 tricts, and in other communes having more than 10,- 

 000 inhabitants. In other communes the syndic is ap- 

 pointed by the King from among the communal coun- 

 cilors. Each province has a provincial council and a 

 provincial commission, the members varying according 

 to population. The council elects its president and 

 other officials. The provincial commission is elected by 

 the council from its own members. It conducts the 

 business of the province when the latter is not sitting. 

 Both communal and provincial councilors are elected for 

 five years, one fifth being renewed every year. The 

 communal council meets twice and the provincial once 

 a year in ordinary session, though they may be con- 

 vened for extraordinary purposes. All communal elec- 

 tors are eligible to the council except those having an 

 official or pecuniary interest in the commune. Persons 

 not resident in the province, or having no solid interest 

 in it, or who do not pay taxes on movable property, as 

 well as officials in anyway interested in the province, 

 are ineligible to the provincial councils. Electors must 

 be Italian citizens, twenty-one years of age, and able to 

 read and write, be on the Parliamentary electoral list, 

 orpay a direct annual contribution to tlie commune, of 

 any nature, or comply with other conditions of a very 

 simple character. 



Religion. The Roman Catholic Church is, nominally, 

 the ruling State religion of Italy ; but many Acts of tlie 

 Legislature, passed since the establishment of the 

 Kingdom, and more especially since the suppression of 

 the Supreme Pontiff's temporal government, have su- 

 bordinated the power of the Church and clergy to the 

 authority of the civil government, and secured freedom 

 of worship to the adherents of all recognized religions. 

 However, scarcely any other positive creed as yet exists 

 but Roman Catholicism. At the census of 1881, of the 



total population about 62,000 were Protestants and 38,- 

 000 .lews. Of the Protestants 22,000 belonged to the 

 Waldensian Church of Piedmont, about 10,000 to the 

 other evangelical Italian Churches, and 30,000 to foreign 

 Protestant bodies. 



Under the Roman Pontiff, the Catholic episcopal 

 hierarchy in Italy consists of 49 archbishoprics and 220 

 bishoprics besides the 6 cardinal bishoprics near 

 Rome. Of these prelacies, 76 are immediately subject to 

 the Apostolic See, 12 beinjj archbishoprics. Thus there 

 are altogether 37 metropolitan sees, the average number 

 of suffragan sees to each metropolitan being about 4. 

 Every archbishop or bishop is appointed by the Pope, 

 on the advice of a council of Cardinals ; but the royal 

 exequatur is necessary for his installation. The number 

 of parishes in 1881 was 20,465; of churches and chapels, 

 55,263 ; of secular clergy, 76,560. 



The immense wealth of .he Italian clergy has greatly 

 dwindled since the year 1850, when the Siccardi bill, 

 abolishing external ecclesiastical jurisdiction and cler- 

 ical privileges, passed the Sardinian Chambers. This 

 law was extended, in 1861, over the whole Kingdom, and 

 had the effect of rapidly diminishing the numbers as 

 well as the incomes of the clergy. 



In 1865therewerein Italy2,382religioushovises, of which 

 1,506 were for men and 876 for women. The number of 

 religious persons was 28,991, of whom 14,807 were men 

 and 14,184 women. The mendicant orders numbered 

 8,229 persns, comprised in the above-mentioned total. 

 A law for the entire suppression of all religious houses 

 throughout the Kingdom was adopted by the Italian 

 Parliament in 18C6. This law provided a small pension 

 to all religious persons who had taken regular vows be- 

 fore January 18, 1864. Several monasteries were tem- 

 porarily set aside for such monks, friars, or nuns as 

 might wish to continue their conventual life, the in- 

 mates, when come down to a certain number, to be 

 drafted off to another house, and so again, until all fi- 

 nally died out. All collegiate chapters were likewise 

 dissolved. The lands and goods of these suppressed 

 bodies were appropriated by the State. 



See and Church of Rome. The "Statute fonda- 

 mentale del Regno " enacts, in its first article, that " the 

 Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion is the sole 

 religion of the State." By the Royal decree of October 

 9, 1870, which declared that " Rome and the Roman 

 Provinces shall constitute an integral part of the King- 

 dom of Italy," the Pope or Roman Pontiff was acknowl- 

 edged supreme head of the Church, preserving his 

 former rank and dignity as a sovereign prince. Fur- 

 thermore, by a bill that became law May 13, 1871, there 

 was guaranteed to His Holiness and his successors for- 

 ever, besides possession of the Vatican and Lateran 

 palaces and the villa of Castel Gandolfo, a yearly in- 

 come of 3,225,000 lire or 129,0002., which allowance (whose 

 arrears would in 1899 amount to 93,525,000 lire, or 3,741,- 

 0002.) still remains unclaimed and unpaid. 



Supreme Pontiff. Leone XIII. (Gioacchino Pecci), 

 Iwrn at Carpinetb in the diocese of Anagni, March 2, 

 1810, son of Count Luigi Pecci ; consecrated Archbishop 

 of Damiata, 1843 ; Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium, 1843-46 ; 

 liishop of Perugia, 1846; proclaimed Cardinal, Decem- 

 >er 19, 1853 ; elected Supreme Pontiff, as successor of 

 Pio IX., February 20, 1878; crowned, March 3 following. 

 He is, therefore, now 88 years old, and has filled the 

 Pontifical throne for 20 years. 



The election of a Pope ordinarily is by scrutiny. Each 

 Cardinal in conclave writes on a ticket his own name 

 with that of the Cardinal whom he chooses. These 

 tickets, folded and sealed, are laid in a chalice which 

 stands on the altar of the conclave chapel; and each 

 elector approaching the altar repeats a prescribed 

 'orm of oath. Thereupon the tickets are taken from 

 ;he chalice by scrutators appointed from the electing 

 H>dyj the tickets are compared with the number of 

 Cardinals present, and when it is found that any 

 Cardinal has two thirds of the votes in his favor he is 

 declared elected. Should none have received the need- 

 'ul number of votes, another process is gone through, 

 viz., access so called because any Cardinal may accede 

 to the choice of another by filling up another ticket 

 made for that purpose. The present Pontiff, Leone 

 XIII., was chosen almost unanimously. He is regarded 

 as the 263d Pope (or thereabouts) from St. Peter. 



The rise of the Roman Pontificate, as an avowed tem- 

 poral sovereignty, dates from the year 755, when Pepin, 

 Sing of the Franks, gave to Pope Stefano III. the Ex- 

 archate and Pentapolis (or Romagna), conquered from' 

 lie Lombards, to which Charles the Great added part of 

 Puscany andSabina; and three centuries later Countess 



