438 



JAMES, HENRY. 



JAPAN. 



The Government has pursued a scheme for 

 extending Italian commerce in East Africa, 

 ever since the opening of the Suez Canal. In 

 1870 the head of the Kubattino Steam Navi- 

 gation Company purchased a strip of coast in 

 the bay of Assab, in the Bed Sea, on the east- 

 ern coast of Africa, north of the Strait of Bab- 

 el-Mandeb. In June the Chambers passed a 

 bill authorizing the Government to acquire the 

 territorial rights purchased by Rubattino from 

 the native chiefs, and establish a colony there. 

 The law exempts the colony from taxation for 

 thirty years, makes the port free to all the 

 world, and empowers the Government to grant 

 concessions of land to Italians, natives, or 

 strangers. The Mussulman laws are to be ad- 

 ministered to Mohammedans, and Italian laws 

 to Europeans. The Government proceeded to 

 establish the trading colony. England raised a 

 question as to the rights acquired by the Ital- 

 ian Government. The Porte claimed suze- 

 rainty over the African shores of the Red Sea, 

 and the Khedive asserted these powers by del- 

 egation from the Porte. England had herself 

 purchased territorial rights in these regions 

 from the native chiefs, but afterward, when 

 the Khedive, Ismail, seized upon territories of 

 the Sultan of Zanzibar, she recognized the as- 

 sumed sovereignty of Egypt over the east coast 

 of Africa, as far as the ninth parallel of lati- 

 tude. After taking possession of Egypt, Eng- 

 land induced the Khedive to revive his claim 

 of jurisdiction over this region in order to ex- 

 act conditions from Italy with respect to this, 

 her first colonial establishment. The extent 

 of the territory acquired was also called in 

 question. Italy was fain to agree to the de- 

 mands of the British Government, which were 

 that no fortifications or military forces should 

 be maintained in the colony, that a large por- 

 tion of the acquired territory should be relin- 

 quished, and a corollary with reference to the 

 suppression of the slave-trade. 



The commercial treaties with England, Ger- 

 many, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland were 

 extended until June 30, 1883. A resolution 

 was adopted recommending that they should 

 not be prolonged after that date, and that, if 

 arrangements could not be made like those 

 with France and Austria, retaliatory duties 



should be imposed on imports from countries 

 which subject Italian products to differential 

 treatment. 



LEGISLATION. The extension of the suffrage 

 which was passed in 1881 was supplemented 

 before the close of the session by the change 

 of the mode of elections to the scrutin de liste, 

 or collective ticket, which was adopted by a 

 vote of 286 to 133. The completion of the 

 Government project for electoral reform was 

 the only important result of the session. With 

 this accomplished, and the arrangements for 

 the return to specie payments made and for 

 the needed revision of the tax system under 

 way, Mancini announced in the royal ad- 

 dress at the reopening of Parliament the in- 

 auguration of important projects of social 

 reform. 



PUBLIC EVENTS. The death of Garibaldi in 

 June called forth an exhibition of national re- 

 gret and gratitude which has not been equaled 

 upon the departure of any man of modern time. 

 In obedience to the will of the nation, the body 

 of Garibaldi was not burned, as he requested, 

 but was given a state funeral. The celebra- 

 tion, on March 31st, of the anniversary of the 

 Sicilian Vespers, was the occasion of another 

 of these demonstrative exhibitions of patriot- 

 ism. The Republicans and Irredentists were un- 

 usually noisy in 1882. The crime of Overdank, 

 which he expiated in Trieste (see AUSTKIA), 

 was made the subject of political demonstra- 

 tions in the latter part of the year. The press 

 and the public elevated the executed conspira- 

 tor into a national hero. The Austrian envoy 

 to the Papal court, Count Paar, was attacked in 

 the street by a man named Valeriani. Though 

 the Radicals applauded this double insult to 

 Austria and to the Church, the Government 

 proceeded more vigorously to suppress these 

 dangerous manifestations, confiscating news- 

 papers and arresting agitators. 



Northeastern Italy was visited in the au- 

 tumn by devastating floods like those which 

 occurred on the other side of the Alps in Tyrol. 

 Verona and the whole valley of the Adige were 

 inundated. The sufferers were relieved by aid 

 sent from all parts of the kingdom; but the 

 crops, the mills, and houses of large tracts of 

 country were destroyed. 



JAMES, HENEY, died at his home in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., on December 18th, at the age 

 of seventy-one years. He was a graduate of 

 Union College, and studied at the Prince- 

 ton Theological School, though he never en- 

 tered the ministry. He is chiefly known as 

 an able and brilliant writer upon theological 

 and allied themes, his chief works being "Mor- 

 alism and Christianity," " The Church of Christ 

 not an Ecclesiasticism," "The Nature of Evil," 

 "Christianity the Logic of Creation," and 



"Lectures and Miscellanies." Professor Will- 

 iam James, of Harvard, and the well-known 

 novelist, Henry James, Jr., are his sons. 



JAPAN, an empire in Eastern Asia. The su- 

 preme power resides in the Tenno, or Emperor, 

 usually called the Mikado, who acts through an 

 executive ministry. The reigning Emperor is 

 Mutsu Hito, born November 3, 1852, who suc- 

 ceeded his father, Komei Tenno, in 1867. The 

 succession is limited to the four imperial fami- 

 lies known as the Shi Shinno, and usually de- 



