416 



JAPAN. 



appearance in the provinces of Massacarrara, 

 Parma, Porto Maurizio, and Turin on August 1 6, 

 soon spread with great rapidity to other prov- 

 inces, and reached its climax of virulence at 

 Naples in September, disappearing again from 

 Italy on Nov. 3. (See CHOLERA.) 



The Pope displayed, during the year, extraor- 

 dinary zeal in mitigating, by means of dona- 

 tions, the visitations of cholera and earthquakes. 

 The Pope has taken great interest in mission- 

 ary matters in China, near the seat of war and 

 elsewhere. 



The Turin Exhibition was international so far 

 as applied electricity was concerned. At the 

 same time, opening on October 20, a so-called 

 "Phylloxera Congress " was held. Both were 

 well attended, in spite of the cholera. On No- 

 vember 4, the distribution of premiums took 

 place, the King and royal family being present, 

 and 6,000 prizes being awarded to 13,000 exhib- 

 itors. The exhibition terminated on November 

 15. Previously a great banquet, to which 200 

 guests had been invited, was given by the Min- 

 ister of Agriculture, Signer Grimaldi, to the 

 members of the Phylloxera Congress. 



There had been a standing complaint on the 

 part of Italy that a well-organized smuggling 

 of cigars was going on for a long time past, 

 from Italian Switzerland into Italy, across the 

 frontier, and during the cholera quarantine, 

 Italy found that the extra expense of greater 

 vigilance exercised, had the effect of greatly 



increasing the revenue in that quarter, the dif- 

 ference more than covering the expense of 

 guarding the frontier at those points. Remon- 

 strances were accordingly made, but it took 

 considerable time ere the Swiss Government 

 could be made to agree to a stringent customs 

 convention like the one existing between Aus- 

 tria and Italy. 



On October 7, a violent cyclone swept Ca- 

 tania, in Sicily, killing thirty people and wound- 

 ing five hundred, besides destroying property 

 to the amount of 5,000,000 lire, and between 

 Jan. 21 and 23, 1885, destructive avalanches sur- 

 prised the population of Cuneo, Ivrea, Su 

 Brossasco, Sparone, Moasca, Exilles, and F 

 sinere, in the Piedmontese Alps, burying m 

 people, eighty-seven of whom perished. T 

 usual floods also occurred in the spring of 1884. 

 Shocks of earthquake were felt at Rome, Fras- 

 cati, and Albano on August 7, and at Cose 

 and Rossano on August 19. 



The disturbed commercial condition crea 

 by the cholera epidemic interfering with tr 

 was the cause of heavy failures in Milan a 

 Genoa, where a severe crisis set in with the 

 failure at Milan of the Fabbrica Lombarda, on 

 August 20, the suspension of Paganini & Vil- 

 lani in the same city, and of the great ship- 

 owning firm of Andrea Danovaro at Genoa 

 early in September, followed in January by 

 the failure of Lorenzo Cotta-Ramusino, of Mor- 

 tara, Pareia. 



JAPA1V. The empire of Dai Nippon (great 

 Bunrise), called by the Romance nations Japon, 

 and by the Teutonic Japan, stretches through 

 27 degrees of north latitude, and 33| of longi- 

 tude. It consists of a chain of volcanic islands 

 nearly 2,000 miles long, its area equaling that of 

 the British Islands, Holland, and Belgium. The 

 best known part, or Japan proper, consisting 

 of Hondo (main island), Kiushin, Shikoku, and 

 Yezo, comprises three fourths of the total area. 

 The three outlying groups or fringes are Riu 

 Kiu (hanging tassels), Chijima (thousand isl- 

 ands), and Ogasawara, or Bonin Shima (no 

 man's land). The area of the empire is 146,- 

 671'77 square miles, of which Hondo has 58-9, 

 Kiushiu 9-4, Shikoku 4'7, Yezo 20'6, and 

 the remaining islands 6'4 percentage of the 

 whole. Old Japan, the Oyashima of ancient 

 history, consists of Hondo, Kiushiu, and Shi- 

 koku, with their neighboring islands, all of 

 which were conquered and colonized by the 

 Japanese in very early times. New Japan 

 consists of acquisitions of the last few centu- 

 ries, or of very recent times, which have so 

 far occupied a different political position, and 

 are to be regarded as colonies of the mother- 

 country. The area of the former is 109,735'- 

 48, and of the latter 36,836-29 square miles. A 

 careful survey of the empire on scientific prin- 

 ciples is now being carried on. The popula- 



tion, by census of 1874, was 33,623,323, 

 which Old Japan had 33,312,162 and Nei 

 Japan 311,211 ; Hondo had 25,478,834, Kii 

 shiu 4,986,613, Shikoku 2,284,538, Yezo 144,- 

 069, Riu Kiu 167,073, Bonin 69, and th 

 smaller islands of Old Japan 362,177. 

 foreign residents numbered, in 1883, 

 Americans and Europeans, and 4,138 Chim 

 The present year, in Japanese reckoning, 

 the 17th of Meiji (Enlightened Peace), or th( 

 2,544th from the foundation of the empire of 

 Japan by Jimmu Tenno. The government sim 

 1868 has been that of the ancient system 

 vogue from the seventh to the twelfth century, 

 before the establishment of the military usur- 

 pation by the Sho-gun (or later Tycoon), modi- 

 fied by the adoption of features from Euro- 

 pean governments. The Mikado, the 123d rul- 

 er of the line, officially styled Tenno (divine 

 ruier), is aided by a Supreme Council of State, 

 a Council of Ministers, each of whom is head 

 of a department, and a Senate. The cities and 

 prefectures are ruled by the Council of State. 

 Since the Restoration of 1868, the drift of 

 affairs has been toward a constitutional mon- 

 archy. The establishment of a Senate in 1875, 

 and of local or prefectural assemblies in 1878, 

 was followed by the imperial decree of Oct. 

 12, 1881, promising the establishment of a na- 

 tional Parliament, with limitation of the impe- 



