386 



JAPAN. 



Cavalotti, instructed to report after having heard 

 the explanations of the inculpated. A list of 

 many names was given out, including those of 

 Crispi and his wife, who had had a money trans- 

 action with Tanlongo, and the sessions of the 

 Chamber were taken up with turbulent alterca- 

 tions between the incriminated persons and their 

 accusers. The committee of the Chamber de- 

 cided to exclude the accusatory statements and 

 letters of Tanlongo, whereupon the Radicals an- 

 nounced that they would resign their seats as a 

 body. Crispi declared that the Giolitti docu- 

 ments were forgeries, and instituted criminal 

 proceedings against the ex-Premier, who fled to 

 Germany. He was determined that he would 

 stop the flood of scandals and incriminations, 

 and, before the Chamber had time to take action 

 on the report of its committee or the Senate in 

 the matter of its own members that were incul- 

 pated by the Giolitti documents, the Parliament 

 was prorogued on Dec. 15. 



Dependencies. Italy claims a protectorate 

 over the Empire of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, and 

 by an arrangement with England, made in 1891, 

 over all the territories embraced in a line from 

 the point where Yuba river flows into the Indian 

 Ocean, following that river up to 6 of north 

 latitude, then running west to 35 of east lon- 

 gitude, due north to the river Rahat, and then 

 east in an irregular line to the Red Sea coast at 

 Ras Kasar. The coast of the Red Sea from Ras 

 Kasar southward is recognized as Italian, also 

 the whole coast of Somaliland, on the Indian 

 Ocean, the coast line being interrupted from the 



Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and Cape Guardafui by 

 the French and English possessions on the Gulf 

 of Aden. The area of the Italian sphere of in- 

 fluence is estimated at 037,000 square miles. On 

 the Red Sea coast north of Abyssinia Italy lias 

 organized a colony called Erythrea, with an area 

 of 95,500 square miles. The population, accord- 

 ing to an enumeration made in 1893, consists of 

 191,127 natives and 3,452 Europeans in the part 

 organized under a civil government, comprising 

 the port of Massowah, with 7,775 inhabitants, the 

 district surrounding that place, and the districts 

 of Keren and Asmara. The colonial revenue for 

 1894-'95 is estimated at 1,448,000 lire. The Ital- 

 ian Government, must pay 7,764,117 lire to meet 

 the expenditures for the year, reckoned at 9,212,- 

 117 lire, 6,978,300 lire being needed for the colo- 

 nial troops and 2,238,817 lire for civil government. 

 The imports in 1893 were valued at 9,863,829 lire, 

 including 881,887 lire of precious metals. In 

 July the Italian troops marched against the der- 

 vishes in Kassala, and after beating them at 

 Agordat and before the town, took possession of 

 it in accordance with an arrangement with Great 

 Britain permitting a temporary occupation for 

 military purposes. On May 5, 1894, a treaty was 

 signed with England permitting Italy to include 

 iu her protectorate the Harrar district of Galla- 

 land, situated in the rear of the English and 

 French stations on the Gulf of Aden. Against 

 this the French Government 'objected, as Eng- 

 land had no rights in Harrar to cede, having en- 

 tered into a mutual agreement with France in 

 1888 to assert no protectorate over Harrar. 



J 



JAPAN, a constitutional monarchy in an 

 archipelago east of China and Korea. Setting 

 aside the official and popular but purely mythical 

 chronology which declares that the first Emperor, 

 Jimmu Tenno, ascended the throne 660 B. c., we 

 discover the beginnings of history in the third 

 or fourth century of our era, and the first use of 

 time measures and almanacs in the sixth cen- 

 tury. The ruling Emperor, Mutsuhito, was born 

 Nov. 3, 1852 ; the heir apparent, Yoshihito, was 

 born of one of the imperial concubines, Aug. 31, 

 1877. In earlier ages nine female Mikados sat 

 on the throne, but by the Constitution of 1889 

 inheritance to the imperial title is restricted to 

 the male line. Desinence is guarded against by 

 having ten houses or families, which are sup- 

 ported out of the public treasury, their allow- 

 ances from the civil list being made annually. 

 The Empress is Haruko, from the princely family 

 of Ichijo, born May 28, 1850, and married Feb. 

 9, 1869. The silver wedding of their majesties 

 was celebrated Feb. 9, 1894. with national re- 

 joicings, and the issue of two commemorative 

 postage stamps of unusual size, significance of 

 decoration, and brilliancy of color. They were 

 inscribed in English : " Imperial Japanese Post. 

 Imperial Wedding. Twenty-fifth Anniversary." 

 The Government is modeled closely upon the 

 system of German imperialism, and the execu- 

 tive legislative powers are united in and exer- 

 cised by the sovereign, there being few of the 



checks and balances in government that are 

 seen in the American system. The main pur- 

 pose, in view of the popular politics and of the 

 Liberal or antiministerial party, is to secure the 

 more radical differentiation of the three branches 

 of government, the limitation of the imperial pre- 

 rogative, the gradual assimilation of the Japa- 

 nese to the British model of political procedure, 

 and the destruction of the clan spirit still preva- 

 lent among the men in authority, who come al- 

 most entirely from Satsuma and Choshin. The 

 seventh session of the Diet was opened at Tokio, 

 Dec. 24, 1894. The national standard of value 

 is the silver yen (worth 73 cents), in which all 

 financial figures in this article are expressed. 



Area and Meteorology. In the official sur- 

 vey of the empire, it is reckoned that there are 

 twelve great islands or groups. These are Hondo, 

 Shikoku, Kiushiu, Hokkaido or Yezo, Chishima 

 or the Kuriles, Sado, Oki, Awaji, Iki. Tsushima, 

 Riu Kiu (Loo Choo), Ogasawara or Bonin. The 

 isles adjacent to these eight groups number 411. 

 The coast line of the archipelago, omitting that 

 of islands having an outline of less than \ ri 

 (2$ miles), measures 17,221 miles. The area of 

 the eight groups is 148,244 square miles, and of 

 the adjacent isles 2,520 square miles a total of 

 148,766 square miles. Of this superficies. Hondo 

 has 58-77, Kiushiu 10'56, and Hokkaido 20-42 

 per cent. Taxable property (irrigated rice fields, 

 arable land, forests, and miscellaneous lands) oc- 



