314 



JAPAN. 



Minister of Justice, Signer Gianturco; Minister 

 of the Treasury, Signer Rubini; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, Signer Chimirri; Minister of Public 

 Works, Signer Branca ; Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Signer Gallo ; Minister of Agriculture, Signer 

 Carcano ; Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, Signer 

 Pascolato. The Moderate Liberal element predom- 

 inated in the new Cabinet, which included three 

 representatives of the Right and three from the 

 Opposition, one a pronounced Zanardellian. When 

 the Chamber met on June 27 the Premier read a 

 conciliatory declaration of policy. Tommaso Villa, 

 ' a member of the Liberal Opposition, was elected 

 to succeed Signer Gallo as president of the Cham- 

 ber, and when he took the chair he appointed 

 a commission to draft new rules of procedure. The 

 new Chamber would grant no more than a month's 

 supplies until it received an assurance that the 

 Government would not plunge into Chinese adven- 

 tures more deeply than was required to preserve 

 Italy's place in the concert of the powers. The 

 new standing orders, dictated by the Opposition, 

 pennit the suspension for a week only of Deputies 

 who create a disturbance. On July 10 the Cham- 

 ber adjourned after voting provisional supply until 

 the end of the year. 



Assassination of King TJmberto. On July 

 29 the King was shot dead at three paces by an 

 anarchist at Monza, where he had taken part in 

 distributing prizes at an athletic competition. The 

 murderer was a young silk weaver, who had re- 

 sided in the United States since 1897. He left 

 Paterson, N. J., for Italy in the preceding May, 

 and stayed at the house of his brother near Prate, 

 where he practiced with the revolver to give him 

 skill for the deed which up to the time of his 

 conviction at Milan, on Aug. 29, and sentence to 

 penal servitude for life (the extreme punishment 

 permitted by the Italian code) he persisted in 

 declaring was conceived and planned by himself 

 alone. He avowed that he was impelled to kill 

 the King by a desire to avenge the miseries of the 

 people; that he had formed the design after the 

 state of siege was proclaimed in Milan and Sicily. 

 Three shots were fired at King Umberto, who fell 

 back in his carriage and died instantly from one 

 that pierced his heart. In spite of the assassin's 

 denials, there was evidence of a plot and of the 

 connivance and pecuniary aid of anarchists in 

 American and probably in Italian cities and in 

 Paris and London. The assassin was a skillful and 

 industrious worker, who had borne a good repu- 

 tation and had saved money. His demeanor during 



the trial was self-possessed and alert, and he an- 

 swered all questions calmly, in well-chosen phrases, 

 with an appearance of frankness. 



Vittorio Emmanuele III marked his accession 

 to the throne by a proclamation extolling the dead 

 King's courage, his devotion to the people of Italy, 

 and his faithful guardianship of the unity and in- 

 dependence of Italy, declaring his own determina- 

 tion to defend the monarchy and to preserve consti- 

 tutional liberty as linked together and both indis- 

 pensable for the supreme welfare of the nation, 

 and asserting the retention of Rome as the surest 

 rampart of his reign and the best guarantee of 

 Italian unity. The new King reorganized and 

 reduced the royal household; he inspected public 

 institutions; he visited the garrisons, where he en- 

 joined upon military officers the duty of wearing 

 their uniforms constantly, setting the example him- 

 self; he removed the barrier that has prevented 

 frequent intercourse between the King and poli- 

 ticians by appointing an hour when those who 

 wished could confer with him any day; and he 

 participated actively in the deliberations of the 

 ministry. Premier Sarocco unfolded the pro- 

 gramme of the Cabinet in a report to the King, 

 published before the reopening of Parliament in 

 November. All politicians desired to signalize the 

 beginning of the new reign by a reduction of taxa- 

 tion if it could be secured without endangering 

 the stability of the budget, and some suggested the 

 shifting of a part of the burden that oppressed 

 the poor upon the shoulders of the rich. Signer 

 Chimirri had a plan for the diminution of some 

 of the vexatious demands upon small taxpayers, 

 including abolition of the tax on the lowest in- 

 comes. After disposing of the budget, the work 

 proposed for Parliament to do was to consider 

 an emigration bill that had long been before the 

 Chamber, then to discuss bills for reform of local 

 administrative bodies, for abolition of the enforced 

 residence of dangerous characters, for repression 

 of anarchist crime, and for improving the position 

 of school-teachers. Military estimates were to be 

 maintained within the limits already reached, and 

 provision would be made for renewing the artillery 

 without extra expenditure. The naval estimates 

 were increased by new credits for construction. 

 Additional legislation was required for the protec- 

 tion of the labor of women and children. The Cham- 

 bers would also have to decide upon the best con- 

 ditions for the renewal of the commercial treaties 

 with Austria and Germany, also the terms on 

 which railroad conventions will be renewed. 



JAPAN, an island empire in the Pacific Ocean, 

 eastward from China, between the Russian and the 

 American possessions, extending from north lati- 

 tude 21 48' near the Philippines to 50 56' near 

 the Kuriles, and from east longitude 156 32' to 

 119 20'. Of the 4,000 known islands, 487 have 

 an area of more than 6 square miles, and about 

 500 are inhabited, though a majority of the people 

 in the empire live on Hondo, the main island. The 

 five larger islands are Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, 

 Hokkaido or Yezo, and Formosa. The coast line 

 of the entire empire measures 18,542 miles. The 

 total area is 162,372 square miles. The popula- 

 tion, Dec. 31, 1898, was 46,540,754. The money 

 standard is gold, a yen being worth 50 cents. 



Over this constitutional empire the Emperor 

 Mutsuhito not only roigns, but governs. He is 

 the one hundred and twenty-second of the tradi- 

 tional line of Mikados, and was born Nov. 3, 1852, 



and ascended the throne Feb. 18, 1867. The heir 

 apparent, Yoshihito, born Aug. 31, 1879, pro- 

 claimed heir Aug. 31, 1887, married, May 10, 1900, 

 the Princess Sada, his cousin, the third daughter 

 of Prince Kujo. Only male descendants natural 

 children of the Emperor or sons of an Empress 

 can succeed to the throne. The laws relating to 

 marriages in the imperial family, promulgated in 

 May, 1900, forbid marriage before the age of seven 

 teen in the prince and of fifteen in the princess. 

 and during any period of imperial mourning. The 

 Emperor shares legislative power with the imperial 

 Diet, which consists of two houses the upper 

 house, having 316 peers and imperial nominees, 

 and the lower house, 300 members, elected by male 

 voters who, according to the new law of elections, 

 p;iy direct national taxes to the amount of 10 yen 

 i.<~>> Hy the new law of 1900, the House con- 

 sists of 369 members, from 16 urban and 308 rural 



