454 



ITALY. 



November 26th, the old Left united in suffi- 

 cient numbers to form an efficient opposition. 

 About eighty-six deputies met and discussed a 

 programme of which compensation for deputies 

 and revision of the Papal guarantees formed 

 part, while the friendly alliance with Austria 

 and Germany was cordially approved ; num- 

 bered among them were the ex-ministers Cai- 

 roli, Zanardelli, Baocarini, Nicotera, Crispi, and 

 Doda. 



Reclamation of the Campagna. For twelve 

 years the Government has had under consid- 

 eration the project of rendering fertile, hab- 

 itable, and healthful the plain surrounding 

 Rome on all sides for a distance of from 20 to 

 50 kilometres. Several laws were enacted for 

 this object, the last in 1878. This act, which 

 originated in the Senate and was approved by 

 the Chamber, provided for the regulation of 

 the water-courses, which is a necessary pre- 

 liminary to any attempt at fertilization and 

 colonization. A powerful ring of aristocrats 

 and bankers, who own the lands, and the 

 equally powerful combination of the Mercanti 

 di Campagna, who lease them for grazing pur- 

 poses and derive from them with little trouble 

 a large profit, opposed the improvement. The 

 owners were unwilling to risk the capital ne- 

 cessary for the redemption of these tracts, mis- 

 cultivated for thousands of years, which con- 

 tained no villages or communications, were un- 

 inhabitable on account of the deadly malaria, 

 were entirely stripped of forest, were subject 

 to overflow from the choked-up streams, and 

 along the coast were covered with marsh. In 

 the session of 1883 Signor Berti, Minister of 

 Agriculture, introduced a bill which was de- 

 signed to overcome the obstacles placed in the 

 way of the improvement. The Government is 

 warned to press this work forward by the fact 

 that Rome ceased to grow after the first stimu- 

 lus of the transfer of the Government to the 

 ancient capital was spent, and is outstripped 

 in commercial and industrial activity by other 

 cities. It is believed that when the agricultur- 

 al supplies can be drawn from the surrounding 

 district, the rural environment made attractive, 

 and the Roman fever extirpated, the capital 

 will take the position which is desirable for 

 the symmetrical development of the kingdom. 

 The new law provides for the expropriation 

 and reclamation by the state of the latifundia 

 in which the owners are unwilling to carry out 

 the works of amelioration prescribed by law. 



Interpretation of the Guarantee Law. A ruling 

 of the Court of Appeals, made Nov. 9, 1882, 

 greatly limits what were supposed to be the 

 sovereign rights and immunities of the Pope, 

 and extends the civil and criminal jurisdiction 

 of the courts to the Vatican. An engineer, 

 named Martinucci, claimed payment from the 



Papal Majordomo for managing the fire-extin- 

 guishing arrangements, and of Cardinal Jaco- 

 bini, as administrator of the Papal estates, for 

 other services in the Vatican. Pope Leo XIII 

 constituted two commissions, composed of 

 priests, as courts of first and second instance, 

 to pass upon these and other such claims. The 

 suitor did not wait for the adjudication of the 

 Papal commission, but brought an action in the 

 civil court. The question of jurisdiction was 

 argued on behalf of the Pope, and both the 

 lower and the appellate court affirmed their 

 competency to entertain the suit, which was 

 dismissed for lack of evidence. The law of 

 Papal guarantees, of May 13, 1871, was defined 

 as applying simply to the exercise of the spir- 

 itual authority of the Pontiff, and as guarantee- 

 ing only such personal immunities and sover- 

 eign rights as appertain to his dignity and as 

 were designated by Mancini "purely rights of 

 honor." 



The Ischian Earthquake. The calamity in the 

 island of Ischia was the most severe that Italy 

 has experienced in many years, and cast a gloom 

 over the country during the summer months. 

 About 3,000,000 francs was collected in aid of 

 the sufferers, besides what was done by the 

 Government. The total number of deaths was 

 stated in the official report to be 1,990. The 

 number injured was 374. At Casamicciola, 

 625 strangers were killed and 922 natives. At 

 Forio, 305 were killed ; at Lacco Ameno, 128. 

 (See EAKTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC DISTURB- 

 ANCES.) 



Geodetic Conference. The seventh Internation- 

 al Geodetic Conference met in Rome, October 

 15th. Resolutions were adopted in favor of 

 the unification of time by adopting a universal 

 hour and the unification of longitude by adopt- 

 ing a common initial meridian. The prime 

 meridian for reckoning longitude recommend- 

 ed by the conference is Greenwich. It is pro- 

 posed to count longitude in a single direction, 

 from east to west, both by the ordinary divis- 

 ions of degrees and by hours and minutes. For 

 railroads, steamships, posts, and telegraphs, it 

 is recommended to adopt a universal hour side 

 by side with local or national hours. For the 

 point of departure for cosmopolitan time the 

 instant of midnight at Greenwich is proposed. 

 Resolutions in favor of the application of the 

 decimal system in the divisions of time and of 

 the quadrant, and of the speedy adoption by 

 Great Britain and other countries of the de- 

 cimal system of weights and measures, were 

 adopted later. The proposal for the unifica- 

 tion of longitudes and hours originated with 

 the United States Government, which was 

 represented at the conference by Messrs. Stil- 

 gard and Peirce, of the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. 



