Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/478

 458 I T A L Y [sTATIbTICS, 26,659,0/1, and the yearly revenue from 11,944,707 lire to 26,998,784. There was a deficit in each of the six years 1862- 1868 ; since then there has always been at least a slight surplus. Post-office savings banks were introduced by the law of 1875. In the first year 1989 offices were opened, and the amount of the de posits was 3,709,357 lire. In 1879 the offices numbered 3259, and the deposits amounted to 33,564,370 lire. The telegraphic system took its beginning in Italy in 1861 By the end of 1866 the lines had reached an aggregate length of 14,000 kilometres, and a wire-development of 38,000 ; and by the close of 1879 the corresponding figures were 25,533 and 84,101 kilometres. The country was thus, if the ratio of the lines to the area be considered, a long way iu advance of Spain and 1 lungary, but considerably behind the other chief states of Europe. The following are the submarine cables belonging to the state : Bagnara-Torre di Faro (dating from 1876); Carmitello-Ganzirri, uniting Sicily and Calabria ; Otranto-Valona (dating from 1863) ; Pozzuoli-Procida ; Proeida-Ischia ; Sardinia-Carloforte ; Sardinia- Isola della Maddalena ; Piombino-Elba ; Venice-Chioggia. France maintains a cable between Corsica and Leghorn, and between Corsica and Sardinia ; the Mediterranean Extension Company keeps up communication between Sicily and Malta, and between Otranto and Corfu, and the Eastern Telegraph Company has lines between Calabria and Sicily, Orbetello and Sardinia, and Otranto and Alexandria (via Zante and Crete). The number of telegraph offices in 1879, Government and private, was 2480. The number of telegrams despatched in 1877 and 1879 was as follows (Table XXVII.): Ife77. 1S7!&amp;gt;. 4 577 G8-5 4 933 001 369,890 405,633 375,8.&quot;&amp;gt;7 412,388 International transit 210,524 208,452 5,533 956 5 959,474 Government and service telegrams ... 352j923 428,678 The net gain of the telegraph department in 1879 was 1,182,814 .lire, an increase of 413,348 lire on the gain of the previous year. Army and Navy. By the law of 7th June 1875, all men capable of bearing arms are under obligation of military service from their twenty-first to the end of their thirty-ninth year. They are divided into three categories : the first and second consist of those who are to serve successively in the standing army (Esereito perma- nente), in the mobile (Milizia mobile, equivalent to the Prussian Landwehr), and in the territorial militia (Milizia tcrritoriale, equi valent to Prussian Landsturni); the third serve in the territorial militia only. The men of the first category, that is, those who draw the first numbers in the conscription, serve eight or nine years in the regular standing army, four or five years in the mobile, and seven years in the militia, or, in the case of the cavalry, nine years in the regular army and ten in the militia, the infantry spending three years and the cavalry five years under arms, and for the rest of their time forming the active reserve. The men of the second category, that is, those who do not draw the first figures at the conscription, serve five or six years in the regular army, four or three years in the mobile, and the remainder of their term in the militia. They only require to be in arms for five months, and these months may be distributed over several years. 1 Those conscripts who pass a certain examination and pay 1500 lire (in the cavalry 2000) are required to spend only one year with their regiments, and are further permitted, like the university students, to put off their year of service till they are twenty-six years of age. The following table (XXVIII.) gives the general strength of the army at September 30 in nine successive years : Under With un limited Total. Under Witliun- Hinireit Total. t urlough 1 furlough 1871 Kio.nso 351,089 521,969 1876 1 111.615 734,645 884,260 1872 157,285 509,!4.&amp;gt; 667,230 1877 202,271 701,8611 904,140 1873 175,1 562,023 737,514 i 1878 163,820 769,588 933,408 1874 176,766 046.U15 823,681 1879 164,624 : 790,367 960,!H| 1875 153,693 723,053 876,746 ;| 11 P&amp;gt;y the law of 15th May 1877 the country is divided into ten army corps districts, the seats of which are Verona, Milan, Turin, Piaeenza, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari, and Palermo. These are broken up into twenty military divisions, one half of which are centred in the cities just mentioned and the other half in Padua, Brescia, Genoa, Ancona, Perugia, Salerno, Chieti, Catanzaro, Messina. The military districts, which have an important share in the, mobilization of the army, number eighty-eight. The following table (XXIX.) indicates the strength of the various arms in October 1879 : . Mol/i/e Militia - Infantry of the line bersiifflieri Artillery Engineers Officers Supernumerary officers. Total... Reserve officers Territorial militia ... 1. Permanent or fitiinJiny Army- Infantry 271,373 Military districts 251,255 Alpine companies 13,853 Bersaglieri 48,753 Cavalry 32,066 Artillery 63,989 Engineers 13,518 Carbineers 18,813 Military instruction estab lishment 3,955 Sanitary corps 4,203 Hospital corps 977 Stud 217 Discipline companies 1,300 Penitentiaries 2,li2 Officers on service and avail able 11,897 Supernumerary officers 2,284 Total 737,565 The army cost the country between 1871 and 1875 the sum of 882,471,512 Fire, or in round numbers 7,060,000 per annum, and the navy 171,188,531 lire, or 1,369,500 per annum. The follow ing figures (Table XXX.) indicate the expenses, ordinary and extraordinary, since incurred (in millions of lire) : 1,544,665 Army. Xavy. ~| Army. Navy. Ord. Ext. Ord. Ext. l: Ord. Ext. ! Ord. Ext. 1877 1*78 170-2 170-7 2.V4 i 40-4 27&quot;- ; 42-0 1-1 187!l 2-2 || 1880 177-2 181-7 9-9 42-2 9-3 4:3-l 2-0 2-7 The annual cost of the Italian army is slight as compared with that incurred by other countries ; but compared with the resources of Italy it wears a totally different aspect. For navy organization the coast regions are divided into three departments (Spezia, Naples, and Venice) and twenty-two con scription districts. About 16,000 or 18,000 men are enrolled yearly, and 18,000 have unlimited furlough. On January 1, 1880, the national fleet consisted of the following vessels (Table XXXI.) : No. Guns. Tonnage. Nominal Horse- power 17 24-&amp;gt; 101 661 ]9 g3Q Screw steamers 15 143 23 590 4 470 Paddle steamers 6 41 7 960 2 H50 Men-of-war 38 426 133,211 19,350 Screw vessels. 13 26 16,479 2 464 4 10 1510 4110 Transport ships 12 10 2 224 665 The personnel of the fleet was thus composed : Offia-rs 1 admiral, 4 vice-admirals, 9 rear-admirals, 36 capitani di vas- cello, 42 capitani di fregata, 202 lieutenants, 150 sub-lieutenants, 49 officers of the naval engineers, 24 assistants, 78 officers of the mechanicians, 117 officers of the sanitary corps, 235 officers of the commissariat department, and 540 civil employes ; Hen 15,055, including 7878 sailors proper and 2162 gunners. The greatest of the naval establishments in the kingdom is that of Spezia, which was opened about 1876, instead of the similar establishment at Genoa. The arsenal in 1879 had an area measuring 3930 feet in length by 2450 in breadth. Two other arsenals are maintained at Naples and Venice respectively. The workmen employed in the various establishments numbered 6292 iu 1879. Religion. The IJoman Catholic Church claims the great mass of the Italian population ; but, besides the ordinary Latin rite, several others are recognized in the country. The Armenians of Venice maintain their traditional characteristics. The Albanians of the southern provinces still employ the Greek rite and the Greek lan guage in their public worship, and their priests, like those of the Greek Church, are allowed to marry. And certain peculiarities in troduced by St Ambrose distinguish the ritual of Milan from that of the general church. Up to 1871 the island of Sicily was, according to the bull of Urban II., ecclesiastically dependent on the king, and exempt from the canonical power of the pope. Though the territorial authority of the papal see was abolished in 1870, the fact that Italy, and Kome more particularly, is the seat of the administrative centre of the vast organization of the church is not without significance to the nation. In the same city in which the administrative functions of the body politic are centralized there still exists the court of the spiritual potentate with a total personnel (in 1879) of 1821 souls. The number of episcopal dioceses in Italy is 265 ; but as it some times happens that more than one i: subject to the same bishop, the number of these functionaries is somewhat less. Every diocese has full individuality as a corporation, and possesses a cathedral with a chapter of canons, a number of minor benefices, and a seminary. The number of canons before the law of 1867 was 4699. Including the so-called patriarch of Venice, there are thirty-seven metropolitans who have jurisdiction not only over their own immediate dioceses, but