129,000l. The late and present Pontiff have not consented, however, to accept this annual allowance, which is therefore paid over to the Asse Ecclesiastica.'

The ever-recurring deficits of recent years necessitated large loans, foreign and internal, in consequence of which the public debt of Italy, which stood at 2,439 millions of lire, or 97,480,000l., in 1860, the year before the establishment of the kingdom, had increased to 9,750 millions of lire, or 390,000,000l., at the end of 1878. The debt was made up of the following liabilities:

Lire

·

£

As a guarantee for the issued Treasury Bonds and of paper currency, which has a forced circulation, the Government has deposits of certificates of the funded debt, bearing no interest, in the National Bank of Italy. The total amount of these deposits was calculated at 1,150,000,000 lire, or 46,000,000l., at the end of 1878.

Nearly all the cities and communes of Italy have their own budgets and debts, the latter, like the national liabilities, tending to constant increase. The total revenue of the communes of Italy in 1877 amounted, according to official reports, to 466,100,000 lire, or 18,644,000l., exclusive of those of the provinces of Rome. The amount was 316,800,000 lire, or 12,672,000l., in 1867, the first year in which Venice appeared as in Italy. There was thus an increase of 149,300,000 lire, or 5,972,000l., in the revenue during the ten years. The burden of the revenue per head of the population rose during the time in question from 12 lire, or 108., to 18 lire, or 15s. In the urban communes-that is, in towns containing over 5,000 inhabitants-and the chief towns of provinces, the burden per head of the population was 34 lire, or 11. 88., against 10 lire 80c., or 8s. 6d., in the rural communes. The revenue of the province of Rome amounted to 36,000,000 lire, or 1,440,000l., in 1877, against 13,200,000 lire, or 528,000l., in 1871. In 1871 the deficit was considerable, but in 1877 the revenue and expenditure of the capital were very nearly balanced. The burden per head of the urban population of Italy was in 1877 in the province of Rome 71 lire 62c., or 2l. 178. 6d., and of the rural population of the kingdom, 19 lire 25c., or 15s. 6d.

Army and Navy.

The German law of universal liability to arms forms the basis of the present military organisation of the Kingdom of Italy. According to it, a certain portion of all the young men of the age of twentyone, the number varying from 65,000 to 75,000, is levied annually for the standing army, while the rest are entered in the army of reserve, in which they have to practise annually for forty days, and are then sent on unlimited furlough, but can be called permanently under arms at the outbreak of a war.

By the law of military organisation passed September 30, 1873, the standing army of Italy is divided into seven general commands, or corps d'armée, each consisting of three divisions, and each division of two brigades; four or six battalions of 'bersaglieri,' or riflemen, two regiments of cavalry, and from six to nine companies of artillery. The actual strength of the rank and file of the army, at the end of December 1878, was as follows, according to official

The army was commanded, in 1878, by 15,110 officers, not included in the above returns. Of these, 870 formed the staff, while 11,015 were attached to the Infantry of the Line, 995 to the Bersaglieri, 1,080 to the Cavalry, and 1,150 to the Artillery.

The organisation of the Italian army, under the law of 1873, which came into operation in 1874, prescribes the division of the kingdom into sixteen territorial military districts, each under the command of a general. The formation of the standing army comprises, besides infantry, cavalry, and artillery, sanitary, commissariat, and educational departments, the latter organised to raise the educational standard of the armed forces of the kingdom higher than that of the general population. The national militia is composed of 232 battalions of infantry, each of four companies; of fifteen battalions of 'bersaglieri' cavalry; of sixty batteries of artillery; and of ten companies of engineers.

The nominal organisation of the standing army is as follows under the law of 1873:

The time of service in the standing army is three years in the infantry and five years in the cavalry. A certain number, distinguished as 'soldati d'ordinanza,' to which class belong the Carabinieri and some of the Administrative troops, have the option to serve eight years complete, and are then liberated without further liability to arms. In the army of reserve, the time of service is nine years. Every native of the kingdom is liable to the military service, to be enrolled either in the standing army or the reserve. An exemption in favour of young men able to pass an examination is allowed, they having to remain only one year in the service, the same as in Germany. (See page 124.)

The distribution of the standing army over the kingdom was as follows in the middle of 1878:-There were 8 battalions of infantry at and near the capital, 5 at Genoa, 5 at Turin, 9 at Alessandria, 12 in Tuscany, and 120 in the valley of the Po, from Milan to Ancona. At Naples there were 18 battalions of the line, 2 of marines, and 3 of bersaglieri; in the Neapolitan provinces, 39 battalions of the line, 20 of bersaglieri, and 32 squadrons of cavalry. There were, finally, 32 battalions of the line in Sicily.

The navy of the kingdom of Italy consisted, at the end of December 1881, of 88 steamers, afloat or building, armed with 684 guns. They were classed as follows:

The following is a tabular list of the 18 armour-clad ships of the Italian navy. The columns of the table exhibit, after the name of each ship, first, the thickness of armour at the water-line; secondly, the number and weight of guns; thirdly, the indicated or nominal horsepower of engines; and fourthly, the tonnage, that is, the displacement in tons. The ironclads marked with an asterisk (*) before their name were not completed at the end of 1881 :-

The two most remarkable completed ironclads of the Italian navyreputed also to be the most powerful types of men-of-war yet constructed -are the double-turret ships, the Duilio, launched at Castellamare on the 8th of May 1876, and the sister ship, the Dandolo, launched at La Spezzia towards the end of 1877. The length of the Duilio is 339 feet, the breadth 65 feet, and the displacement 10,600. The armour of the Duilio is of the immense thickness of 22 inches throughout, of plates rolled by C. Cammell & Co., Sheffield. As unsurpassed in size as the armour, is the armament of the Duilio, which consists of four 100-ton Armstrong guns, 33 feet long, firing projectiles 2,500 lbs. in weight, with powder charges of 350 lbs. The hull of the Duilio is altogether of iron and steel. It consists of a central ironclad compartment, 167 feet in length and 54 feet in breadth, which descends to 5 feet under the water-line, encloses the machinery and boilers, the powder magazines, and a portion of the mechanism used in working the turrets and the cannon. At the bow and stern of this compartment the deck passage, which lies about 4 feet below the water-line, is defended by horizontal armour, so that neither a projectile nor water can enter it. The part of the hull above this ironclad deck is constructed in a peculiar way, in consideration of the probability of its being seriously damaged in a fight. A second central ironclad compartment is built over the first, and encloses the bases of the turrets and the remaining portion of the mechanism employed in loading and working the cannon. Above this second compartment rise the two turrets, which have each two 100-ton Armstrong guns, and are arranged with their centres at the distance of 8 feet from the longitudinal plane of the vessel, which renders it possible to discharge three cannon contemporaneously in a parallel direction with the keel. Besides its gigantic armament, the Duilio has a powerful ram, and at the stern, in a tunnel closed by a grated door, a very rapid torpedo boat, which can be launched forth from its resting-place to carry its torpedoes. As means of propulsion, the Duilio has two screws, driven by engines of 7,500 horse-power, and is calculated to run 14 miles an hour. The ship will carry 1,200 tons of coal, being sufficient for a run of 1,000 miles with full force, and 4,000 miles at a moderate rate. The Dandolo is absolutely similar in construction to the Duilio, and the two nominally represent the strength of whole navies, though different opinions are entertained as to their actual power in naval warfare.

The two ironclads still larger than the Duilio and the Dandolo, named the Italia and the Lepanto, each of 14,000 tons, and covered throughout with armour of the enormous thickness of 36 inches, or three feet, were little advanced in construction at the end of 1881.

The other ironclads of the Italian navy are of old construction,