The patrimony of Italian charitable institutions is considerable and is constantly increasing. In 1880 the number of charitable institutions (exclusive of public pawnshops, orMonti di Pietà, and other institutions which combine operations of credit with charity) was approximately 22,000, with an aggregate patrimony of nearly £80,000,000. The revenue was about £3,600,000; after deduction of taxes, interest on debts, expenses of management, &c., £2,080,000. Adding to this £1,240,000 of communal and provincial subsidies, the product of the labour of inmates, temporary subscriptions, &c., the net revenue available for charity was, during 1880, £3,860,000. Of this sum £260,000 was spent for religious purposes. Between 1881 and 1905 the bequests to existing institutions and sums left for the endowment of new institutions amounted to about £16,604,600.Charitable institutions take, as a rule, the two forms of outdoor and indoor relief and attendance. The indoor institutions are the more important in regard to endowment, and consist of hospitals for the infirm (a number of these are situated at the seaside); of hospitals for chronic and incurable diseases; of orphan asylums; of poorhouses and shelters for beggars; of infant asylums or institutes for the first education of children under six years of age; of lunatic asylums; of homes for the deaf and dumb; and of institutes for the blind. The outdoor charitable institutions include those which distribute help in money or food; those which supply medicine and medical help; those which aid mothers unable to rear their own children; those which subsidize orphans and foundlings; those which subsidize educational institutes; and those which supply marriage portions. Between 1881 and 1898 the chief increases took place in the endowments of hospitals; orphan asylums; infant asylums; poorhouses; almshouses; voluntary workhouses; and institutes for the blind. The least creditably administered of these are the asylums for abandoned infants; in 1887, of a total of 23,913, 53.77% died; while during the years 1893-1896 (no later statistics are available) of 117,970 51.72% died. The average mortality under one year for the whole of Italy in 1893-1896 was only 16.66%.Italian charity legislation was reformed by the laws of 1862 and 1890, which attempted to provide efficacious protection for endowments, and to ensure the application of the income to the purposes for which it was intended. The law considers as “charitable institutions” (opere pie) all poorhouses, almshouses and institutes which partly or wholly give help to able-bodied or infirm paupers, or seek to improve their moral and economic condition; and also theCongregazioni di carità(municipal charity boards existing in every commune, and composed of members elected by the municipal council), which administer funds destined for the poor in general. All charitable institutions were under the protection of provincial administrative junta, existing in every province, and empowered to control the management of charitable endowments. The supreme control was vested in the minister of the Interior. The law of 1890 also empowers every citizen to appeal to the tribunals on behalf of the poor, for whose benefit a given charitable institution may have been intended. A more recent law provides for the formation of a central body, with provincial commissions under it. Its effect, however, has been comparatively small.Public pawnshops orMonti di pietànumbered 555 in 1896, with a net patrimony of £2,879,625. In that year their income, including revenue from capital, was £416,385, and their expenditure £300,232. The amount lent on security was £4,153,229.TheMonti frumentariior co-operative corn deposits, which lend seed corn to farmers, and are repaid after harvest with interest in kind, numbered 1615 in 1894, and possessed a patrimony of £240,000.In addition to the regular charitable institutions, the communal and provincial authorities exercise charity, the former (in 1899) to the extent of £1,827,166 and the latter to the extent of £919,832 per annum. Part of these sums is given to hospitals, and part spent directly by the communal and provincial authorities. Of the sum spent by the communes, about ½ goes for the sanitary service (doctors, midwives, vaccination),1⁄8for the maintenance of foundlings,1⁄10for the support of the sick in hospitals, and1⁄22for sheltering the aged and needy. Of the sum spent by the provincial authorities, over half goes to lunatic asylums and over a quarter to the maintenance of foundling hospitals.
The patrimony of Italian charitable institutions is considerable and is constantly increasing. In 1880 the number of charitable institutions (exclusive of public pawnshops, orMonti di Pietà, and other institutions which combine operations of credit with charity) was approximately 22,000, with an aggregate patrimony of nearly £80,000,000. The revenue was about £3,600,000; after deduction of taxes, interest on debts, expenses of management, &c., £2,080,000. Adding to this £1,240,000 of communal and provincial subsidies, the product of the labour of inmates, temporary subscriptions, &c., the net revenue available for charity was, during 1880, £3,860,000. Of this sum £260,000 was spent for religious purposes. Between 1881 and 1905 the bequests to existing institutions and sums left for the endowment of new institutions amounted to about £16,604,600.
Charitable institutions take, as a rule, the two forms of outdoor and indoor relief and attendance. The indoor institutions are the more important in regard to endowment, and consist of hospitals for the infirm (a number of these are situated at the seaside); of hospitals for chronic and incurable diseases; of orphan asylums; of poorhouses and shelters for beggars; of infant asylums or institutes for the first education of children under six years of age; of lunatic asylums; of homes for the deaf and dumb; and of institutes for the blind. The outdoor charitable institutions include those which distribute help in money or food; those which supply medicine and medical help; those which aid mothers unable to rear their own children; those which subsidize orphans and foundlings; those which subsidize educational institutes; and those which supply marriage portions. Between 1881 and 1898 the chief increases took place in the endowments of hospitals; orphan asylums; infant asylums; poorhouses; almshouses; voluntary workhouses; and institutes for the blind. The least creditably administered of these are the asylums for abandoned infants; in 1887, of a total of 23,913, 53.77% died; while during the years 1893-1896 (no later statistics are available) of 117,970 51.72% died. The average mortality under one year for the whole of Italy in 1893-1896 was only 16.66%.
Italian charity legislation was reformed by the laws of 1862 and 1890, which attempted to provide efficacious protection for endowments, and to ensure the application of the income to the purposes for which it was intended. The law considers as “charitable institutions” (opere pie) all poorhouses, almshouses and institutes which partly or wholly give help to able-bodied or infirm paupers, or seek to improve their moral and economic condition; and also theCongregazioni di carità(municipal charity boards existing in every commune, and composed of members elected by the municipal council), which administer funds destined for the poor in general. All charitable institutions were under the protection of provincial administrative junta, existing in every province, and empowered to control the management of charitable endowments. The supreme control was vested in the minister of the Interior. The law of 1890 also empowers every citizen to appeal to the tribunals on behalf of the poor, for whose benefit a given charitable institution may have been intended. A more recent law provides for the formation of a central body, with provincial commissions under it. Its effect, however, has been comparatively small.
Public pawnshops orMonti di pietànumbered 555 in 1896, with a net patrimony of £2,879,625. In that year their income, including revenue from capital, was £416,385, and their expenditure £300,232. The amount lent on security was £4,153,229.
TheMonti frumentariior co-operative corn deposits, which lend seed corn to farmers, and are repaid after harvest with interest in kind, numbered 1615 in 1894, and possessed a patrimony of £240,000.
In addition to the regular charitable institutions, the communal and provincial authorities exercise charity, the former (in 1899) to the extent of £1,827,166 and the latter to the extent of £919,832 per annum. Part of these sums is given to hospitals, and part spent directly by the communal and provincial authorities. Of the sum spent by the communes, about ½ goes for the sanitary service (doctors, midwives, vaccination),1⁄8for the maintenance of foundlings,1⁄10for the support of the sick in hospitals, and1⁄22for sheltering the aged and needy. Of the sum spent by the provincial authorities, over half goes to lunatic asylums and over a quarter to the maintenance of foundling hospitals.
Religion.—The great majority of Italians—97.12%—are Roman Catholics. Besides the ordinary Latin rite, several others are recognized. The Armenians of Venice maintain their traditional characteristics. The Albanians of the southern provinces still employ the Greek rite and the Greek language in their public worship, and their priests, like those of the Greek Church, are allowed to marry. Certain peculiarities introduced 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 practically abolished in 1870, the fact that Rome 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 centralizedthere still exists the court of the spiritual potentate which in 1879 consisted of 1821 persons. Protestants number some 65,000, of whom half are Italian and half foreign. Of the former 22,500 are Waldensians. The number of Jews was returned as 36,000, but is certainly higher. There are, besides, in Italy some 2500 members of the Greek Orthodox Church. There were in 1901 20,707 parishes in Italy, 68,444 secular clergy and 48,043 regulars (monks, lay brothers and nuns). The size of parishes varies from province to province, Sicily having larger parishes in virtue of the old Sicilian church laws, and Naples, and some parts of central Italy, having the smallest. The Italian parishes had in 1901 a total gross revenue, including assignments from the public worship endowment fund, of £1,280,000 or an average of £63 per parish; 51% of this gross sum consists of revenue from glebe lands.
The kingdom is divided into 264 sees and ten abbeys, or prelaturesnullius dioceseos. The dioceses are as follows:—A. 6 suburbicarian sees—Ostia and Velletri, Porto and Sta Rufina, Albano, Frascati, Palestrina, Sabina—all held by cardinal bishops.B. 74 sees immediately subject to the Holy See, of which 12 are archiepiscopal and 61 episcopal.C. 37 ecclesiastical provinces, each under a metropolitan, composed of 148 suffragan dioceses. Their position is indicated in the following table:—Metropolitans.Suffragans.Acerenza-MateraAnglona-Tursi, Tricarico, Venosa.BariConversano, Ruvo-Bitonto.BeneventoS. Agata de’ Goti, Alife, Ariano, Ascoli Satriano Cerignola, Avellino, Bojano, Bovino, Larino, Lucera, S. Severo, Telese (Cerreto), Termoli.BolognaFaenza, Imola.Brindisi and OstuniNo suffragan.CagliariGaltelli-Nuoro, Iglesias, Ogliastra.CapuaCaiazzo, Calvi-Teano, Caserta, Isernia-Venafro, Sessa.Chieti and VastoNo suffragan.Conza and CampagnaS. Angelo de’ Lombardi-Bisaccia, Lacedonia, Muro Lucano.FermoMacerata-Tolentino, Montalto, Ripatransone, S. Severino.FlorenceBorgo S. Sepolcro, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Fiesole, S. Miniato, Modigliana, Pistoia-Prato.GenoaAlbenga, Bobbio, Chiavari, Savona-Noli, Tortona, Ventimiglia.Lanciano and OrtonaNo suffragan.Manfredonia and ViestiNo suffragan.MessinaLipari, Nicosia, Patti.MilanBergamo, Brescia, Como, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Mantua, Pavia.ModenaCarpi, Guastalla, Massa-Carrara, Reggio.MonrealeCaltanisetta, Girgenti.NaplesAcerra, Ischia, Nola, Pozzuoli.OristanoAles-Terralba.OtrantoGallipoli, Lecce, Ugento.PalermoCefalù, Mazzara, Trapani.PisaLeghorn, Pescia, Pontremoli, Volterra.RavennaBertinoro, Cervia, Cesena, Comacchio, Forlì, Rimini, Sarsina.Reggio CalabriaBova, Cassano, Catanzaro, Cotrone, Gerace, Nicastro, Oppido, Nicotera-Tropea, Squillace.SalernoAcerno, Capaccio-Vallo, Diano, Marsico-Nuovo and Potenza, Nocera dei Pagani, Nusco, Policastro.SassariAlghero, Ampurias and Tempio, Bisarhio, Bosa.S. SeverinoCariati.SienaChiusi-Pienza, Grosseto, Massa Marittima, Sovana-Pitigliano.SyracuseCaltagirone, Noto, Piazza-Armerina.SorrentoCastellammare.TarantoCastellaneta, Oria.Trani-Nazareth-Barletta, BisceglieAndria.TurinAcqui, Alba, Aosta, Asti, Cuneo, Fossano, Ivrea, Mondovi, Pinerolo, Saluzzo, Susa.UrbinoS. Angelo in Vado-Urbania, Cagli-Pergola, Fossombrone, Montefeltro, Pesaro, Sinigaglia.Venice (patriarch)Adria, Belluno-Feltre, Ceneda (Vittorio), Chioggia, Concordia-Portogruaro, Padua, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza.VercelliAlessandria della Paglia, Biella, Casale, Monferrato, Novara, Vigevano.Twelve archbishops and sixty-one bishops are independent of all metropolitan supervision, and hold directly of the Holy See. The archbishops are those of Amalfi, Aquila, Camerino and Treia, Catania, Cosenza, Ferrara, Gaeta, Lucca, Perugia, Rossano, Spoleto, and Udine, and the bishops those of Acireale, Acquapendente, Alatri, Amelia, Anagni, Ancona-Umana, Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo, Arezzo, Ascoli, Assisi, Aversa, Bagnorea, Borgo San Donnino, Cava-Sarno, Città di Castello, Città della Pieve, Cività Castellana-Orte-Gallese, Corneto-Civita Vecchia, Cortona, Fabriano-Matelica, Fano, Ferentino, Foggia, Foligno, Gravina-Montepeloso, Gubbio, Jesi, Luni-Sarzana and Bragnato, S. Marco-Bisignano, Marsi (Pescina), Melfi-Rapolla, Mileto, Molfetta-Terlizzi-Giovennazzo, Monopoli, Montalcino, Montefiascone, Montepulciano, Nardo, Narni, Nocera in Umbria, Norcia, Orvieto, Osimo-Cingoli, Parma, Penne-Atri, Piacenza, Poggio Mirteto, Recanati-Loreto, Rieti, Segni, Sutri-Nepi, Teramo, Terni, Terracina-Piperno-Sezze, Tivoli, Todi, Trivento, Troia, Valva-Sulmona, Veroli, Viterbo-Toscanella. Excluding the diocese of Rome and suburbicarian sees, each see has an average area of 430 sq. m. and a population of 121,285 souls. The largest sees exist in Venetia and Lombardy, and the smallest in the provinces of Naples, Leghorn, Forlì, Ancona, Pesaro, Urbino, Caserta, Avellino and Ascoli. The Italian sees (exclusive of Rome and of the suburbicarian sees) have a total annual revenue of £206,000 equal to an average of £800 per see. The richest is that of Girgenti, with £6304, and the poorest that of Porto Maurizio, with only £246. In each diocese is a seminary or diocesan school.In 1855 an act was passed in the Sardinian states for the disestablishment of all houses of the religious orders not engaged in preaching, teaching or the care of the sick, of all chapters of collegiate churches not having a cure of souls or existingReligious Foundations.in towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants, and of all private benefices for which no service was paid by the holders. The property and money thus obtained were used to form an ecclesiastical fund (Cassa Ecclesiastica) distinct from the finances of the state. This act resulted in the suppression of 274 monasteries with 3733 friars, of 61 nunneries with 1756 nuns and of 2722 chapters and benefices. In 1860 and 1861 the royal commissioners (even before the constitution of the new kingdom of Italy had been formally declared) issued decrees by which there were abolished—(1) in Umbria, 197 monasteries and 102 convents with 1809 male and 2393 female associates, and 836 chapters or benefices; (2) in the Marches, 292 monasteries and 127 convents with 2950 male and 2728 female associates; (3) in the Neapolitan provinces, 747 monasteries and 275 convents with 8787 male and 7493 female associates. There were thus disestablished in seven or eight years 2075 houses of the regular clergy occupied by 31,649 persons; and the confiscated property yielded a revenue of £398,298. And at the same time there had been suppressed 11,889 chapters and benefices of the secular clergy, which yielded an annual income of £199,149. The value of the capital thus potentially freed was estimated at £12,000,000; though hitherto the ecclesiastical possessions in Lombardy, Emilia, Tuscany and Sicily had been untouched. As yet the Cassa Ecclesiastica had no right to dispose of the property thus entrusted to it; but in 1862 an act was passed by which it transferred all its real property to the national domain, and was credited with a corresponding amount by the exchequer. The property could now be disposed of like the other property of the domain; and except in Sicily, where the system of emphyteusis was adopted, the church lands began to be sold by auction. To encourage the poorer classes of the people to become landholders, it was decided that the lots offered for sale should be small, and that the purchaser should be allowed to pay by five or ten yearly instalments. By a new act in 1866 the process of secularization was extended to the whole kingdom. All the members of the suppressed communities received full exercise of all the ordinary political and civil rights of laymen; and annuities were granted to all those who had taken permanent religious vows prior to the 18th of January 1864. To priests and choristers, for example, of the proprietary or endowed orders were assigned £24 per annum if they were upwards of sixty years of age, £16 if upwards of 40, and £14, 8s. if younger. The Cassa Ecclesiastica was abolished, and in its stead was instituted aFondo pel Culto, or public worship fund. From the general confiscation were exempted the buildings actually used for public worship, as episcopal residences or seminaries, &c., or which had been appropriated to the use of schools, poorhouses, hospitals, &c.; as well as the buildings, appurtenances, and movable property of the abbeys of Monte Casino, Della Cava dei Tirreni, San Martino della Scala, Monreale, Certosa near Pavia, and other establishments of the same kind of importance as architectural or historical monuments. An annuity equal to the ascertained revenue of the suppressed institutions was placed to the credit of the fund in the government 5% consols. A fourth of this sum was to be handed to the communes to be employed on works of beneficence or education as soon as a surplus was obtained from that part of the annuity assigned for the payment of monastic pensions; and in Sicily, 209 communes entered on their privileges as soon as the patrimony was liquidated. Another act in 1867 decreed the suppression of certain foundations which had escaped the action of previous measures, put an extraordinary tax of 30% on the whole of the patrimony of the church, and granted the government the right of issuing 5% bonds sufficient to bring into the treasury £16,000,000,which were to be accepted at their nominal value as purchase money for the alienated property. The public worship endowment fund has relieved the state exchequer of the cost of public worship; has gradually furnished to the poorer parish priests an addition to their stipends, raising them to £32 per annum, with the prospect of further raising them to £40; and has contributed to the outlay incurred by the communes for religious purposes. The monastic buildings required for public purposes have been made over to the communal and provincial authorities, while the same authorities have been entrusted with the administration of the ecclesiastical revenues previously set apart for charity and education, and objects of art and historical interest have been consigned to public libraries and museums. By these laws the reception of novices was forbidden in the existing conventual establishments the extinction of which had been decreed, and all new foundations were forbidden, except those engaged in instruction and the care of the sick. But the laws have not been rigorously enforced of late years; and the ecclesiastical possessions seized by the state were thrown on the market simultaneously, and so realized very low prices, being often bought up by wealthy religious institutions. The large number of these institutions was increased when these bodies were expelled from France.On the 30th of June 1903 the patrimony of the endowment fund amounted to £17,339,040, of which only £264,289 were represented by buildings still occupied by monks or nuns. The rest was made up of capital and interest. The liabilities of the fund (capitalized) amounted to £10,668,105, of which monastic pensions represented a rapidly diminishing sum of £2,564,930. The chief items of annual expenditure drawn from the fund are the supplementary stipends to priests and the pensions to members of suppressed religious houses. The number of persons in receipt of monastic pensions on the 30th of June 1899 was 13,255; but while this item of expenditure will disappear by the deaths of those entitled to pensions, the supplementary stipends and contributions are gradually increasing. The following table shows the course of the two main categories of the fund from 1876 to 1902-1903:—1876.1885-1886.1898-1899.1902-1903.Monastic pensions, liquidation of religious property and provision of shelter for nuns£749,172£491,339£220,479£165,144Supplementary stipends to bishops and parochial clergy, assignments to Sardinian clergy and expenditure for education and charitable purposes and charitable purposes142,912128,521210,020347,940Roman Charitable and Religious Fund.—The law of the 19th of June 1873 contained special provisions, in conformity with the character of Rome as the seat of the papacy, and with the situation created by the Law of Guarantees. According to the census of 1871 there were in the city and province of Rome 474 monastic establishments (311 for monks, 163 for nuns), occupied by 4326 monks and 3825 nuns, and possessing a gross revenue of 4,780,891 lire. Of these, 126 monasteries and 90 convents were situated in the city, 51 monasteries and 22 convents in the “suburbicariates.” The law of 1873 created a special charitable and religious fund of the city, while it left untouched 23 monasteries and 49 convents which had either the character of private institutions or were supported by foreign funds. New parishes were created, old parishes were improved, the property of the suppressed religious corporations was assigned to charitable and educational institutions and to hospitals, while property having no special application was used to form a charitable and religious fund. On the 30th of June 1903 the balance-sheet of this fund showed a credit amounting to £1,796,120 and a debit of £460,819. Expenditure for the year 1902-1903 was £889,858 and revenue £818,674.
The kingdom is divided into 264 sees and ten abbeys, or prelaturesnullius dioceseos. The dioceses are as follows:—
A. 6 suburbicarian sees—Ostia and Velletri, Porto and Sta Rufina, Albano, Frascati, Palestrina, Sabina—all held by cardinal bishops.
B. 74 sees immediately subject to the Holy See, of which 12 are archiepiscopal and 61 episcopal.
C. 37 ecclesiastical provinces, each under a metropolitan, composed of 148 suffragan dioceses. Their position is indicated in the following table:—
Acerenza-Matera
Anglona-Tursi, Tricarico, Venosa.
Bari
Conversano, Ruvo-Bitonto.
Benevento
S. Agata de’ Goti, Alife, Ariano, Ascoli Satriano Cerignola, Avellino, Bojano, Bovino, Larino, Lucera, S. Severo, Telese (Cerreto), Termoli.
Bologna
Faenza, Imola.
Brindisi and Ostuni
No suffragan.
Cagliari
Galtelli-Nuoro, Iglesias, Ogliastra.
Capua
Caiazzo, Calvi-Teano, Caserta, Isernia-Venafro, Sessa.
Chieti and Vasto
No suffragan.
Conza and Campagna
S. Angelo de’ Lombardi-Bisaccia, Lacedonia, Muro Lucano.
Fermo
Macerata-Tolentino, Montalto, Ripatransone, S. Severino.
Florence
Borgo S. Sepolcro, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Fiesole, S. Miniato, Modigliana, Pistoia-Prato.
Genoa
Albenga, Bobbio, Chiavari, Savona-Noli, Tortona, Ventimiglia.
Lanciano and Ortona
No suffragan.
Manfredonia and Viesti
No suffragan.
Messina
Lipari, Nicosia, Patti.
Milan
Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Mantua, Pavia.
Modena
Carpi, Guastalla, Massa-Carrara, Reggio.
Monreale
Caltanisetta, Girgenti.
Naples
Acerra, Ischia, Nola, Pozzuoli.
Oristano
Ales-Terralba.
Otranto
Gallipoli, Lecce, Ugento.
Palermo
Cefalù, Mazzara, Trapani.
Pisa
Leghorn, Pescia, Pontremoli, Volterra.
Ravenna
Bertinoro, Cervia, Cesena, Comacchio, Forlì, Rimini, Sarsina.
Reggio Calabria
Bova, Cassano, Catanzaro, Cotrone, Gerace, Nicastro, Oppido, Nicotera-Tropea, Squillace.
Salerno
Acerno, Capaccio-Vallo, Diano, Marsico-Nuovo and Potenza, Nocera dei Pagani, Nusco, Policastro.
Sassari
Alghero, Ampurias and Tempio, Bisarhio, Bosa.
S. Severino
Cariati.
Siena
Chiusi-Pienza, Grosseto, Massa Marittima, Sovana-Pitigliano.
Syracuse
Caltagirone, Noto, Piazza-Armerina.
Sorrento
Castellammare.
Taranto
Castellaneta, Oria.
Trani-Nazareth-Barletta, Bisceglie
Andria.
Turin
Acqui, Alba, Aosta, Asti, Cuneo, Fossano, Ivrea, Mondovi, Pinerolo, Saluzzo, Susa.
Urbino
S. Angelo in Vado-Urbania, Cagli-Pergola, Fossombrone, Montefeltro, Pesaro, Sinigaglia.
Venice (patriarch)
Adria, Belluno-Feltre, Ceneda (Vittorio), Chioggia, Concordia-Portogruaro, Padua, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza.
Vercelli
Alessandria della Paglia, Biella, Casale, Monferrato, Novara, Vigevano.
Twelve archbishops and sixty-one bishops are independent of all metropolitan supervision, and hold directly of the Holy See. The archbishops are those of Amalfi, Aquila, Camerino and Treia, Catania, Cosenza, Ferrara, Gaeta, Lucca, Perugia, Rossano, Spoleto, and Udine, and the bishops those of Acireale, Acquapendente, Alatri, Amelia, Anagni, Ancona-Umana, Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo, Arezzo, Ascoli, Assisi, Aversa, Bagnorea, Borgo San Donnino, Cava-Sarno, Città di Castello, Città della Pieve, Cività Castellana-Orte-Gallese, Corneto-Civita Vecchia, Cortona, Fabriano-Matelica, Fano, Ferentino, Foggia, Foligno, Gravina-Montepeloso, Gubbio, Jesi, Luni-Sarzana and Bragnato, S. Marco-Bisignano, Marsi (Pescina), Melfi-Rapolla, Mileto, Molfetta-Terlizzi-Giovennazzo, Monopoli, Montalcino, Montefiascone, Montepulciano, Nardo, Narni, Nocera in Umbria, Norcia, Orvieto, Osimo-Cingoli, Parma, Penne-Atri, Piacenza, Poggio Mirteto, Recanati-Loreto, Rieti, Segni, Sutri-Nepi, Teramo, Terni, Terracina-Piperno-Sezze, Tivoli, Todi, Trivento, Troia, Valva-Sulmona, Veroli, Viterbo-Toscanella. Excluding the diocese of Rome and suburbicarian sees, each see has an average area of 430 sq. m. and a population of 121,285 souls. The largest sees exist in Venetia and Lombardy, and the smallest in the provinces of Naples, Leghorn, Forlì, Ancona, Pesaro, Urbino, Caserta, Avellino and Ascoli. The Italian sees (exclusive of Rome and of the suburbicarian sees) have a total annual revenue of £206,000 equal to an average of £800 per see. The richest is that of Girgenti, with £6304, and the poorest that of Porto Maurizio, with only £246. In each diocese is a seminary or diocesan school.
In 1855 an act was passed in the Sardinian states for the disestablishment of all houses of the religious orders not engaged in preaching, teaching or the care of the sick, of all chapters of collegiate churches not having a cure of souls or existingReligious Foundations.in towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants, and of all private benefices for which no service was paid by the holders. The property and money thus obtained were used to form an ecclesiastical fund (Cassa Ecclesiastica) distinct from the finances of the state. This act resulted in the suppression of 274 monasteries with 3733 friars, of 61 nunneries with 1756 nuns and of 2722 chapters and benefices. In 1860 and 1861 the royal commissioners (even before the constitution of the new kingdom of Italy had been formally declared) issued decrees by which there were abolished—(1) in Umbria, 197 monasteries and 102 convents with 1809 male and 2393 female associates, and 836 chapters or benefices; (2) in the Marches, 292 monasteries and 127 convents with 2950 male and 2728 female associates; (3) in the Neapolitan provinces, 747 monasteries and 275 convents with 8787 male and 7493 female associates. There were thus disestablished in seven or eight years 2075 houses of the regular clergy occupied by 31,649 persons; and the confiscated property yielded a revenue of £398,298. And at the same time there had been suppressed 11,889 chapters and benefices of the secular clergy, which yielded an annual income of £199,149. The value of the capital thus potentially freed was estimated at £12,000,000; though hitherto the ecclesiastical possessions in Lombardy, Emilia, Tuscany and Sicily had been untouched. As yet the Cassa Ecclesiastica had no right to dispose of the property thus entrusted to it; but in 1862 an act was passed by which it transferred all its real property to the national domain, and was credited with a corresponding amount by the exchequer. The property could now be disposed of like the other property of the domain; and except in Sicily, where the system of emphyteusis was adopted, the church lands began to be sold by auction. To encourage the poorer classes of the people to become landholders, it was decided that the lots offered for sale should be small, and that the purchaser should be allowed to pay by five or ten yearly instalments. By a new act in 1866 the process of secularization was extended to the whole kingdom. All the members of the suppressed communities received full exercise of all the ordinary political and civil rights of laymen; and annuities were granted to all those who had taken permanent religious vows prior to the 18th of January 1864. To priests and choristers, for example, of the proprietary or endowed orders were assigned £24 per annum if they were upwards of sixty years of age, £16 if upwards of 40, and £14, 8s. if younger. The Cassa Ecclesiastica was abolished, and in its stead was instituted aFondo pel Culto, or public worship fund. From the general confiscation were exempted the buildings actually used for public worship, as episcopal residences or seminaries, &c., or which had been appropriated to the use of schools, poorhouses, hospitals, &c.; as well as the buildings, appurtenances, and movable property of the abbeys of Monte Casino, Della Cava dei Tirreni, San Martino della Scala, Monreale, Certosa near Pavia, and other establishments of the same kind of importance as architectural or historical monuments. An annuity equal to the ascertained revenue of the suppressed institutions was placed to the credit of the fund in the government 5% consols. A fourth of this sum was to be handed to the communes to be employed on works of beneficence or education as soon as a surplus was obtained from that part of the annuity assigned for the payment of monastic pensions; and in Sicily, 209 communes entered on their privileges as soon as the patrimony was liquidated. Another act in 1867 decreed the suppression of certain foundations which had escaped the action of previous measures, put an extraordinary tax of 30% on the whole of the patrimony of the church, and granted the government the right of issuing 5% bonds sufficient to bring into the treasury £16,000,000,which were to be accepted at their nominal value as purchase money for the alienated property. The public worship endowment fund has relieved the state exchequer of the cost of public worship; has gradually furnished to the poorer parish priests an addition to their stipends, raising them to £32 per annum, with the prospect of further raising them to £40; and has contributed to the outlay incurred by the communes for religious purposes. The monastic buildings required for public purposes have been made over to the communal and provincial authorities, while the same authorities have been entrusted with the administration of the ecclesiastical revenues previously set apart for charity and education, and objects of art and historical interest have been consigned to public libraries and museums. By these laws the reception of novices was forbidden in the existing conventual establishments the extinction of which had been decreed, and all new foundations were forbidden, except those engaged in instruction and the care of the sick. But the laws have not been rigorously enforced of late years; and the ecclesiastical possessions seized by the state were thrown on the market simultaneously, and so realized very low prices, being often bought up by wealthy religious institutions. The large number of these institutions was increased when these bodies were expelled from France.
On the 30th of June 1903 the patrimony of the endowment fund amounted to £17,339,040, of which only £264,289 were represented by buildings still occupied by monks or nuns. The rest was made up of capital and interest. The liabilities of the fund (capitalized) amounted to £10,668,105, of which monastic pensions represented a rapidly diminishing sum of £2,564,930. The chief items of annual expenditure drawn from the fund are the supplementary stipends to priests and the pensions to members of suppressed religious houses. The number of persons in receipt of monastic pensions on the 30th of June 1899 was 13,255; but while this item of expenditure will disappear by the deaths of those entitled to pensions, the supplementary stipends and contributions are gradually increasing. The following table shows the course of the two main categories of the fund from 1876 to 1902-1903:—
Monastic pensions, liquidation of religious property and provision of shelter for nuns
Supplementary stipends to bishops and parochial clergy, assignments to Sardinian clergy and expenditure for education and charitable purposes and charitable purposes
Roman Charitable and Religious Fund.—The law of the 19th of June 1873 contained special provisions, in conformity with the character of Rome as the seat of the papacy, and with the situation created by the Law of Guarantees. According to the census of 1871 there were in the city and province of Rome 474 monastic establishments (311 for monks, 163 for nuns), occupied by 4326 monks and 3825 nuns, and possessing a gross revenue of 4,780,891 lire. Of these, 126 monasteries and 90 convents were situated in the city, 51 monasteries and 22 convents in the “suburbicariates.” The law of 1873 created a special charitable and religious fund of the city, while it left untouched 23 monasteries and 49 convents which had either the character of private institutions or were supported by foreign funds. New parishes were created, old parishes were improved, the property of the suppressed religious corporations was assigned to charitable and educational institutions and to hospitals, while property having no special application was used to form a charitable and religious fund. On the 30th of June 1903 the balance-sheet of this fund showed a credit amounting to £1,796,120 and a debit of £460,819. Expenditure for the year 1902-1903 was £889,858 and revenue £818,674.
Constitution and Government.—The Vatican palace itself (with St Peter’s), the Lateran palace, and the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo have secured to them the privilege of extraterritoriality by the law of 1871. The small republic of San Marino is the only other enclave in Italian territory. Italy is a constitutional monarchy, in which the executive power belongs exclusively to the sovereign, while the legislative power is shared by him with the parliament. He holds supreme command by land and sea, appoints ministers and officials, promulgates the laws, coins money, bestows honours, has the right of pardoning, and summons and dissolves the parliament. Treaties with foreign powers, however, must have the consent of parliament. The sovereign is irresponsible, the ministers, the signature of one of whom is required to give validity to royal decrees, being responsible. Parliament consists of two chambers, the senate and the Chamber of Deputies, which are nominally on an equal footing, though practically the elective chamber is the more important. The senate consists of princes of the blood who have attained their majority, and of an unlimited number of senators above forty years of age, who are qualified under any one of twenty-one specified categories—by having either held high office, or attained celebrity in science, literature, &c. In 1908 there were 318 senators exclusive of five members of the royal family. Nomination is by the king for life. Besides its legislative functions, the senate is the highest court of justice in the case of political offences or the impeachment of ministers. The deputies to the lower house are 508 in number,i.e.one to every 64,893 of the population, and all the constituencies are single-member constituencies. The party system is not really strong. The suffrage is extended to all citizens over twenty-one years of age who can read and write and have either attained a certain standard of elementary education or are qualified by paying a rent which varies from £6 in communes of 2500 inhabitants to £16 in communes of 150,000 inhabitants, or, if peasant farmers, 16s. of rent; or by being sharers in the profits of farms on which not less than £3, 4s. of direct (including provincial) taxation is paid; or by paying not less than £16 in direct (including provincial) taxation. Others,e.g.members of the professional classes, are qualified to vote by their position. The number of electors (2,541,327) at the general election in 1904 was 29% of the male population over twenty-one years of age, and 7.6% of the total population—exclusive of those temporarily disfranchised on account of military service; and of these 62.7% voted. No candidate can be returned unless he obtains more than half the votes given and more than one-sixth of the total number on the register; otherwise a second ballot must be held. Nor can he be returned under the age of thirty, and he must be qualified as an elector. All salaried government officials (except ministers, under-secretaries of state and other high functionaries, and officers in the army or navy), and ecclesiastics, are disqualified for election. Senators and deputies receive no salary but have free passes on railways throughout Italy and on certain lines of steamers. Parliaments are quinquennial, but the king may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies at any time, being bound, however, to convoke a new chamber within four months. The executive must call parliament together annually. Each of the chambers has the right of introducing new bills, as has also the government; but all money bills must originate in the Chamber of Deputies. The consent of both chambers and the assent of the king is necessary to their being passed. Ministers may attend the debates of either house but can only vote in that of which they are members. The sittings of both houses are public, and an absolute majority of the members must be present to make a sitting valid. The ministers are eleven in number and have salaries of about £1000 each; the presidency of the council of ministers (created in 1889) may be held by itself or (as is usual) in conjunction with any other portfolio. The ministries are: interior (under whom are the prefects of the several provinces), foreign affairs, treasury (separated from finance in 1889), finance, public works, justice and ecclesiastical affairs, war, marine, public instruction, commerce, industry and agriculture, posts and telegraphs (separated from public works in 1889). Each minister is aided by an under-secretary of state at a salary of £500. There is a council of state with advisory functions, which can also decide certain questions of administration, especially applications from local authorities and conflicts between ministries, and a court of accounts, which has the right of examining all details of state expenditure. In every country the bureaucracy is abused, with more or less reason, for unprogressiveness, timidity and “red-tape,” and Italy is no exception to the rule. The officials are not well paid, and are certainly numerous; while the manifold checks and counterchecks have by no means always been sufficient to prevent dishonesty.
Titles of Honour.—The former existence of so many separate sovereignties and “fountains of honour” gave rise to a great many hereditary titles of nobility. Besides many hundreds of princes, dukes, marquesses, counts, barons and viscounts, there are a large number of persons of “patrician” rank, persons with a right to the designationnobileorsignori, and certain hereditary knights or cavalieri. In the “Golden Book of the Capitol” (Libro d’Oro del Campidoglio) are inscribed 321 patrician families, and of these 28 have the title of prince and 8 that of duke, while the others are marquesses, counts or simply patricians. For the Italian orders of knighthood seeKnighthood and Chivalry:Orders of Knighthood. The king’s uncle is duke of Aosta, his son is prince of Piedmont and his cousin is duke of Genoa.Justice.—The judiciary system of Italy is mainly framed on the French model. Italy has courts of cassation at Rome, Naples, Palermo, Turin, Florence, 20 appeal court districts, 162 tribunal districts and 1535mandamenti, each with its own magistracy (pretura). In 13 of the principal towns there are alsopretoriwho have exclusively penal jurisdiction. For minor civil cases involving sums up to 100 lire (£4),giudici conciliatorihave also jurisdiction, while they may act as arbitrators up to any amount by request. The Roman court of cassation is the highest, and in both penal and civil matters has a right to decide questions of law and disputes between the lower judicial authorities, and is the only one which has jurisdiction in penal cases, while sharing with the others the right to revise civil cases.Thepretorihave penal jurisdiction concerning all misdemeanours (contravvenzioni) or offences (delitti) punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three months or by fine not exceeding 1000 lire (£40). The penal tribunals have jurisdiction in cases involving imprisonment up to ten years, or a fine exceeding £40, while the assize courts, with a jury, deal with offences involving imprisonment for life or over ten years, and have exclusive jurisdiction (except that the senate is on occasion a high court of justice) over all political offences. Appeal may be made from the sentences of thepretorito the tribunals, and from the tribunals to the courts of appeal; from the assize courts there is no appeal except on a point of form, which appeal goes to the court of cassation at Rome. This court has the supreme power in all questions of legality of a sentence, jurisdiction or competency.The penal code was unified and reformed in 1890. A reform of late years is thecondanna condizionale, equivalent to the English “being bound over to appear for judgment if called upon,” applied in 94,489 cases in 1907. In civil matters there is appeal from thegiudice conciliatoreto thepretore(who has jurisdiction up to a sum of 1500 lire = £60) from thepretoreto the civil tribunal, from the civil tribunal to the court of appeal, and from the court of appeal to the court of cassation.The judges of all kinds are very poorly paid. Even the first president of the Rome court of cassation only receives £600 a year.The statistics of civil proceedings vary considerably from province to province. Lombardy, with 25 lawsuits per 1000 inhabitants, holds the lowest place; Emilia comes next with 31 per 1000; Tuscany has 39; Venetia, 42; Calabria, 144; Rome, 146; Apulia, 153; and Sardinia, 360 per 1000. The high average in Sardinia is chiefly due to cases within the competence of the conciliation offices. The number of penal proceedings, especially those within the competence of praetors, has also increased, chiefly on account of the frequency of minor contraventions of the law referred to in the sectionCrime. The ratio of criminal proceedings to population is, as a rule, much higher in the south than in the north.A royal decree, dated February 1891, established three classes of prisons: judiciary prisons, for persons awaiting examination or persons sentenced to arrest, detention or seclusion for less than six months; penitentiaries of various kinds (ergastoli,case di reclusione,detenzioneorcustodia), for criminals condemned to long terms of imprisonment; and reformatories, for criminals under age and vagabonds. Capital punishment was abolished in 1877, penal servitude for life being substituted. This generally involves solitary confinement of the most rigorous nature, and, as little is done to occupy the mind, the criminal not infrequently becomes insane. Certain types of dangerous individuals are relegated after serving a sentence in the ordinary convict prisons, and by administrative, not by judicial process, to special penal colonies known asdomicilii coattior “forced residences.” These establishments are, however, unsatisfactory, being mostly situated on small islands, where it is often difficult to find work for thecoatti, who are free by day, being only confined at night. They receive a small and hardly sufficient, allowance for food of 50centesimia day, which they are at liberty to supplement by work if they can find it or care to do it.Notwithstanding the construction of new prisons and the transformation of old ones, the number of cells for solitary confinement is still insufficient for a complete application of the penal system established by the code of 1890, and the moral effect of the association of the prisoners is not good, though the system of solitary confinement as practised in Italy is little better. The total number of prisoners, including minors and inhabitants of enforced residences, which from 76,066 (2.84 per 1000 inhabitants) on the 31st of December 1871 rose to a maximum of 80,792 on the 31st of December 1879 (2.87 per 1000), decreased to a minimum of 60,621 in 1896 (1.94 per 1000), and on the 31st of December 1898 rose again to 75,470 (2.38 per 1000), of whom 7038, less than one-tenth, were women. The lowness of the figures regarding women is to be noticed throughout. On the 31st of December 1903 it had decreased to 65,819, of which 6044 were women. Of these, 31,219 were in lockups, 25,145 in penal establishments, 1837 minors in government, and 4547 in private reformatories, and 3071 (males) were inmates of forced residences.Crime.—Statistics of offences, includingcontravvenzionior breaches of by-laws and regulations, exhibit a considerable increase per 100,000 inhabitants since 1887, and only a slight diminution on the figures of 1897. The figure was 1783.45 per 100,000 in 1887, 2164.46 in 1892, 2546.49 in 1897, 2497.90 in 1902. The increase is partly covered bycontravvenzioni, but almost every class of penal offence shows a rise except homicide, and even in that the diminution is slow, 5418 in 1880, 3966 in 1887, 4408 in 1892, 4005 in 1897, 3202 in 1902; and Italy remains, owing to the frequent use of the knife, the European country in which it is most frequent. Libels, insults, &c., resistance to public authority, offences against good customs, thefts and frauds, have increased; assaults are nearly stationary. There is also an increase in juvenile delinquency. From 1890 to 1900 the actual number rose by one-third (from 30,108 to 43,684), the proportion to the rest of those sentenced from one-fifth to one-fourth; while in 1905 the actual number rose to 67,944, being a considerable proportionate rise also. In Naples, the Camorra and in Sicily, the Mafia are secret societies whose power of resistance to authority is still not inconsiderable.Procedure, both civil and criminal, is somewhat slow, and the preliminary proceedings before thejuge d’instructionoccupy much time; and recent murder trials, by the large number of witnesses called (including experts) and the lengthy speeches of counsel, have been dragged out to an unconscionable length. In this, as in the intervention of the presiding judge, the French system has been adopted; and it is said (e.g.by Nathan,Vent’ anni di vita italiana, p. 241) that the efforts of thejuge d’instructionare, as a rule, in fact, though not in law, largely directed to prove that the accused is guilty. In 1902 of 884,612 persons accused of penal offences, 13.12% were acquitted during the period of theinstruction, 30.31 by the courts, 46.32 condemned and the rest acquitted in some other way. This shows that charges, often involving preliminary imprisonment, are brought against an excessive proportion of persons who either are not or cannot be proved to be guilty. The courts of appeal and cassation, too, often have more than they can do; in the year 1907 the court of cassation at Rome decided 948 appeals on points of law in civil cases, while no fewer than 460 remained to be decided.As in most civilized countries, the number of suicides in Italy has increased from year to year.The Italian suicide rate of 63.6 per 1,000,000 is, however, lower than those of Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and France, while it approximates to that of England. The Italian rate is highest in the more enlightened and industrial north, and lowest in the south. Emilia gives a maximum rate of 10.48 per 100,000, while that of Liguria and Lazio is little lower. The minimum of 1.27 is found in the Basilicata, though Calabria gives only 2.13. About 20% of the total are women, and there is an increase of nearly 3% since 1882 in the proportion of suicides under twenty years of age.
Titles of Honour.—The former existence of so many separate sovereignties and “fountains of honour” gave rise to a great many hereditary titles of nobility. Besides many hundreds of princes, dukes, marquesses, counts, barons and viscounts, there are a large number of persons of “patrician” rank, persons with a right to the designationnobileorsignori, and certain hereditary knights or cavalieri. In the “Golden Book of the Capitol” (Libro d’Oro del Campidoglio) are inscribed 321 patrician families, and of these 28 have the title of prince and 8 that of duke, while the others are marquesses, counts or simply patricians. For the Italian orders of knighthood seeKnighthood and Chivalry:Orders of Knighthood. The king’s uncle is duke of Aosta, his son is prince of Piedmont and his cousin is duke of Genoa.
Justice.—The judiciary system of Italy is mainly framed on the French model. Italy has courts of cassation at Rome, Naples, Palermo, Turin, Florence, 20 appeal court districts, 162 tribunal districts and 1535mandamenti, each with its own magistracy (pretura). In 13 of the principal towns there are alsopretoriwho have exclusively penal jurisdiction. For minor civil cases involving sums up to 100 lire (£4),giudici conciliatorihave also jurisdiction, while they may act as arbitrators up to any amount by request. The Roman court of cassation is the highest, and in both penal and civil matters has a right to decide questions of law and disputes between the lower judicial authorities, and is the only one which has jurisdiction in penal cases, while sharing with the others the right to revise civil cases.
Thepretorihave penal jurisdiction concerning all misdemeanours (contravvenzioni) or offences (delitti) punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three months or by fine not exceeding 1000 lire (£40). The penal tribunals have jurisdiction in cases involving imprisonment up to ten years, or a fine exceeding £40, while the assize courts, with a jury, deal with offences involving imprisonment for life or over ten years, and have exclusive jurisdiction (except that the senate is on occasion a high court of justice) over all political offences. Appeal may be made from the sentences of thepretorito the tribunals, and from the tribunals to the courts of appeal; from the assize courts there is no appeal except on a point of form, which appeal goes to the court of cassation at Rome. This court has the supreme power in all questions of legality of a sentence, jurisdiction or competency.
The penal code was unified and reformed in 1890. A reform of late years is thecondanna condizionale, equivalent to the English “being bound over to appear for judgment if called upon,” applied in 94,489 cases in 1907. In civil matters there is appeal from thegiudice conciliatoreto thepretore(who has jurisdiction up to a sum of 1500 lire = £60) from thepretoreto the civil tribunal, from the civil tribunal to the court of appeal, and from the court of appeal to the court of cassation.
The judges of all kinds are very poorly paid. Even the first president of the Rome court of cassation only receives £600 a year.
The statistics of civil proceedings vary considerably from province to province. Lombardy, with 25 lawsuits per 1000 inhabitants, holds the lowest place; Emilia comes next with 31 per 1000; Tuscany has 39; Venetia, 42; Calabria, 144; Rome, 146; Apulia, 153; and Sardinia, 360 per 1000. The high average in Sardinia is chiefly due to cases within the competence of the conciliation offices. The number of penal proceedings, especially those within the competence of praetors, has also increased, chiefly on account of the frequency of minor contraventions of the law referred to in the sectionCrime. The ratio of criminal proceedings to population is, as a rule, much higher in the south than in the north.
A royal decree, dated February 1891, established three classes of prisons: judiciary prisons, for persons awaiting examination or persons sentenced to arrest, detention or seclusion for less than six months; penitentiaries of various kinds (ergastoli,case di reclusione,detenzioneorcustodia), for criminals condemned to long terms of imprisonment; and reformatories, for criminals under age and vagabonds. Capital punishment was abolished in 1877, penal servitude for life being substituted. This generally involves solitary confinement of the most rigorous nature, and, as little is done to occupy the mind, the criminal not infrequently becomes insane. Certain types of dangerous individuals are relegated after serving a sentence in the ordinary convict prisons, and by administrative, not by judicial process, to special penal colonies known asdomicilii coattior “forced residences.” These establishments are, however, unsatisfactory, being mostly situated on small islands, where it is often difficult to find work for thecoatti, who are free by day, being only confined at night. They receive a small and hardly sufficient, allowance for food of 50centesimia day, which they are at liberty to supplement by work if they can find it or care to do it.
Notwithstanding the construction of new prisons and the transformation of old ones, the number of cells for solitary confinement is still insufficient for a complete application of the penal system established by the code of 1890, and the moral effect of the association of the prisoners is not good, though the system of solitary confinement as practised in Italy is little better. The total number of prisoners, including minors and inhabitants of enforced residences, which from 76,066 (2.84 per 1000 inhabitants) on the 31st of December 1871 rose to a maximum of 80,792 on the 31st of December 1879 (2.87 per 1000), decreased to a minimum of 60,621 in 1896 (1.94 per 1000), and on the 31st of December 1898 rose again to 75,470 (2.38 per 1000), of whom 7038, less than one-tenth, were women. The lowness of the figures regarding women is to be noticed throughout. On the 31st of December 1903 it had decreased to 65,819, of which 6044 were women. Of these, 31,219 were in lockups, 25,145 in penal establishments, 1837 minors in government, and 4547 in private reformatories, and 3071 (males) were inmates of forced residences.
Crime.—Statistics of offences, includingcontravvenzionior breaches of by-laws and regulations, exhibit a considerable increase per 100,000 inhabitants since 1887, and only a slight diminution on the figures of 1897. The figure was 1783.45 per 100,000 in 1887, 2164.46 in 1892, 2546.49 in 1897, 2497.90 in 1902. The increase is partly covered bycontravvenzioni, but almost every class of penal offence shows a rise except homicide, and even in that the diminution is slow, 5418 in 1880, 3966 in 1887, 4408 in 1892, 4005 in 1897, 3202 in 1902; and Italy remains, owing to the frequent use of the knife, the European country in which it is most frequent. Libels, insults, &c., resistance to public authority, offences against good customs, thefts and frauds, have increased; assaults are nearly stationary. There is also an increase in juvenile delinquency. From 1890 to 1900 the actual number rose by one-third (from 30,108 to 43,684), the proportion to the rest of those sentenced from one-fifth to one-fourth; while in 1905 the actual number rose to 67,944, being a considerable proportionate rise also. In Naples, the Camorra and in Sicily, the Mafia are secret societies whose power of resistance to authority is still not inconsiderable.
Procedure, both civil and criminal, is somewhat slow, and the preliminary proceedings before thejuge d’instructionoccupy much time; and recent murder trials, by the large number of witnesses called (including experts) and the lengthy speeches of counsel, have been dragged out to an unconscionable length. In this, as in the intervention of the presiding judge, the French system has been adopted; and it is said (e.g.by Nathan,Vent’ anni di vita italiana, p. 241) that the efforts of thejuge d’instructionare, as a rule, in fact, though not in law, largely directed to prove that the accused is guilty. In 1902 of 884,612 persons accused of penal offences, 13.12% were acquitted during the period of theinstruction, 30.31 by the courts, 46.32 condemned and the rest acquitted in some other way. This shows that charges, often involving preliminary imprisonment, are brought against an excessive proportion of persons who either are not or cannot be proved to be guilty. The courts of appeal and cassation, too, often have more than they can do; in the year 1907 the court of cassation at Rome decided 948 appeals on points of law in civil cases, while no fewer than 460 remained to be decided.
As in most civilized countries, the number of suicides in Italy has increased from year to year.
The Italian suicide rate of 63.6 per 1,000,000 is, however, lower than those of Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and France, while it approximates to that of England. The Italian rate is highest in the more enlightened and industrial north, and lowest in the south. Emilia gives a maximum rate of 10.48 per 100,000, while that of Liguria and Lazio is little lower. The minimum of 1.27 is found in the Basilicata, though Calabria gives only 2.13. About 20% of the total are women, and there is an increase of nearly 3% since 1882 in the proportion of suicides under twenty years of age.
Army.—The Italian army grew out of the old Piedmontese army with which in the main the unification of Italy was brought about. This unification meant for the army the absorption of contingents from all parts of Italy and presenting serious differences in physical and moral aptitudes, political opinions and education. Moreover the strategic geography of the country required the greater part of the army to be stationed permanently within reach of the north-eastern and north-western frontiers. These conditions made a territorial system of recruiting or organization, as understood in Germany, practically impossible. To secure fairly uniform efficiency in the various corps, and also as a means of unifying Italy, Piedmontese, Umbrians and Neapolitans are mixed in the same corps and sleep in the same barrack room. But on leaving the colours the men disperse to their homes, and thus a regiment has, on mobilization, to draw largely on the nearest reservists, irrespective of the corps to which they belong. The remedy for this condition of affairs is sought in a most elaborate and artificial system of transferring officers and men from one unit to another at stated intervals in peace-time, but this is no more than a palliative, and there are other difficulties of almost equal importance to be surmounted. Thus in Italy the universal service system, though probably the best organization both for the army and the nation, works with a maximum of friction. “Army Reform,” therefore, has been very much in the forefront of late years owing to the estrangement of Austria (which power can mobilize much more rapidly), but financial difficulties have hitherto stood in the wayof any radical and far-reaching reforms, and even the proposals of the Commission of 1907, referred to below, have only been partially accepted.
The law of 1875 therefore still regulates the principles of military service in Italy, though an important modification was made in 1907-1908. By this law, every man liable and accepted for service served for eight or nine years on theActive Armyand itsReserve(of which three to five were spent with the colours), four or five in theMobile Militia, and the rest of the service period of nineteen years in theTerritorial Militia. Under present regulations the term of liability is divided into nine years in theActive Army and Reserve(three or two years with the colours) four in theMobile Militiaand six in theTerritorial Militia. But these figures do not represent the actual service of every able-bodied Italian. Like almost all “Universal Service” countries, Italy only drafts a small proportion of the available recruits into the army.The following table shows the operation of the law of 1875, with the figures of 1871 for comparison:—30th Sept.30th June.1871.1881.1891.1901.Officers*14,07022,48236,73936,718Men521,9691,833,5542,821,3673,330,202Acting Army & Reserve536,039731,149843,160734,401Mobile Militia..294,714445,315320,170Territorial Militia..823,9701,553,7842,275,631* Including officers on special service or in the reserve.Thus, on the 30th of September 1871 the various categories of the army included only 2% of the population, but on the 30th of June 1898 they included 10%. But in 1901 the strength of the active army and reserve shows a marked diminution, which became accentuated in the year following. The table below indicates that up to 1907 the army, though always below its nominal strength, never absorbed more than a quarter of the available contingent.1902.1903.1904.1906.Liable441,171453,640469,860475,737Physically unfit91,17698,065119,070122,559Struck off12,27013,18913,13018,222Failed to appear33,63434,71139,2190,226Put back for re-examination108,835108,618107,173122,205Assigned to Territorial Militiaand excused peace service92,95296,91694,13687,032Assigned to active army102,204102,14197,13287,493|Joined active army88,66686,44881,58166,836The serious condition of recruiting was quickly noticed, and the tabulation of each year’s results was followed by a new draft law, but no solution was achieved until a special commission assembled. The inquiries made by this body revealed an unsatisfactory condition in the national defences, traceable in the main to financial exigencies, and as regards recruiting a new law was brought into force in 1907-1908.One specially difficult point concerned the effectives of the peace-strength army. Hitherto the actual time of training had been less than the nominal. The recruits due to join in November were not incorporated till the following March, and thus in the winter months Italy was defenceless. The army is always maintained at a low peace effective (about one-quarter of war establishment) and even this was reduced, by the absence of the recruits, until there were often only 15 rank and file with a company, whose war strength is about 230. Even in the summer and autumn a large proportion of the army consisted of men with but a few months’ service—a highly dangerous state of things considering the peculiar mobilization conditions of the country. Further—and this case no legislation can cover—the contingent, and (what is more serious) the reserves, are being steadily weakened by emigration. The increase in the numbers rejected as unfit is accounted for by the fact that if only a small proportion of the contingent can be taken for service, the medical standard of acceptance is high.The new recruiting scheme of 1907 re-established three categories of recruits,4the 2nd category corresponding practically to the GermanErsatz-Reserve. The men classed in it have to train for six months, and they are called up in the late summer to bridge the gap above mentioned. The new terms of service for the other categories have been already stated. In consequence, in 1908, of 490,000 liable, some 110,000 actually joined for full training and 24,000 of the new 2nd category for short training, which contrasts very forcibly with the feeble embodiments of 1906 and 1907. These changes threw a considerable strain on the finances, but the imminence of the danger caused their acceptance.
The law of 1875 therefore still regulates the principles of military service in Italy, though an important modification was made in 1907-1908. By this law, every man liable and accepted for service served for eight or nine years on theActive Armyand itsReserve(of which three to five were spent with the colours), four or five in theMobile Militia, and the rest of the service period of nineteen years in theTerritorial Militia. Under present regulations the term of liability is divided into nine years in theActive Army and Reserve(three or two years with the colours) four in theMobile Militiaand six in theTerritorial Militia. But these figures do not represent the actual service of every able-bodied Italian. Like almost all “Universal Service” countries, Italy only drafts a small proportion of the available recruits into the army.
The following table shows the operation of the law of 1875, with the figures of 1871 for comparison:—
Thus, on the 30th of September 1871 the various categories of the army included only 2% of the population, but on the 30th of June 1898 they included 10%. But in 1901 the strength of the active army and reserve shows a marked diminution, which became accentuated in the year following. The table below indicates that up to 1907 the army, though always below its nominal strength, never absorbed more than a quarter of the available contingent.
The serious condition of recruiting was quickly noticed, and the tabulation of each year’s results was followed by a new draft law, but no solution was achieved until a special commission assembled. The inquiries made by this body revealed an unsatisfactory condition in the national defences, traceable in the main to financial exigencies, and as regards recruiting a new law was brought into force in 1907-1908.
One specially difficult point concerned the effectives of the peace-strength army. Hitherto the actual time of training had been less than the nominal. The recruits due to join in November were not incorporated till the following March, and thus in the winter months Italy was defenceless. The army is always maintained at a low peace effective (about one-quarter of war establishment) and even this was reduced, by the absence of the recruits, until there were often only 15 rank and file with a company, whose war strength is about 230. Even in the summer and autumn a large proportion of the army consisted of men with but a few months’ service—a highly dangerous state of things considering the peculiar mobilization conditions of the country. Further—and this case no legislation can cover—the contingent, and (what is more serious) the reserves, are being steadily weakened by emigration. The increase in the numbers rejected as unfit is accounted for by the fact that if only a small proportion of the contingent can be taken for service, the medical standard of acceptance is high.
The new recruiting scheme of 1907 re-established three categories of recruits,4the 2nd category corresponding practically to the GermanErsatz-Reserve. The men classed in it have to train for six months, and they are called up in the late summer to bridge the gap above mentioned. The new terms of service for the other categories have been already stated. In consequence, in 1908, of 490,000 liable, some 110,000 actually joined for full training and 24,000 of the new 2nd category for short training, which contrasts very forcibly with the feeble embodiments of 1906 and 1907. These changes threw a considerable strain on the finances, but the imminence of the danger caused their acceptance.
The peace strength under the new scheme is nominally 300,000, but actually (average throughout the year) about 240,000. The army is organized in 12 army corps (each of 2 divisions), 6 of which are quartered on the plain of Lombardy and Venetia and on the frontiers, and 2 more in northern Central Italy. Their headquarters are: I. Turin, II. Alessandria, III. Milan, IV. Genoa, V. Verona, VI. Bologna, VII. Ancona, VIII. Florence, IX. Rome, X. Naples, XI. Bari, XII. Palermo, Sardinian division Cagliari. In addition there are 22 “Alpini” battalions and 15 mountain batteries stationed on the Alpine frontiers.
The war strength was estimated in 1901 as,Active Army(incl. Reserve) 750,000,Mobile Militia320,000,Territorial Militia2,300,000 (more than half of the last-named untrained). These figures are, with a fractional increase in the Regular Army, applicable to-day. When the 1907 scheme takes full effect, however, the Active Army and the Mobile Militia will each be augmented by about one-third. In 1915 the field army should, including officers and permanentcadres, be about 1,012,000 strong. The Mobile Militia will not, however, at that date have felt the effects of the scheme, and the Territorial Militia (setting the drain of emigration against the increased population) will probably remain at about the same figure as in 1901.
The army consists of 96 three-battalion regiments of infantry of the line and 12 ofbersaglieri(riflemen), each of the latter having a cyclist company (Bersaglieri cyclist battalions are being (1909) provisionally formed); 26 regiments of cavalry, of which 10 are lancers, each of 6 squadrons; 24 regiments of artillery, each of 8 batteries;51 regiment of horse artillery of 6 batteries; 1 of mountain artillery of 12 batteries, and 3 independent mountain batteries. The armament of the infantry is the Männlicher-Carcano magazine rifle of 1891. The field and horse artillery was in 1909 in process of rearmament with a Krupp quick-firer. The garrison artillery consists of 3 coast and 3 fortress regiments, with a total of 72 companies. There are 4 regiments (11 battalions) of engineers. Thecarabinierior gendarmerie, some 26,500 in number, are part of the standing army; they are recruited from selected volunteers from the army. In 1902 the special corps in Eritrea numbered about 4700 of all ranks, including nearly 4000 natives.Ordinary and extraordinary military expenditure for the financial year 1898-1899 amounted to nearly £10,000,000, an increase of £4,000,000 as compared with 1871. The Italian Chamber decided that from the 1st of July 1901 until the 30th of June 1907 Italian military expenditure proper should not exceed the maximum of £9,560,000 per annum fixed by the Army Bill of May 1897, and that military pensions should not exceed £1,440,000. Italian military expenditure was thus until 1907 £11,000,000 per annum. In 1908 the ordinary and extraordinary expenditure was £10,000,000. The demands of the Commission were only partly complied with, but a large special grant was voted amounting to at least £1,000,000 per annum for the next seven years. The amount spent is slight compared with the military expenditure of other countries.The Alpine frontier is fortified strongly, although the condition of the works was in many cases considered unsatisfactory by the 1907 Commission. The fortresses in the basin of the Po chiefly belong to the era of divided Italy and are now out of date; the chief coast fortresses are Vado, Genoa, Spezia, Monte Argentaro, Gaeta, Straits of Messina, Taranto, Maddalena. Rome is protected by a circle of forts from acoup de mainfrom the sea, the coast, only 12 m. off, being flat and deserted.
The army consists of 96 three-battalion regiments of infantry of the line and 12 ofbersaglieri(riflemen), each of the latter having a cyclist company (Bersaglieri cyclist battalions are being (1909) provisionally formed); 26 regiments of cavalry, of which 10 are lancers, each of 6 squadrons; 24 regiments of artillery, each of 8 batteries;51 regiment of horse artillery of 6 batteries; 1 of mountain artillery of 12 batteries, and 3 independent mountain batteries. The armament of the infantry is the Männlicher-Carcano magazine rifle of 1891. The field and horse artillery was in 1909 in process of rearmament with a Krupp quick-firer. The garrison artillery consists of 3 coast and 3 fortress regiments, with a total of 72 companies. There are 4 regiments (11 battalions) of engineers. Thecarabinierior gendarmerie, some 26,500 in number, are part of the standing army; they are recruited from selected volunteers from the army. In 1902 the special corps in Eritrea numbered about 4700 of all ranks, including nearly 4000 natives.
Ordinary and extraordinary military expenditure for the financial year 1898-1899 amounted to nearly £10,000,000, an increase of £4,000,000 as compared with 1871. The Italian Chamber decided that from the 1st of July 1901 until the 30th of June 1907 Italian military expenditure proper should not exceed the maximum of £9,560,000 per annum fixed by the Army Bill of May 1897, and that military pensions should not exceed £1,440,000. Italian military expenditure was thus until 1907 £11,000,000 per annum. In 1908 the ordinary and extraordinary expenditure was £10,000,000. The demands of the Commission were only partly complied with, but a large special grant was voted amounting to at least £1,000,000 per annum for the next seven years. The amount spent is slight compared with the military expenditure of other countries.
The Alpine frontier is fortified strongly, although the condition of the works was in many cases considered unsatisfactory by the 1907 Commission. The fortresses in the basin of the Po chiefly belong to the era of divided Italy and are now out of date; the chief coast fortresses are Vado, Genoa, Spezia, Monte Argentaro, Gaeta, Straits of Messina, Taranto, Maddalena. Rome is protected by a circle of forts from acoup de mainfrom the sea, the coast, only 12 m. off, being flat and deserted.
Navy.—For purposes of naval organization the Italian coast is divided into three maritime departments, with headquarters at Spezia, Naples and Venice; and into twocomandi militari, with headquarters at Taranto and at the island of Maddalena. Thepersonnelof the navy consists of the following corps: (1) General staff; (2) naval engineers, chiefly employed in building and repairing war vessels; (3) sanitary corps; (4) commissariat corps, for supplies and account-keeping; (5) crews.
Thematérielof the Italian navy has been completely transformed, especially in virtue of the bill of the 31st of March 1875. Old types of vessels have been sold or demolished, and replaced by newer types.