Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/483

f.TATLSriC.S I T A L Y 463 sen toil to the conciliators or to the pnetors exercising concilia- torial functions were settled by compromise, and out of 769,533 cases , r >80,066 received definitive sentence. The "establishments of detention" are of three kinds .-those of preventive detention, or judiciary prisons ; those of penal deten tion, for culprits of full age; and those of correction, or reformatories for prisoners under age. The following table (XL. ) gives details for 1879 (the third column of figures giving the number of prisoners for whom there is sleeping accommodation)!: A rea Prisoner . Separa "Punish No. in Accommo tion " ment i Acres. dation. Cells. Cells. Bagni penali, or convict estab- } 17,193 17,604 257 352 Houscs of correction for men... 36 1.011 12,068 417 427 Do. do. women 6 10 1,263 48 22 T 3 r>ri il rnlmiios for mon 3 4933 1 500 19 >s 287 186 37, -257 524 Houses of detention for men ... (! 1,038 16 63 Total 311 2M,420 70,830 1,345 1,416 Of the total number of establishments 51 belong to the Lombardo- Yenetian provinces, 42 to the ancient continental provinces, 31 to the Tuscan provinces, 15 to the Parma and Modena provinces, 55 to ilia Roman, 80 to the Neapolitan, and 40 to the Sicilian and* Sar dinian. The Government report indicates that of the convict establishments (central and secondary) 12 were neither healthy nor secure ; the same was tli3 case with several of the houses of correc tion ; and no fewer than 87 of the prisons are condemned for the hitter defect and 51 for the former. In the convict establishments there were 17,576 prisoners in December 1870. The mean for 1870 was 13,663, and every succeed ing year has seen au increase. In the ten years from 1870 to 1879 the total admissions have been 31,470. During that period 4846 received remission of their sentence, and 5176 died in prison. The following are the convict establishments, arranged in order of importance Porto Longone, Civita Yecchia, Nisida, Palermo, Ancona, Cagliari, Orbetello, Genoa, Procida, Brindisi, Finalborgo, Gaeta, Pozzuoli, S. Stefano (Naples), Alghero, Castiadas, Favignana, Palermo, Pesaro, Piombiuo, Porto Ferraio, Portici, Ponza, Porto d Anzio, Terracina, and Trapani. The establishment at Varignano was made a lazaretto in 1871. See Mat. decennah deUc curceri (1870-79), Civita Yecchia, 1880. According to the confession of Italian investigators, the state of the judiciary prisons is often deplorable in the extreme. When I see," writes Beltrani Scalia, 1 "the enormous number of 44,415 individuals existing in the judiciary prisons in the beginning cf 1875 (and the differences are not very great in the different years), the number of persons committed to prison, amounting in the year to 356,511, and the number of those discharged to 257,854, when I see that, while 127,837 are liberated on the termination of their punishment or through act of clemency, no less than 81,087 owe their liberation to the fact that they have not been found guilty of the crimes laid to their charge, and when I consider the unhappy condition of most of our establishments of preventive detention, my heart aclies to think what a hotbed of corruption they constitute, and what a current of moral pestilence must find issue from them." Capital punishment was in 1875, after much debate, adopted as the supreme penalty for the whole kingdom (inclusive of Tuscany, where it had not previously been in force) ; but in November 1877 the chambers voted by a large majority for the exclusion of the death-penalty from the new code. Between 1867 and 1876 inclu sive 392 persons were condemned to death, but 351 received commutation of sentence, and only 34 were executed, in the same period 222 cases were subjected to a second trial, with, the result that 20 of the accused parties were completely acquitted of the charge on which they had been previously condemned to death, and the whole of the remainder had their sentences commuted to penal servitude for life or some minor penalty. See Notizie sulle Condcmni alia pcna, di mortc (Rome, 1878), epitomized in Arch, di Stat., 1878. Political Administration. The constitution of the kingdom of Italy is based upon that presented to the Sardinians by King Charles Albert, 4th March 1848. The crown is hereditary in the male line of the house of Savoy. The king whose majority is attained at the closs of his eighteenth year cannot exercise his legislative functions except in agreement with the voice of the national parliament, and on his accession to the throne he is bound to take an oath in the presence of both chambers that he will obey the constitution. By the law of 17th March 1861 his title is " by God s grace anil through the will of the nation king of Italy." Ilis executive functions are exercised by means of responsible ministers, nine in number (1) the minister of foreign affairs, (2) of the interior, (3) 1 Author of La Riforma penitenziaria in Italia, and founder of the Ricista di aifciplina carceraria 1871. of public instruction, (4) of finance and the treasury, (5) of war, (6) of marine, (7) of grace, justice, and worship, (8) of public works, (9) of agriculture, industry, and commerce. These departments are to all intents the same as those which under slightly different designations existed in the kingdom of Sardinia in 1860, just before the title of king of Italy was assumed by Victor Emmanuel. The ministry of agriculture, however, which was instituted by Cavour in jluly of that year, was abolished in 1878, but it was restored in 1879. A permanent hydrographic commission was instituted in 1866, a council of meteorology in 1876, and an independent board of statistics (Dirczione delta Statistical in 1878. There was a meteorological department in connexion with the ministry of agri culture as early as 1865, and a statistical department as early as 1861. The Italian parliament consists of two houses or chambers a senate and a chamber of deputies. The senate consists of the princes of the royal family (who are admitted to the sittings at the age of twenty-one, but cannot vote till they have completed their twenty-fifth year) and an unlimited number of persons, forty years of age or upwards, chosen by the king from the ranks of the archbishops and bishops, ministers of the crown and high administrative function aries, admirals and generals, members of the provincial councils and of the Turin academy, persons who have rendered special services to their country, or who for three years have paid 3000 lire of direct taxation. Since the removal to Rome the parliament is accom modated in the palace at Monte Citorio. Neither senators nor deputies are paid for their services, but they have the right to a free pass over the whole railway system of the country. All measures must be carried by an absolute majority, or one half of the members and one. The parliamentary oath docs not contain the name of God; the member simply says, "I swear to be faithful to the king and loyally to observe the statutes and laws of the land." According to the law there must be a new election every five years ; the actual duration of parliaments, however, has hitherto been on an average two and a half. The registered electors for 1879 amounted to 627,838, out of a population estimated at 28, 437, 091, or 2 21 percent.; in other words, Italy has 777 electors in every 100 males above twenty-one years of age. The highest proportions were in Porto Maurizio 5 06 per cent. , Genoa 3 63, Leghorn 3 67, and Alessandria 3 32 per cent. The lowest of all was Syracuse 07 per cent. Thirty-five provinces besides those mentioned had upwards of 2 per cent., and all the rest had upwards of 1 and less than 2. Of the total electorate 489,044 had their place on the roll through the payment of not less than 40 lire of direct Government taxes and provincial "super-imposts" ; 5922 in virtue of the value of their factories, workshops, or ware houses ; 1412 as sea-captains or employers of at least 30 operatives ; 1502 as holders of Government stock of the annual worth of 600 lire ; 2934 in virtue of the amount of their house-rent, making au aggregate of 15,158 whose right was due to their wealth. On the other hand there were 550 members of scientific academies, chambers of commerce, and directors of agrarian commissions ; 5631 professors, ex-professors, and teachers in the higher institutions ; 43,045 func tionaries and employes, civil and military ; 1452 persons decorated with the national orders of knighthood ; 33,936 holders of univer sity degrees (laureati); 27,522 solicitors, accountants, geometricians, chemists, &c. ; 870 money agents and brokers, making a total of 112,906 whose right depended on education and social influence. According to the law of 1860, in force in 1880, there are 508 electoral colleges, or as they would be called in England parlia mentary constituencies, the largest of which are the third college of Palermo with 84,767 inhabitants, and the third of Turin with 76,654, and the smallest S. Sepolcro with 30,463, and Benevento with 25,460. _ The following table (XLI.) indicates the chief statistics of the eight elections which have taken place in Italy. They are interesting as showing an increase of political activity among the people. As is well known, the watchword of the ultramontane party has been "neither electors nor elected"; their abstention helps partly to explain the small percentage of the electors who have voted. 2 Years of General Elec tions. Population. Number of Electoral Bodies and De puties. Electors. Voters at the Definitive Elections. Number. Per Cent. Number. In 100 Inhabi tants. In 100 Electors. 1SG1 21, 77 7,31143 4!3 418,696 1-92 243,012 1-12 58 1865 ) 1867 | 21,273, 776* 493 ! 504,263 498,208 2-08 2-05 286,990 281,701 1-18 1-16 r 7 57 1870) ( 530,018 1-98 266,814 0-99 50 1874 f 1876 [ 26,801,154 508 - 671,939 605,007 2-13 2-26 329,903 368,750 1-23 1-35 58 61 1880 ) ( 621,8% 2 32 386,593 1-44 62 - An electoral map of Italy and a valuable analysis of the distribution of parties in 1880 will be found in Arch, di Ktat., 1880. iasc. Hi. 3 Without the Venetian provinces, Mantua, and Rome. < ^ ithout the province of Home.