Besides the above, there are a number of Apostolic Delegations, Apostolic Vicariates, and Apostolic Prefectures, most o them held by titular archbishops and bishops, until lately called in partibus infidelium'), to the number of 164, and 17 prelatures 'nullius diœceseos.'

The summary of actual dignitaries stands as follows for December 31, 1884 :

The central administration of the Roman Catholic Church is carried on by a number of permanent ecclesiastical committees called Sacred Congregations, presided over by cardinals. There were twenty Congregations in December 1884. At the head of all the Congregations, embracing large and varied functions, is a department bearing the titie of Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition,' also called The Holy Office,' under the immediate presidency of the Supreme Pontiff.

The apostolic vicariates, delegations, and prefectures in all parts of the world stand under the Congregatio de Propagandâ Fide' at Rome. The number of vicariates is one hundred and twenty-two, of delegations seven, and of prefectures thirty-five. At the end of 1884, there were eleven vicariates in Europe, namely, three in Germany; one at Gibraltar; one in Sweden; one in Moldavia; and five in European Turkey.

Church and Education.

The Roman Catholic Church is, nominally, the ruling State religion of Italy; but many Acts of the Legislature, passed since the establishment of the Kingdom, and more especially since the suppression of the temporal government of the Supreme Pontiff, have subordinated the power of the Church and clergy entirely to the authority of the civil government, and secured perfect religious freedom to the adherents of all creeds without exception. However, scarcely any other creeds as yet exist but Roman Catholicism. At the census of 1881, of the total population about 62,000 were Protestants and about the same number Jews. Of the Protestants 26,081 belonged to the Waldensian Church of Piedmont, about 6,000 to the other evangelical Italian Churches, and 30,000

belonged to foreign Protestant bodies. In 1861 the total number of Protestants was 32,684, and in 1871, 58,651.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy in Italy consists of 47 archbishops and 207 bishops. All these dignitaries of the Church are appointed by the Pope, on the advice of a council of Cardinals, the congregation De Propagandâ Fide.' But the royal consent is necessary to the installation of a bishop or archbishop, and this having been frequently withheld of late years, there was constantly a large number of vacant sees.

The immense wealth of the Italian clergy has been greatly reduced since the year 1850, when the bill of Siccardi, annihilating ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the privileges of the clergy, passed the Sardinian chambers. This law was extended, in 1861, over the whole of the kingdom, and had the effect of rapidly diminishing the numbers as well as the incomes of the clergy. But it was stated in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in May 1869, that at that period the proportion of priests to the general population was still as high as seven per thousand, 'the average proportion in all the rest of the Catholic world being four and a half per thousand.'

It appears from an official return laid before the Chamber of Deputies in the session of 1865, that there were in that year 2,382 religious houses in Italy, of which 1,506 were for men, and 876 for women. The number of religious persons was 28,991, of whom 14,807 were men, and 14,184 women. The Mendicant order numbered 8,229 persons, comprised in the above-mentioned total. A project of law, brought in by the Government, for the entire suppression of all religious houses throughout the kingdom, was adopted by the Chamber of Representatives in the session of 1866. This law provided a small pension to all monks and nuns having taken regular vows before the 18th of January 1864. Several monasteries were set aside for the reception of such monks or nuns as may wish to continue their monastic life; but there must not be fewer than six in one monastery. Mendicant friars may continue to ask alms under certain restrictions. All chapters of collegiate churches, abbeys, ecclesiastical benefices not attached to parishes, lay benefices, and all brotherhoods and foundations to which an ecclesiastical service is annexed, were suppressed. Under certain regulations the ecclesiastical property was transferred to the State. A great part of the property confiscated from the monastic establishments has been devoted to the cause of public education. There have been many recent improvements in education; the law on primary schools as to compulsory education has been applied to 7,989 communes out of 8,259, but is by no means strictly enforced. At the census of 1881 the number of children between five and fifteen years of age was found to be 5,718,854. According to a return

published in 1884 the number of primary public day schools in 1882 was 41,423; of the pupils, 1,008,547 were males and 842,072 females. The total sum allotted for Public Instruction in 1884-5was 1,297,1017. There are besides 5,747 private primary schools, with 45,370 male and 80,146 female pupils. There are also 2,516 public and private infant schools, with 243,972 children; 10,190 evening and Sunday schools for adults, with 370,119 pupils; 111 normal schools (44 governmental), with 8,231 students; 77 superior female schools, with 3,579 pupils.

According to the census of 1881 the average number of the population above six years of age who could not read nor write was 61.94 per cent., the proportion being about the same for those above fifteen years. In Upper Italy it was 40.85 per cent.; Middle Italy, 64.61 per cent.; South Italy, 79.46 per cent.; and in the Islands, 80.91 per cent. The smallest percentage of illiterates above six years was in Piedmont, 32.27, and the largest in Basilicata, 85.18. 1871, the proportion of the population above six years who could not read nor write was 68.77 per cent.

In

In the year 1882 there were 329 licei (of which 63 private), with 12,390 pupils; 728 gymnasi (155 private), with 42,811 pupils; 76 technical institutions (35 private), with 7,858 students; 413 technical schools (349 private), with 24,833 students, and 25 naval mercantile schools (5 private) with 818 pupils. The following is a list of the twenty-one Universities of Italy, with statistics for 1883:

There are besides eleven superior collegiate institutions, with 1,375 students, eight superior special schools, with 397 students, and 211 special educational institutions of various kinds, with 23,663 students in 1882.

Revenue and Expenditure.

Previous to 1884 the financial year of Italy coincided with the calendar year; it now begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. The following table exhibits the total ordinary revenue and expenditure of the kingdom, together with the annual difference in each of the five years from 1879 to 1883-4, the first four years representing actual receipts and disbursements, and the last year, 1883, the budget estimates:—

The following table gives an abstract of the official budget accounts for the year ending June 30, 1885, showing the principal sources of revenue and chief branches of expenditure :