and especially in the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, tropical productions abound.

No very great rivers traverse Italy. The Po in the north and the Volturno in the south are the most considerable in their fertilizing effects on the country they pass through. But the numerous streams which descend from the mountains might easily be, and in many districts are, most profitably employed in the irrigation of the soil.

The long extent of sea coast, however (amounting to 5,400 kilometres = 3,356 miles), and the numerous harbours to be found in it have led to an amount of coasting trade which supplies the want of internal navigation. Some of the largest cities and towns are situated on the sea coast.

The Italians expect much from the position of their country, lying as it does on the way from Great Britain to her eastern possessions, and are sanguine in their belief that a great trade with the East will spring up in a brief period by the opening of the canal through the Isthmus of Suez.

They are consequently making the most earnest efforts to perfect the railway communication to Brindisi on the Adriatic shore, and the magnificent and arduous work of piercing the tunnel through Mount Cenis, is undertaken by the Italian Government with the view of making the line complete by way of Paris to the port on the Adriatic which is most convenient for Egypt. Other routes are designed by way of the St. Gothard to connect the railway system with Switzerland and the Rhine, and by the Splugen and Septimer Passes with the Danube. A most important report has just been issued by a commission, under the presidency of S. Corrente, appointed to consider the relative advantages of the several Alpine routes.

The mineral riches of Italy have hitherto been but little developed. In a short time, however, projected roads or railways will penetrate into various parts of the Appennines, and facilitate the extraction and transport of their long buried treasures.

In selecting some of the more striking national features from official or private statistics, I feel the great difficulty of the task. I can only give the most brief summary under each prominent head, and must even then leave a multitude of interesting questions without the least notice, referring the members to the large mass of statistical documents with which our library has been enriched by the Italian Government, through the kindness of Dottore Pietro Maestri. The other works to which I have had recourse have been the "Annuario Statistico Italiano" (prepared by that gentleman and S. Corrente, the other Italian Delegate to the Berlin Congress); the "Annuario di Economia Sociale e di Statistica del Regno d'Italia," by P. Duprat and A. Gicca, and one or two other works.

The Kingdom of Italy is constituted thus:

1. The Old States of Sardinia, to which King Victor Emanuel II succeeded on the abdication of his father, 23rd March, 1849.

2. By the treaty of Villa Franca, 11th July, 1859, and the peace of Zurich, 10th November, 1859, he obtained Lombardy, part of the Papal States, and the Duchies of Parma and Modena.

3. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was annexed by decree of 22nd March, 1860.

4. The Marches, Umbria, and the Two Sicilies were added to the Kingdom 17th December, 1860, the last great accession being in great measure the fruits of the genius and daring enterprise of the great patriot, Garibaldi.

The King was proclaimed King of Italy by vote of the Italian Parliament, 17th March, 1861.

II.-Weights and Measures.

The metric system of weights and measures is the only legal one throughout the kingdom, and was so established by the law of 29th June, 1861.

In the Sardinian States it had been in force since 1850. In Lombardy the law of 15th September, 1859, declared that it should be legal from 1st January, 1861. In Modena it was decreed in 1849, but not brought into general use. In Romagna, 8th October, 1859. In Emilia, 15th September, 1860. In Tuscany, 11th January, 1860, by decree of the Provisional Government. In the Marches and Umbria, 10th and 24th November, 1860.

Consequently all the weights and measures given in the statistical tables are in metrical quantities and values, the Italian lira being the same as the French franc, say 25 = 17.

In order to facilitate the understanding of these values, I give the following equivalents most in use :—

III.-Statistical Department of the Kingdom of Italy.

The Statistical Department was organised in connection with the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, by Royal Decrees of 9th October, 1861, and 3rd July, 1862.

It applies to the whole kingdom. In every Secretariat of the Provincial Governments, General Intendences, or Prefectures, a permanent statistical bureau is appointed, with a chief secretary and other employés according to the population of the different provinces, and a certain number of supernumeraries to be engaged for temporary work.

In each commune is a statistical committee, elected by the communal council, or, in default of election, nominated by the provincial council, and varying in number from nine members in cities of 60,000 inhabitants or more, to three in communes of less than 6,000 inhabitants.

The duties of the General Statistical Department are to prepare and see carried out, regulations and instructions for all the statistics required and which are not specially provided for in the duties of the other Ministries; to collect, examine, correct, and compile the statistical reports for the whole kingdom, and see to the clearness and accuracy of the publication of them; to compare the reports of the other Ministries with the direct results so obtained, and thus ensure the uniformity and correctness of the official statistics before they are delivered to the Chambers.

A statistical council consisting of a president and eight members was appointed to aid in the efficient working of the above regulations, and in like manner the provincial committees aid the local authorities. At the present time the Director of Italian Statistics is Dr. Pietro Maestri, who so ably represented the Italian Government at the last Statistical Congress at Berlin, whom we have the honour to include amongst our honorary foreign members, and whose valuable publications and patriotic labours demonstrate his peculiar fitness for his important office.

To this department has been confided the task of making arrangements for the Meeting of the International Statistical Congress to be held at Florence in the autumn of this year, and his Majesty, King Victor Emanuel II, has by Royal Decrees of 25th January last, appointed a Superior Commission under the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, to prepare the programme and make the other necessary arrangements, and further in order to mark the interest which he takes in studies of so much importance to the union and prosperity of nations has nominated his eldest son Prince Humbert of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, to be the President of the Congress.

IV.-Territory.

The territorial extension and the proportion of productive and unproductive surface is not yet very clearly defined. The Report of the Royal Commission in June, 1862, appointed to equalize the bases of the land taxes, and which includes the labours of the Sub-Commission for determining the survey divisions for the purposes of the census, shows that the Commission had availed itself of all the sources of information likely to furnish correct data. Statistical and military archives, the writings of private individuals, and official documents, maps, &c., had all been laid under contribution for the different provinces. But these do not constitute a uniform survey. In giving the following results, therefore, without the marginal reference to the authorities who furnished them, they can only be taken as approximations until a more trustworthy and complete report is made on actual mensuration. (Appendix, Table I.-Territory of Italy.)

Mr. L. S. Sackville West, Her Majesty's Secretary of Legation, at Florence, in his very interesting report on the statistics of Italy, states the superficies of the fifty-nine departments as 25,561,729 hectares, of which 3,969,279 are composed of mountains, rivers, roads, and cities; the remaining 21,592,450 hectares are divided amongst 4,153,645 proprietors, less than 6 hectares to each. In Piedmont, Sicily, and Naples, property in land is the most broken up, less so in Lombardy, Emilia, and Umbria, and it is very much concentrated in Tuscany and the Romagna.

The net income from the above is estimated at 1,008,000,000 frs., or 513 per hectare (about 18s. 6d. per English acre).

Landed property pays taxes and imposts to the amount of 170,717,000 frs., giving an average tax of 7'90 frs. per hectare (about 2s. 6d. per acre).

If the provincial and communal charges are not taken into account, it will be found that the taxation on the income from land is as follows: in Piedmont one-tenth, Lombardy over one-seventh, Modena one-ninth, Parma one-seventh, Tuscany one-eleventh, Romagna one-tenth, Marches one-eleventh, Umbria one-tenth, Naples over one-ninth, and Sicily one-eleventh.

The landed property in Italy is burdened with charges and mortgages to the enormous amount of 4,694,500,000 frs., or 188,000,000l. Each hectare, which is represented by a capital of 1,167 frs., is mortgaged on an average to the amount of 217.41 frs., thus about one-fifth of the whole landed property of the kingdom is under mortgage.

V.-Population.

Various estimates have been made of the population of Italy up to the end of 1859, before the union of the new States. But as the

census of the population was taken on the night of the 1st January, 1862, for the whole of the new kingdom, it will be better to commence with this authentic statement. The following table shows the ascertained number of inhabitants in each province, the superficies in square kilometres, and the number of inhabitants to each square kilometre. The territorial divisions are somewhat different from those into which the kingdom was distributed before 1859, which would increase the difficulty of making any comparison with former estimates. Of the 59 provinces, 26 only remained with the same limits as before. The other 33 were either entirely reconstituted or in some way modified.

The previous surveys also appear to have been of very unequal value, some carefully and in the northern provinces accurately made, and others contradictory and doubtful, especially in the southern provinces of the kingdom.

No doubt before the next census, new surveys will be completed throughout the country. (Appendix, Table II.)

The total population was very nearly 21,777,000 on 257,082 square kilometres of territory = 99,312 English square miles, showing a density of population of 88 inhabitants per square kilometre, or 219 per English square mile.

Lombardy appears the most densely peopled, having 134 inhabitants per square kilometre, then the Romagna 104, Piedmont and Liguria 103, after the cession of Nice with its 2,755 kilometres and 122,362 inhabitants. Sardinia is by far the most thinly peopled, having only 24 inhabitants to the square kilometre.

In density of population Italy amongst the nations of Europe is only exceeded by Belgium, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

To the totals of the new kingdom there is added in the Annuario Statistico Italiano, the estimated population of other parts of Italy which are under foreign dominion, including the Roman Provinces, Venice, the District of Mantua, Trieste, Istria, and Gorizia, the Cisalpine parts of the Tyrol and Switzerland, Nice, Corsica, Malta, Monaco, and San Marino. The Roman Provinces and Venice alone would add (2,976,218) very nearly three millions of inhabitants, and 35,672 square kilometres of territory, and with the remainder gives a total estimated territory of 333,768 square kilometres, and 26,633,000 inhabitants.

The rate at which the population increases can only be properly estimated when the registers of births, deaths, emigration, and immigration are carefully kept up on the same plan throughout the kingdom. It would not therefore be prudent to attach too much importance to estimates made over different periods of years in the separate States before their union. It may suffice to say that the best computations before 1859, gives a rate of increase of about 55 per cent.,