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308,000,000. The budget for 1884 was as not on the cattle on which the credit-bank is to follows:

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Foreign Affairs.

Public Instruction..

Interior

Public Works..

War..

Navy.

Agriculture..

Total.....

EXPENDITURE.

have secured a first mortgage. The loans will have to be made for at least three years, but 24,304,705 not to exceed thirty years, nor the interest 5

Lire.

889,474,380

182,550,000 per cent.
524,224,245

123,350,185

25,811,258

Army. The standing army numbers 750,765 72,502,000 men and officers; the militia mobile, 341,250 men and officers; the reserve, 5,281, and the 220,758,812 territorial militia, 1,021,954-constituting a joint force, in time of peace, of 2,119,250 men. In time of war Italy can place in the field 690,Lire. 000 men of the line; 300,000 militia mobile, 174,916,298 and 1,000,000 territorial militia-together, 83,451,637 1,990,000 soldiers.

1,562,975,065

786,465,978

7,218,787

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82,427,541 Navy. There were launched in August, at 64,060,550 Castellamare, the ironclad Ruggiero di Lau184,659,068 252,867,867 ria, and in December the ironclad Francesco 57,645,549 Morosini; to be followed in March, 1885, 11,966,104 by the Andrea Doria three line-of-battle 1,555,676,829 steamers of the first class, built after the There were outstanding, Sept. 30, 1884, 255,- Acton model; and there were building in the 344,600 lire in treasury notes, the circulation spring of 1885 the Italia and the Lepanto. being greater by 10,936,500 than on June 30 When these formidable men-of-war are all of the same year. afloat, Italy will have 15 vessels of the first class, 10 of them ironclad; 14 second class; 13 third class; 11 transports, and 43 torpedoes. The Ruggiero di Lauria cost, with armament, 19,000,000 lire or francs; the Duilio as much; and the Lepanto, the Italia, and the Dandolo, when armed, will cost between 22,000,000 and 24,000,000 each. The Duilio is to carry four 100-ton guns. Out of the 10,802 sailors and marines, and 567 officers, by whom the Italian navy is manned, there will be doing active service on board ship in 1885, 396 officers and 9,028 men, a proportion unknown in any other navy. rangement is the having in readiness so-called notice. The navy was commanded and offireserve ships," to sail at forty-eight hours' cered on Jan. 1, 1885, as follows: one admiral, Prince Carignano; 4 vice-admirals, 10 rearadmirals, 104 captains, and 362 lieutenants; 10,300 sailors, and 1,987 gunners, men for torpedo service, and engineers.

The Government having resumed the tobacco monopoly from the Tobacco Régie Company, and having to pay it 68,000,000 lire for to bacco, etc., a loan was made at 3.60 per cent., payment to be made on April 1, 1885, instead of on Dec. 31, 1885, a saving of 1.40 per cent., as the Tobacco Régie Company was being credited interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum. A 100,000,000 lire loan having been voted by the Chamber in December, 1884, and the bill also having passed the Senate on Jan. 11, 1885, for the sanitary improvement of Naples, and certain public works to be there undertaken for the same purpose, it was proposed to place on the market 5 per cent. bonds, to run sixty years, dating from January, 1886, and to be gradually paid off by a sinking fund. During the first ten months of 1884, the movement of the precious metals in lire was as follows:

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The Red Sea Expedition. -For several years there has been rivalry between the Italians, French, and Egyptians, to secure the trade between their possessions on the Red Sea coast of eastern Africa, and Abyssinia and the Galla countries. The Italians have acquired a settlement at Assab, and the French farther south at Abok. Both settlements are poor, the coast being a complete desert, while the flourishing countries inland, especially Shoa, are difficult and expensive to reach, the freight on camels' backs being very high, and transportation, a distance of 400 miles, very slow, so that it sometimes takes months to reach a market from Assab. Valueless as the latter is as a settlement, it has, nevertheless, been retained, because during the colonization mania that has seized upon the French and Germans, Italy, without any other colony, considers it in her political rather than commercial interest to obtain a firm foothold somewhere near the

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