ITALY. 



457 



The General Election. In September Signor 

 Seismit-Dqda, the Minister of Finance, was dis- 

 missed from office because he attended a banquet 

 at Udine at which strong Irredentist tendencies 

 were manifested. In discussing the renewal of 

 the triple alliance, which expires in 1892, Signor 

 Crispi is said to have asked for the cession of a 

 part of the Trentino, and to have met with a re- 

 fusal from Count Kalnoky and strong objections 

 from the side of Germany to making the alliance 

 depend on Italian Irredentist claims. In October 

 the visits of the police and sanitary authorities 

 to convents in the vicinity of Naples and the 

 release of inmates of the convent popularly 

 called Sepolte Vive (" buried alive "), who had first 

 entered the institution under compulsion, af- 

 forded a new cause of irritation to the Church. 

 Expectations that the Clerical party would take 

 an active part in politics were aroused in the 

 early part of 1890, but without reason. The 

 Chamber was dissolved at the close of the long 

 session of 1889-'90, and new elections were or- 

 dered to take place in November. In an impor- 

 tant speech at Turin, reviewing the course of his 

 administration, Signor Crispi made a statement 

 regarding the financial situation that placed it 

 in a somewhat less favorable light than earlier 

 estimates. The budget of 1889-'90 closed with 

 an estimated deficit of 74,000,000 lire. The deficit 

 for 1890-'91, owing to diminished receipts from 

 duties on cereals, railroads, and the taxes on com- 

 mercial transactions, the deficit, instead of 11,- 

 000,000 lire, would be 25,000,000 lire. There 

 would be a smaller deficit in the succeeding 

 year, and in order to banish it from future budg- 

 ets the Government would demand the simpli- 

 fication of the public services and the distribution 

 over longer periods of the outlay on public 

 works, and would, furthermore, introduce im- 

 provements in the methods of collecting taxes. 

 Appealing to the working-class vote, the minis- 

 ter promised, in addition to accident insurance, 

 to propose a national pension fund foraged work- 

 men and a council of masters and men for the 

 settlement of labor disputes. In regard to the 

 military situation, he spoke of the triple alliance 

 as enabling Italy to do with lighter armaments 

 than would be necessary if she still occupied an 

 isolated position. Not being able to secure a 

 general European disarmament, Italy would com- 

 mit a perilous act if she reduced her armaments, 

 which were, moreover, purely defensive. 



The result of the elections was beyond expecta- 

 tion favorable to the ministerial party, which 

 elected 410 candidates. The Extreme 'Radicals 

 secured only 37 seats, and the remaining 61 fell 

 to the Conservative or Constitutional Opposition. 

 The gift of 100,000 lire from the Franco-Italian 

 economist Cernuschi toward the election ex- 

 penses of the Radicals was no benefit, but a 

 serious drawback to their canvass. In Rome all 

 the Government candidates were elected except 

 one, who was beaten by the Irredentist Barzillai. 

 Andrea Costa, who was a fugitive in France, was 

 re-elected in Ravenna and Bologna. As the can- 

 didate of the minority in Rome, Prince Odes- 

 calchi, a Monarchical Socialist, was elected. The 

 fierce opposition of the Radicals, who exerted all 

 their energies in the contest, the result of which 

 showed how inferior they are in numbers to the 

 adherents of the policy adopted by Crispi from 



his predecessors, was a personal one directed 

 against him, whom they regard as a renegade 

 because he had drifted from the Extreme Left to 

 the Center, cut loose from the Irredentist ten- 

 dencies that he had formerly exhibited, and on 

 social and politioal questions courted the approval 

 of the Moderate Right rather than carry out the 

 views of his former party associates. The Ex- 

 treme Left is split into the two irreconcilable 

 factions, the Socialists and the Radicals being at 

 war with one another, and even the. latter are 

 divided on the questions of Irredentism and the 

 continuance of the triple alliance. Republicanism 

 is still in the theoretical stage, and does not enter 

 into practical politics otherwise than in the 

 manifestation of sympathy and fraternal feeling 

 for the French and hostility to the Austro-Ger- 

 man league with the Italian monarchy. The 

 general sentiment was pointedly expressed in 

 Crispi's famous phrase: "The republic divides 

 us, and the Monarchy unites us." 



The New Chamber. The increased numeri- 

 cal strength of the Government party was less 

 favorable for its harmony and cohesion than a 

 reduced majority would have been. Discord in 

 the Cabinet had led to the summary removal of 

 the late Minister of Finance before the elections 

 took place. Signor Seismit-Doda, who belonged 

 to the Radical wing of the Cabinet, growing 

 restive under the movement of the center of 

 gravity toward the Right through Crispi's un- 

 mistakable moderate tendencies, attempted to 

 organize a reactionary movement toward Radi- 

 calism. When he committed himself so far 

 as to listen without protest to anti-Austrian 

 speeches at a public dinner of the Irredentists, 

 Signor Crispi sent a request for his resignation. 

 Doda, who had already had differences with the 

 president of the ministry refused to resign ex- 

 cept to the ministry as a whole, hoping there- 

 by to create a split in the Cabinet, and per- 

 haps to get a majority to uphold his right to 

 follow an independent political course. Crispi 

 met this emergency by obtaining the signature 

 of the King to a decree curtly dismissing him 

 and intrusting his portfolio provisionally to the 

 Minister of the Treasury, Signor Giolitti. On 

 the eve of the assembling of the new Chamber 

 Giolitti, being unable to approve certain public 

 undertakings that Signor Finali, the Minister of 

 Public Works, considered indispensable for the 

 protection of agricultural interests in parts of 

 the country subject to inundations, resigned 

 from the ministry on Dec. 8, when his economi- 

 cal views were not accepted, and Signor Gri- 

 maldi was appointed to succeed him, taking the 

 portfolio of Finance and provisionally that of 

 the Treasury. 



The Parliament was opened by King Umberto 

 on Dec. 10. The speech from the throne de- 

 clared that, the military reorganization having 

 been completed within defensive limits, Italy 

 felt sure of herself. In regard to the question 

 of the relations between Church and state, the 

 Italian monarchy, which is founded on the will 

 of the people as well as on traditions, is a pledge 

 of peace and liberty, and will not be allowed to 

 suffer derogation in the name of religion. With 

 reference to the financial situation, retrench- 

 ments in the administrations and the reorganiza- 

 tion of the system of taxation were all that 



