450 



ITALY. 



King, in view of the emergency and of the in- 

 terminable discords and divisions in the Pro- 

 gressive party, was inclined to try a ministry 

 from the Right. But the recalcitrant sections 

 of the Left were composed of the more ad- 

 vanced thinkers of the party, and their co-op- 

 eration with the Right was out of the question. 

 The Right is the Moderate Liberal or Conserv- 

 ative party, which controlled the Government 

 and worked out the consolidation of the king- 

 dom on the lines laid down by Cavour during 

 the first sixteen years of the national history. 

 The controlling spirits of the disaffected fac- 

 tion were Nicotera and Crispi, who were not 

 satisfied with the timid and faltering leadership 

 of Cairoli and Depretis, and considered that 

 they had the ability and parliamentary strength 

 to control the policy of the Government. The 

 King consulted with Sella, the leader, of the 

 Right, who could see no way for his party to 

 assume or co-operate in the Government with 

 the present House of Deputies. The King was 

 unwilling to dissolve the Chamber if the diffi- 

 culty could by any means be composed, be- 

 cause the long-projected electoral reform bill 

 was to be dealt with in that session. Depretis 

 was requested to seek to re-establish accord 

 between the rival factions. When he obtained 

 the pledge of the section-leader Nicotera, a 

 majority was assured, and the King, on Bella's 

 suggestion, declined the resignation of the Cai- 

 roli Cabinet, April 18th. The new develop- 

 ments of the French plans in Tunis gave rise 

 to fresh interrogations, but the Government 

 commanded a majority until the French treaty 

 with the Bey was concluded. The ministers 

 repeated the assurances made by the French 

 Government, that no ulterior ends were pur- 

 sued, stating at the same time that steps were 

 being taken to protect Italian interests. On 

 the llth of May the French minister, Barthe- 

 lemy Saint-Hilaire, issued a circular to the 

 powers, accompanied with a yellow-book of 

 corroborative documents, in which Italian com- 

 mercial intrigues were intimated to have been 

 one of the causes of the invasion. When the 

 Government was informed of the conclusion 

 of the treaty, they sounded the European gov- 

 ernments on the subject of a conference, ac- 

 cording to the precedent of the Berlin Con- 

 gress, but were met with a peremptory refusal 

 on the part of Germany. The alienation of 

 France and Italy through the Tunisian question 

 would seem to have entered into the calcula- 

 tions of Bismarck from the time when the sub- 

 ject of a French intervention in Tunis was 

 informally broached in conversations between 

 the delegates at the Berlin Conference. When 

 the terms of the French treaty were made 

 known, the Cairoli ministry resigned, May 

 14th, without waiting for the hostile vote of 

 the Chamber. The King again turned to Sella, 

 who seemed to prefer constituting a Cabinet 

 from the pure Right, and appealing to the 

 country to return him, if possible, the two 

 hundred members which he lacked of a major- 



ity ; but he agreed to undertake the fruitless 

 task of negotiating with the Left and Center 

 for a coalition Cabinet. Farini, President of 

 the Chamber, and Mancini, declined in succes- 

 sion the task of forming a Cabinet, and it was 

 finally intrusted to Depretis, who succeeded, 

 May 28th, in getting a ministry together of 

 the same character as the one which had gone 

 out. General Mezzacapo, who was offered the 

 Ministry of War, declined to accept unless the 

 new Cabinet would undertake the augmenta- 

 tion of the military budget by from 10,000 to 

 30,000 francs a year, to the amount of 400,- 

 000,000 francs in all, although neither he nor 

 any other serious statesman entertained a 

 thought of engaging in a war with France on 

 account of the Tunisian difficulty. 



The Italian people were deeply offended at 

 the course taken by France to set aside Italian 

 prestige in Tunis. The feeling permeated all 

 classes, and was returned by the irascible peo- 

 ple of France. In the riot at Marseilles, June 

 17th, the swelling anger broke out. This city 

 contains a colony of Italian dock-laborers, me- 

 chanics,' and merchants, numbering, according 

 to the census of 1876, 61,428, besides a large 

 transient population of Italian sailors and emi- 

 grants departing for and returning from Amer- 

 ica. Of the latter about 5,000 enter the city 

 every month, stopping usually for some time. 

 Crowds of people were gathered in the streets 

 to see a body of French troops returning from 

 Tunis march through. As they passed the 

 house of the Italian Club, hisses were heard, 

 probably emitted by Italian spectators on the 

 sidewalk. The club-house was attacked by 

 the mob, and street affrays between the two 

 nationalities occurred in all parts of the city. 

 The rioting was renewed on the following day, 

 which was a Sunday, and the police did not 

 quell the disorders until Monday night. In 

 other towns of France murderous fights oc- 

 curred between Italians and Frenchmen. In 

 Naples, Genoa, Turin, and all the Italian cities, 

 popular demonstrations took place in which 

 the whole population participated. Prompt 

 and efficient measures were taken by the Gov- 

 ernment to defend the French consulates and 

 prevent any scenes of violence. 



The claims of the Papacy to the lost sover- 

 eignty are still openly asserted by the Pope 

 and unremittingly pressed. On the other hand, 

 the radical agitators, appealing to the patriot- 

 ism of the people, embrace every opportunity 

 to affront the Church and wound the religious 

 sentiments of their fellow-citizens, which with 

 certain classes of Romans are very strong and 

 susceptible. The irritation has been passing 

 away during the pontificate of Leo XIII, who, 

 though still acting the part of a captive and 

 martyr, has in many ways shown a conciliatory 

 disposition and smoothed the difficulties be- 

 tween the church and the state. He is, there- 

 fore, held in a very different estimation by the 

 patriotic Italians than was his predecessor. 

 The section of the clergy who stand in the way 



