ITALY. 



437 



increased it to 9,750,000,000 lire in 1878, made 

 up as follows : 



Lire. 



Funded debt 7,091,829,661 



Redeemable debt 1,642,773,101 



Treasury bonds 183,010,500 



Paper currency 840,000,000 



Total 9,757^613,268 



The consolidated debt, except a small por- 

 tion, bears interest at 5 per cent. The interest 

 on most of the redeemable loans is also 5 per 

 cent, though some bear 3 per cent interest. 

 The total expenditure on account of the public 

 debt in 1881 was 527,611,000 lire. 



The gradual reduction of the enormous defi- 

 cits of twenty years, and the final attainment 

 of a surplus, notwithstanding heavy incidental 

 expenses and considerable remissions of taxes, 

 has occurred during Magliani's ministry, and is 

 to some extent his work. The Minister of 

 Finance, in presenting the most satisfactory 

 financial statement ever heard in Italy, ex- 

 pressed the belief that the forced paper cur- 

 rency would be abolished in accordance with 

 the law, and that the remaining grist-tax would 

 be removed by 1881, the date set, but that it 

 would be unsafe to exceed the limit of military 

 expenditures agreed upon with the Minister of 

 War, which is 200,000,000 lire a year, besides 

 the extraordinary army expenditures for pro- 

 jects which will take 324,000,000 between 1880 

 and 1885. 



FOREIGN" RELATIONS. The progress made by 

 Italy in the direction of good government and 

 well-ordered finances has not occupied the 

 thoughts of the Italians as much as foreign af- 

 fairs. Besides the differences with the Pope, 

 which have been aggravated recently, the vol- 

 atile Italian public has been in a constant fever 

 over questions of foreign policy. The Govern- 

 ment, of which Bismarck made the famous 

 speech, that one step further to the Left would 

 plunge Italy into the abyss of republicanism, 

 has been prudent enough when it came to final 

 action ; but to court the popular favor it has 

 endeavored to secure the extension of Italian 

 power in various ways, and been repeatedly 

 obliged to withdraw from an untenable posi- 

 tion, while at home it has allowed the Irre- 

 dentist and Anti-Clerical Radicals to com- 

 promise it by their inadequately rebuked 

 excesses. At the beginning of the year the 

 irritation over the French seizure of Tunis 

 was still acute. The Italians, in their desire 

 for external expansion, had first cast their eyes 

 on Albania, where their consular agents were 

 long busy preparing the way for Italian an- 

 nexations on the opposite shore of the Adri- 

 atic. When the Berlin Congress commissioned 

 Austria to take possession of Bosnia and Her- 

 zegovina, the idea of " compensation " for Italy 

 was suggested in the press, while the Irreden- 

 tist longings for the acquisition of the Trenti- 

 no, Istria, and Dalmatia, were agitated afresh. 

 Count Corti, the then Minister for Foreign 

 Affairs, was wise enough to avoid exposing 



his country to the certain rebuff which the 

 advocates for compensation would have risked, 

 although he sacrificed his popularity by his de- 

 cision. The Italians next turned their atten- 

 tion to Tunis. The Italian diplomatic agent, 

 Maccio, and the French agent, Roustan, en- 

 gaged in a conflict for predominant influence 

 in the regency, which the republic ended by 

 invading the territory of the Bey, on the pre- 

 text of punishing the Kroumirs, and reducing 

 him to the condition of a French vassal. The 

 helpless position in which they stood when 

 their prize was wrested from them, led the 

 Italians to abandon their policy of keeping 

 their "hands free," and sinking their differ- 

 ences with Austria, to seek an understanding 

 with the German powers. 



The Papal question was another element in 

 the situation. At the beginning of 1882 Bis- 

 marck was seeking to arrange a modus vivendi 

 with the Vatican, and courting the support of 

 the Clerical party for his internal schemes. 

 Simultaneously, the Pope for the first time 

 took a firm and vigorous stand for the rights 

 of the Church. The alarm of the Government 

 circles was not justified by any immediate in- 

 terposition of foreign influence ; but the ques- 

 tion seems to be arriving at a phase where, if 

 Italy does not assure to the Church a tolerable 

 status, other powers will intervene. 



The European situation forbade anything 

 further than a platonic friendship with the 

 German powers, which would be the last in 

 Europe to support Italy in any schemes for im- 

 mediate territorial aggrandizement. When the 

 Egyptian question arose, Italy relied on this alli- 

 ance and the European concert to secure her the 

 position in Egypt which she has long demand- 

 ed, and refrained from seizing the opportunity 

 to co-operate with England after the retire- 

 ment of France. The stand which she took in 

 the negotiations was a more dignified and im- 

 portant one than had before fallen to her share 

 in the European concert (see EGYPT). The 

 bold and rapid action of England produced an 

 outburst of angry denunciation in Italy similar 

 to that called forth the year before by French 

 operations in Tunis. If the apathy of Germany 

 continues, and England is permitted to take 

 full possession of Egypt, Italy will perhaps 

 awaken from her dream of empire and dis- 

 cover that, in spite of her expensive arma ments 

 she is a great power only on sufferance. By 

 the settlement of the Papal question, without 

 the sacrifice of unity or liberal institutions, by 

 calling all her citizens into her political coun- 

 cils, and by reducing the burden of military 

 expenditure, Italy can not only develop her 

 internal resources and improve the material 

 condition of her people, but extend her com- 

 merce in the undeveloped parts of the world 

 without the aid of cannon and protectorates. 

 There is no people in Europe with equal facul- 

 ties for endurance, economy, application to de- 

 tails, and all the practical elements of success, 

 when not misled by impracticable illusions. 



