ITALY. 



455 



Milan on June 23. Others were arrested in 

 Como, Pavia, Cremona, Brescia, and Novara. 

 Coccapieller, who was serving a term in state- 

 prison for publishing libels, some of which 

 turned out to be true, was elected a deputy for 

 Home, pardoned, and took his seat. 



Conflict between Church and State. A letter of 

 the Pope, in praise of the Jesuit order and the 

 restoration of certain of its privileges, aroused 

 the anti-Clerical feeling of the Liberal parties 

 in Italy more than any of his recent complaints 

 and declarations regarding the wrongs suffered 

 by the Church. The Government was im- 

 pelled to appoint a commission to investigate 

 the monastic institutions, and discover how 

 many novices they received, what property 

 they had acquired and held in the names of 

 pretended buyers, and other violations of the 

 law for the gradual suppression of the monas- 

 teries, which the Government has hitherto 

 allowed to remain a dead letter. The Jesuits 

 who acquired real estate and erected new con- 

 vents were threatened with expulsion. The 

 assertion by the Pope of the claim to the res- 

 toration of the temporal power encouraged 

 the Clericals to new activity. In Naples on 

 September 26, while the Liberals were celebrat- 

 ing the entry of the Italian troops into Rome, 

 a counter-demonstration was arranged by sev- 

 eral Clerical associations. The latter, shouting, 

 "Long live the Pope-King!" attempted to 

 break up the procession, and blows were ex- 

 changed. The Depretis ministry had made 

 various concessions to the Curia, such as res- 

 toring the religious teachers in the schools 

 and refraining from the exercise of the right of 

 patronage in the appointment of bishops and 

 priests. But when this conciliatory policy was 

 requited by continued appeals to foreign pow- 

 ers to restore the Papal sovereignty in Rome, 

 they determined to carry out the law for the 

 confiscation of monastic property, which pro- 

 vides that the old members may remain in the 

 cloisters, but that no new members shall be 

 taken in. Anti- Clerical demonstrations took 

 place in all the large cities. The participants 

 demanded the abrogation of the guarantee law 

 and the separation of church and state. In 

 October the Vatican addressed complaints to 

 the powers and in November a second note, 

 dwelling on the unendurable position in which 

 the Pope, not only as " sovereign of the Papal 

 States, but as head of the Catholic Church,' 1 was 

 placed by these demonstrations. Earlier in 

 the year the Clericals found fault with the 

 Government for allowing the organization of 

 an Old Catholic Church in Rome, for the estab- 

 lishment of which two well-known Italian 

 priests deserted the Roman Catholic Church. 



Quarrel with Colombia. The Governor of the 

 State of Cauca in the Colombian Republic, 

 after suppressing an insurrection, threatened 

 an Italian millionaire named Cerruti, resident 

 there, with arrest and the attachment of his 

 property, on the charge that he had abetted 

 the rebels. After the latter had applied in 



vain for a pass to visit Bogota and bring his 

 case before the chief judicial authorities, he 

 was suffered to go to Buenaventura after Capt. 

 Cobianchi, of the Italian war-ship "Flavio Gi- 

 via," had promised to deliver him up again, 

 supposing him to be already in custody. When 

 he learned that this was not the case, he tried 

 to telegraph to the Italian minister. The Co- 

 lombian authorities then attempted to arrest 

 Cerruti, but Cobianchi manned all his boats, 

 and brought his countryman on board his ves- 

 sel. The dispute was referred, on the pro- 

 posal of Italy, to the Spanish Government for 

 arbitration, on condition that the conduct of 

 the Italian officer should not be reviewed. 



Colonies. The Italians possess a colony and 

 naval station at the Bay of Assab, on the coast of 

 the Red Sea. The district has an area of 632 

 square kilometres, and had, in 1882, 1,300 in- 

 habitants. In 1885 they extended their pos- 

 sessions on the western coast as far as and 

 including the port of Massowah (see ABYS- 

 SINIA). The Porte on Dec. 26, 1885, protested 

 against the Italian occupation of Massowah, 

 and raised a claim for indemnity. Egypt, after 

 annexing Massowah and Suakin, agreed to pay 

 a larger tribute to the Porte, which therefore 

 now claimed from Italy the additional sum 

 paid on account of Massowah. The Italian 

 Government maintained at Massowah in 1886 

 a force of 3,000 soldiers, but they were not 

 able to protect the surrounding country from 

 Abyssinian marauders, who under a chief named 

 Ras Alula, plundered the Habab tribe that en- 

 tered into a treaty of friendship with the Ital- 

 ians in the early part of 1886. The Italian 

 Government sent Gen. Pozzolini on a mission 

 to the King of Abyssinia, but King John first 

 appointed a place far in the interior for the 

 meeting, and then sent word that he was de- 

 tained by state affairs in a distant province. 

 The Italian embassy after this rebuff returned 

 to Italy. In the hope of extending Italian 

 trade and influence in Africa, a well-equipped 

 mission was sent by an Italian Geographical 

 Society to Harrar, where the British had 

 placed on the throne a descendant of the for- 

 mer reigning family, a fanatical Mohamme- 

 dan, who had determined to drive all foreign- 

 ers out of his dominions. Count Porro and 

 the other members of the expedition were 

 robbed and then murdered by his soldiers, 

 in May. The Italian Government requested 

 the English to co-operate in a joint expedition 

 to punish the Sultan of Harrar, but, when the 

 Government at London declined, gave up the 

 enterprise. In the beginning of September 

 another Abyssinian robber, Debeb, a nephew 

 of King John, made an incursion into Italian 

 territory and attacked a company of Bashi- 

 Bazouks in the service of the Italian Gov- 

 ernment. In the autumn King John, who 

 controls a large military force armed with 

 Remington rifles, called a great council, which 

 was supposed to portend an attempt to drive 

 the Italians out of Massowah. 



