34:6 



ITALY. 



cal, Republican, Socialist, and anarchist organiza- 

 tions was believed to have been promoted and 

 encouraged by the weakness of the Marquis di Ru- 

 dini and his colleagues, who preferred to retain 

 office by the favor of the extreme sections and to 

 pay the" price of their support in critical emergen- 

 cies rather than resign. The aim of the revolution- 

 ary parties was to establish a federal republic, or- 

 ganized more or less on Socialist or anarchist prin- 

 ciples. There \\;t> an active and influential element 

 which has been working for years through bishops, 

 priests, and religious orders to stir up and keep 

 alive political discontent, and has secretly co-oper- 

 ated with the Republican and Socialist parties, 

 hoping by tin- overthrow of the house of Savoy and 

 the formation of the federal republic to pave the 

 way to the re-establishment of the temporal power 

 of ihe Pope. 



The diirtrences between the Conservative Minis- 

 ter of Foreign Affairs and the Radical Ministers 

 of Justice and of Education had led to a crisis be- 

 fore the occurrence of the riots, and this became 

 irremediable when the Cabinet came to discuss, on 

 the one hand, the restriction of the liberty of the 

 press and the right of association and public meet- 

 ing, and. on the other, the remission of taxes and 

 the drainage of extensive marshes and other public 

 works designed to conciliate the turbulent working 

 classes. Signer Zanardelli, the Radical leader, had 

 agreed to restrictive measures and thereby angered 

 his own group. He insisted, however, that any 

 modifications in the laws of association and the 

 press should be applied with the same rigor against 

 Clericals as against Republicans or Socialists. 

 The Marquis Visconti Venosta, unwilling to coun- 

 tenance a Radical campaign against the Church, 

 insisted on resigning, rendering the resignation of 

 the whole unavoidable. When the Marquis di Ru- 

 diui on May 28 handed in the resignations of the 

 ministers. King Umberto commissioned him to 

 form a new ministry. The Cabinet was constituted 

 on June 1 as follows : President of the Council, 

 Minister of the Interior ad interim, and Minister of 

 Agriculture, Marchese di Rudini ; Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs, Marchese Raffaele Capelli ; Minister 

 of Justice, Signer Bonacci ; Minister of Finance, 

 Signer Branca; Minister of the Treasury, Signer 

 Luzzatti; Minister of War, Gen. di San Marzano; 

 Minister of Marine, Admiral Canevaro; Minister of 

 Public Instruction. Signer Cremona; Minister of 

 Public Works, Gen. Afan de Rivera; Minister of 

 Posts and Telegraphs, Signer Frola. 



The new Cabinet adopted the restriction of mu- 

 nicipal suffrage which was a part of the legislative 

 programme of the retiring ministers, who proposed 

 also to postpone for a year the elections for fear that 

 the increasing discontent caused by bad harvests, 

 dear bread, and lack of employment would result in 

 a larger contingent of revolutionaries being elected 

 to the local bodies. To counterbalance the changes 

 in the press law and in the right of association the 

 Government proposed to improve and drain differ- 

 ent parts of the country, to abolish octrois in the 

 smaller com mimes, and to restore the lands of peas- 

 ants which had been seized for nonpayment of 

 taxes. Other items of the ministerial programme 

 were provision for the annual cost of railroad con- 

 struction by a loan, the diversion of a part of the 

 sinking fund for current expenses, a state monopoly 

 of matches, and an increase in the state allowances 

 to parish priests. Parliament reassembled on June 

 10. The Marquis di Rudini. not the new ministers 

 who had taken office in his fifth Cabinet, was now 

 deserted by Signor Zanardelli and the Left, and was 

 attacked from all quarters for the confusion, the 

 tergiversation, the alternate weakness and violence 

 of his administration, the policy of expedients and 



compromises that he had followed for two years, 

 using up more than a score of ministers and aban- 

 doning four or five programmes. Foreseeing a 

 crushing defeat, the Marquis di Rudini on June 19 

 placed the resignations of the ministers and his 

 own in the hands of the King, " in order not to 

 prejudice a grave question of public order," he ex- 

 plained. 



On June 29 the crisis was ended by the advent of 

 a ministry composed of members of the various 

 groups of the Left, which was formed by the former 

 Minister of War under Signor Giolitti, as follows : 

 President of the Council and Minister of the In- 

 terior, Gen. Pelloux ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 Admiral Canevaro ; Minister of Justice, Signor Fi- 

 nocchiaro-Aprile ; Minister of the Treasury, Signor 

 Vacchelli ; Minister of War, Gen. di San Marzano ; 

 Minister of Marine, Admiral Palumbo ; Minister of 

 Public Instruction, Prof. Bacelli ; Minister of Public 

 Works, Signor Lacava ; Minister of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, Signor Fortis ; Minister of Posts and 

 Telegraphs, Signor Nunzio Nasi ; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, Paolo Carcano. The new ministry presented 

 no definite legislative programme. Gen. Pelloux 

 described its policy as absolute maintenance of or- 

 der, jealous protection of society and the institu- 

 tions, and pacification of the public mind : its pro- 

 gramme as one of administration, work, tranquillity, 

 and justice. The Chamber sanctioned the prosecu- 

 tion of Deputies Turati, de Andreis, and Morgari, 

 charged with complicity in the Milan uprising; 

 postponed the local elections for a year ; conferred 

 upon the Government discretionary power to main- 

 tain, abolish, or limit the application of the state 

 of siege and the extraordinary powers given to 

 military commissioners at the time of the disturb- 

 ances ; revived a law regarding enforced residence 

 of political criminals; and sanctioned the militari- 

 zation of railroad, telegraph, and postal employees, 

 with the object of placing them under martial law 

 and thus preventing strikes. After approving these 

 measures, combined in a bill for the preservation 

 of public order, by a vote of 177 against 37, the 

 Chamber adjourned on July 12, and the session, 

 which had lasted fifteen months, was declared closed. 

 Among its legislative enactments were bills estab- 

 lishing pensions for old and disabled workmen and 

 regulating the liability of employers and Gen. Pel- 

 loux's army reform bill. The state of siege was 

 abrogated in most districts before the end of July, 

 but in Milan was continued a few days longer until 

 the military courts, which had already convicted 

 about 700 individuals, finished the trial of the 

 accused Deputies. Of these Turati and de An- 

 dreis were convicted and sentenced to solitary con- 

 finement for twelve years. The sentences passed 

 by the tribunals at Naples were extremely severe, 

 like those of the Milan courts, which meted out 

 over a thousand years of penal servitude to the 

 condemned rioters. Gen. Pelloux enjoined upon the 

 prefects the duty of hindering absolutely or ener- 

 getically repressing every act and all propaganda of 

 a subversive character, as well as all incitement to 

 class hatred. In September suspected anarchists 

 were arrested all over the kingdom, especially in 

 the industrial centers of the north. Many who 

 fled to Switzerland were expelled under the Swiss 

 antianarchist law. After the assassination of the 

 Empress of Austria Italians were arrested in Hun- 

 gary and Austria and in Spain. The Italian Gov- 

 ernment proposed to hold an international confer- 

 ence to consider measures for the repression of 

 anarchists, defined as a class of men animated by 

 subversive principles, pursuing the avowed aim of 

 sapping the bases on which society, as at present 

 constituted, rests, and of overthrowing it altogether 

 fanatics, who do not recoil from any crime, how- 



