396 



ITALY. 



He had no party majority behind him. and was 

 obliged to construct one, as Depretis and Rudini 

 had done, by holding out inducements to the 

 political chiefs who use their following in the 

 Chamber for the purpose of securing advantages 

 for themselves or for their adherents or section. 

 When the Marchese di Rudini retired at the end 

 of June, 1898, he had in preparation a bill to 

 arm the Minister of the Interior with extraordi- 

 nary powers for the purpose of combating the 

 revolutionary forces at work in the land which 

 had stirred up the recent sanguinary riots at 

 Milan. Gen. Pelloux took up the task of carry- 

 ing through this repressive legislation, but the 

 ministers postponed its introduction, hoping to 

 win the confidence of the Left by a successful 

 foreign policy. The French commercial conven- 

 tion was generally approved by their supporters 

 and by the independent and hostile factions of 

 the Left. It was the first measure taken up 

 when the Chamber met on Jan. 25, 1899, and was 

 ratified by a vote of 226 to 34 on Jan. 28. The 

 Republicans and Socialists voted for it as con- 

 stituting a step toward a political reconciliation 

 and alliance with France, and for that reason they 

 and their Radical allies renewed their attacks 

 on the triple alliance, and watched with jealous 

 distrust the developments of the Mediterranean 

 naval understanding or agreement with England. 

 The Chamber authorized the putting into cir- 

 culation of the silver coins that had been locked 

 up in the vaults of the state banks and the re- 

 tirement of the one and two lira notes issued to 

 supply their place, precautions having already 

 been taken to prevent the exodus of the Italian 

 coins by an international agreement depriving 

 them of their legal-tender quality in other states 

 of the Latin Union, and restricting their circula- 

 tion to Italy alone. The reissue of the silver 

 pieces in the place of the small treasury notes 

 was equivalent to the abolition of forced cur- 

 rency, since the bank notes of five lire and up- 

 ward were already by law convertible into me- 

 tallic money on demand, although this law could 

 not be enforced so long as the amount in circula- 

 tion was so redundant as to expel gold by forcing 

 it up to a premium. The Government would 

 not promise to accept the remobilized silver cur- 

 rency in payment of customs dues except in very 

 limited sums. The Chamber debated for several 

 days in the early part of February the question 

 of declaring vacant the seats of Deputies De 

 Andreis and Turati, who in the summer of 1898 

 had been sentenced by military tribunals to im- 

 prisonment with loss of civil rights. The groups 

 of the Left endeavored to extract from the Pre- 

 mier a pledge in favor of a general political am- 

 nesty, and, insisting on retaining full freedom 

 of action in regard to the exercise of royal clem- 

 ency, he had to rely on the support of the Con- 

 servatives, now united under the lead of Baron 

 Sonnino, rather than on that of the normal ma- 

 jority. The vote declaring the seats of the con- 

 victed Socialist Deputies vacant was 220 to 50. 

 A monster petition was presented in favor of 

 amnesty, but the Chamber by 197 votes to 77 

 declined to force the hand of the Government. 

 Many of the followers of Zanardelli separated 

 themselves from the ministerial majority, and the 

 groups of Giolitti, Rudini, and Crispi offered only 

 a conditional support. Gen. Pelloux found that 

 to carry a public-safety bill he must sever him- 

 self from his former supporters and accept the 

 alliance of the Conservatives. The new taxes 

 proposed by the Government were unpopular 

 among the people, and were opposed by Radicals 

 and Conservatives alike, especially in the north 



of Italy. The Right and the Center opposed the 

 financial policy of the Government generally. The 

 Senate manifested hostility to the Government, 

 and especially to Signer Fortis, the Minister of 

 Agriculture, by rejecting the latter's bill to es- 

 tablish municipal grain stores' from which peas- 

 ants could borrow at seed time, repaying the loan 

 in kind with interest after the harvest. The 

 King declined to accept the resignation of Signer 

 Fortis, w T hich he tendered after this affront. A 

 bill exempting salaries of officials from taxation 

 was so altered by Senate amendments that the 

 Government withdrew the measure. The discus- 

 sion of the public- safety bill began in the Cham- 

 ber in the middle of February. After a debate 

 lasting three weeks it was accepted in principle, 

 although with qualifications from Giolitti and 

 other leaders that rendered the ultimate fate of 

 tlie bill extremely doubtful. 



The sale of the cruisers Varese and Garibaldi 

 to the Argentine Government in 1898 had evoked 

 strictures upon the previous Minister of Marine, 

 and when Admiral Palumbo announced that 10,- 

 200,000 lire of the proceeds of that sale would 

 be applied to the purchase of the protected cruiser 

 Hai-Chi, built by the Armstrongs for the Chinese 

 Government, and capable of steaming 24 knots 

 an hour, he was even more severely criticised, 

 on account of his departure from the policy of 

 constructing the Italian navy entirely in Italian 

 shipyards. The rejection by the Chinese Govern- 

 ment of Italy's peremptory demand for a naval 

 station in San-Mun Bay created an awkward 

 dilemma for the Government, and the situation 

 was aggravated by the fact that Great Britain 

 formally supported the Italian demand. The dis- 

 avowal and recall of the Italian minister at Pekin, 

 who had conducted the negotiations maladroitly, 

 saved the diplomatic situation, but it did not 

 help the ministry; and when Admiral Canevaro 

 attempted to justify his action by divulging con- 

 fidential communications that passed between 

 members of the preceding Government on the sub- 

 ject of Chinese enterprise, he committed a fresh 

 offense. The followers of Zanardelli, Giolitti, and 

 Rudini were hostile to all Chinese expansion, and 

 all parties showed disapproval of the methods 

 pursued by the Government. 



Without waiting for a vote from the Chamber, 

 Gen. Pelloux and his colleagues tendered their 

 resignation on May 2, deeming it more patriotic 

 to acknowledge a rebuke affecting their political 

 conduct rather than allow the future policy of 

 the Government in China to be compromised by 

 a vote of the Chamber. The Republicans and 

 Socialists protested strongly against the action 

 of the ministry in resigning without a hostile 

 vote, as they had before when ministers resorted 

 to the same expedient. In their eyes it was only 

 a device for prolonging extraparliamentary gov- 

 ernment, and preventing the formation of a min- 

 istry supported by a constitutional majority. 

 Admiral Canevaro was willing to resign his port- 

 folio in order to leave the Chinese question un- 

 prejudiced, but Gen. Pelloux insisted on the col- 

 lective responsibility of the Cabinet. Gen. Pel- 

 loux, whose services King Umberto was unwill- 

 ing to lose while the danger of revolution still 

 existed, was commissioned to organize a new 

 Cabinet. He consulted with Baron Sonnino, and, 

 as the latter was unwilling to enter a ministry 

 in which he did not himself have the responsible 

 direction of the Interior Department, a new com- 

 bination independent of the Left was not easy 

 to bring about. The Conservative leader at last 

 persuaded the Marchese Visconti Venosta to take 

 the portfolio of Fo'reign Affairs, and on -May 14 



