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on a dynastic and patriotic basis that the Government rallied its forces. On June 6 the Deputies went en masse to the Quirinal to present their congratulations to the King. Many members of the Extreme Left joined the procession, an unprecedented occurrence. In the discussion on the estimates for the Foreign Office Sgr. Prinetti obtained a marked success, even though he refused to flatter the dominant enthusiasm of the majority, especially in the debate on Albania. He spoke of the Triple Alliance in complimentary language, at the same time refusing to accept either Ciccotti's motion pressing on the Government a foreign policy inspired by moral laws of right, but not bound by treaties, or Chiesi's Order of the Day, vaguely advocating a policy in accordance with the moral and economic interests of the nation.” Finally, at the sitting of June 20, Luzzatti's Order of the Day was voted on a second ballot, expressing the Chamber's confidence in the Government and reserving the latter's liberty of action; the majority was 205 to 175, and that preponderance was much increased upon the Vote on the Interior which took place the week after, when the numbers were 264 to 184, 90 of the majority being members of the Extreme Left. Some days after, having voted the Budget, the Chamber broke up for the recess. The Government narrowly escaped being forced to recall the Deputies to vote provisional supplies, because the Senate, always hostile to the Minister of the Interior, refused to vote his Estimates. Finally, however (July 4), the Senate decided to swim with the tide and gave 47 white balls against 44 black, with the aid of the votes of the Ministers and Under-Secretaries of State.

The oppressive summer months were marked first by a strike in Sardinia of the small staff on the line of railway, which coincided with an analogous affair in Corsica, and, secondly, by the dislocation of the Socialist party, whose more moderate members put forth a declaration in the course of July that they had decided to support the Government. A small Ministerial crisis occurred at the beginning of August, when the Minister of Finance, Sgr. Vollemberg, and Sgr. Picardi, Minister of Agriculture, retired, and were replaced, the first by the Deputy P. Carcano, comrade of Garibaldi in his expedition of "the Thousand," and member of the first Pelloux Ministry. As soon as he was appointed Sgr. Carcano set to work, and before August 19 submitted to a Council of Ministers, specially met for the purpose, his first proposals. At the same time the young King quitted his country residence of Racconigi to visit in turn the great towns of the kingdom: Turin, cradle of the dynasty; Venice, where important works had just been executed; Milan, where magnificent preparations had been made to fête the royal pair. The last visit was full of significance. The enthusiasm with which Victor Emmanuel was welcomed in this town of learning and activity, the home of Italian Socialism, testified to the people's sense of indebtedness to their young Sovereign for having broken the bonds by

which his father had allowed himself to be fettered during the last part of his reign. It was like the end of a nightmare. Crispi's death, which almost coincided with that of Baratieri in August, marked as it were the end of an epoch. Mazzini was certainly a false prophet when he predicted that Crispi would be "the gravedigger of the House of Savoy." That House, of which, indeed, Crispi had been one of the most loyal and effective supporters, seemed stronger than ever; but its vigour did not exclude moderation.

An incident, which might have assumed grave proportions, was fairly soon reduced to order. The Dalmatians resident in Rome invaded a cloister of San Girolamo on the pretext that some of its revenues ought to be allotted to the relief of the miseries of their colony. The rector lodged a complaint against this violation of domiciliary rights. The "Irredentists" joined in the quarrel, but the wisdom of Sgr. Prinetti nipped this international discord in the bud. Sgr. Giolitti, on his side, and the new Minister of Agriculture made use of gentle methods to calm the agrarian disorders which were caused by distress in the latifundia of the Roman Campagna.

By a happy change in the manners of Italian politicians, the chiefs of the various parties gave the President of the Council some credit for the success of his colleagues. A great banquet was given on October 1 to Sgr. Zanardelli by the delegates of the working-classes at Gondone, in the province of Bergamo, and the veteran Minister received there a gold medal for the political service he had rendered to the country. The King's popularity was great Zanardelli, it was said, is the guide of affairs, but it is the King who chose Zanardelli. This series of fêtes ended with a journey to Naples, where the King assisted, on November 3, at the launching of the ironclad Benedetto Brin, surrounded by a large number of people of the greatest importance and the highest rank in the realm, assembled specially to give éclat to the ceremony and to flatter the local enthusiasm of the Neapolitans.

The most thickly populated town of Italy was soon plunged in an election fever. The Municipal Council had been dissolved after appalling revelations of the abuses committed in the town by the Camorra. The elections took place on November 10; they resulted in the complete downfall of the Camorrists. The old Syndic of the town, chief of this redoubtable party, Sgr. Summonte, was utterly beaten and appeared last of the last list. The Government appointed Senator Sareddo to open an inquiry and to make a circumstantial report on the tactics and actions of the party which had held Naples so long under its control.

Some days before the meeting of the Chamber there appeared a Royal Decree, increasing the powers of the President of the Council and of the Council of Ministers. For the future the Minister of Foreign Affairs was to be required to give notice to the Premier of all communications which might concern the general policy of the Government, and, further, the nominations

of the Minister of the Royal House and of the Prefect of the Palace, hitherto reserved to the Sovereign, were to be made by the Council. Victor Emmanuel III. could not have given a more conclusive proof of his desire to follow as closely as possible the principles of Constitutional Monarchy.

It was under this impression that the winter session opened (Nov. 27). The Minister of the Treasury, Di Broglio, made known to the Chamber that the financial year 1900-1 left the country with a surplus of 40,000,000 lire instead of the deficit of 7,000,000 lire which had been predicted. This favourable state of affairs, while it strengthened the Government, hastened the disruption of the opposing parties, of which many incidents had made every one aware. Among these incidents must be included the Congress of Ancona, where a group of audacious men of the Republican party voted the nomination of a committee of direction charged to issue commands to all the Republicans of the peninsula, and decided that this imperative mandate should be imposed on all the Deputies elected by that party. One of them, the member for Venice, Sgr. Pantano, made it known that he would rather resign his seat than submit to a humiliating tutelage. One of the leaders of the Extreme Left, Sgr. Turati, gave in his resignation, and announced from Milan some days later that he would not consent to re-election. Some time before a congress of agricultural labourers had taken place at Bologna, organised by the Socialists, but it had escaped from the control of that party.

While the anti-dynastic opposition was crumbling of itself Sgr. Giolitti dealt a clever blow at the Constitutional opposition by creating a batch of thirty new Senators. The higher Chamber welcomed these new-comers with the greatest illhumour. "I have the honour," wrote Sgr. Saracco, President of the Senate, "to acknowledge the receipt of the Royal Decree, which nominates thirty persons to take part in the work of the Senate." On hearing of this action seventy-four Senators present left their cards on their President. The next day (Dec. 8) in the Chamber of Deputies a storm took place. The Government brought forward a bill for authorising the burial of Crispi in the Church of San Domenico at Palermo. While Sgr. Sonnino was defending the memory of his old friend and eulogising his policy the Socialists protested vehemently, and made such a tumult that the President was obliged to conclude the sitting. On December 9 questions on the affairs of Naples began. Five counsellors of the Court of Appeal were cited on a charge of corruption before the Court of Cassation. Senator Sareddo, who conducted the inquiry, revealed appalling facts. The Government proved easily that the leniency of authority towards those principally guilty, which had aggravated the situation, was, indeed, to be imputed to former Ministries, but that the present one had tried energetically to throw light on the affair. All the same, Sgr. Giolitti was

obliged to plead guilty, as he had been several times in power. Very much more happy was the position of Sgr. Prinetti, who scored a marked success when (Dec. 14) he explained fully the Franco-Italian Agreement with regard to Tripolitania, and made public (Dec. 20) his circular to Italian Consuls abroad on the measures to be taken with regard to emigration, and especially on all that concerned the exploitation of children's labour. The efforts of Italian diplomacy to obtain from Mr. Hay reparation and indemnities for the ill-treatment of which Italians had been the victims, especially in the States on the Gulf of Mexico, met with less success.

On December 22 the Chamber began its recess, after having voted the financial measures proposed by the Government. The duties on flour, which the Ministers had long promised to suppress, were gradually abolished. And in spite of the reduction in taxes the Minister of the Treasury made the grand announcement that the public works necessary to give work through the hard winter months could be executed without fresh taxation or loans. The year ended under a sense of great satisfaction. Italy realised with legitimate pride that her public finance was the most wisely managed of any in Europe; that her Parliamentary debates had been idyllic compared with the storms which had disturbed the other Continental Assemblies; and, finally, that, in view of the term of the Triple Alliance in 1903, competing countries had made friendly advances and promises to secure her good-will-a situation as agreeable to a nation as to an individual.

CHAPTER II.

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

I. GERMANY.

THE great question of the Elbe and Rhine Canal, on which the Prussian Government was defeated in 1899 (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1899, pp. 274 to 276), was again the subject of a violent conflict between the agrarians and the manufacturers throughout the year 1901. On January 9 the new Imperial Chancellor, Count von Bülow, described in the Prussian Parliament the policy he intended to adopt on this question. He said that he regarded it as the first duty of the Government to do its best to reconcile the interests of the agrarians with those of the manufacturing classes by means of a compromise acceptable to both parties, and to protect with impartiality agriculture as well as commerce and industry. He denied that the Canal Bill would either confer benefits on the western districts at the expense of the eastern, or on industry and commerce at the expense of agriculture. These interests were designed both by

nature and by historical development to support each other. The west possessed an ancient civilisation, great energy and alertness, copious natural resources; the east was the cradle of the monarchy, and in the most critical period of German history, a century ago, had saved the Prussian State, and with it the German nationality. The object of the Canal Bill, with the supplementary measures now introduced by the Government, was to provide a system of inland waterways which would. equally benefit all classes and all portions of the country, and would open a splendid market in the west for the agricultural products and the timber of the east. At the same time he announced that the Government would take care that the eastern provinces should obtain protection against foreign competition by means of tariffs-thereby hinting that the corn duties would be increased.

The supplementary measures to which the Chancellor referred were for a canal between Berlin and Stettin, one between the Oder and the Vistula, the regulation of the Warthe and the lower reaches of the Oder and Havel, and further works for developing the canalisation of the Spree. These concessions to the eastern provinces, combined with the promised increase of the corn duties, would, it was hoped, overcome the opposition of the agrarians to the bill, but Count von Bülow's speech was on the whole coldly received, not only by the agrarians, but by the Liberal Opposition, who objected to the increase in the price of bread which would be caused by the proposed augmentation of the corn duties. Moreover, the bill as amended involved a very heavy expenditure, amounting to a total of 389,000,000 marks (19,000,000l.), and one of the chief objections of the majority to the bill of 1899, which involved a much smaller expenditure, was that it would impose too heavy a burden on the finances of Prussia. An increase of the corn duties, as promised by the Chancellor, would, of course, be very acceptable to the agricultural classes, but he did not state what would be the amount of such increase, and it would have to be very considerable to induce their representatives in Parliament to waive their objections to the bill. An attempt was made by them on January 28 to obtain a categorical statement from the Government on the subject, but without success. In the debate which followed it was urged by the Conservatives that unless the existing duties on corn were very largely increased Germany would become exclusively a manufacturing and trading country; that this was not expedient from a political point of view, as the peasantry form the backbone of the German Army and are by their loyalty and patriotism the strongest bulwark against the advance of Socialism; and that the working-classes in the towns would not suffer from the increase in the price of provisions resulting from the proposed higher duties, as wages would go up in consequence of the increased purchasing power of the agricultural classes, and the consequently increasing

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