GIOLITTI The ensuing general election held in Nov. 1892 marked by unprecedented violence and abuse of official pressure upon the electorate, fitly ushered in what proved to be one of the most unfortunate periods of Italian history since the completion of national unity. Early in 1893 a scandal arose in connection with the management of State banks, especially of the Banca Romana, whose managing director, Tanlongo, had issued 62,500,000 lire of duplicate bank-notes. Giolitti scarcely improved matters by creating Tanlongo a member of the senate, and by denying in parliament the existence of any mismanagement. In consequence of an interpellation in the Chamber, Giolitti was compelled to arrest Tanlongo and other prominent persons, and to sanction an investigation by a parliamentary commission of seven members, into the conditions of the banks of issue. On Nov. 23 the report of the commission was read in the Chamber. It established that the two preceding cabinets had been aware of the irregularities committed by Tanlongo ; that Tanlongo had heavily subsidized the press; that a number of deputies, including several ex-minis ters, had received from him loans of a considerable amount; that Giolitti had deceived the Chamber about the banks of issue and was open to suspicion of having, after the arrest of Tanlongo, abstracted a number of documents from the latter's papers before placing the remainder in the hands of the judicial authorities. In spite of the gravity of the charges formulated against many prom inent men, the report merely "deplored" and "disapproved" of their conduct, without proposing penal proceedings. The report, however, sealed the fate of the Giolitti cabinet, and on Nov. 24 it resigned amid general execration.
Giolitti also exhibited incompetence in the conduct of foreign and home affairs. On Aug. 16 and 18, 1893, a number of Italian workmen were massacred at Aigues-Mortes. The French authori ties, under whose eyes the massacre was perpetrated, did nothing to prevent or repress it. This occurrence provoked anti-French demonstrations in many parts of Italy. The Italian foreign min ister Brin, accepted as satisfactory the anodyne measures adopted by the French Government, and Giolitti removed the prefect of Rome for not having prevented an expression of popular anger.
In the following December the French tribunal at Angoul8me ac quitted all the authors of the massacre. At home Giolitti displayed the same weakness. Symptoms of unrest in Sicily found him, as usual, unprepared and vacillating. The closing of the French mar ket to Sicilian produce, the devastation wrought by the phyllox era and the decrease of the sulphur trade had combined to produce in Sicily a discontent of which Socialist agitators took advantage to organize the workmen and the peasants into groups known as fasci. Here and there the movement was based upon a bastard socialism, in other places it was made a means of municipal party warfare under the guidance of the local mafia, and in some dis tricts it was simply popular effervescence against the local octrois on bread and flour. As early as Jan. 1893 a conflict had occurred between the police and the populace, in which several persons were killed, an occurrence used by the agitators further to inflame the populace. Instead of maintaining a firm policy, Giolitti allowed the movement to spread until, towards the autumn of 1893, he be came alarmed and drafted troops into the island. At the moment of his fall the movement assumed the aspect of an insurrection. The return of Crispi to power (Dec. io)—a return imposed by
public opinion as that of the only man capable of dealing with the desperate situation—marked the turning-point of the crisis. The fasci were suppressed, a state of siege was proclaimed, and the whole movement crushed in a few weeks. A simultaneous insurrection at Massa-Carrara was crushed with similar vigour.
Crispi's methods aroused great outcry in the Radical press, but the severe sentences of the military courts were in time tempered by the royal prerogative of amnesty.
The financial situation further inspired serious misgivings. The State banks, already hampered by maladministration, were encum bered by huge quantities of real estate and the deficit amounted to over 150,000,000 lire. Drastic measures were required to limit expenditure and to provide new sources of revenue. Baron Sonnino, the finance minister, applied, and subsequently amended, a bill passed by the previous administration (Aug. 1o, 1893) for the creation of a supreme State bank, the Bank of Italy, which was entrusted with the liquidation of the insolvent Banca Romana. The new law forbade the State banks to lend money on real es tate, limited their powers of discounting bills and securities, and reduced the maximum of their paper currency. Forced currency was given to the existing notes of the banks of Italy, Naples and Sicily, while special State notes were issued to meet immediate currency needs. Various measures were prepared for increasing revenue and introducing economies, while the income-tax upon consols was increased from 13% to 20%. These proposals met with opposition so fierce as to cause a cabinet crisis, but Scnnino, who resigned office as minister of finance, returned to power as minister of the Treasury, promulgated some of his proposals by royal decree, and in spite of vehement opposition secured the rati fication by the Chamber. When the Crispi cabinet fell in March 1896, Sonnino had the satisfaction of seeing revenue increased by 85,000,000 lire, outgo fall by 90,000,000 lire, the gold premium reduced from 16 to 5%, consolidated stock at 95 instead of 72, and, notwithstanding the expenditure necessitated by the Abys sinian war, financial equilibrium practically restored.
While engaged in restoring order and in supporting Sonnino's courageous struggle against bankruptcy, Crispi became the object of fierce attacks from the Radicals, Socialists and anarchists. A series of anarchist outrages led the government to frame and par liament to adopt (July ) a Public Safety Bill for the prevention of anarchist propaganda and crime. At the end of July the trial of the persons implicated in the Banca Romana scandal led to a series of charges against Crispi by Giolitti, and the Radical leader, Cavallotti, but they proved devoid of serious foundation, and Gio litti fled to Berlin to avoid arrest for libel. At the general election of May 1895, Crispi's Government obtained a majority of nearly 200 votes. Nevertheless public confidence in the efficacy of the parliamentary system and in the honesty of politicians was se riously diminished by these unsavoury occurrences, which, in com bination with the acquittal of all the defendants in the Banca Romana trial, and the abandonment of the proceedings against Giolitti, reinforced to an alarming degree the propaganda of the revolutionary parties.