CRISPI, FRANCESCO (1819-1901), Italian statesman, was born at Ribera in Sicily on Oct. 4, 1819. In 1846 he estab lished himself as advocate at Naples. On the outbreak of the Sicilian revolution at Palermo (Jan. 12, 1848) he hastened to the island and took an active part in guiding the insurrection. Upon the restoration of the Bourbon government (May 15, 1849) he was excluded from the amnesty and compelled to flee to Pied mont. Here he eked out a penurious existence by journalism. Im plicated in the Mazzinian conspiracy at Milan (Feb. 6, 1853) he was expelled from Piedmont, took refuge at Malta, whence he fled to Paris. Expelled from France, he joined Mazzini in London and continued to conspire for the redemption of Italy. On June 15, 1859, he returned to Italy after publishing a letter repudiat ing the aggrandizement of Piedmont, and proclaiming himself a republican and a partisan of national unity. Twice in that year he went the round of the Sicilian cities in disguise, and prepared the insurrectionary movement of 186o.
Upon his return to Genoa, he organized, with Bertani, Bixio, Medici and Garibaldi, the expedition of the Thousand, and over coming by a stratagem the hesitation of Garibaldi, secured the departure of the expedition on May 5, 186o. After the fall of Palermo, Crispi was appointed minister of the interior and of finance in the Sicilian provisional government, but he resigned soon after. Entering parliament in 1861 as deputy of the extreme Left for Castelvetrarao Crispi acquired the reputation of being the most aggressive and most impetuous member of the republican party, but in 1864 he made at the chamber a monarch ical profession of faith in the famous phrase afterwards repeated in his letter to Mazzini. "The monarchy unites us, the republic would divide us." On the outbreak of the Franco-German War he sought to impede the projected alliance with France, and to drive the Lanza cabinet to Rome. The death of Ratazzi in 1873 induced Crispi's friends to put forward his candidature to the leadership of the Left; but Crispi, anxious to reassure the crown, secured the election of Depretis. After the advent of the Left he was elected (Nov. 1876) president of the chamber.
In Dec. 1877 he replaced Nicotera as minister of the interior in the Depretis cabinet, his short term of office (7 o days) being signalized by a series of important events. On Jan. 9, 1878, the death of Victor Emmanuel and the accession of King Humbert enabled Crispi to secure the formal establishment of a unitary monarchy, the new monarch taking the title of Humbert I. of Italy instead of Humbert IV. of Savoy. On Feb. 9, 1879, the death of Pius IX. necessitated a conclave, the first to be held after the unification of Italy. Crispi helped by Mancini and Car dinal Pecci (afterwards Leo XIII.) persuaded the Sacred College to hold the conclave in Rome. Unfortunately a storm of indigna tion was conjured up by Crispi's opponents in connection with a charge of bigamy not susceptible of legal proof and he was com pelled to resign office. For nine years Crispi remained politically under a cloud, but in 1887 returned to office as minister of the interior in the Depretis cabinet, succeeding to the premiership upon the death of Depretis (July 29, 1887).
Basing his foreign policy upon the Triple Alliance as supple mented by the naval entente with Great Britain, Crispi assumed a resolute attitude towards France, breaking off the prolonged and unfruitful negotiations for a new Franco-Italian commercial treaty. At home he secured the adoption of the Sanitary and Commercial Codes and reformed the administration of justice. Forsaken by his Radical friends, Crispi governed with the help of the Right until on Jan. 31, 1891, an intemperate allusion to the sante memorie of the conservative party led to his overthrow. In Dec. 1893 the impotence of the Giolitti cabinet to restore public order, then menaced by disturbances in Sicily and in Lunigana led to a general demand that Crispi should return to power. Crispi's uncompromising suppression of disorder, and his refusal to abandon either the Triple Alliance or the Eritrean colony, or to forsake his colleague Sonnino, minister of finance, caused a breach between him and the radical leader Cavallotti, who then began against him a pitiless campaign of defamation. An unsuccessful attempt upon Crispi's life by the anarchist Lega brought a momentary truce. but Cavallotti's attacks were soon renewed more fiercely than ever. The general election of 1895 gave Crispi a huge majority, but a year later, the defeat of the Italian army at Adowa in Abyssinia brought about his resignation. The ensuing Rudini cabinet lent itself to Cavallotti's campaign and at the end of 1897 the judicial authorities applied to the chamber for permission to prosecute Crispi for embezzlement. A parliamentary commission, appointed to inquire into the charges against him, discovered only that Crispi, on assuming office in 1893, had found the secret service coffers empty, and had bor rowed from a state bank the sum of Li 2,000 for secret service. re paying it with the monthly instalments granted in regular course by the treasury. The commission, considering this proceeding irregular, proposed, and the chamber adopted, a vote of censure, but refused to authorize a prosecution. Crispi resigned his seat in parliament, but was re-elected by an overwhelming majority in April 1898 by his Palermo constituents. Soon afterwards, how ever, his health began to fail and he died at Naples on Aug. 12, 190I.
In regard to foreign politics Crispi did much to raise Italian prestige and to dispel the reputation for untrustworthiness and vacillation acquired by many of his predecessors. If in regard to France his policy appeared to lack suavity and circumspection, it must be remembered that the French republic was then engaged in active anti-Italian schemes and was working, both at the Vatican and in the sphere of colonial politics, to create a situa tion that should compel Italy to bow to French exigencies and to abandon the Triple Alliance.
See Scritti e discorsi politici di F. Crispi, (189o) ; W. I. Stillman, Francesco Crispi (1899) ; G. Arcoleo, Francesco Crispi (Milan, 1905) ; Francesco Crispi: Politico estero, etc. (Milan, 19.1z).. Eng. trans. 3 vols. (1912-14) ; G. Castellini, Crispi (Florence, 1915) ; G. Salvemini, La Politica estera di Francesco Crispi (1919) .