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CRISPI, FRANCESCO (1819-1901)
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See also:CRISPI, See also:FRANCESCO (1819-1901) , See also:Italian statesman, was See also:born at See also:Ribera in See also:Sicily on the 4th of See also:October 1819. In 1846 he established himself as See also:advocate at See also:Naples. On the outbreak of the Sicilian revolution at See also:Palermo (See also:January 12, 1848) he hastened to the See also:island and took an active See also:part in guiding the insurrection. Upon the restoration of the See also:Bourbon See also:government (May 15,1849) he was excluded from the See also:amnesty and compelled to flee to See also:Piedmont. Here he unsuccessfully applied for a situation as communal secretary of Verolengo, and eked out a penurious existence by journalism. Implicated in the Mazzinian See also:conspiracy at See also:Milan (See also:February 6, 1853), he was expelled from Piedmont, and obliged to take See also:refuge at See also:Malta, whence he fled to See also:Paris. Expelled from See also:France, he joined Mazzini in See also:London, and continued to conspire for the redemption of See also:Italy. On the 15th of See also:June 1859 he returned to Italy after See also:publishing a See also:letter repudiating the aggrandizement of Piedmont, and proclaiming himself a republican and a See also:partisan of See also:national unity. Twice in that See also:year he went the See also:round of the Sicilian cities in disguise, and prepared the insurrectionary See also:movement of I 86o. Upon his return to See also:Genoa he organized, with See also:Bertani, See also:Bixio, See also:Medici and See also:Garibaldi, the expedition of the Thousand, and overcoming by a stratagem the hesitation of Garibaldi, secured the departure of the expedition on the 5th of May 186o. Disembarking at See also:Marsala on the See also:lath, Crispi on the 13th, at Salemi, See also:drew up the See also:proclamation whereby Garibaldi assumed the dictatorship of Sicily, with the See also:programme: " Italy and See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel." After the fall of Palermo, Crispi was appointed See also:minister of the interior and of See also:finance in the Sicilian provisional government, but was shortly afterwards obliged to resign on See also:account of the struggle between Garibaldi and the emissaries of See also:Cavour with regard to the question of immediate See also:annexation. Appointed secretary to Garibaldi, Crispi secured the resignation of See also:Depretis, whom Garibaldi had appointed See also:pro-See also:dictator, and would have continued his fierce opposition to Cavour at Naples, where he had been placed by Garibaldi in the See also:foreign See also:office, had not the See also:advent of the Italian See also:regular troops and the annexation of the Two Sicilies to Italy brought about Garibaldi's withdrawal to See also:Caprera and Crispi's own resignation. Entering See also:parliament in 1861 as See also:deputy of the extreme See also:Left for Castelvetrano, Crispi acquired the reputation of being the most aggressive and most impetuous member of the republican party. In •1864, however, he made at the chamber a monarchical profession of faith, in the famous phrase afterwards repeated in his letter to Mazzini: " The See also:monarchy unites us; the See also:republic would See also:divide us." In r866 he refused to enter the See also:Ricasoli See also:cabinet; in 1867 he worked to impede the Garibaldian invasion of the papal states, foreseeing the See also:French occupation of See also:Rome and the disaster of Mentana. By methods of the same See also:character as those subsequently employed against himself by See also:Cavallotti, he carried on the violent agitation known as the Lobbia affair, in which sundry conservative deputies were, on insufficient grounds, accused of corruption. On the outbreak of the Franco-See also:German See also:War he467
worked energetically to impede the projected See also:alliance with France, and to drive the See also:Lanza cabinet to Rome. The See also:death of Ratazzi in 1873 induced Crispi's See also:friends to put forward his candidature to the leadership of the Left; but Crispi, anxious to reassure the See also:crown, secured the See also:election of Depretis. After the advent of the Left he was elected (See also:November 1876) See also:president of the chamber. During the autumn of 1877 he went to London, Paris and See also:Berlin on a confidential See also:mission, establishing cordial See also:personal relationships with See also:Gladstone, See also:Granville and other See also:English statesmen, and with See also:Bismarck.
In See also:December 1877 he replaced See also:Nicotera as minister of the interior in the Depretis cabinet, his See also:short See also:term of office (70 days) being signalized by a See also:series of important events. On January 9, 1878, the death of Victor Emmanuel and the See also:accession of See also: The statesmanlike qualities displayed on this occasion were unavailing to avert the See also:storm of indignation conjured up by Crispi's opponents in connexion with a See also:charge of See also:bigamy not susceptible of legal See also:proof. Crispi was compelled to resign office, although the judicial authorities upheld the invalidity of his See also:early See also:marriage, contracted at Malta in 1853, and ratified his subsequent See also:union with Signora Barbagallo. For nine years Crispi remained politically under a See also: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 (See also:July 29, 1887). One of his first acts as premier was a visit to Bismarck, whom he desired to consult upon the working of the Triple Alliance. Basing his foreign policy upon the alliance, as supplemented by the See also:naval entente with See also:Great See also:Britain negotiated by his predecessor, See also:Count See also:Robilant, Crispi assumed a resolute attitude towards France, breaking off the prolonged and unfruitful negotiations for a new Franco-Italian commercial treaty, and refusing the French invitation to organize an Italian See also:section at the Paris See also:Exhibition of 1889. At See also:home Crispi secured the See also:adoption of the Sanitary and Commercial Codes, and reformed the See also:administration of See also:justice. Forsaken by his See also:Radical friends, Crispi governed with the help of the Right until, on the 31st of January 1891, an intemperate allusion to the saute memorie of the conservative party led to his overthrow. In December 1893 the See also:impotence of the See also:Giolitti cabinet to restore public See also:order, then menaced by disturbances in Sicily and in Lunigiana, gave rise to a See also:general demand that Crispi should return to See also:power. Upon resuming office he vigorously suppressed the disorders, and steadily supported the energetic remedies adopted by See also:Sonnino, minister of finance, to See also:save Italian See also:credit, which had been severely shaken by the See also:bank and See also:financial crises of 1892-1893. Crispi's uncompromising suppression of disorder, and his refusal to abandon either the Triple Alliance or the Eritrean See also:colony, or to forsake his colleague Sonnino, caused a See also:breach between him and the radical See also:leader Cavallotti. Cavallotti then began against him a pitiless See also:campaign of See also:defamation. An unsuccessful See also:attempt upon Crispi's See also:life by the anarchist Lega brought a momentary truce, but Cavallotti's attacks were soon renewed more fiercely than ever. They produced so little effect that the general election of 1895 gave Crispi a huge See also:majority, but, a year later, the defeat of the Italian See also:army at See also:Adowa in See also:Abyssinia brought about his resignation. The ensuing Rudini cabinet See also: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 See also:embezzlement. A See also:parliamentary See also:commission, appointed to inquire into the charges against him, discovered only that Crispi, on assuming office in 1893, had found the See also:secret service coffers empty, and +68 had borrowed from a See also:state bank the sum of £12,000 for secret service, repaying it with the monthly instalments granted in regular course by the See also:treasury. The commission, considering this proceeding irregular, proposed, and the chamber adopted, a See also:vote of censure, but refused to authorize a See also:prosecution. Crispi resigned his seat in parliament, but was re-elected by an overwhelming majority in See also:April 1898 by his Palermo constituents. For some See also:time he took little part in active politics, chiefly on account of his growing See also:blindness. A successful operation for See also:cataract restored his eyesight in June 1900, and notwithstanding his 81 years he resumed to some extent his former See also:political activity. Soon afterwards, however, his See also:health began to give way permanently, and he died at Naples on the 12th of See also:August 1901. The importance of Crispi in Italian public life depended less upon the many reforms accomplished under his administrations than upon his intense patriotism, remarkable fibre, and capacity for administering to his See also:fellow-countrymen the political tonic of which they stood in See also:constant need. In regard to foreign politics he greatly contributed to raise Italian See also: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 re-membered that the French republic was then engaged in active See also:anti-Italian schemes and was working, both at the Vatican and in thesphere of colonial politics, to create a situation that should compel Italy to See also:bow to French exigencies and to abandon the Triple Alliance. Crispi was prepared to cultivate See also:good relations with France, but refused to yield to pressure or to submit to dicta - tion; and in this attitude he was firmly supported by the bulk of his fellow-countrymen. The See also:criticism freely directed against him was based rather upon the circumstances of his unfortunate private life and the misdeeds of an unscrupulous entourage which traded upon his name than upon his personal or political short-comings. See Scritti e discorsi politici di F. Crispi, 1847–1890 (Rome, 1890) ; Francesco Crispi, by W. J. See also:Stillman (London, 1899). 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