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GIOLITTI, GIOVANNI (1842– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 31 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIOLITTI, GIOVANNI (1842– ) , See also:Italian statesman, was See also:born at See also:Mondovi on the 27th of See also:October 1842. After a rapid career in the See also:financial See also:administration he was, in 1882, appointed councillor of See also:state and elected to See also:parliament. As See also:deputy he chiefly acquired prominence by attacks on See also:Magliani, See also:treasury See also:minister in the See also:Depretis See also:cabinet, and on the 9th of See also:March 1889 was himself selected as treasury minister by See also:Crispi. On the fall of the Rudini cabinet in May 1892, Giolitti, with the help of a See also:court clique, succeeded to the premiership. His See also:term of See also:office was marked by misfortune and misgovernment. The See also:building crisis and the commercial rupture with See also:France had impaired the situation of the state See also:banks, of which one, the Banca See also:Romana, had been further undermined by maladministration. A See also:bank See also:law, passed by Giolitti failed to effect an improvement. More-over, he irritated public See also:opinion by raising to senatorial See also:rank the director-See also:general of the Banca Romana, Signor Tanlongo, whose irregular practices had become a byword. The See also:senate declined to admit Tanlongo, whom Giolitti, in consequence of an See also:interpellation in parliament upon the See also:condition of the Banca Romana, was obliged to See also:arrest and prosecute. During the See also:prosecution Giolitti abused his position as premier to abstract documents bearing on the See also:case. Simultaneously a See also:parliamentary See also:commission of inquiry investigated the condition of the state banks. Its See also:report, though acquitting Giolitti of See also:personal dishonesty, proved disastrous to his See also:political position, and obliged him to resign.

His fall See also:

left the finances of the state disorganized, the See also:pensions fund depleted, See also:diplomatic relations with France strained in consequence of the See also:massacre of Italian workmen at Aigues-Mortes, and See also:Sicily and the Lunigiana in a state of revolt, which he had proved impotent to suppress. After his resignation he was impeached for abuse of See also:power as minister, but the supreme court quashed the See also:impeachment by denying the competence of the See also:ordinary tribunals to See also:judge ministerial acts. For several years he was compelled to See also:play a passive See also:part, having lost all See also:credit. But by keeping in the background and giving public opinion See also:time to forget his past, as well as by parliamentary intrigue, he gradually regained much of his former See also:influence. He made See also:capital of the Socialist agitation and of the repression to which other statesmen resorted, and gave the See also:agitators to understand that were he premier they would be allowed a See also:free See also:hand. Thus he gained their favour, and on the fall of the See also:Pelloux cabinet he became minister of the Interior in See also:Zanardelli's administration, of which he was the real See also:head. His policy of never interfering in strikes and leaving even violent demonstrations undisturbed at first proved successful, but indiscipline and disorder See also:grew to such a See also:pitch that Zanardelli, already in See also:bad See also:health, resigned, and Giolitti succeeded him as See also:prime minister (See also:November 1903). But during his See also:tenure of office he, too, had to resort to strong See also:measures in repressing some serious disorders in various parts of See also:Italy, and thus he lost the favour of the Socialists. In March 1905, feeling himself no longer secure, he resigned, indicating Fortis as his successor. When See also:Sonnino became premier in See also:February 1906, Giolitti did not openly oppose him, but his followers did, and Sonnino was defeated in May, Giolitti becoming prime minister once more.

End of Article: GIOLITTI, GIOVANNI (1842– )

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