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SELLA, QUINTINO (1827-1884)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 614 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SELLA, QUINTINO (1827-1884) , See also:Italian statesman and financier, was See also:born at Mosso, near See also:Biella, on the 7th of See also:July 1827. After studying See also:engineering at See also:Turin, he was sent in 1843 to study See also:mineralogy at the Parisian school of mines. In See also:Paris he witnessed the revolution of 1848, and only returned to Turin in 1852, when he taught applied See also:geometry at the technical See also:institute. In 1853 be became See also:professor of See also:mathematics at the university, and in 186o professor of mineralogy in the school of applied engineering. In 186o he was elected See also:deputy for Cossato. A See also:year later he was selected to be secretary-See also:general of public instruction, and in 1862 received from Rattazzi the See also:portfolio of See also:finance. The Rattazzi See also:cabinet See also:fell before Sella could efficaciously provide for the deficit of 17,500,000 with which he was confronted; but in 1864 he returned to the See also:ministry of finance in the La See also:Marmora cabinet, and dealt energetically with the deficit of £8,000,000 then existing. Persuading the See also:king to forgo 120,000 of his See also:civil See also:list, and his colleagues in the cabinet to relinquish See also:part of their ministerial stipends, he effected savings amounting to 2,400,000, proposed new See also:taxation to the extent of £1,600,000, and induced landowners to pay one year's See also:instalment of the See also:land tax in advance. A See also:vote of the chamber compelled him to resign before his preparations for See also:financial restoration were See also:complete; but in 1869 he returned to the ministry of finance in a cabinet formed by himself, but of which he made over the premiership to Giovanni See also:Lanza. By means of the grist tax (which he had proposed in 1865, but which the See also:Menabrea cabinet had passed in 1868), and by other fiscal expedients necessitated by the almost desperate See also:condition of the See also:national See also:exchequer, he succeeded, before his fall from See also:power in 1873, in placing Italian finance upon a See also:sound footing, in spite of fierce attacks and persistent misrepresentation. In 1870 his See also:great See also:political See also:influence turned the See also:scale against interference in favour of See also:France against See also:Prussia, and in favour of an immediate occupation of See also:Rome. From 1873 until his premature See also:death on the 14th of See also:March 1884, he acted as See also:leader of the Right, and was more than once prevented by an ephemeral See also:coalition of See also:personal opponents from returning to power as See also:head of a Moderate Conservative cabinet.

After the failure of an See also:

attempt to See also:form a cabinet in May 1881 he practically retired from public See also:life, devoting himself to his studies and his See also:linen factory. His Discorsi parlamentari were published (5 vols., 1887–189o) by See also:order of the Chamber of Deputies. An See also:account of his life and his scientific labours was given by A. See also:Cossa in the Proceedings of the Accademia dei Lincei (1884-1885).

End of Article: SELLA, QUINTINO (1827-1884)

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