returned to power as minister of the treasury, promulgated some
of his proposals by royal decree, and in spite of vehement
opposition secured their ratification by the Chamber. The tax
upon consols, which, in conjunction with the other severe fiscal
measures, was regarded abroad as a pledge that Italy intended
at all costs to avoid bankruptcy, caused a rise in Italian stocks.
When the Crispi cabinet fell in March 1896 Sonnino had the
satisfaction of seeing revenue increased by £3,400,000, expenditure
diminished by £2,800,000, the gold premium reduced from
16 to 5%, consolidated stock at 95 instead of 72, and, notwithstanding
the expenditure necessitated by the Abyssinian 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. On the 16th of June an attempt by an anarchist named Lega was made on Crispi’s life; Attacks on Crispi. on the 24th of June President Carnot was assassinated by the anarchist Caserio; and on the 30th of June an Italian journalist was murdered at Leghorn for a newspaper attack upon anarchism—a series of outrages which led the government to frame and parliament to adopt (11th 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 revealed the fact that among the documents abstracted by Giolitti from the papers of the bank manager, Tanlongo, were several bearing upon Crispi’s political and private life. On the 11th of December Giolitti laid these and other papers before the Chamber, in the hope of ruining Crispi, but upon examination most of them were found to be worthless, and the rest of so private a nature as to be unfit for publication. The effect of the incident was rather to increase detestation of Giolitti than to damage Crispi. The latter, indeed, prosecuted the former for libel and for abuse of his position when premier, but after many vicissitudes, including the flight of Giolitti to Berlin in order to avoid arrest, the Chamber refused authorization for the prosecution, and the matter dropped. A fresh attempt of the same kind was then made against Crispi by the Radical leader Cavallotti, who advanced unproven charges of corruption and embezzlement. These attacks were, however, unavailing to shake Crispi’s position, and in the general election of May 1895 his 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 seriously diminished by these unsavoury occurrences, which, in combination 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.
The foreign policy of the second Crispi Administration, in which the portfolio of foreign affairs was held by Baron Blanc, was, as before, marked by a cordial interpretation of the triple alliance, and by close accord with Great Britain. In the Armenian question Italy seconded with Complications in Eritrea. energy the diplomacy of Austria and Germany, while the Italian fleet joined the British Mediterranean squadron in a demonstration off the Syrian coast. Graver than any foreign question were the complications in Eritrea. Under the arrangement concluded in 1891 by Rudini with native chiefs in regard to the Italo-Abyssinian frontier districts, relations with Abyssinia had remained comparatively satisfactory. Towards the Sudan, however, the Mahdists, who had recovered from a defeat inflicted by an Italian force at Agordat in 1890, resumed operations in December 1893. Colonel Arimondi, commander of the colonial forces in the absence of the military governor, General Baratieri, attacked and routed a dervish force 10,000 strong on the 21st of December. The Italian troops, mostly native levies, numbered only 2200 men. The dervish loss was more than 1000 killed, while the total Italian casualties amounted to less than 230. General Baratieri, upon returning to the colony, decided to execute a coup de main against the dervish base at Kassala, both in order to relieve pressure from that quarter and to preclude a combined Abyssinian and dervish attack upon the colony at the end of 1894. The protocol concluded with Great Britain on the 15th of April 1891, already referred to, contained a clause to the effect that, were Kassala occupied by the Italians, the place should be transferred to the Egyptian government as soon as the latter should be in a position to restore order in the Sudan. Concentrating a little army of 2600 men, Baratieri surprised and captured Kassala on the 17th of July 1894, and garrisoned the place with native levies under Italian officers. Meanwhile Menelek, jealous of the extension of Italian influence to a part of northern Somaliland and to the Benadir coast, had, with the support of France and Russia, completed his preparations for asserting his authority as independent ruler of Ethiopia. On the 11th of May 1893 he denounced the treaty of Uccialli, but the Giolitti cabinet, absorbed by the bank scandals, paid no heed to his action. Possibly an adroit repetition in favour of Mangashà and against Menelek of the policy formerly followed in favour of Menelek against the negus John might have consolidated Italian influence in Abyssinia by preventing the ascendancy of any single chieftain. The Italian government, however, neglected this opening, and Mangashà came to terms with Menelek. Consequently the efforts of Crispi and his envoy, Colonel Piano, to conclude a new treaty with Menelek in June 1894 not only proved unsuccessful, but formed a prelude to troubles on the Italo-Abyssinian frontier. Bath-Agos, the native chieftain who ruled the Okulé-Kusai and the cis-Mareb provinces on behalf of Italy, intrigued with Mangashà, ras of the trans-Mareb province of Tigre, and with Menelek, to raise a revolt against Italian rule on the high plateau. In December 1894 the revolt broke out, but Major Toselli with a small force marched rapidly against Bath Agos, whom he routed and killed at Halai. General Baratieri, having reason to suspect the complicity of Mangashà in the revolt, called upon him to furnish troops for a projected Italo-Abyssinian campaign against the Mahdists. Mangashà made no reply, and Baratieri crossing the Mareb advanced to Adowa, but four days later was obliged to return northwards. Mangashà thereupon took the offensive and attempted to occupy the village of Coatit in Okulé-Kusai, but was forestalled and defeated by Baratieri on the 13th of January 1895. Hurriedly retreating to Senafé, hard pressed by the Italians, who shelled Senafé on the evening of the 15th of January, Mangashà was obliged to abandon his camp and provisions to Baratieri, who also secured a quantity of correspondence establishing the complicity of Menelek and Mangashà in the revolt of Bath-Agos.
The comparatively facile success achieved by Baratieri
against Mangashà seems to have led him to undervalue his
enemy, and to forget that Menelek, negus and king
of Shoa, had an interest in allowing Mangashà to be
crushed, in order that the imperial authority and the
Conquest
of Tigre.
superiority of Shoan over Tigrin arms might be the more strikingly
asserted. After obtaining the establishment of an apostolic
prefecture in Eritrea under the charge of Italian Franciscans,
Baratieri expelled from the colony the French Lazarist missionaries
for their alleged complicity in the Bath-Agos insurrection,
and in March 1895 undertook the conquest of Tigre. Occupying
Adigrat and Makallè, he reached Adowa on the 1st of April, and
thence pushed forward to Axum, the holy city of Abyssinia. These
places were garrisoned, and during the rainy season Baratieri
returned to Italy, where he was received with unbounded
enthusiasm. Whether he or the Crispi cabinet had any inkling
of the enterprise to which they were committed by the occupation
of Tigre is more than doubtful. Certainly Baratieri made
no adequate preparations to repel an Abyssinian attempt to
reconquer the province. Early in September both Mangashà
and Menelek showed signs of activity, and on the 20th of September
Makonnen, ras of Harrar, who up till then had been
regarded as a friend and quasi-ally by Italy, expelled all Italians
from his territory and marched with 30,000 men to join the
negus. On returning to Eritrea, Baratieri mobilized his native
reserves and pushed forward columns under Major Toselli and
General Arimondi as far south as Amba Alagi. Mangashà fell
back before the Italians, who obtained several minor successes;
but on the 6th of December Toselli’s column, 2000 strong, which
