out stopping in either Germany or Austria. This was the first visit paid by an Italian Sovereign to the Tsar in his own country. Whilst the official rejoicings presented to the world the usual spectacle of reviews, banquets and galas, the two Foreign Ministers discussed the serious political and economic questions in which the two nations were interested. Albania, for one; the necessity of finding an outlet for Russian and Italian products threatened by the demands of German agrarianism; and, no doubt, also the Chinese question, were the principal subjects of discussion. The King of Italy returned to his country on July 19, the day after that on which the new tendencies of Italian diplomacy had been referred to, in re-assuring terms, in the English House of Lords.

Over against this change, if not of direction and character, at least of appearance, in the foreign policy of the House of Savoy was to be set a new aspect of the papal Curia. The state of things might be described as critical. In France, in Poland, in the Philippines, in Spain, a tendency appeared to oppose the encroachments of the monks. The checks received by the Church, particularly outside Europe, were attributed to the want of skill of Cardinal Ledochowski, and the Pope requested from this prelate his resignation of his office as Prefect of the Propaganda. A little while after, the celebrated opponent of Bismarck in the struggles of the Kulturkampf died suddenly from an attack of apoplexy, and Leo XIII. appointed as his successor Cardinal Gotti, formerly President of the Congregation of the Holy Relics. This appointment implied a considerable modification in the relations of the Holy See with foreign Powers, and particularly a still more irreconcilable attitude towards Italy, Cardinal Gotti being one of the Roman prelates to whom the Government had most firmly refused the exequatur in the different posts to which he had been successively appointed. At the same time the much more correct behaviour of the pilgrims was noticed, who, according to custom, were being sent by thousands by the clergy of France ad limina Apostolorum. It had been announced that vigorous protests would be made against the policy both of the Republic and of Italy, but no such thing happened; this caution showed to all the world the consideration which the Zanardelli Cabinet evoked.

A happy end was put to the diplomatic struggle with Switzerland. King Victor Emmanuel had accepted the Kaiser's invitation to spend a few days at Berlin, and his journey thither would involve his crossing Switzerland. The President of the Federal Council, M. Zemp, announced his intention of greeting the Italian monarch on his arrival on Swiss territory. This step implied the presence of an Italian Minister accredited to the Federation and of a Swiss diplomat with the King of Italy. The following arrangement was adopted: Duke Averna was appointed to Berne, while M. Pioda replaced M. Carlin at the Quirinal; only in consideration of the circumstances Duke

Averna proceeded first to present his letters of introduction, and this shade of difference was supposed to give the necessary solution to the difficulty. It is not necessary to dwell on the details of the visit of the King of Italy to Berlin, Potsdam and neighbouring places; friendly expressions were exchanged between the allied Sovereigns in conformity with the protocol drawn up by the Emperor, and Sgr. Prinetti tried behind the scenes to warn the Chancellor von Bülow against the dangers of agrarian protection, though it was beyond his power to suggest any effective remedy for the difficulties which were paralysing him.

The recess was fairly quiet in Italy. Sicily, indeed, got up an agitation by way of protest against the verdict pronounced after an interminable trial by the jury of Bologna on Palizzolo ; the anniversary of the death of Crispi was celebrated with éclat at Palermo, but the excitement was only superficial: at Florence an attempt at a general strike failed pitifully; at Imola the most important Socialist congress hitherto held in Italy assembled on September 6. More than a thousand delegates appeared there, representing the leagues of the peninsula, yet the moderate party, led by Sgr. Turati, dominated entirely the advanced section, which had Sgr. Ferri as spokesman. The lovers of scandal hoped that the failure of a bank would compromise politicians and renew the excitements of the days. of Crispi; but none were concerned, or rather the principal victims of this abortive Pananimo were two obscure Italian deputies and two French politicians to whom this was by no means their first misfortune. The general prosperity of the kingdom was attested by the success of the tour undertaken by the President of the Council in the southern provinces of Italy. It was striking to see the head of the Government escorted by the two most intimate friends of Sgr. Sonnino, the head of the Opposition. So tranquil and satisfactory, despite a few slight and purely local troubles, was the general situation that the President of the Chamber agreed with Sgr. Zanardelli that there was no reason against the prolongation of the Parliamentary recess till November 25. It ended in pride at the vigorous repression of piracy in the Red Sea by the Italian fleet and joy at the birth of the Princess Mafalda.

On the re-opening of the Chambers two important Bills were introduced, one by the Government authorising divorce and one by the Opposition to reorganise the southern provinces. Sgr. Giolitti declared in the name of the Government that they were ready to consider the latter scheme, but reserved their opinion as to its provisions. The Chamber passed his remarkably bold scheme for the municipalisation of public works, hitherto left to private initiative, such as transport, lighting, water supply and others. On being questioned as to some peasant riots at Candela, Sgr. Giolitti asked for and received a vote of confidence, after declaring that freedom to work was as sacred

as freedom to strike and that the mission of the Government was to prevent the exercise of violence by the partisans of either side. The Chamber voted without difficulty the supplementary loans for the expedition to China; applauded Sgr. Prinetti for his announcement that the commercial treaties with Germany and Austria were on the eve of being renewed; applauded Sgr. Balenzano, Minister of Public Works, for his statement of the plans for new lines between Piedmont and Nice; applauded the Minister for War, and granted him the funds necessary for calling out the Reservists of 1878; and if it did not applaud Sgr. de Broglio, Minister of Finance, it was only because he could not appear in person to read his financial statement, but it decided that this should be taken as read and approved and should be published. In fact the really successful man at the end of the year was the indefatigable worker who had brought the national finances to a state of prosperity long unknown. The Budget of 1901-2 had ended with a surplus of 32,500,000 lire after having provided for 17,000,000 lire of unexpected costs for the making of railways and 10,000,000 lire for the expedition to China. The corrected Budget of 1902-3 gave reason to expect a surplus of 16,000,000 on a total summa of 1,812,000,000 lire. A large part of the credit was due to the young King, whose simplicity of life, scorn of pomp and firm will had encouraged and supported the fellow-workers of the Nestor of Italian politics, Sgr. Zanardelli, to whom fate had given the good fortune of presiding at the peaceful triumph of the democratic monarchy and the Liberal party of which he was the veteran.

CHAPTER II.

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

I. GERMANY.

THE year 1902 was not of good augury either for the policy of the German Government or for the political reputation of its Chancellor. On the great question of the Tariff Bill, Count Bülow," declaring he would ne'er consent, consented"; he drew a well-deserved retort from Mr. Chamberlain for his insolent and uncalled-for remarks on the comparison made by the latter between the conduct of Continental armies in recent wars and that of the British army in South Africa; his futile intrigue for alienating the United States from England by suggesting that she had started a European coalition to prevent the war with Spain was an utter failure, and his attempt to justify the imprisonment of Polish students and the flogging of Polish children (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1901, p. 279), by saying that these measures were necessary for the security of the German Empire, was too obviously transparent a device for catching votes among

the more ignorant and prejudiced sections of the German people. He dealt with what was only a matter of Prussian administrative policy as a great international question affecting not only the whole of Germany, but also the neighbouring Powers. This was a tactical blunder which might have had serious results in view of the sympathy expressed for the Poles on the occasion all over Europe, and even in Austria and Russia; and the demonstrations at Lemberg against the Russian Government and at Warsaw against that of Germany were a sufficient proof that there was no such organised movement among the Poles in the three Empires as Count Bülow had described. There could be no more severe condemnation of his own policy and that of his predecessors than the declaration which he made urbi et orbi that among the subjects of Prussia there are two or three millions of traitors of the Polish nationality who are only looking for an opportunity of destroying the Prussian State-thereby admitting that after a hundred years Prussia has not been able to convert the Poles into loyal subjects, although Austria has done so with conspicuous success.

In the debate which took place on the subject in the Prussian Parliament on January 13 Count Bülow admitted that "the administration of corporal punishment was out of place in religious instruction," but added that "other means would be found of dealing with refractory children." He pleaded that the Government had to deal with "an organised Polish agitation," that "Polish lawyers, Polish doctors, Polish contractors, were united in the attempt to thrust the German element into the background," that "German property was steadily passing into Polish hands," and that "German artisans and labourers

were systematically boycotted." The Polish question was, therefore, "the most important concern of Prussian politics at the present time." In order to strengthen the position of the Germans as landed proprietors, and "to establish a strong German middle class," even larger sums of money than before would be advanced, and troops would be introduced to strengthen the garrisons. The chief burgomaster of Posen, a Prussian official, confirmed the statements of the Chancellor, adding that the main factor in the Polish problem was the rise of a vigorous Polish middle class, that the east of Prussia was gradually becoming Polish-a process "which showed the strength of a law of nature"-and that the Polish movement had ceased to be aristocratic and had become Radical and democratic, But he said that he could not agree in the unfortunate comparison made by the Chancellor, in a conversation with the correspondent of the Figaro, of the Germans to hares and the Poles to rabbits; the growth of national feeling among the latter was, much more

* His words were: "If in this park I were to put ten hares and five rabbits, next year I should have fifteen hares and a hundred rabbits. It is against such a phenomenon that we mean to defend German national unity in the Polish provinces."

than that of population, the cause of their industrial and political progress in Posen. The Poles had also settled in considerable numbers in other parts of the Empire. According to the census of 1900 there were 18,500 Poles in Berlin alone; in Pomerania there were 14,200, in Brandenburg 24,300, in Saxony 24,700, in Hanover 10,600, in Westphalia 91,500, and in Rhenish Prussia 25,500. All these Poles were intensely patriotic, having their own newspapers and clubs, and generally holding aloof from the Germans among whom they lived. Ten per cent. of the whole population of Prussia was Polish.

In March some forty Russian and Polish students, most of whom attended the lectures in the Technical College at Charlottenburg, were expelled from Prussia on the charge of political agitation, and in April the Government issued a decree with the object of checking the immigration of Poles into Prussian territory. Under this decree emigrants from Russian Poland were not to be admitted into Prussia unless they were provided with a fully attested passport and a sum of 400 marks in ready money. In May a Bill was laid before the Prussian Parliament for carrying out the policy with regard to the Poles foreshadowed in the Chancellor's speech of January 13. The memorandum accompanying the Bill pointed out that of the 200,000,000 marks voted for the purpose of settling German colonists in Posen in 1886 and 1898 only 56,000,000 marks remained unspent, and that this balance would probably be exhausted in the course of the next four years. In spite of the activity of the Settlement Commission, the Poles had since the Commission was first started purchased 31,000 hectares (76,611 acres) more land in Posen than the Germans, and both more money and a more effective system of settlement were therefore urgently required. It was accordingly proposed by the Bill to devote 250,000,000 marks more for this purpose. In many cases German immigrants who had bought their land through the instrumentality of the Commission had afterwards sold it to Poles, and steps were to be taken to prevent this in future. 100,000,000 marks of the 250,000,000 were to be employed for the creation of large Government domains to serve as models for the German peasant proprietors, and for afforesting certain districts where the land is too poor for agriculture. This Bill met with much hostile criticism in the German Press, especially in the organs of the Clerical party, which has always supported its Polish co-religionists in Prussia. The Radical Frankfurter Zeitung, too, which is far from friendly to the Poles, objected to the measure on the ground that the policy of expropriation had in its actual operation strengthened instead of weakened the Polish element. The only possible way, it maintained, to make the Poles good Prussian citizens was to win them over by giving them the same rights as the Germans. Notwithstanding these criticisms the Bill passed both Houses of the Prussian Parliament, the Poles, the Clericals, and the Radicals voting against it.