The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-12-20
CRISPI AS AN EDITOR.
mis- Paper Was Devoted to the Praise OF
Classic Liberalism.

Classic Liberalism.
A sketch of francesca Crispi, the
premier of Italy, from the pen of
William j. Stillman, tho Rome cor
respondent of the London Times, is
printed in The Century. Mr.. Still
man says:
While still in Palermo he founded
journal, The Oreteo, so called from
river which falls into the sea not
far from Palermo, and, as politics
was then forbidden to the press and
the education of the day was purely
classical, The Oretoo was devoted to
literature and the praise of classic
journalism and resistance to Greek
and Roman tyrants. Crispi wrote
poetry, odes to civic virtues in far
off times and places excluded from
those nearer, and, as the great strug-
gle between the Grand Turks and
Greece was then going on, he be-
came, as he always remained, a Phil
helene, and the war in Greece be-
came the cheval debataille of The
Oreteo. Crispi attacked the Bour-
bons through the Grand Turk and
defended Italy through the Greek in
surrection.
The politics of Naples and Sicily
became troubled by the revolution
ary propaganda about ls43 ans' at
once drew Crispi into its complica-
tions. Sicily, where there was a
stronger constitutional tendency
than in Naples, was in "a state of lat
ent insurreetion, soon to become ac-
tive and disastrous, but the signal
was given at Cosenza, on the main
land, and the insurrection there in
tS44, though repressed speedily, was
followed by that of Reggls dio Gala
bria in 1S47, and that Immediately
by tho rising of Messina and others
in different parts of Sicily, all of
which, being premature and without
previous organization and prepara-
ton, were put down. The arrest of
certain liberals followed, and all the
most prominent in Naples and Sicily
were thrown into prison. Crispi was
warned by his printer, who had off,
cial relations, that his arrest was or
dered, and he had time to destroy all
compromising papers and to coun-
termand the meetings at his rooms,
which were to be made the occasion
of a raid by the police, SO that the
police report, not justifying the sus-
picions of his completely, left him
free even from surveillance.
The conspiracy went on undaunted
by the rigors of the Bourbon govern
ment, and at the end of 1S47 Crispi
went to Palermo and completed the
arrangements for the rising, which
he fixed for Jan. IL, 1S4S. He re-
turned to Naples to coordinate the
movement in Sicily with that ON the
continent and to inform the Neapoli-
tan confederates of tho state of the
island, and then sailed by the first
craft that left Palermo, to be in at
the rising. But accidents delayed
the starting and prolonged the voy-
age, so that he landed in Palermo
only on the 14th in the midst Of the
carnage, but from that moment he
was the chief figure in the organiza-
ton of the insurrectionary. govern.
ment and during its brief existence
the most uncompromising opponent
of concession or surrender. The
royal commander in chief, General
Filangieri, pronounced him 1.-THE
most dangerous of the enemies of the
king" In spite of incomplete prepa-
rations and dissensions, the insurrec-
ton held out till April, 1S5D, when
the royal troops reoccupied Paler-
mo. Crispi remained in concealment
till May z, when no escaped on q
vessel bound for Marseilles and
reached Turin at the end of the
month, to begin his long and miser.
able exile.