Europe. Such an alliance would put an end to the possibility of attack from Austria; above all, it would prevent further aggression on the part of France.

Advances were first made to Germany, but Bismarck is reported to have said to Count de Lannay, the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, that the way to Berlin lay through Vienna. Early in 1882 conversations were opened in Vienna, at the instance of the Austrian Foreign Minister, but they did not progress favourably, owing to the unwillingness of Count Kálnoky to guarantee to Italy the possession of the Papal territories, and to an equal unwillingness on the part of Mancini to acquiesce formally in the Austrian tenure of Trieste and the Trentino. Mancini, moreover, desired the support of the Central Empires for Italian interests in the Mediterranean, a proposal which Kálnoky declined to consider. Bismarck finally interposed. The principle of reciprocal territorial guarantees was accepted, but Italy had to relinquish the idea of any pledge of support in the Mediterranean, though it was agreed that the contracting parties should act in friendly consultation with one another in all questions touching their special interests. The Treaty of Alliance was signed on May 20, 1882, but its existence was not made public till March, 1883.

It is often maintained that at first no new alliance was made, but that Italy simply adhered to the existing agreement between Germany and Austria, which was eventually published by Bismarck in 1888.

Of late years

it has been believed that the alliance was subsequently converted into three separate pacts, between Germany and Austria, Germany and Italy, and Italy and Austria, but the publication of various provisions of the alliance after Italy's declaration of war against Austria on May 23, 1915, shows that it eventually became a single treaty. It is said. that the alliance consisted of three separate parts a general treaty between the Governments for a definite period of years; a confirmatory pact between the Sovereigns, which required to be signed afresh by each successor to the throne; and a military convention.

The first term of the Triple Alliance brought little comfort to Italy. France remained resolutely hostile, while the new allies seemed far from friendly. Italy's value in the alliance was largely discounted by the Treaty of Skierniewice, signed on March 21, 1884, by which Bismarck secured the benevolent neu

The natural result was an attempt to come to an understanding with Great Britain in regard to the Mediterranean. By the autumn of 1886 Bismarck had convinced himself that the renewal of the Triple Alliance was desirable, but Count di Robilant, who had become Foreign Secretary a year earlier, declined to consider a renewal on the original terms. He is supposed to have secured a more satisfactory form of partnership in the treaty which was signed on March 17, 1887. His most important achievement was the negotiation of a parallel understanding with Great Britain, which is believed to have provided for common action by the British and Italian fleets in the Mediterranean in the event of war. In any case, from 1887 onwards the British and Italian Governments acted in perfect accord over Mediterranean questions. The policy advocated by Sonnino six years before had defi. nitely triumphed.

Italy was now in a position to play an im. portant part in Europe. The alliance with Germany and Austria and the understanding with England made her able to face France fairly, on an equal footing, and the knowledge of this fact on the part of both Powers was a necessary prelude to the establishment of satisfactory relations. Again, as the link between Great Britain and the Central Powers, Italy had a value for her allies that promised greater consideration for Italian interests at their hands. Crispi seized the opportunity, and under his guidance Italy began to realize her future. When Crispi fell, a Radical campaign was started against the renewal of the Triple Alliance, but in June, 1891, nearly a year before the expiry of the second term, it was renewed, on the initiative of Berlin, for a period of twelve years. On this occasion the Italian Prime Minister, Rudini, endeavoured to insert the proviso that if Great Britain should be one of the Powers whose declaration of hostilities against Austria or Germany meant involving Italy in war, Italy should be released

years after his accession to the throne the present King of Italy declined to put his signature to the "dynastic agreement." Ultimately, however, the alliance was renewed at Venice in June, 1902, for a further period of twelve years, and the protocol regarding Great Britain was destroyed.

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Germany

But circumstances were changing. had no mind that Italy should claim an equal partnership in the Triple Alliance, and Italy, now firmer on her feet, was not content with a position in which her obligations seemed to outweigh her advantages. Her allies had shown little inclination to support her Mediterranean ambitions, and she had been forced to look elsewhere in order to safeguard her interests in this quarter. Nor had the alliance wrought any real improvement in her relations with Austria. The Italians in the unredeemed " provinces were the object of continual petty persecutions on the part of the Austrian authorities, and the question was made more acute by Austrian encouragement of the Slavonic element to the detriment of the Italian. A further cause of friction lay in the Austrian attitude to the Vatican. French clericalism, and the danger it constituted to the Italian State, had died out. Austrian clericalism threatened to take its place. Austria had succeeded France as "Eldest Daughter of the Church," and though the relations between Vatican and Quirinal had greatly improved, there were still chances for mischief-makers. A third point at issue was the Balkan question. On this rock the leaking barque of the Triple Alliance was finally to split, but for a number of years it had been clear that Italian and Austrian interests in the Balkans were growing more and more divergent. It was known that there was an agreement, a self-denying ordinance, in regard to Albania, and it was afterwards revealed that there were definite engagements concerning the whole of the Balkan question. But Austria behaved as though these engagements did not exist. In Albania particularly, a diligent Austrian propaganda was carried on. In self-defence Italy followed suit, and the remarkable spectacle presented itself of two allied Powers, bound both by general and by special engagements conducting rival campaigns of "peaceful penetration" in territory which both had agreed that neither should occupy.

The Mürzsteg agreement of 1903 was a blow to Italian interests in the Balkans, for the

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The Morocco crisis of 1905-6 showed another divergence of view between Italy and her allies. While Austria played the part of a "brilliant second" to Germany, Italy's refusal to support German policy gave rise to the famous phrase about extra dances." At the Algeciras Conference, where the veteran Visconti Venosta was a prominent figure, it was seen that Italy's Mediterranean agreements outweighed the claims of the Triple Alliance. Her allies had no grounds for complaint. They had declined to have anything to do with Italy's Mediterranean interests, and it was Bismarck himself who had suggested to Italy where she should look for support. He had not, of course, foreseen that the understanding with Great Britain would lead to an agreement with France, and the lesser men who followed him had failed to take any steps to divert the trend of Italian policy.

Italy was now on bad terms with both her allies, and the rift was further widened by the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The announcement of the annexation was made without any previous notice to the Italian public, though a meeting had just taken place between Baron Aehrenthal and Signor Tittoni, the Italian Foreign Minister. Signor Tittoni's position was made the more difficult from the fact that he had subsequently made a speech in which he declared that "Italy might await events with serenity, and that these would find her neither unprepared nor isolated." The keenest indignation was aroused throughout the country. There was talk of an expedition to Tripoli, where Italian intervention was expected. Indirect compensation, however, was provided by the withdrawal of Austria from the Sanjak of Novibazar, and by her renunciation of the right to police the Montenegrin coast and prevent Montenegro from owning warships.

The withdrawal from the Sanjak was a renunciation only in seeming. Austrian military opinion had decided that the corridor of the Sanjak was not a convenient way of approach to European Turkey. It was too narrow and