[Baron]. Italian statesman and financier, born at Florence on the 11th of March 1847. Entering the diplomatic service at an early age, he was appointed successively to the legations of Madrid, Vienna, Berlin and Versailles, but in 1871 returned to Italy, to devote himself to political and social studies. On his own initiative he conducted exhaustive inquiries into the conditions of the Sicilian peasants and of the Tuscan métayers, and in 1877 published in cooperation with Signor Leopoldo Franchetti a masterly work on Sicily (La Sicilia, Florence, 1877). In 1878 he founded a weekly economic review, La Rassegna Settimanale, which four years later he converted into a political daily journal. Elected deputy in 1880, he distinguished himself by trenchant criticism of Magliani’s finance, and upon the fall of Magliani was for some months, in 1889, under-secretary of state for the treasury. In view of the severe monetary crisis of 1893 he was entrusted by Crispi with the portfolio of finance (Dec. 1893), and in spite of determined opposition dealt energetically and successfully with the deficit of more than £6,000,000 then existing in the exchequer. By abolishing the illusory pensions fund, by applying and amending the Bank Laws, effecting economies, and increasing taxation upon corn, incomes from consolidated stock, salt and matches, he averted national bankruptcy, and placed Italian finance upon a sounder basis than at any time since the fall of the Right. Though averse from the policy of unlimited colonial expansion, he provided by a loan for the cost of the Abyssinian War in which the tactics of General Baratieri had involved the Crispi cabinet, but fell with Crispi after the disaster at Adowa (March 1896). Assuming then the leadership of the constitutional opposition, he combated the alliance between the di Rudini cabinet and the subversive parties, criticized the financial schemes of the treasury minister, Luzzatti, and opposed the “democratic” finance of the first Pelloux administration as likely to endanger financial stability. After the modification of the Pelloux cabinet (May 1899) he became leader of the ministerial majority, and bore the brunt of the struggle against Socialist obstruction in connection with the Public Safety Bill. Upon the formation of the Zanardelli cabinet (Feb. 1901) he once more became leader of the constitutional opposition, and in the autumn of the year founded a daily organ, Il Giornale d’Italia, the better to propagate moderate Liberal ideas. Although highly esteemed for his integrity and genuine ability, it was not until February 1906 that he was called upon to form a ministry, on the fall of the Fortis cabinet. He immediately set about introducing certain urgent reforms, suppressed all subsidies to the press, and declared his intention of governing according to law and justice. In May, however, an adverse vote of the Chamber on a purely technical matter led to his resignation.
During the debates on Giolitti’s Steamship Subsidies bill in the spring of 1909 it was Baron Sonnino who conducted the most vigorous attacks against the Government, exposing the radical defects of the measure, and when Giolitti resigned on December 2nd it was Sonnino who was called upon to form a ministry, for the second time. But he did not enjoy the favour of the still Giolittian Chamber, and his Cabinet was defeated over the new shipping bill. On March 21, 1910, he resigned, again after 100 days of office. He continued to take an active part in the debates in the Chamber, and was a stern but just critic of Giolittian political methods, although during the Libyan war he generally abstained from opposition for patriotic motives. In the autumn of 1914, after the death of the Marquis di San Giuliano, the Premier Salandra assumed the Foreign Office for a short time, but when he reconstituted his Cabinet on November 5th he offered that portfolio to Sonnino, who accepted it. His conduct of the Foreign Office was characterized by sincerity of purpose, high principles, unswerving patriotism and a wide knowledge of international politics. He had not, moreover, a free hand. He was still Foreign Minister, under Orlando’s premiership, during the Peace Conference, which he attended as second Italian delegate from January 18th to June 19th 1919. On the fall, however, of the Orlando Cabinet (June 19, 1919) Sonnino retired into private life. The irritation of the whole of Italy against the policy of the Allies towards Italy at the Peace Conference reacted to some extent against the nation’s representatives at Paris, and Sonnino himself came in for a large share of unpopularity, although the more intelligent and better informed part of public opinion realized the great difficulty of his task and the insufficient support afforded him by Orlando, as well as the value of his actual achievements. He did not stand for Parliament at the elections in November 1919, but was subsequently made a senator. In spite of what was regarded as his failure to overcome the obstacles of the Peace Conference, he enjoyed the reputation of being the greatest Minister for Foreign Affairs that Italy had had since Cavour, with the possible exception of Crispi, while as a financier he ranked very high. He was also a man of wide reading and culture, and a distinguished Dante scholar and bibliophile.
