groups of wealthy men who dominated, to the injury of the mistrusting and incensed populace.

On the religious question Salandra is pronouncedly in favour of the sovereignty of the State over every form of belief, but at the same time opposed to any anti-clerical or sectarian prosecution.

In matters of political economy, he preaches the middle course between protection and free trade.

The extension of the suffrage he opposed, not on anti-Liberal grounds, but because he held that, by bestowing it unasked, the populace were deprived of a stimulus to upraise their mental status.

For Salandra is a Conservative, but he is also a Liberal. He inherited the fundamental conceptions of a State from Cavour, and he followed Cavour above all in his criterions of integrity; but he seems more Conservative than he is, for he interprets Liberalism as a strengthening of the State, and not as a weakening of public powers in the face of popular pressure.

If he was disposed to concede where he thought it might be advisable, he was never disposed to abdicate as was Giolitti's invariable manœuvre.

He so thoroughly grasped, however, the exigencies of the new times that occasionally he even detached himself from Sonnino, following audaciously Liberal directions, although on general lines he has always followed Sonnino, and was a member of each of his Cabinets (1906-1909).

Up to these dates, however, Antonio Salandra always took a secondary place beside his natural leader, Sidney Sonnino. He recognised him as the chief of the group, and followed him with his rigid sense of discipline. But after Sonnino's two brief tenures of office Italy began to recognise that between Salandra and his group-chief, the former was more adapted to uphold a Government, seeing that by temperament he was more combative, more agile, and more alert.

Sonnino, who is truly remarkable as an economist, is better fitted for the rôle of Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance than that of Premier.

Antonio Salandra, on the other hand, alert and pugnacious, was able to resist with better success against Parliamentary cabals, to oppose intrigues, and to navigate the ship of State between the insidious rocks of the Parliament Hall.

The Italian Chamber, after Giolitti's long administration, was not divided, like that of other nations, into sharply outlined parties, but formed of the "clients" of Giolitti, who infiltrated themselves into each Party and faction, the partisans of a

man, not of an idea, held in bond solely by a baleful personal direction.

Salandra appeared the man adapted to dissolve this unhappy situation, and potent aid in this task came to him from the new orientation of the public conscience. For Italy suddenly awoke to the fact that she had been too long the slave of Giolitti, and a new sentiment of dignity, of ardour, of ambition made its way among the younger generation.

Young Italy had moments of noble indignation unknown to their fathers. They aspired after a greater and stronger Italy, and this leaven, that quickly fermented a large section of the public soul concentrated in the formation of a new Party, the Nationalists.

Throughout the whole country the new propaganda spread, and soon after, to render it yet more efficacious, Italy entered upon her Libyan campaign, which gave occasion for an enthusiastic outburst of renewed military heroism.

Hence, on the eve of a Salandra Cabinet, Italy was psychologically ready to be led by a firm hand towards newer and stronger destinies.

But in internal affairs everything had to be re-made. The bureaucracy was merely a clique of men subservient to the Dictator Giolitti, in the South, as the result of scandalous elections, and, in return for electoral favours, there dominated men bound hand and foot to the Government in power, i.e., Giolitti, while the extreme Parties gathered the fruits of a ten-year-long propaganda of hate and discord to which the Liberals had no concrete policy to oppose, notwithstanding the admonitions of Salandra, who desired to endow them with a conscience and a soul. The army was profoundly disorganised, the stores depleted, despite the assertions of Giolitti that all was ready and in perfect condition. Therefore, whoever assumed office was called on to deal with an Italy profoundly handicapped, unsettled, mistrustful of herself, agitated by a veritable nerve crisis, and yet filled with an ardent yearning to rise above these obstacles and to recover the soul she had found in the early days of the Libyan campaign.

It was at this juncture that Giolitti, alarmed at the monster he had created, abandoned the reins of Government, and, amid the hopes and encouragement of the country, Antonio Salandra was called to the Premiership. This, however, was something of a surprise, as all thought that the Giolitti Cabinet would have been succeeded by a Sonnino Ministry, since of late years Italian political life seemed to polarise between a binomial Sonnino-Giolitti in a perennial see-saw. But Sonnino had refused the position, and the offer was made to Salandra.

Now during the last elections Salandra had shown signs of differentiating from his former leader, owing to the fact that Salandra had not shown himself disposed, like Sonnino, to accept certain democratic postulates, and also was not disposed, like Sonnino, to agree with the Radicals on certain fundamental questions of national policy. Salandra wished to detach the Liberal Party from the Democratic, and to give a solid consistency to Liberalism, re-invigorating it with the spirited national currents that were making themselves manifest, thanks to the younger generation of thinkers. Hence Salandra's electoral speech at Lucera, echoed throughout Italy, was regarded as the official programme of the Liberal Party. It was quoted and adopted by the Nationalists as embodying their aspirations, for it can be claimed that with this discourse Salandra fashioned a new national Liberal Party that should prove a barrier to the extreme tendencies, and re-invigorate Italy from a political and military point of view.

It was felt that with Salandra in power the country's political life would assume a more energetic and vital rhythm, a more decided tone, in unison with the new-born aspirations of the Italian soul.

To begin with, Salandra showed his hand by excluding from the Ministry members of the Extreme Left.

Giolitti's Government had always sought support from the Left, which the "Dictator" had caressed and wheedled, admitting Radicals to office, favouring the candidates of the reformed Socialists and even of the Revolutionaries.

Salandra did not propose to follow these examples. He disregarded the Extreme Left, and sought his base among the Right, the old traditional party of Italy's Risorgimento, forming a Liberal-Conservative Cabinet, which at once favourably impressed both the Chamber and the country because of the authoritative character of its components.

It was not by partiality to individual deputies, but by healthful, political action, that Salandra desired to gain the approval of the country, and in a very short time he won it.

The new Ministry was acclaimed by the whole of the Italian Press, and even the subversive factions, recognising Salandra's integrity, expressed their hope that he would not let himself be enslaved by the Chamber and the Giolittian bureaucracy.

For Giolitti during his long years of virtual dictatorship had not only filled Parliament with his personal friends elected à tout prix, but had also assigned the Prefectures to his henchmen and bestowed the highest posts in the State on his acolytes and parasites.

It was supposed at first that Salandra would accommodate himself to governing according to the Giolittian system, obeying the dictatesf the Giolittian Chamber (for no new election had yet occurred since Salandra took office), or else speedily fall from power. And many exclaimed, "What a pity! All Salandra's good qualities will be wasted, since he must, force majeure, become a lieutenant of Giolitti. Had not others succumbed in the same way?”

True, in 1905 the "Dictator" had ceded his post to Alessandro Fortis, who formed two Ministries, but ruled pro procura of Giolitti.

In 1910 Luigi Luzzatti, a persuasive orator, an able economist, had cut the same figure, Giolitti remaining the real master of the situation, returning to power when it suited his convenience. It was not surprising, therefore, that everyone anticipated the same fate for Salandra.

But Salandra reserved a surprise for the country.

It may be remembered that in the sixteenth century the Cardinals in Conclave assembled determined to exclude from the Papal throne any man of energy and vigour, unanimously voting for a sickly, infirm prelate who could only stand with the help of crutches, and who they judged would prove a moribund puppet in their intriguing hands. But scarcely was his election proclaimed than the new Pope drew himself up, threw away his supports, and in a voice of thunder cried to the petrified Cardinals, "Now it is I who command." This Pope was Sixtus V., and it may be asserted that Salandra's history at this epoch resembled the Pontiff's.

The majority had accepted the new Ministry with some diffidence, although Salandra had admitted into its ranks some of Giolitti's followers, such as di San Giuliano, Rava, and Ciuffelli. But after a few months of office Salandra commenced a series of acts that indicated pretty clearly that as a Minister he meant to proceed on his own lines without any tergiversation, even at the risk of offending the majority.

A fortunate opportunity soon arose.

The administrative elections were due throughout Italy for the renewal of the communal and provincial councils.

Now it must be known that the Giolittian majority was composed of Southerners, who always supported the Government in power, on the understanding that the Government took care that their Party should win at the polls, and the South was accustomed, from Bourbon days onwards, to see elections fought and won by violence, corruption, and fraud on the part of the Government.

་་་

For instance, the orders given by the Ministry to the Prefects would run thus: "So and so, or such and such a party, must be elected at all costs," "all costs" often meaning arbitrary imprisonments or temporary enforced absences.

Salandra was resolved to reinstate political morality, sacrificing the favour of individual deputies to the general good.

Hence, on the eve of the elections, he sent a circular to the Prefects bidding them respect, and enjoin respect for, the free will of the electors, and refused to exert the slightest pressure in favour of any party, asserting most emphatically that sincerity must be the basis of every honest Government. Thus, for the first time after twenty years in all Italy, but more especially in the South, the elections actually reflected the will of the electorate, and the electors were able to send to office the true and authentic representatives of their desires.

This honest, upright act provoked bitter criticism among the Parliamentary majority; but as the deputies hardly dared to complain openly against this correct attitude on the part of Salandra, they secretly conspired against him in order to bring about the fall of a Ministry that did not help them to succeed in their iniquitous schemes.

But the people regained their long-lost confidence in the Government, and even the Socialists, who were in the opposition, openly stated in Parliament that in Salandra Italy had finally found an honest representative.

Still, this did not suffice. Salandra had also to reckon with the Prefects, who, as the chiefs of the Provinces, represent the Government, and were mostly Giolitti's henchmen, continuing his policy even in the face of contrary Governmental orders.

In consequence, Salandra, without a moment's hesitation, transferred disobedient Prefects to distant and less attractive posts, reproved them, or in some cases removed them altogether from office, despite the loud-voiced complaints of the Parliamentary majority, who were elected by help of these Prefects, and who foresaw that they would thus lose in future an easy and formidable electoral base.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to assert that the first months of the Salandra Ministry were months of strain and struggle between the Chamber and the deputies, who responded to every honest attitude on the part of the Government with latent malcontent, and, while not daring openly to rebel, endeavoured by occult means to procure the fall of the Cabinet. They failed, however, in spite of all their efforts. For Salandra had yet another surprise in store, and that was to meet their underground machinations with an open front. His usually somewhat mono