The grand result of the lowering of the Italian franchise
has been, it is said, to re-form parties into two great divisions, which we may call the Whig and the Radical. S. Minghetti, the leader of the Right, has announced that he and those who think with him will in future lend a steady support to S. Depretis and his Government, which is now face to face with an Advanced Party almost or quite Repub- lican in its views. He adds that the Government must for the next few years devote itself to domestic and social ques- tions, rather than "political "—that is, external—affairs. With this reinforcement, S. Depretis is completely master of the Chamber ; but it is expected that at the next election many more Radicals will obtain seats, and out of doors they have behind them large masses who are still below the suffrage, and who, in Naples and Lombardy, desire improvements of tenure, which the Monarchy hesitates to grant. Ultimately, it would not be surprising if, when Leo XIII. abandons the sterile policy of sulking, the balance of power fell, as in Germany, to the Ultramontanes. For the time, however, S. Depretis is supreme.
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