, The Government of Italy has been overthrown by a
vote upon the choice of a Speaker, but the King has directed the Premier, Signor Zanardelli, to return ta power with a reconstructed Ministry. The fall seems to have been the result partly of jealousies between the Liberal and Socialist groups, and partly of a conflict within the Cabinet between two sets of ideas, the more Conservative section objecting to a Divorce Bill which the more Liberal desired to bring in, not because the people desire it, but because it weuld be a warning to the Papacy. Rome has always refused divorce, except upon the ground that the marriage it is sought to dissolve was for some ecclesiastical or other reason invalid. The group system makes all Italian Governments unstable, but the Royal authority keeps the great executive machine going, and it is only progress which suffers. That group system is the most dangerous foe that government by deliberation has yet encountered, and we grieve to see it making its appearance in our own Parliament. Fortunately, the English people regard it only as a temporary and disagreeable accident.
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