3 OCTOBER 1903, Page 19

So little is known in this country of the King

and Queen of Italy that an account of them by an Italian lady of Socialist opinions published in the Times of Thursday will be welcome. Signora Paola Lombroso declares that the King has received an exceptionally thorough education, that he is no genius, but a prudent man who readily understands all facts brought before him, and is completely free from vanity. He is believed to swerve slightly towards the Liberal parties, detests Court parade, and has suppressed much of it, and likes nothing so genuinely as quiet domestic life, unadorned, it would seem, by much feeling for the arts. The Queen entirely sympathises with him, and having been simply bred in Montenegro, makes it her pleasure to be a good wife and mother, and to occupy herself in works of charity. That is an account which will make the Royal pair acceptable guests in this country, and we may add to it that the King is really a man of unusual ability, though of the reflective rather than the aggressive kind, and that, unlike his grandfather and so many Kings, he knows how to manage his personal revenues. Victor Emmanuel I., though he could choose great servants and support them, never could be taught arithmetic or made to understand the value of money. Onone occasion, it is said, an urgent loan of 250,000 was ob- tained for him and he spent it in two days.