patriotism, would have sold the
Fatherland to the Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on
whom 300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before the
declaration of war, had good reason to know that even if Giolittism had
melted away, the House had secretly remained Giolittian.

A new electoral system was introduced, whereby the people voted for
programmes and parties rather than directly for individual candidates.
This, it was hoped, would render corruption more difficult by enclosing
the individual within the framework of the list, and it was also hoped
that there would be less violence than usual. As a matter of fact there
probably was a diminution with respect to these two practices, but only
because of the large number of abstentions--merely 29 per cent. voted in
Rome, 38 per cent. in Naples, and in Turin scarcely more. The people
were tired of the excessive complexity and dissimulation of Italian
politics. There was a good deal of violence--in Milan, Florence, Bologna
and Sicily the riots were sometimes fatal--and with such an electorate,
more extensive than heretofore, so that symbols had often to be used
instead of the printed word, it was to be expected that there would not
be an atmosphere of even relatively calm discussion. At Naples 132
candidates struggled for eleven seats--their meetings were
indescribable. And it may be thought that in such conditions the
victorious parties would not necessarily reflect the wishes of the
country. The Nationalists were dispersed, the Giolittians were
routed--the Socialists increased from 40 to 156, and the Catholics from
30 to 101. Gabriele d'Annunzio had been the Socialists' chief elector.

THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE

There was now a fair hope that the Government would be in a position to
solve the Adriatic problem. The Italian delegates in Paris had suggested
that, in the independent buffer State, Rieka should have a separate
municipal status, and that a narrow strip of land should join the buffer
State to Italy. On December 9, a memorandum was signed by the
representatives of Great Britain and America, which was the best
compromise which anyone had yet proposed. The strip was dismissed as
being "counter to every known consideration of geography, economics and
territorial convenience." [Nevertheless this very dangerous expedient of
the strip, after having been thus roundly rejected by the Allies, formed
a part of the Treaty of Rapallo in