combinations that came to life almost daily and made the Chamber a nursery of ministers. On the 28th of September, 1919, the government appointed General Badoglio Extraordinary Commissioner of the Venezia Guilia and accepted a discussion on the matter in the Chamber. Neither the men in power nor the opposition felt it possible to accept the suggestions of the Press, of various associations, and even of their friends who were urging the necessity of Fiume’s annexation. The Ministry gave in its resignation after dissolving the House and the elections returned 157 Socialists, among whom were moderate men like Turati and Treves and many new men whose programmes were openly revolutionary, and over a hundred _Popolari_. These parties had a good deal in common. Their propaganda had been nearly perfect and had appealed to the people by that definiteness and practicalness of purpose which is the main string to pull in order to move Italians to action. They were not dreamers and even in their worst or best ideals they were for definiteness of means and purpose. There is in the Italian mind such a strong tendency to take a realistic view of things that to this characteristic the best and the worst of their history might be traced for twenty centuries. The Nationalists had been returned in very small number, but were mostly young, with considerable intellectual culture, fit and ready to assume responsibilities. They had all done active service in the war and were sorry to see its meagre result. They required an audacious and strong policy without being able, however, to see clearly how this was to be realised. Liberals held a good many seats but they were so split up that they should rather be considered as a set of groups than as a party; they even called themselves different names and had no common programme.