l
corruption had been condoned, if not encouraged; the civil service had
been degraded to a mere machine of the ministerial majority; and the
nation had been led to embark upon highly questionable policies of
colonial expansion, alliance with Germany and Austria, and protective
tariffs.

[Footnote 572: This partial renewal of a ministry,
known in Italy as a _rimpasto_, was, and still is,
rendered easy by the average ministry's lack of
political solidarity.]

[Footnote 573: This coalition policy--the so-called
_transformismo_--did not originate with Depretis.
As early as 1873 a portion of the Right under
Minghetti, by joining the Left, had overturned the
Lanza-Sella cabinet; and in 1876 Minghetti himself
had fallen a victim to a similar defection of
Conservative deputies.]

*434. The First Crispi, First Rudini, and First Giolitti Ministries,
1887-1893.*--The successor of Depretis was Crispi, in reality the only
man of first-rate statesmanship in the ranks of the Left. To him it
fell to tide the nation safely over the crises attendant upon the
death (January 9, 1878) of King Victor Emmanuel II. and that (February
7 following) of Pope Pius IX. The personality of Crispi was very much
more forceful than was that of Depretis and the grasp which he secured
upon the political situation rendered his position little short of
that of a dictator. The elections of 1876 had reduced to impotence the
old Right as a party of opposition, and although prior to Crispi's
ministry there had been some recovery, the Left continued in all but
uncontested power. In the elections of November, 1890, the Government
was accorded an overwhelming majority. None the less, largely by
reason of his uncontrollable temper, Crispi allowed himself, at the
end of January, 1891, to be forced by the Conservatives into a (p. 394)
position such that the only course open to him was to resign.

There followed a transitional period during which the chaos of party
groups was made more than ever apparent. The Rudini ministry, composed
of representatives of both the Right and the Left, survived little
more than a year. May 5, 1892, the formation of a ministry was
intrusted by King Humbert to Giolitti, a Piedmontese deputy and at one
time minister of finan