es, while occasionally including representatives of
more than a single political group, exhibited normally a considerable
degree of solidarity. After 1896 there set in, however, an epoch
during which the growing multiplicity of parties bore fruit in
cabinets of amazingly composite character. In the place of the fairly
substantial Conservative and Radical parties of the seventies stood
now upwards of half a score of contending factions, some durable, some
but transitory. No government could survive a month save by the
support of an affiliation of a number of these groups. But such
affiliations were, in the nature of things, artificial and
provisional, and ministerial stability became what it remains to-day,
a thing universally desired but rarely enjoyed.

*436. The Second Rudini and the Pelloux Ministries, 1896-1900.*--To
General Ricotti-Magnani was committed, at Crispi's fall in 1896, the
task of forming a new ministry. After some delay the premiership was
bestowed upon Rudini, now leader of the Right. The new Government,
constructed to attract the support of both the Right and the Extreme
Left, took as its principal object the elimination of Crispi from the
arena of politics. In time its foreign policy was strengthened
appreciably by the return of Visconti-Venosta, after twenty years, to
the foreign office, but home affairs were administered in a grossly
inefficient manner. Bound by a secret understanding with Cavalotti,
the leader of the Extreme Left, Rudini was obliged to submit
habitually to radical dictation, and the elections of 1899, conducted
specifically to crush the adherents of Crispi, threw open yet wider
the door of opportunity for the Socialists, the Republicans, and the
radical elements generally. The Rudini ministry survived until June
18, 1898, when it was overthrown in consequence of riots occasioned in
southern Italy by a rise in the price of bread.

June 29, 1898, a ministry was made up by General Pelloux which was
essentially colorless politically and whose immediate programme
consisted solely in the passage of a public safety measure originated
during the preceding ministry. When, in June, 1900, the Government
dissolved parliament and appealed to the country the result was
another appreciable increase of power on the part of the radicals. In
the new chamber the extremists--Radicals, Republicans, and
Socialists--numbered nearly 100, or double their former strength. The
Pelloux government forthwith