possessed in money-about sixty thousand lire-and threw it to the mob, saying: "Here is all I have got; take it, but save our lives." Not even this could quench the bloodthirstiness of the mob; they wanted his blood, and they got it. The house was invaded and burned, the mill was ransacked and devastated, and Signor Barletta was killed on the spot. The fury of the mob lasted two days more, and the rioters, in their madness, emptied sacks of flour into the gutter. It was bread at the beginning, but it was raging vengeance and madness at the end.

There was no organisation in the Neapolitan provinces; the riots were absolutely independent of one another, but they were originated by the same cause-misery; they aimed at the same object—a loud protest by means of devastation; they all ended in the same way— viz., after two or three days the soldiers restored order, the dead were buried, and the ringleaders taken to prison to be dealt with by the military court.

In the north, at Milan, the uprising was of quite a different character.

In the South of Italy it was truly a question of bread and bread alone. In Central Italy it was a question of work, in Lombardy a truly revolutionary movement. The Neapolitan mob shouted for bread and bread alone, some asking for cheaper bread, some others for "free bread." In Tuscany the cry was, "Pane o Lavoro!" (bread or work). In Lombardy quite another trumpet was sounded: "Down with the Government! Down with the Dynasty!" The Milanese, of all the people of Italy, have plenty of work and bread, and it is admitted by all that bread had nothing to do with the revolt of Milan. I have studied this movement from its inception, and my conclusion is that the revolt broke out long before it was expected, thus making the discomfiture more certain.

The great majority of the population of Milan was, and is, conservative and loyal to the King, although not pleased with the doings of the Government. Only a minority, but a very noisy and active minority, is against monarchical institutions. For some time past the revolutionary party of Milan have made no mystery of their political aspirations towards the establishment of a Milanese republic, to be called "Republica Ambrogiana." The Secolo, as the principal organ of the democracy in Lombardy, has often hinted at the possibility of forming such a republic, whilst the Italia del Popolo, the official organ of the republican party, written at the headquarters and by the principal leaders, has for these last ten years worked to this end, not only by means of anti-dynastic articles, but also by distributing to their subscribers, as a kind of Christmas box, one year a gauntlet, another year a revolver, another a blackthorn,

Last year

they gave for Christmas presents satchels, with these words: "Dáll al tronco," the republican motto of Alberto Mario, which means = "Strike at the root "-i e., the monarchy.

The first barricade erected on the fatal Sunday, the 8th of May, was adorned by such a motto, and the defenders wore the satchel.

Milan is also the headquarters of Socialism and Anarchism. Socialists and Republicans once upon a time were implacable foess Many a battle they fought one against the other; but since 1886 the two have come to love each other more, or to hate each other less, whichever it may be; and towards the end of 1895 they entered into partnership against their common enemy-Crispi! Then the Anarchista came in. Decent Republicans and timid Socialists were rather averse to ally themselves with anarchy; the very name was loathsome to them. However, this natural mistrust soon disappeared, and the Anarchists were welcomed into the dual alliance. Still another element was to enter the clerical party. The Church in Italy is the natural enemy of the present kingdom. She has been despoiled of the temporal power, and, as the end justifies the means, a faction of the clerical party, led by a well-known priest and agitator, Don Davide Albertario, entered into this alliance of the revolutionary forces, which became a Republican-Socialist-Anarchic-Clerical league, each party working for its particular end, but all against the Dynasty of Savoy, which is the stronghold of united Italy. They all know that as long as the present dynasty lives so long will last the unity of Italy, and, therefore, so long there will be no room for a federative Republic, nor for Socialism, Anarchism, or the Temporal Power. The faults of the Government were great, no doubt. I will not try to excuse them here, much as I should like to do so; but in fairness to a much-tried Ministry, I am bound to notice that the Italian Government have not only to fight against forces which are, as everywhere else, naturally anti-Constitutional, but also against the Church, which in every other country is a strong Conservative and law-abiding power.

Each set of agitators had its own special organ-to wit, Il Secolo for the advanced Radicals, L'Italia del Popolo for the Republicans, La Lotta di Classe for the Socialists and Anarchists, and the Osservatore Cattolico for the clerical agitators. All these papers, now suppressed, for more than two weeks gave prominence to the bread riots in other parts of Italy, thus preparing the minds of the people for a great revolt against the Government and the Monarchy. The watchword at Milan was not Bread, but Revolution; it could not have been otherwise. And this is how the revolt was brought about. The revolutionary party had decided to have a big demonstration on Sunday, the 8th of May, to sympathise with the bread rioters. To this end a notice was issued on Friday, the 6th, which was worded in a manner to make clear the nature of this demonstration. It was intended as

a sort of counterpoise to the demonstration Turin was going to have the same day in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first Italian Parliament. The article published in the Secolo of Milan, of the 7th, clearly stated this. The authorities, therefore, forbade the meeting and ordered the seizure of the notices. Од the morning of the 7th the police met three men who were distributing these notices amongst the workmen of a factory. They were arrested and led to the police station, which, however, was soon surrounded by an exasperated mob, who threatened to invade the building if the three arrested persons were not discharged. The Italian police, pro bono pacis, often give way to the demand of the mob to avoid a worse evil, and in this case they at once released two of the persons arrested, against whom no charge was entered, but detained the third one. Through this began the revolt, which lasted fully three days. A few agitators went to some factories and compelled the workmen to cease work at once. It is stated that the police themselves advised some of the employers to close the factories! The Socialist leaders were soon on the spot, and seeing what was going on, tried to prevent any further disorders, but were not listened to. Matters had already taken a wrong turn, and the mob was beyond control. The deputy Turati, now amongst the arrested, in a moment of despair said: "We are not ready yet, let not the police choose the time of our fighting; go home now; we shall soon be together again, and then we will lead you to victory." Signor Turati had for years sown the wind, and the whirlwind proved to be stronger than his exhortations to peace. The spot where this first riot took place was surrounded by many important factories, the workmen of which went, mostly out of curiosity, to swell the mob in the streets. The police applied at once for military assistance, and on the appearance of the soldiers the mob uttered the not unusual greeting, "Long live our brothers of the Army!" This was a ruse de guerre which failed. Soldiers and workmen had at once the first encounter in the fight between law and mob. Two or three were killed on either side: the first blood was thus shed, and it called for more.

In the centre of the city, the West End of Milan, the cry was, "Down with the King! Down with Savoy!" but in the suburbs the cry was, "Down with the masters! Down with property! Long live Socialism!" A workman approached Signor Grondona, the chief of a firm of railway-carriage builders, employing about 2000 hands, and with a sardonic smile said to him: "At last the time has arrived when we shall do no more work, and you shall work for us."

The clericals have not a special cry of their own. They satisfied themselves by rubbing their hands and saying: "Down it goes at Last." Little they knew that not the dynasty, not united Italy was then going down, but society itself.

The Secolo of May 7 contained this exhortation: "The facts of today are ugly, sad and shameful. Why assault palaces and devastate property? Whoever acts in this way is the enemy of the people, the enemy of liberty. You are right in protesting against the killing of your fellow-workers, but as we know that severe orders came from Rome, we beg of you, for your wives' sakes and for your children's, do not go into the streets and be killed. Go home and stay at home; your time will come."

This was accepted as a kind of repentance, but it was too late to mend.

The Italia del Popolo was still hopeful, and it sounded another call to arms with an incendiary article on this note: "To-day the police and the army were thirsty, bloodthirsty; they drank our blood, to-morrow we will bathe in theirs." Both these papers were seized, and the editorial staffs of both arrested.

The Government, informed of the gravity of the situation on the afternoon of the 7th, appointed General Bava-Beccaris Military Commissioner over all the city, and no better man could have been chosen to cope successfully with the revolt. The night of the 7th passed off quietly, but at dawn of the 8th the revolt broke out again. A friend of mine, who was in the midst of the revolt, assures me that its importance has been very much exaggerated in the first reports sent abroad; and from the official documents, since published, it appears that about ninety barricades were erected, and some twenty houses ransacked to provide the necessary material to build them. The number of the killed amounted to seventy-two, and that of the seriously wounded to sixty-three. On Monday evening order was restored in Milan, but Tuesday, May 10, was a very dull day, as the silence of death had passed over the most gay city of Italy. One of the most memorable episodes of the third day was the transport of one hundred and four prisoners from the police station to the cellulare. They were handcuffed two by two. At each side of them stood a carabineer with a revolver in hand, ready to shoot at the first attempt at escape. In front and in the rear were squadrons of cavalry. This sad cortège passed through the streets of Milan amid perfect silence; and I would call this the apotheosis of violence triumphing over madness. On Wednesday morning shops and factories were reopened, but it will take years to undo the mischief done on May 7, 8, and 9, 1898. All are sadder now; one may hope that they will be wiser also. The agitators, the deluded, the masses, the governing classes, the Government, all have had their lesson; may it be fruitful to them!

Undoubtedly the Milanese agitators misunderstood the feeling of the people at large. They thought that because the great majority of the Milanese was with them in shouting "down with colonial expansion; down with political corruption; down with Crispi's megalomania ;

down with a policy too big for our limited means," it would likewise be with them in shouting, "Down with the monarchy; down with the dynasty." But here they made their great mistake.

It has been said that two things are very sound in Italy-the king and the people: between the two stand the Parliamentary institutions, which in Italy have, for want of political education and moral courage, worked very badly. The Bishop of London said the other day, "As knowledge is power, ignorance is impotency." This in a nut-shell is the sad situation of Italy. Political ignorance has begotten political and moral disorder.

The consequences of the revolt at Milan politically are very serious, because it affects all the future policy of the Italian Government in their relations both with the extreme parties and the Church.

It is not necessary to go into particulars, to see how much and in what degree the clerical agitators participated in the revolt of Milan; suffice it to say that the principal organ of the clerical party in Lombardy, edited by Don Davide Albertario, the henchman of Cardinal Ferrari, has for years carried on a campaign against the monarchy, and that at the last Eucharist meeting, a clerical orator proclaimed their motto to be Indietro Savoja, as an antithesis to the national motto, Avanti sempre Savoja.

To make matters worse, Cardinal Ferrari, the Archbishop of Milan, as soon as the revolt broke out, left town. For two days no one knew where he had gone, but on the third day he sent a telegram to General Bava-Beccaris, the military Commissioner, to whose hands the city was entrusted, asking him to release all the monks who were arrested during the turmoil. Not having received a telegraphic reply, he sent a letter to General Bava-Beccaris, in which he said: "When I left town I could not foresee the deplorable events which have thrown all the town into consternation, and I make haste to assure your Excellency of my full adherence to the principles of order and justice." The papers at once observed that when Cardinal Ferrari left Milan the revolt was going on and the town was full of barricades.

The General replied to the Cardinal very sharply. "I deplore," he says, "that a strange coincidence of facts has not permitted you to be in town in these days of disorder. It would have been a great help if the Milanese clergy, having received from their chief a diretto impulso, had spoken without any delay words of peace and tendered their ministrations to shorten the sanguinary and fratricidal struggle." Cardinal Ferrari was not long in perceiving that his position towards the authorities was very much shaken, and directed his coadjutor to go personally to pay a visit to the General. He went at once and offered the services of the Church to pacify the minds of the people. According to a report that appeared in the dailies of May 13, the