He never understood that the duty of the sovereign
was to lend his moral support to his ministers so long as no
constitutional question was involved, or until there had been the
expression of the will of the nation, deliberately formulated, and not
by the accidental votes which in the Italian Chamber are oftener the
result of conspiracies or panics than of any question involving a
political measure. Parliamentary government in Italy is a caricature
of the form, demanding for its safe working the most conservative
influence of the Crown to control its action. But Humbert, by yielding
to every gust of excitement in the Chamber which, even by a surprise,
menaced the ministry, encouraged and developed the disorderly tendency
and the strength of the subversive party which always profited by the
disorders. Victor Emmanuel in a similar case quelled the anarchy by
dissolving the Chamber; Humbert had never that degree of courage even
when he knew that the disorder was directed against the monarchy, not
merely against a ministry; and he is, more than any other person, the
cause of the decline and anarchy in parliamentary government in Italy.
In the succeeding ministry the King had the unprecedented courage to
refuse to accept Rudin? and his programme, but admitted his inclusion
in the ministry of General Ricotti, an old and admirable soldier and
military organizer, who was resolved to begin his administration by
a long desired and needed reorganization of the army, reducing its
numbers and increasing its efficiency.
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