The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1912. ITALY’S RULER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 99, 26 April 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1912. ITALY’S RULER.

(Mails just to hand bring full particulars of the anarchist outrage at Rome on March loth, when shots were fired at the King of Italy by a young m;\n who was nearly lynched hy an infuriated crowd. The King and Queen, it will be remembered, escaped injury, but a Major of cuirassiers was wounded. Victor Emmanuel lII.* the third monarch of united Italy, was horn in 1869, and was the son of King Humbert I. and In’s cousin, Margaret of Savoy. He was a delicate • boy, and it is doubtful whether his spartan upbringing was the best lie could have had. He survived it, however, married the Princess Helena, daughter of Prince (now King) Nicholas of Montenegro in 1896, and succeeded to the throne in 1900. It is somewhat remarkable that lie owed his accession to the assassination of his father by the Anarchist Bresci. Bresci’s crime, it is considered, was a symptom of the unrest and deep discontent with which Italy, especially tlie North, was filled. The Government was reactionary, or at least unprogressive, the administration was corrupt and incompetent, and the condition of the working classes; was deplorable. King Victor . Emmanuel, while behaving scrupulously as a constitutional monarch, lias undoubtedly done a good deal to produce the improvement which has shown itself during the last dozen years. The condition of the people is still far from satisfactory, and the extraordinary illiteracy which is the disgrace of Italy increases instead of diminishes, but at least it may be said that the administration is far less inefficient than it was, and the financial position of the country is sound. Tie Kings sympathies and support have been given to progressive Ministers, and lie has set the example of hard work, conscientiousness, and incorruptibility. He lias all the virtues which are sometimes disparaged as “middle class,” and his Court is Iree from the scandals of former reigns. The present reign has been marked also by a growing cordiality between the Italian State and tlje Church, and before the war the old distrust of France had been removed. King Victor Emmanuel visited Paris and London in 1903, and received King Edward in 1903 and President Loubct in 1901. Ho has also had visits from the Emperor William, and lias been to herlin and St. Petersburg—but not \ ienna. Dalba, the would-be assassin, is described as a typical Apache, and in answer to interrogations he appears to have admitted having belonged to a baud of Apaches and to have undergone three sentences for theft. according to his account, he became an Individualist Anarchist during the last few years. According to the “Messaggoro,” Dalba lias never been connected (vitb any of the advanced political parties. In 1910 the police applied to have him placed under supervision, on the ground that he was an Apache, but the examining magistrate refused the application.