with the daughter of the marquis Alfieri di Sostegno, grand-niece of Cavour, he was created marquis by the king. For a time he remained a member of the parliamentary opposition, and in 1886 was nominated senator. In 1894, after eighteen years' absence from active political life, he was chosen to be Italian arbitrator in the Bering Sea question, and in 1896 once more accepted the portfolio of foreign affairs in the Di Rudinì cabinet at a juncture when the disasters in Abyssinia and the indiscreet publication of an Abyssinian Green Book had rendered the international position of Italy exceedingly difficult. His first care was to improve Franco-Italian relations by negotiating with France a treaty with regard to Tunis. During the negotiations relating to the Cretan question and the Graeco-Turkish War he secured for Italy a worthy part in the European Concert and joined Lord Salisbury in saving Greece from the loss of Thessaly. Resigning office in May 1898, on a question of internal policy, he once more retired to private life. In May 1899 he again assumed the management of foreign affairs in the second Pelloux cabinet, and continued to hold office in the succeeding Saracco cabinet until its fall in February 1901. During this period his attention was devoted chiefly to the Chinese problem and to the maintenance of the equilibrium in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. In regard to the Mediterranean he established an Italo-French agreement by which France tacitly undertook to leave Italy a free hand in Tripoli, and Italy not to interfere with French policy in the interior of Morocco; and, in regard to the Adriatic, he came to an understanding with Austria guaranteeing the status quo in Albania. Prudence (dubbed as "clean hands policy"){{efn|On the other side, the "clean hands" policy in diplomacy was judged, in next century, "a dramatic cultural heritage, which Italy should escape now more than ever": and sagacity, coupled with unequalled experience of foreign policy, enabled him to assure to Italy her full portion of influence in international affairs, and secured for himself the unanimous esteem of European cabinets. In recognition of his services he was created Knight of the Annunziata by Victor Emmanuel III on the occasion of the birth of Princess Yolanda Margherita of Savoy (June 1, 1901). In February 1906 he was Italian delegate to the Algeciras Conference. The purpose of the conference was to mediate the First