SPAIN. 



745 



48,194,270 pesetas; cattle. 22.0^9,928 pesetas; 



cork, 17.i'>71, 091 pesetas: wool, 16,094,946 



-: oil, 14.358,312 pesetas; all other ar- 



l.-.2,774,740 pesetas. Of 162,623,472 



gallons of wine exported, 130,313,000 gallons 



went to France and 4.7S5.800 to England. 



Railroads, Po>t.s, and Telegraphs. The total 

 length of the railroads open to traffic at the 

 beirinning of 1887 was 9.309 kilometres, or 

 5,780 miles. 



The number of letters forwarded in 1886 

 was 90.345,607; postal-cards. 332,054; sam- 

 ples and printed inclosures, 10.054,974; regis- 

 tered articles and letters, 1,243,537; money 

 letters. 62.148. These figures do not include 

 the international service, in which 11,955.213 

 letters, 38.461 postal-cards, 7.794,370 registered 

 letters, and 13,356 money letters were sent or 

 received. The receipts of the post-office were 

 16.577.417 francs; expenses, 9,515.468 francs. 



The length of telegraph lines in 1887 was 

 18,419 kilometres, or 11,512 miles; length of 

 wires, 46.187 kilometres, or 28,870 miles. The 

 number of dispatches in 1886 was 3,549,860, 

 of which one fourth were international. 



Political frWs The Sagasta ministry found 

 itself compelled in 1888, to do something to 

 redeem its pledges in regard to the long-prom- 

 ised political reforms, lest it should be over- 

 turned by the Democrats, although at the im- 

 minent risk of defeat through the defection of 

 the Ministerial Right. The Minister of Justice 

 accordingly brought in a bill to introduce trial 

 by jury. Canovas del Castillo met it with a 

 proposition to raise the grain duties, asserting 

 that the agricultural crisis demanded the tirst 

 attention. The Conservative bill to impose a 

 supplementary duty on cereals was defeated in 

 Congress on January 9, by 133 votes against 

 60. In February the party in power was up- 

 held by Castelar, the leader of the Possibilists 

 or Conservative Republicans, in a great speech 

 in which, without formally renouncing Repub- 

 licanism, he accepted the existing frame of 

 government, including the union of Church 

 and state, as the most suitable for Spain, and 

 declared that as soon as the ministry had car- 

 ried out its scheme of Democratic reforms he 

 would bid farewell to public life and devote 

 his remaining years to a " History of Spain." 

 The official corruption and despotic misrule of 

 the colonies, especially Cuba and Porto Rico, 

 afforded Gen. Salamanca whose appointment 

 as Governor-General of Cuba had been can- 

 celed and the opponents of the Government 

 an opportunity to charge the ministers with 

 apathy, weakness, and indifference to official 

 immorality, and to condemn as futile a com- 

 mission that was appointed to investigate col- 

 onial administrations ; yet the discussion of 

 colonial wrongs awakened, as ever, very little 

 interest. The Protectionist agitation caused 

 the greatest difficulties that the ministry had 

 to contend with. The commercial and agri- 

 cultural crisis was made use of by politicians, 

 who organized an Agrarian League, at the 



head of which stood the Liberal ex-Minister 

 of the Colonies Gamazo. This movement di- 

 vided the ministerial majority, attracted Re- 

 formists like Romero y Kobledo and Montillo, 

 was supported by Canovas, Villaverde, and the 

 rest of the Conservatives, and even obtained 

 the support of Muro and other Republicans. 

 The Cabinet met the demands ot the Agrarian 

 League with partial concessions, agreeing to 

 take off 18,000,000 pesetas of the land-taxes, 

 whereas the agriculturists asked for a reduc- 

 tion of 50.000,000 pesetas, promising to secure 

 lower rates on the railroads for agricultural 

 and mineral produce, and accepting the propo- 

 sition to spend large sums on public works. 

 The main demand for higher duties, however, 

 the Premier declared, could not be granted 

 without a violation of national faith, because 

 the slight reductions of which Spanish manu- 

 facturers and farmers complained were made 

 in pursuance of treaty obligations entered into 

 with twenty different nations in the course of 

 the last twenty years. The Reformist party 

 which contested the succession to the tottering 

 Sagasta ministry with the Conservatives, was 

 disrupted in the spring by the secession of 

 Lopez Dominguez, the founder of the party, 

 and of his powerful military following, leaving 

 its parliamentary leader, Romero y Robledo, 

 at the head of a remnant that was no better 

 than a political group. Gen. Lopez Domin- 

 guez organized a new group, called by the 

 name of Monarchical Democrats, to advocate 

 the old programme which Romero y Robledo 

 had not faithfully observed. 



The ministerial crisis had lasted almost a 

 year when the resignation of the Cabinet took 

 place as the result of a trivial question of mili- 

 tary etiquette. The Queen had left Madrid for 

 an excursion to Valencia, which the Minister 

 of Justice insisted on her making according to 

 the published arrangement, lest the postpone- 

 ment should be construed as a sign of fear of 

 the Zorillist Republicans, who had convoked a 

 mass meeting in the same city. The Infanta 

 Isabel, who was left to repre>ent her, decided 

 to take a journey also, and informed Gen. 

 Martinez Campos that her sister, the Infanta 

 Eulalie, would give out the military watch- 

 word. The Military Governor of Madrid re- 

 plied that the married infanta was not legally 

 competent to perform that office, and that it 

 was impossible, according to military rules, for 

 him to receive the parole from her husband, 

 Prince Antonio, Due de Montpensier. who was 

 only a captain in rank. The Minister of War, 

 who was not on good terms with the Captain- 

 General, sent a brusque telegram ordering him 

 to receive the pass-word from the Princess Eu- 

 lalie, whereupon Gen. Campos offered his res- 

 ignation. All attempts to accommodate the 

 quarrel failed, and as the majority of the Cabi- 

 net sided with the Captain-General, Gen. Cas- 

 sola and the ministers who had supported his 

 view resigned their portfolios. Sefior Sajrasta 

 handed in the resignation of the entire Cabinet 



