SPAIN. 



one after another the representatives of the 

 discordant views withdrew their support of 

 his policy while still acknowledging him as 

 leader of the party. The advocates of limited 

 and of universal suffrage, the friends of the 

 principle of impartial obligatory military serv- 

 ice, and those who wished to retain substitution 

 and the purchase of exemption, the Democrats 

 who had been Republicans and the faithful ad- 

 herents of the Bourbon dynasty, the Protection- 

 ists and the Free Traders, were elements that 

 could not be long kept in harmonious co-opera- 

 tion by concessions or compromises. Martos, 

 Romero Robledo, Cassola, Gamazo, Montero 

 Rios, and others who had been Cabinet ministers 

 or parliamentary supporters of Sagasta, seceded 

 and formed independent groups, and at length 

 they and the military politicians, such as Mar- 

 tinez Campos, Gen. Cassola Lopez Dominguez, 

 and others, became so impatient to carry out 

 their ideas that the Sagasta Government could 

 no longer maintain itself. The Premier's desire 

 to negotiate and compromise with the " conspir- 

 ators " was opposed by a part of his Cabinet, 

 and the crisis that began on Jan. 2, when Senor 

 Sagasta placed the resignation of .the Cabinet in 

 the hands of the Queen-Regent, lasted nearly 

 three weeks. During this period the King was 

 very sick, and at one time his life was despaired 

 of. This circumstance tended to keep political 

 passions in check and also protracted the crisis, 

 as the Queen could not give her attention to po- 

 litical matters. On Jan. 20 a Cabinet was con- 

 stituted as follows : Premier without portfolio, 

 Senor Sagasta ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 Marquis de la Vega de Armijo ; Minister of 

 War, Gen. Bermudez Reina; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, Senor d'Eguilior; Minister of the Inte- 

 rior, Senor Capdepon ; Minister of Justice, Senor 

 Puigcerver ; Minister of Marine, Admiral Juan 

 Romero; Minister of Commerce and Agricult- 

 ure, Duke de Veragua ; Minister of the Colo- 

 nies, Senor Gullon. Senor Sagasta would not 

 consent to return to office until the President of 

 the Chamber, Alonso Martinez, had tried and 

 failed to form a coalition ministry, and in recon- 

 structing his Cabinet he made no attempt to 

 conciliate his chief Liberal opponents. Martos 

 and Romero y Robledo. 



Politics and Legislation. The Cortes held 

 no session during the ministerial crisis. The 

 new Minister of War declared for universal lia- 

 bility to serve personally in the army, and prom- 

 ised a bill to that effect. The bill to confer the 

 right of suffrage on every Spaniard of full age 

 who is in possession of civil rights was passed 

 in the Chamber of Deputies on Jan. 24 by 143 

 against 31 votes, the Ministerialists, the seceding 

 Liberals, the Democrats, and the Republicans of 

 all shades voting in its favor. The Conserva- 

 tives, who numbered 74 in the Chamber, had 

 abandoned the opposition that had long ob- 

 structed this measure, the defeat of which would 

 have spurred the Republicans to active warfare 

 against the monarchy. Seilor Canovas del Cas- 

 tillo had indeed expressed approval of the prin- 

 ciple of universal suffrage. The first Cortes of 

 the reign of Alfonso XII abolished equal and 

 universal suffrage, replacing it by a complicated 

 system by which the electoral privilege was 

 shared by certain public bodies, such as univer- 

 VOL. xxx. 50 A 



sities and provincial chambers, and th<- \oi M ,^ 

 qualifications of individuals were rcstn< i.-,l | H , t h 

 by the tax-paying limitation and the crib 

 social status. The repeal of univer.-al siilTnigt: 

 was the most unpopular act of the monarchy, 

 and its restoration was expected to rally i'li 

 greater numbers the Republicans to the support 

 of the dynasty, strengthening the Democratic 

 Left and the claims of .Martos to supplant ,sa- 

 gasta as leader of the Liberal party. The pur- 

 pose of the English Government to' build a dry 

 dock at Gibraltar and the supposed int.-ntion to 

 cut the rock off by a canal from the mainland 

 furnished a pretext for a patriotic agitation 

 against the Government to the Republicans. \\h<, 

 asserted that the English had encroached on 

 Spanish territory in the past, and could not I mi hi 

 a canal without encroaching farther. The dis- 

 satisfaction of the army officers at the policy of 

 the Liberals, who have reduced the strength of 

 the standing army by one third since they have 

 been in office and threatened to diminish the in- 

 fluence and emoluments of the military element 

 and to cut down the pay of officers, has led po- 

 litical generals like Martinez Campos and Sala- 

 manca to assume an attitude of hostile criticism. 

 but had. provoked nothing of the nature of a pro- 

 nunciamiento till Gen. Daban, the leading pro- 

 moter of the restoration of the monarchy, pub- 

 lished a circular, in March, addressed to all the 

 Spanish generals, whom he invited to unite to 

 protect the country against open and concealed 

 enemies and guard the rights of the army in 

 view of the proposition for the government of 

 the colonies by civilians henceforth, the intended 

 reduction of the military contingent, and other 

 aggressive acts prejudicial to the army. Al- 

 though Generals Cassola, Jovellar, Martinez 

 Campos, and Primo de Ribeira defended their 

 comrade in the Cortes, the Government ordered 

 him under arrest for two months. He was con- 

 fined in the fortress of Alicante for several weeks 

 and then pardoned by the Queen-Regent. The 

 main body of the army and of the corps of offi- 

 cers had little sympathy with generals who make 

 trouble from motives of political ambition. The 

 Liberal Government in five years had conferred 

 on the country a law of association, a civil and 

 a penal code, a law of assembly, civil marriage. 

 with state intervention even in religious mar- 

 riages, juries for criminal cases, and finally it 

 had restored universal suffrage and enlarged the 

 franchise in the Spanish Antilles. Its weak spot 

 was the financial difficulty, which preceding 

 ministries had been equally unable to solve. 

 Since the conversion of the debt in 1882 the or- 

 dinary receipts have fallen short of the expendi- 

 tures by about 60,000,000 pesetas a year, and the 

 Ministers of Finance and the Cortes have been 

 restrained by political, military, administrative, 

 and electoral considerations from a resolute at- 

 tempt to bring the expenses within the income. 

 The officially acknowledged 270.000,000 pesetas 

 did not include the whole of the floating liabili- 

 ties, for it was necessary to add the derail of 

 80,000,000 pesetas in the'current budget, 88.000.- 

 000 pesetas advanced by the company farming 

 the tobacco regie for naval construction, and the 

 advances of 60,000.000 or 70,000,000 pesetas from 

 the Bank of Spain for running expenses of 

 Government. 



