SPAIN. 



775 



II was -en, rally known thnt, tin. iitrli t IK- <>/; 

 d'etat luil . <\ through l.y (irin-riil Pa- 



via, Marshal Serrano was the instigator and r. -1 

 leader (if tliis movement. Immediately alter 

 tin- dispersion of the Cortes, General l'a\ia 

 summoned the most eminent men of all parti, -s 

 excepting the lutrunsigentes and the ( 'arli-N 

 as well as the principal members of Si nor 

 ar's cabinet, in order to form a new 

 inini-tiv. General Pavia himself, ho\\ 

 declined to be a member, The new ministry 

 was formed under the presidency of Marshal 

 Serrano, as chief of the Executive power of 

 the K'epuMie. It was composed as follows: 

 Sagastn, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Zavala, 

 Minister of War; Fi^iu-rola, Minister of Justice; 

 Heeerra. .Minister of Agriculture; Echegarrny, 

 Minister of Finance; Garcia Ruiz, Minister of 

 the Interior; Topete, Minister of Marino. While 

 the majority of the members of the ne\v cabi- 

 net had during the reign of King Amadeo bo- 

 longed to one of the monarchical parties, the 

 Minister of the Interior, Garcia Ruiz, is tn, 

 most prominent representative of a centralized 

 republic, and in his journal he praised the coup 

 d'etat as a victory of the centralized over tho 

 federal republic, and as a salvation of the 

 nation from the dangerous illusions of the 

 Federalists. On the 5th Seflor Martos was 

 appointed Minister of Justice in place of Fi- 

 guerohi, wlio resigned, and Senor Mosquera 

 Minister of Commerce. Castelar not only de- 

 clined to have any thing to do with the new 

 Government, but issued an address to tho 

 Spanish nation in which he says: "I protest 

 with all the energy of my soul against the 

 brutal act of violence committed against the 

 Constituent Cortes by the Captain-General of 

 Madrid. My conscience will not permit me 

 to associate with demagogues, but on the other 

 hand my conscience and my honor keep me 

 aloof from the state of things just created by 

 the force of bayonets." Several deputies be- 

 longing to the majority adhered to the protest 

 made by SeDor Castelafr. The new ministry, 

 in its turn, addressed a long manifesto to the 

 nation, explaining the events of the 3d. It 

 says that tho same parties now placed in 

 power made the revolution of 1868, and the 

 constitution of 1869. They neither condemn 

 nor destroy their previous work the volun- 

 tary abdication of the monarch, and the proc- 

 lamation of the republic, only destroyed one 

 of its clauses. They will not consent that this 

 work, which has thus been modified, should 

 be changed in its essence. The Government 

 will oppose both absolutism and anarchy. A 

 decree was also issued dissolving the Cortes, 

 and announcing that the Government would 

 convoke the ordinary Cortes when the main- 

 tenance of order was secured, and universal 

 suffrage could be freely exercised. 



Only a few days later, on January 12th, the 

 last stronghold of the Intransigentes, Carta- 

 gena, fell into the hands of the Government. 

 Its surrender had been certain for some time. 



( in January 1 1th the Junta, which bad before 

 resisted all entreaties add penned to it in the 

 name of humanity, itself sent commissioner* 

 into i!i.- besiegers' linen. But by that time the 

 Madrid Government felt that it had required 

 too many sacrifices of the army and Spain to 

 consent to terms which would have been will- 

 ingly granted four months before, in order to 

 spare life. Besides, the offer had not been 

 made until Cartagena was visibly within the 

 the compass of the besiegers 1 means of attack. 

 Thus all Btipulations were refused. The in- 

 surgents were to have until noon on January 

 12th to surrender, and pardon was promised 

 to all who should surrender with arms in their 

 hands, save only the members of the Junta. 

 This answer appears to have determined the 

 leaders of the insurrection to separate their 

 cause from that of a city which could be of no 

 further use to them; and they took their de- 

 parture very speedily on board the Numancia, 

 and the city on the afternoon of January 12th 

 was occupied by General Domingnes. The 

 fugitives on board the Numancia, Contreras, 

 Galves, the members of the Junta, and other 

 fugitives, ultimately disembarked at Oran, in 

 Algeria, and delivered themselves up to the 

 French authorities. They alleged that Carta- 

 gena surrendered through the treachery of the 

 commander of the principal fort, a charge 

 which was fully confirmed by later reports. 

 The town was found to have suffered severely, 

 though not so much as had been supposed, ex- 

 cept near the Madrid Gate, where the damage 

 Avas very great. Scarcely <5ne house had es- 

 caped untouched, and some were riddled with 

 shells ; two houses had been thrown down and 

 the street pavement ploughed up. Immense 

 damage had been done by the recent explosion 

 of the powder-magazine, where over 200 per- 

 sons were said to have been killed. The walls 

 near the Madrid Gate had suffered much, but 

 there was nothing approaching to a breach. 

 A few guns had burst, but most were in their 

 places. Tho forts appear to have received 

 little injury, tho Atalaya Fort so little as to 

 confirm the suspicion that it was surrendered 

 by treachery. No guns were dismounted or 

 spiked. The entry of the troops was effected 

 very qnietly and without bloodshed, except 

 the shooting of eight men who tried to escape. 

 The capture of Cartagena enabled the Gov- 

 ernment to concentrate all its forces against 

 the Carlists, who in December, 1873, and dur- 

 ing the first weeks of the new year, had been 

 eminently successful. The attempt of General 

 Moriones to relieve Bilbao, the capital of the 

 Basque provinces, had been a wretched failure, 

 and on January 8th the troops of Don Carlos 

 began the siege of the fortress in form. Por- 

 tugalete, near Bilbao, was captured by the Car- 

 lists on January 22d. General Moriones col- 

 lected all the available forces of the Govern- 

 ment, and, being strengthened by the Republi- 

 can troops set free by the fall of Cartagena, 

 marched to the relief of Bilbao, and for tho 



