8PAIN. 



731 



at $132,800,000, and the expenditures at $180,- 

 HIHMIUO. Of the latter amount, $84,400,000 

 would be required for the service of the na- 

 tional debt, and $80,140,000 for the war and 

 naval departments. The consolidated debt of 

 tiu- tuition amounted to about $1,966,800,000 

 (9,883,000,000 pesetas), and the floating-debt 

 to $303,600,000 (1,518,000,000 pesetas), and 

 there was a balance in the Treasury of $18,- 

 600,000 (493,000,000 pesetas). In July the 

 Budget Committee approved the following bases 

 for the consolidation of the external and in- 

 ternal debts, viz. : an interest of one per cent, 

 to be paid from January 1, 1877, and an addi- 

 tional one-quarter per cent, from January 1, 

 1882. Subsequently to the latter date, the 

 Government is to negotiate with the creditors 

 of Spain for a definitive consolidation of the 

 debt. The four overdue coupons, and the one 

 falling due on January 1, 1877, will be capi- 

 talized into a stock bearing an annual interest 

 of two per cent., and to be redeemed within 

 fifteen years. 



The ex-Queen Isabella landed at Biscay, on 

 the 28th of July, setting her foot again on 

 Spanish soil for the first time since her expul- 

 sion by the Revolution of 1868. She estab- 

 lished her residence at Santander. Toward 

 the end of September she went to the Escurial, 

 and in October made a visit to Madrid, where 

 her arrival was noticed with some ceremony. 

 Queen Christina having also returned to Spain 

 in May, and settled herself at La Granja, there 

 were, in September, three rival courts in the 

 country striving for the controlling influence 

 with the Government, viz. : the official court, 

 represented by the King himself, and the min- 

 istry of Sefior Canovas del Castillo ; the court 

 of Queen Christina, supported by partisans of 

 Espartero ; and the court of ex-Queen Isabella, 

 sustained by the clergy, Sagasta, Serrano, and 

 General Novaliches, which was the most active 

 of all. 



These movements were followed by a reac- 

 tion in the policy of the Government on the 

 question of religious toleration. The narrow- 

 est possible interpretation was given to Arti- 

 cle XI. of the new Constitution, which had 

 heretofore been considered to allow a free en- 

 joyment of non-Catholic worship, so long as 

 it did not extend to prominent public demon- 

 strations. On the 19th of August, the Gov- 

 ernor of Mulion issued a notification that no 

 announcements of Protestant schools should be 

 printed or published, since such announce- 

 ments were expressly forbidden in the Consti- 

 tution. Shortly afterward the governor forbade 

 loud singing in the Methodist chapels. Early 

 In September the Government addressed a cir- 

 cular to the Protestant ministers, forbidding all 

 public manifestations of the dissenting reli- 

 gious bodies outside of the churches, and defin- 

 ing as among such manifestations all display 

 of religious ceremonies, rites, usages, and cus- 

 toms, processions, notices, banners, and em- 

 blems mentioned in the public-worship clause 



of the Constitution. Dissenters were required 

 to give information to the authorities furty- 

 eight hours before opening a place of worship 

 or a cemetery, and to make known the name* 

 of the directors and rectors of the same ; these 

 officers must inform the authorities, within 

 forty-eight hours afterward, of the temples or 

 cemeteries having been opened. Schools might 

 be independent of the churches in legal mat- 

 ters, but their directors should be Spaniards 

 who had taken academical degrees. Foreigners 

 would be treated as inviolable, and meetings 

 in the chapels would not be interfered with, 

 except in the case of the schools which re- 

 mained subject to the Government. Other 

 meetings, not authorized by the Government, 

 were liable to be suppressed by the police. 

 The Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed a 

 circular, relative to the question of religious 

 toleration, to the representatives of the Govern- 

 ment at the foreign courts. After defining the 

 terms of Article XI. of the Constitution, which, 

 while recognizing the Roman Catholic as the 

 religion of the state, provided that private 

 worship should be permitted to non-Catholio 

 creeds, but public manifestations should be for- 

 bidden them, the circular stated that notices 

 placarded in places outside of the church, an- 

 nouncing the hours of service, were considered 

 to be public manifestations within the meaning 

 of the prohibition. The public streets were 

 under the jurisdiction of the state, and it must 

 preserve order there. For justification of the 

 repression which had been exercised in the 

 Balearic Islands (at Mahon), the circular as- 

 serted that an anti-Spanish or separative prop- 

 aganda had been carried on under the shelter 

 of religious liberty, which had compelled the 

 authorities of the island, while respecting tol- 

 erance within the church - edifices, to adopt 

 measures which had the full approval of the 

 Government. 



The Cortes met again on the 6th of Novem- 

 ber. The ministry were subjected to sharp 

 attacks by the Opposition, but were secure in 

 a well-organized majority of the Deputies. 

 On the 15tli the Minister of the Interior intro- 

 duced a bill restoring the electoral law for- 

 merly in force, the effect of which would be to 

 abolish universal suffrage, to establish voting 

 by departments, and to grant the suffrage only 

 to persons paying a certain annual amount of 

 direct taxes, or to the members of certain pro- 

 fessions. In reference to external politics, the 

 Ministerial Council made a declaration that 

 Spain would not mingle in European troubles, 

 for the blood of its sons could be shed only 

 for national objects. A motion introduced by 

 Sefior Sagasta, declaring that the Government 

 had given a false interpretation to the para- 

 graph of the Constitution respecting religious 

 toleration, was rejected by a vote of 183 to 40. 

 The Minister of War presented a bill making 

 military service obligatory, and providing that 

 the standing army should never be less than 

 100,000 men. The period of service should be 



