752 



SPAIN. 



the Spanish Minister answered with the same 

 sort of arguments which he had been accus- 

 tomed to receive from London ; but when it 

 was put in the light of a favor, the Spanish au- 

 thorities finally released two of the prisoners. 



A projected pilgrimage to Kome caused so- 

 licitude in the early part of the year. It was 

 feared that it might develop into a Carlist 

 demonstration, or into one in favor of the 

 restoration of the temporal power of the Pope, 

 which would cause complications with the 

 Italian Government. Correspondence on the 

 subject was carried on with the Quirinal and 

 with the Vatican. The attitude of the Arch- 

 bishop of Toledo, Cardinal Moreno, and of the 

 Papal Nuncio, increased the distrust. Yet the 

 development of the affair revealed the fact that 

 the clergy of Spain were not disposed to iden- 

 tify themselves with the failing cause of Don 

 Carlos, but rather to put their trust in the 

 Conservative-Liberal party. The Clerical rep- 

 resentatives in the Cortes assumed an aggres- 

 sive attitude toward the Sagasta government, 

 not only in regard to the proposed civil mar- 

 riage and education laws r but on the question 

 of the treatment by the Cabinet of the question 

 of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope in its 

 relations with the Italian Government. 



LEGISLATION. The projects of Comacho for 

 the reform of the finances were approved by 

 the Cortes before they adjourned, on December 

 30, 1881. The Finance Minister proposed a 4 

 per cent loan of 1,800,000,000 pesetas, to cover 

 the privileged 6 per cent debt and the floating 

 debt, and asked discretionary power to effect 

 an arrangement with the Spanish and foreign 

 holders for the conversion of the consolidated 

 debt. The provisional understanding arrived 

 at in 1876 secured to the creditors 1 per cent 

 interest to January 1, 1882, and after that date 

 1J per cent. Comacho's project was to con- 

 vert the loans into 4 per cent bonds, scaling 

 down the capital so as to secure the creditors 

 1-62^ or 1-65 per cent instead of T25 per cent 

 interest on the face value of the existing bonds. 

 He negotiated at once with the domestic cred- 

 itors, and came to terms in the beginning of 

 February on a smaller reduction. The com- 

 promise secures the bondholders If per cent 

 per annum on the old bonds converted into 4 

 per cent new bonds, but the arrangement does 

 not go into effect until July 1, 1883. The 

 French and Dutch bondholders agreed to the 

 same terms, but the English refused to accept 

 the commutation. In the interval they receive 

 1 per cent. The foreign creditors were treated 

 with on the same basis. This arrangement 

 adds 43,000,000 pesetas to the annual burden 

 of taxation. The augmentation of the army 

 and navy, on which the King and his Govern- 

 ment were determined, increases the amount 

 of extra taxation to sixty or seventy millions. 

 Comacho met with difficulties on every side in 

 attempting to carry out his comprehensive 

 schemes for obtaining the necessary increase 

 in the revenue. 



The main feature in the new financial policy 

 was the reform of the tariff in the direction of 

 free trade, which had been impending since 

 Sagasta came into power, and was now to be 

 applied in a sweeping manner in the new com- 

 mercial treaty with France. The people of 

 Catalonia are an excitable race, thoroughly 

 imbued with federalistic sentiments. The tu- 

 multuous populace of Barcelona, and the other 

 factory towns, were already embittered by the 

 octroi regulations. The manufacturers, to pro- 

 voke disturbances and coerce the Government 

 to preserve their monopoly of the domestic 

 woolen and cotton goods market, suddenly 

 closed their workshops. The Conservatives, 

 who always supported protectionist doctrines, 

 encouraged the belief that the French treaty 

 would take the bread out of the mouths of the 

 working-people. The Socialists, who can mus- 

 ter an army of adherents among the operatives 

 of Catalonia, and who in Spain combine the 

 national tendency to revolutionary methods 

 with the violent doctrines of anarchism, joined 

 the cry, in the hope of turning the movement 

 in a social-revolutionary direction. These va- 

 rious incitements produced symptoms of an in- 

 surrection in May. Mobs congregated in the 

 streets and squares of Barcelona. They de- 

 stroyed the octroi offices, and ordered stores 

 and workshops to be closed where the pro- 

 prietors had not followed the general example. 

 Bands inarched through the country, proclaim- 

 ing the independence of Catalonia. The Gov- 

 ernment was prepared for the outbreak. The 

 military force in the province was strongly re- 

 enforced. Captain-General Blanco was ener- 

 getic and active. The insurgents were met by 

 troops wherever they appeared. In two weeks 

 order was restored, and the proclamation of 

 martial law recalled. 



The Liberal-Conservative opposition took a 

 strong stand against the financial policy of the 

 Ministry, so as to be ready to resume the reins 

 of government if the Constitutional-Liberal 

 Ministers failed in their difficult task. Orovio, 

 Cos-Gayons, and the other former Finance Min- 

 isters, opposed the composition of the creditors, 

 on the ground that the country could not stand 

 the additional burden. They hoped that the 

 popular discontent over the new taxes would 

 impel the King to dismiss the Cabinet and re- 

 call his Conservative advisers. The Ministers, 

 who had yielded somewhat in the matter of 

 the taxes, insisted on carrying the French 

 treaty without alteration. The Cortes reas- 

 sembled on March 20th. The Conservatives, 

 re-enforced by the Catalonian representatives, 

 when the French treaty came up in the Cortes, 

 tried to have it made terminable on one year's 

 notice ; but it was passed, by a four-fifths ma- 

 jority, in the Cortes, and went into force for 

 the period of ten years, on May 15th. The 

 arrangement for the conversion of the consoli- 

 dated debt was ratified. The Government made 

 important concessions to the protectionists in 

 the final framing of the general tariff law, 



