SPAIN. 



SPELLING REFORM. 



743 



try had taken the same course, suspending all 

 the refractory local bodies in order to control 

 the elections. The Socialistic Republicans un- 

 der Pi y Margall, called the Federalists, took, 

 as usual, no part in the elections. Zorilla en- 

 deavored to keep his adherents from voting ; 

 yet that section of his party which follows Sal- 

 meron set up candidates. The Possiblists en- 

 tered with energy into the campaign. The 

 Carlists decided to abstain, except in the Basque 

 provinces, where they are numerically strong. 



The general election took place April 27. 

 The Conservatives obtained 360 seats. The 

 Fusionists, who numbered 260 in the last 

 Cortes, came out better than the ministry in- 

 tended, with a respectable minority of 38. The 

 party of Serrano, notwithstanding the assist- 

 ance of the Government, secured only 34 man- 

 dates. The Republicans won 6 seats, equally 

 divided between the Possiblists and the follow- 

 ers of Salmeron. Cuba, which with Porto Rico 

 returns 40 members, elected 3 Autonomists in 

 spite of the repression exerted by the Spanish 

 authorities. Of the 180 senators elected, 14 

 are Fusionists, 13 followers of Serrano, and the 

 rest Ministerialists, excepting some Autono- 

 mists from the Antilles. As many of the life- 

 seats were filled during the ministry of Sagasta, 

 the Opposition counts one fourth of the sen- 

 ators, most of the adherents of Sagasta, while 

 in the Congress it holds only one fifth of the 

 seats. 



Financial Policy. The Conservative Govern- 

 ment was beset with financial difficulties from 

 the beginning. It was obliged to inaugurate 

 its financial administration with the unpopular 

 act of postponing the increase in the pay of 

 soldiers and subaltern officers decreed by the 

 Posada-Herrara ministry. The revenue fell 

 short of the estimates, and the obligations under 

 the Sagasta arrangement could only be met by 

 the closest management. 



Internal Politics. The effect of the reactiona- 

 ry policy of Canovas and his colleagues, who in 

 their desire to strengthen the monarchy treat- 

 ed as public enemies the pacific Republicans 

 as well as the revolutionary agitators, and who 

 for party interests specially antagonized the 

 moderate Opposition, was to increase the fol- 

 lowing of Salmeron, who, without uniting with 

 Castelar, adopted his constitutional methods, 

 which the unpopularity of the Government 

 rendered more effective, and also to consoli- 

 date the Liberals and advance the cause of the 

 restoration of the Constitution of 1869, although 

 in party transformations the Dynastic Left di- 

 vided. The ministry created for itself a pow- 

 erful and earnest opposition. Pidal was taken 

 into the Cabinet to win the support of the 

 Clericalists, who returned twenty-one deputies 

 to the Cortes, and whose alliance seemed ne- 

 cessary to a Conservative Government. In 

 September the diplomatic relations with Italy 

 became clouded through the attitude of Span- 

 ish priests. The Government fell into such 

 popular disfavor on this account that it seemed 



likely that the Liberals would be called into 

 power again. A brilliant speech of Canovas, 

 however, appeased the public. The university 

 troubles in November created a difficulty that 

 could not be disposed of satisfactorily, and 

 left a more lasting impression. 



University Tumults. On the 19th of Novem- 

 ber a clerical demonstration excited the politi- 

 cal passions of the Liberal students in Madrid, 

 who responded with a counter-demonstration 

 on the following day. The Ultramontane Min- 

 ister of Instruction interfered, and the Govern- 

 ment forbade political demonstrations. The 

 students, who have always displayed their po- 

 litical sentiments in such manifestations with- 

 out interference, repeated the demonstration 

 of the 20th, which was violently suppressed by 

 the police. The professors gave them moral 

 support. On the 21st they gave an ovation to 

 Prof. Morayta, who valiantly defended their 

 rights, and then marched to the residence of 

 Castelar and cheered the ex-President of the 

 Republic and ex-professor of the university, 

 thus evincing their republican sympathies al- 

 though they avoided the cry of " the repub- 

 lic." 



From the 20th to the 23d, 100 students were 

 arrested and 25 wounded by the police. The 

 students and professors persisted in their pas- 

 sive resistance, and, in spite of the threats of 

 the Minister of Instruction, refused to expel or 

 suspend the refractory students. All the high 

 schools of Spain, except the theological and 

 military institutes, and some of the Italian uni- 

 versities, sent addresses of sympathy. Judge 

 Cabeza impeached the chief of police for re- 

 sorting without necessity to the use of arms. 



Foreign Polity. The Canovas ministry was 

 free from the ambitious hope of enrolling the 

 country among the great powers, with which 

 the Sagasta Cabinet was carried away. It 

 neither courted the favor of Germany by an 

 ostentatious leaning toward the central Euro- 

 pean alliance, as was done by the Sagasta min- 

 istry, nor showed excessive compliance toward 

 republican France, as its immediate predeces- 

 sors were impelled to do by their democratic 

 sympathies. The Andorra question, the Mon- 

 gado affair, and the Morocco question came up 

 to disturb the good relations with France, yet 

 without leaving any lasting ill-feeling. The 

 country was greatly excited over the suspected 

 designs of France in Morocco, apparently mani- 

 fested in her intervention on behalf of the 

 Sherif of Wazan, in the sedulous activity of 

 the French representative in Tangier, M. Orde- 

 ga, and in demands made in the French press 

 for a new regulation of the Algerian boundary. 

 The assurances of the French Government 

 finally dispelled these doubts to a great extent. 

 The desire of Germany to acquire colonies, and 

 Spain's interest in the preservation of her old 

 ones, afforded a new ground for the mainte- 

 nance of cordial relations with Germany. 



SPELLING REFORM. The organization of the 

 movement for simplifying English spelling con- 



