SPAIN". 



741 



Michael Beach. An act authorizing the re- 

 duction was passed by the British Parliament 

 on April 30. The Spanish Cortes approved 

 the modus vivendi, but excluded the Philippines 

 from its operation, and made it terminable in 

 1887. Sir Kobert Morier, who went as British 

 ambassador to Madrid three years before for 

 the express purpose of negotiating a commer- 

 cial treaty, and devoted his time mainly to that 

 end, returned to England in July, after several 

 stormy interviews with the Spanish Secretary 

 of State, in which charges of bad faith were 

 made on both sides. The neglect of the Eng- 

 lish authorities to co-operate in the suppres- 

 sion of smuggling across the line at Gibraltar 

 was alleged as a further ground of complaint 

 against England. This was the reason for 

 which Sefior Canovas rejected once before the 

 modus vivendi, which was originally agreed to 

 by Posada Herrera, on Dec. 1, 1883. The pro- 

 tective interests of Catalonia brought powerful 

 political forces to bear against the commercial 

 arrangement, and Canovas, on coming into 

 office, was swayed by the popular clamor. 

 This second rupture was the act of the British 

 ministry, and was believed to be due to the 

 exigencies of the British Exchequer and the 

 outcry against taxing the poor man's drink 

 and lifting the duty from that of the rich man. 

 The English Government, however, while not 

 laying much stress on the inclusion of the 

 Spanish East Indies, claimed that the prolon- 

 gation of the preliminary convention beyond 

 June 30, 1887, though ambiguously expressed 

 in the instrument, was clearly understood to 

 be a conditio sine qua non. The Spanish Prime 

 Minister could not deny that there was an un- 

 derstanding that a year's notice should be al- 

 lowed, and that the arrangement should be 

 exempted from the operation of a general act, 

 called the Base Quinta, in accordance with 

 which all commercial treaties, except that with 

 France, come to an end on June 30, 1887. Sir 

 Michael Hicks-Beach announced in the House 

 of Commons, on July 16, that negotiations 

 were definitively abandoned. 



Popular Disturbances. The action of the au- 

 thorities in officially declaring the existence of 

 cholera in Madrid led to a riot on June 20. 

 The dissatisfied tradesmen closed all their 

 shops, and, collecting in the streets, threatened 

 Sefior Villaverde, the civil governor, and oth- 

 er officials. Gen. Pavia, Captain - General of 

 Madrid, ordered out the military. In clear- 

 ing the streets, the civil guards fired upon the 

 rioters, killing two men and wounding twenty. 



In July a wide-spread conspiracy of republi- 

 can revolutionists, led by insurgents recently 

 expelled from Badajos, was discovered by the 

 police. Its ramifications extended through Cat- 

 alonia and the neighboring provinces. The 

 headquarters were in the vicinity of Mataro. 

 In many towns and villages bands of armed 

 men were formed and sworn to overthrow the 

 monarchy. A meeting of conspirators in Sara- 

 gossa was interrupted by the police, who ar- 



rested all present, and secured about 100 rifles. 

 Another band was discovered drilling in the 

 outskirts of Mataro, and half of them wero 

 captured. The leader of the first band was Col. 

 Magallon, who was tried by court-martial and 

 shot. About Nov. 1 an attempt was made to 

 start a revolution at Cartagena. A baud of 

 Zorillists boarded a convict-galley and liberated 

 the prisoners. It was arranged to release all 

 the convicts in the main prison as well, and 

 with their aid begin a civil war for the estab- 

 lishment of the republic. The plot was frus- 

 trated by a sentinel, who was shot by the con- 

 spirators after he gave the alarm. 



Earthquakes. A succession of severe earth- 

 quakes began in southern Andalusia on Christ- 

 mas-day of 1884. Three days before, slight 

 tremors were felt at Vigo and Pontevedra. 

 The center of the disturbance was near Alha- 

 ma, which town was nearly annihilated. At 

 Albunuelas, to the southeast, 1,000 houses 

 were thrown down. The shock traveled far- 

 ther westward and northward than eastward, 

 being felt as far north as Madrid. It was most 

 destructive on the two sides of the western 

 spur of the Sierra Nevada, known as the Sierra 

 de Alhama, and the Sierra de Alrnijara. Mala- 

 ga Antequera, Archidona, Loja, Granada, Je- 

 rez, and other places along the coast immedi- 

 ately south of the range suffered severely, while 

 the towns on the northern slope were almost 

 ruined. The area of most destructive disturb- 

 ance was between Granada, Motril, Antequera, 

 and Malaga, and measured about sixty - five 

 miles east and west, and thirty-three north 

 and south. There was a land-slip at Periana, 

 which destroyed 750 houses. A village iu 

 Granada was moved away bodily sixty feet, 

 leaving a hole in which a lake was formed by 

 the river that flowed by the village. The loss 

 of life was about 1,000 in the province of Gra- 

 nada, and over 800 in Malaga. Many thousand 

 people were left homeless. The King visited 

 the desolated district. The Government re- 

 mitted the taxes and granted money aid. Sub- 

 scriptions were raised throughout Spain, and 

 were sent from America, England, and other 

 countries. For weeks after the sharp shocks 

 of Dec. 25 and 26, there were tremblings in the 

 valley of the Zehil. In the night of Dec. 25, 

 after the first severe convulsion, there were 

 eight other distinct shocks. From that day 

 till Jan. 5 there were one or more shocks every 

 day, one particularly severe on Dec. 28. 



The Caroline Islands. The decision of the 

 Pope in the Caroline Islands arbitration was 

 formulated in six articles. In the first, Ger- 

 many recognizes the sovereignty of Spain over 

 the Palaos and Caroline Islands. The second 

 defines the boundaries of the island groups con- 

 ceded to Spain. The third contains in respect 

 to the commercial and navigation rights of 

 Germany the same provisions as the treaty of 

 1885 granting freedom of commerce in the Sulu 

 Islands. The fourth cedes to Germany a naval 

 station and coaling depot on the islands, and 



