706 



SPAIN. 



and other cities in the company of the Carlists. 

 These grew alert, active, and turbulent in Valencia 

 and other places where they were numerous. The 

 socialists and anarchists turned the bread riots into 

 political demonstrations. The Republicans were 

 ready to renounce their acceptance of the constitu- 

 tional monarchy, and in the Cortes Sefior Salmeron 

 attributed all the evils from which Spain suffered 

 to the policy of the monarchical parties, which 

 spent millions to maintain an effete regime and had 

 not the wherewithal to buy ironclads. On May 3 a 

 state of siege was proclaimed in Madrid. Public 

 meetings and street demonstrations were prohibited, 

 and newspapers were forbidden to publish news re- 

 garding military operations without special permis- 

 sion. The governors of the various provinces were 

 authorized to resign their powers into the hands of 

 the military authorities whenever they judged it ex- 

 pedient, and the military commanders were ordered 

 in such case to proclaim martial law at once. This 

 was done at Jaen and Albacete, where bread riots 

 occurred, on May 9, and on the following day at 

 Valladolid and Cordova in consequence of similar 

 disturbances. The state of siege was extended to 

 the whole of Andalusia and Catalonia and to the 

 provinces of Saragossa, Valladolid, Toledo, Corufia, 

 and Madrid. At Logrofia, on May 11, women armed 

 with clubs and axes pillaged the provision and 

 flour stores and repelled a charge of cavalry. 



Elections to the Cortes. The Cortes were dis- 

 solved by royal decree on Feb. 26 and the elections 

 were fixed to take place for Deputies on March 27, 

 and for Senators on April 10. Except at Bilbao 

 and a few other mining and industrial centers the 

 elections passed off without excitement. The peo- 

 ple scarcely showed any interest, and the number 

 of votes recorded was unprecedentedly small. The 

 Government obtained, as usual, an overwhelming 

 majority, electing more than 250 candidates to about 

 75 Conservatives, 10 followers of Romero Robledo, 

 25 Republicans, 5 Carlists, and a few independents. 

 From Cuba 21 Autonomists and 9 Conservatives 

 were returned. The senatorial elections resulted 

 in the return of 140 Ministerialists out of 180 can- 

 didates. 



Session of the Cortes. When the Cortes as- 

 sembled on April 25 there was no opposition to any 

 measure necessary to strengthen the hands of the 

 ministers in prosecuting the war. Only Gen. Wey- 

 ler raised his voice against the bill of indemnity 

 approving the act of the Government in granting 

 autonomous institutions to Cuba. The financial 

 necessities of the Government were the most urgent 

 question. Showing a balance between ordinary 

 revenue and expenditure, the Government obtained 

 an extension for two years of the extraordinary 

 budget established in 1896 and modified in 1897, 

 only the special naval credit was raised from 18.- 

 000,000 to 90,000,000 pesetas. An issue of 100,000,- 

 000 pesetas of Treasury bonds was authorized in 

 order to provide the money, and these were guaran- 

 teed by the Almaden quicksilver mines. To raise 

 means for meeting the expenses of the war the Gov- 

 ernment was authorized to issue state rentes or 

 Treasury bonds or any form of fresh securities that 

 the military or naval authorities required ; to issue 

 new currency notes up to 2,500,000,000 pesetas, pro- 

 tected beyond the previous limit of 1,500,000,000 

 by a metallic reserve of 50 per cent, or of 66f per 

 cent, beyond 2,000,000,000 pesetas, though all re- 

 strictions were removed in case of extreme neces- 

 sity ; to negotiate for advances with the monopoly 

 companies of matches, tobacco, minerals, and the 

 like ; to float a new issue of Treasury bonds bearing 

 such interest as might be agreed upon between the 

 Government and the Bank of Spain; and to con- 

 vert the external debt held in Spain into internal 



bonds, paying in francs from Oct. 1, 1898, only the 

 coupons of bondholders who can prove that they 

 are foreigners already domiciled abroad, all others 

 being paid in ordinary Spanish currency. The 

 Cortes declined to sanction a levy of a year's land 

 and industrial taxes in advance, but authorized a 

 surcharge of 20 per cent, on all taxes except cus- 

 toms duties. An indemnity bill was voted for the 

 revision of the import duty on grain by the (li>\-- 

 ernment. Sefior Moret, when assailed for his pol- 

 icy of concessions in Cuba and blamed for the mili- 

 tary unpreparedness of the Government, said that 

 no amount of foresight could affect the fact that 

 the Americans outnumbered the population of 

 Spain four to one and were fighting close to their 

 base of operations, and that the Spaniards were a 

 fatigued race who once marched over the world as 

 conquerors and now exhibit their glorious cloak 

 full of rents. To the Republicans and Carlists he 

 addressed the following question : " If you do not 

 reform men and ameliorate the social and political 

 education, what could a change of institutions 

 mean? Only one more revolution, one more cause 

 of weakness to the shaken and exhausted body of 

 our common country." 



The Cortes, in order to relieve the industrial 

 crisis in Catalonia, suspended the import duty on 

 raw cotton, and in order to encourage blockade- 

 running on the coast of Cuba abolished the differ- 

 ential duties on foreign ships trading between 

 Spain and her colonies. Export duties were im- 

 posed on wool and silk to keep these raw materials 

 for the supply of Spanish manufacturers and on 

 minerals as a revenue measure. With the issue of 

 new bank notes the premium on gold rose rapidly, 

 and the people began to demand silver for notes 

 and to draw out their deposits in silver until a seri- 

 ous currency crisis was produced. The rise in ex- 

 change had stimulated exportation of raw materials 

 and thereby aggravated the economic crisis. 



Reconstruction of the Cabinet. Although the 

 Cortes approved every war measure that the Cabi- 

 net proposed, recriminations for the breakdown of 

 the national defense were unceasing. The attacks- 

 made both in the Cortes and outside on the Minis- 

 ters of War and Marine, as well as on the Colonial 

 Minister, rendered more and more difficult and 

 precarious the tenure of the existing ministry, the 

 members of which were at variance on the question 

 of the ways and means of continuing the war and 

 the advisability of invoking the intervention of the 

 great powers. On May 16 Premier Sagasta ten- 

 dered the resignation of the entire Cabinet to the 

 Queen Regent, who commissioned him to organize 

 a new ministry, retaining only those of his col- 

 leagues who were in favor of fighting out the war 

 to the bitter end. The new Cabinet was announced 

 on May 18, as follows : President of the Council of 

 Ministers, Praxedes M. Sagasta ; Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs, F. Leon y Castillo ; Minister of War, 

 Lieut.-Gen. M. Correa ; Minister of Marine, Capt. 

 R. Aufion ; Minister of the Colonies, V. Romero 

 Givon ; Minister of Finance, Lopez Puigcerver; 

 Minister of the Interior, F. R. Capdepon : Minister 

 of Justice, C. Groizard ; Minister of Public Works, 

 Sefior Gamazo. Sefior Leon y Castillo suggest e<l 

 that he could serve his country better in his post as 

 Spanish ambassador to Paris, and consequently the 

 portfolio of Foreign Affairs was given on May 24 to 

 J. M. Sanchez y Gutierrez de Castro. Duke de Al- 

 modovar del Rio. Sefior Gamazo, who had entered 

 the Cabinet reluctantly, wanted to leave it when the 

 Minister of Finance opposed an impost on the na- 

 tional debt. Sefior Puigcerver declared that the 

 finances of the nation were in a satisfactory con- 

 dition, assuring payment of all expenses of the 

 war, but affirmed the necessity of increasing all 



