THE SITUATION IN PORTUGAL 



THAT portion of the Iberian peninsula, formerly the 

 Kingdom, but now the Republic, of Portugal, has been 

 notoriously before the public in several instances within 

 the past few years. It was only a few years ago that the king 

 and crown prince were assassinated in the public streets of 

 Lisbon, and only a few months have passed since the new 

 republic was proclaimed amid a general attack upon the re- 

 ligious orders and clergy, while the king and royal family were 

 driven from the land. We have had many newspaper de- 

 spatches concerning these events, but very little real informa- 

 tion as to the land itself, its people and their church and its 

 organization. We know that Portugal was once a world 

 power and vied with Spain and England as the mistress of the 

 seas. Its navigators explored Africa and Asia, and explored 

 and settled a large part of South America. One of its greatest 

 colonies became first the Empire and afterwards the Republic 

 of Brazil. Its land has furnished poets, warriors, navigators 

 and colonizers, but alas, few statesmen of the calibre which 

 the world reckons as great. 



The Portuguese are, of course, regarded as a Latin race, 

 and the Roman domination, from the time of the conquest of 

 the peninsula which makes up Spain and Portugal, has left its 

 mark upon language, people and institutions, although the re- 

 mains of Roman art, architecture and civilization are not so 

 plentifully found as in Spain. 



Anciently, Portugal, together with a portion of what is mod- 

 ern Spain, was known as the Roman province of Lusitania. 

 The Latin language is the base, if not altogether the sole ele- 

 ment, of the Portuguese language, which in its orthography 

 seems closer to Latin than the Spanish, but further from it in 

 pronunciation and grammatical structure. The Portuguese 

 are not a people of diverse race origin, as are the Spaniards, 

 who spring from a mixture of Iberian, Roman, Gothic and 

 Visigothic elements. They seem to be chiefly of Iberian stock, 



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