SPAIN. 



STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H. 741 



ruption of friendly relations with France had 

 like to be a conspicuous result of the tour. As 

 the sovereign of a generous nation, allied be- 

 sides to the imperial family of Austria and to 

 most of the royal houses, he was cordially re- 

 ceived beyond the Rhine, and honored by the 

 Emperor of Germany with the title of colonel 

 of a German regiment of cavalry. That dis- 

 tinction, granted also to the Prince of Wales 

 and to most European princes, and hence de- 

 void of political significance, was, neverthe- 

 less, in this instance, the cause of a distressing 

 incident. On returning homeward, through 

 France, the King was met at Paris by the jeers 

 and hootings of an infuriated mob whom 

 " demagogues of the press " had taught to 

 regard the German title as an insult to the 

 French nation. " The incident," says a French 

 journalist, u is profoundly humiliating, not for 

 the King of Spain, but for our Government, 

 who did not protect their guest from insult. 

 We can only except from this charge the Pres- 

 ident of the Council and the Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs, who alone appear to have done 

 their duty." Satisfaction was demanded and 

 obtained by the Spanish Government. But, 

 not content with this, the Marquis de la Vega 

 y Armijo persistently demanded of France still 

 further reparation, regarded as unnecessary by 

 his colleague ; and here was a new element of 

 dissension in the Cabinet, which, though not 

 the primary, proved to be the precipitating 

 cause of the downfall of the Sagasta ministry. 

 The primary cause dated from the reappear- 

 ance of sedition in the army. The King now 

 resolved upon a somewhat hazardous experi- 

 ment, and charged Sefior Posada-Herrera with 

 the task of reconstituting the Cahinet, and on 

 October 13th the new ministry was composed 

 partly of the personal friends of Sefior Posada, 

 and partly of those of Marshal Serrano (the 

 leader of the party now called the Dynastic 

 Left), including among the latter Gen. Lopez 

 Dominguez, one of the most distinguished offi- 

 cers of the army, and Sefior Moret, one of 

 the most brilliant orators of the Spanish Par- 

 liament. The members of the Dynastic Left 

 came to power under the banner of Posada 

 Herrera (one of the oldest statesmen of Spain, 

 formerly a Moderate, later a minister in the 

 Liberal Union with Gen. O'Donnell, and a con- 

 servative by instinct, education, and tradition), 

 with a programme embracing, among others, 

 such bold and ambitious reforms as the revis- 

 ion of the Constitution, universal suffrage, the 

 re-establishment of civil marriage, and the re- 

 organization of the army. It soon became ap- 

 parent, however, that the ministry could neither 

 live nor carry out its plans without the aid of 

 the late Sagasta Cabinet, and that the majority 

 so sincerely devoted to that statesman's policy 

 and which had so long sustained him was far 

 from being favorable to the revision of the 

 Constitution of 1876 or the re-establishment 

 of civil marriage. And as for the doctrines of 

 free-trade, advocated by a few members of the 



Posada Cabinet, they are anything but popular 

 in Spain, particularly in the more agitated re- 

 gions of the north, such as Catalonia. While 

 the Free-traders were planning a banquet in 

 honor of the proposers of the preliminary ar- 

 rangements for treaties of commerce with Eng- 

 land, Italy, and Portugal, the Catalans were 

 quietly working with other protectionists to 

 dispose the Cortes unfavorably toward those 

 preliminary arrangements. It was asserted 

 that the Fusionist party would not accept uni- 

 versal suffrage, "an outcome of revolutions, 

 which would bring soldiers to the polls, and 

 enable the caciques to work Their will by means 

 of the ignorant masses." They were willing 

 to accept the suffrage granted in 1882 for the 

 election of provincial deputies, which included 

 all males of Spanish birth over twenty-five 

 years of age who could read and write and paid 

 an almost nominal amount of taxes. Practi- 

 cally this suffrage would only treble the num- 

 ber of electors. Thus the change of ministry 

 was productive of no improvement in the gen- 

 eral situation ; on the contrary, the nervous 

 apprehensions revived by the Badajoz and Lo- 

 grofio incidents, after a slumber of eight years, 

 had rather increased than diminished at the 

 end of the year under the additional disquiet- 

 ing causes due to the prolonged political crisis 

 in Government spheres. The newspapers an- 

 nounced that precautions had been taken in 

 various parts to preserve order, and private 

 letters from bankers and merchants to the 

 capital confirmed the alarm felt among the re- 

 spectable, peaceful classes at a course of events 

 indicative of the return of elements of disor- 

 der believed to have disappeared for a long 

 time, if not forever. A dissolution appeared 

 inevitable. But with whom would the King 

 make it? Sagasta was neither a Liberal nor a 

 Conservative. Posada Herrera headed a Cabi- 

 net of the Left without belonging to the Left; 

 he was expected to be conciliatory, but he was 

 powerless either for conciliation or domina- 

 tion. The restoration of the Conservatives 

 under Canovas del Castillo seemed to be a more 

 promising alternative, and the events of Jan. 

 18, 1884, confirmed its adoption. 



Meanwhile the Carlists and Zorillists were at 

 work, and, as it was said that although the 

 King could reckon on his generals, it was not 

 certain that he could reckon on the soldiers, 

 the question was whether the latter u would 

 raise the butt-ends of their muskets or the 

 bayonets." 



The marriage of the Infanta Maria de la Paz 

 Juana de Borbon y Borbon, the King's sister, 

 to the Prince Royal, Ferdinand Louis, of Ba- 

 varia, was celebrated on April 3, 1883, in Mad- 

 rid. 



The visit of Frederick William, of Prussia, 

 to Madrid, in December, was unattended by 

 any "change in the foreign policyof Spain." 



STEPHENS, Alexander Hamilton, an American 

 statesman, born in Taliaferro county, Georgia, 

 Feb. 11, 1812 ; died in Atlanta, Ga., March 



