General Serrano made his entry into Madrid on October 3, amid the acclamations of the people. He began at once to take measures for the formation of a government; but the attitude of prominent members of the Progressist party impressed him with the advisability of awaiting the arrival of Prim, whose entrance on the 7th of the same month was the occasion of an ovation even more enthusiastic than the reception of the conqueror of Alcolea. The Provisional Government was immediately formed, with Serrano as President of the Council of Ministers, and Prim in the War Department.

The Navy portfolio was given to Topete, the author of the Cadiz pronunciamiento; the portfolio of State to Juan Lorenzana, the most distinguished Spanish journalist of his time; that of the Interior to Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, the present chief of the Liberal party, whose life had been devoted to the propaganda of the Revolution, and who had been condemned to death for the part taken by him in the unsuccessful rising of 1866; the portfolio of Justice to Antonio Romero Ortiz, who had already been Under-Secretary in the same department; and that of Public Works and Education to Manuel Ruiz Zorilla, distinguished for his antipathy to Ultramontanism, and leader of the advanced wing of the Progressist party. Adelardo Lopez de Ayala, who had fitted out the Buenaventura to bring Serrano and the other exiled generals from the Canary Islands, was rewarded with the Colonial office in a country where poetry is often a stepping-stone to politics.

Whatever apparent advantage might be with the Unionist party, which held not only the Presidency of the Council, but the Departments of State, Justice, Navy, and the Colonies, was more than counterbalanced by the Progressist portfolios of Finance, Interior, and Public Works, and especially by the presence of Prim in the War Department. The Revolution of 1854 had shown that the Minister of War was a more powerful personage than the head of the Cabinet. The Democrats were not represented in the Ministry, but their leader, Nicolas Maria Rivero, was appointed to the important post of Governor of Madrid. The Republicans were completely excluded from office.

Junta Dissolved

The first act of the Provisional Government was to dissolve the revolutionary juntas. The Minister of State, on October 19, addressed a circular to the foreign powers, explaining the causes of the Revolution. In this circular the disorganisation and corruption of the last reign were graphically described. "The Spanish people, taught by bitter experience, and fully convinced that it is impossible to erect the edifice of the nation's prosperity and liberty upon forced repentance and pretended amendment, has made a supreme effort to rid itself of the disturbing element which it carried in its bosom; and, as Europe has seen, success has corresponded to the nobility of the enterprise and of the methods employed."

A few days after the issue of this circular, the Government addressed an important manifesto to the nation, embodying its programme. After extending "the commiseration of silence to the dethroned dynasty, which had been in opposition to the spirit of the age and a barrier to all progress," the manifesto proceeded to deal with the aims of the Revolution. "The first and most important of all reforms on account of the essential alteration which it introduces into the secular organisation of Spain, is the introduction of religious liberty. . . . Our faith, deeply rooted as it is, will not be invaded because we authorise the free and tranquil exercise of other creeds in the presence of, Catholicism. Rather will it be fortified in the combat and be stimulated to defending itself against the persistent invasion of that religious indifference which so prostrates and weakens moral sentiment."

The next reform demanded was free schools, - a demand "which the Provisional Government has hastened to satisfy. . . . Then, as a natural result of religious liberty and free schools, the Revolution has likewise proclaimed the liberty of the press, without which the other reforms would be but vain and illusory formulas. . . . The liberty of reunion and of peaceful association, eternal fountains of activity and progress, which have contributed so materially to the political and economical aggrandisement of other nations, have been recognised as fundamental principles by the Spanish Revolution." Sweeping financial reforms were promised, and the assurance given that the benefits of the Revolution would be extended to the colonies.

At the close of this manifesto the Provisional Government made an explicit declaration of its belief in the monarchy as the system of government adapted to the necessities of the people and best fitted for giving form to the aspirations of the Revolution. " While the Provisional Government does not pretend," said the manifesto, "to prejudge so grave and intricate a question, it must take note of a fact of great significance which, in the midst of the enthusiastic agitation produced by the Revolution, demonstrates to a certain point the true tendency of the national will. All the juntas, genuine representatives of the movement, have proclaimed the cardinal principles of our new political organisation, but have kept silence regarding the monarchical institution, thus responding, without previous agreement but by their own inspiration, to a sentiment of patriotic prudence.

Despite the ease with which it could have been done in the hour of passionate disturbance, they have not confounded persons with things nor the loss of prestige of a dynasty with the lofty magistracy of which it is a symbol. This extraordinary phenomenon has seriously attracted the attention of the Provisional Government, which brings it to the public notice, not as a favourable argument, but as a fact worthy to be considered in the solution of so important and difficult a problem.

"It is true that voices of great eloquence and authority have been raised in defence of the republican form of government, basing their arguments upon the difference in origin and characteristics of the Spanish nation, and, more than all, upon the marvellous example offered beyond the seas by a people born yesterday, and to-day the envy and admiration of the world. However much importance may be conceded to these opinions, they are not so impressive as the general reserve regarding so thorny a question adopted by the juntas, who, until the formation of the Provisional Government, fully controlled the situation.

It can be well understood how a young people, lost in the midst of virgin forests and bounded by vast unexplored solitudes and wandering tribes, can establish a government with entire independence, free from all internal engagements and from all international bonds. It is not probable that the same would occur with nations of long life and indestructible organic antecedents, who are members of a community of nations, and who cannot by a brusque and violent transition suddenly disturb the impulses which control them. The ill success resulting from experiments of this kind in other countries of Europe which have preceded us in revolution must deeply excite the attention of the public, before hastening into paths that are unknown and obscure."

This argumentative declaration was called forth by the importance of the Republican movement, which was daily gaining ground. It was not an illogical assumption in the minds of many that the Revolution of September, which professed to appeal to the sovereignty of the people, would lead to the Republic as the national outcome. The Republican agitation was begun in Catalonia by Jose Maria Orense, Marquis of Albaida. Orense in his youth had been exiled with his family to England, and became imbued with democratic principles at an early age.

A representative of the province of Palencia in 1844, he had been the only Liberal member of the Cortes, and with great courage and ability had fought singlehanded against an overwhelming majority. He had earned the title of Patriarch of the Spanish Republicans, and he now declared that a democratic monarchy had been shown by the French experiment of 1830-1848 to be an impossibility, and that the Republic was the natural sequel of the Revolution. He was aided by the experience of Estanislao Figueras, who saw in the Republic the opportunity for bringing to a fitting close his long political career, by the cold but forcible reasoning of Pi y Margall, who regarded the Revolution as a field for experimenting with the theories of Proudhon, and by the eloquence of Emilio Castelar, who believed that the realisation of his ideals was now close at hand.

The Republican campaign was so successful in the provinces that the Government saw the necessity of making a counter-agitation. On November 15 a great mass meeting was called at Madrid by the leaders of the Unionists, Progressists, and Monarchical Democrats, who had assumed the name of the great Liberal party.

(During the Carlist war, 1833-1839, the supporters of Isabella II divided into two parties--the Moderates, or conservative, and the Progressists, or liberal party. The party called the Liberal Union was formed by General O'Donnell in 1854 from a union of the most liberal of the Moderates and the most conservative of the Progressists. The Democratic party came into existence during the later years of the reign of Isabella II, and was split into two sections-- those who, although opposed to the dynasty, were still in favor of the monarchical principle, and those who were eager for the establishment of a republic. The Revolution gathered momentum by a combination of a great majority of the Liberal Union with the Progressists and Democrats.)

Addresses in favour of the establishment of a constitutional monarchy were made by Olozaga in behalf of the Progressists, by the Democratic leaders, Martos, Becerra, and Rivero, and by the Marquis de la Vega de Armijo for the Unionists. The latter made a speech of great force. The necessities of the situation welded the three parties into a barrier against the rushing tide of Republicanism.

That this harmony might be impressed upon the nation at large, a proclamation was published on November 12, a few days before this meeting, and signed by the leaders of the three parties, men of varied political antecedents. This document called attention to the necessity of political organisation. The capitals of the provinces should take the initiative in forming committees, the members of which were to constitute a proportionate representation of the three parties; the same scheme of organisation should be extended through the districts and provinces.

The cry for the Republic was uttered by the supporters of reaction and deceived a few "noble and imprudent spirits who do not recognise that the supporters of reaction wish for the Republic only because they see in it the easiest and surest means - the only means - of destroying the results of our glorious Revolution, of ending our liberties, of creating in Europe the false impression that Spain is not worthy of leading the life of a free nation, and of hurling us again into the wretchedness of uncertainty and the horrors of despotism."

An enticing picture was drawn of the future monarchy. "It is not the monarchy which we have just overthrown, not the monarchy of divine right, not the monarchy which regards itself as superior to the nation and which made its sovereignty and liberty impossible. That monarchy is forever dead in Spain. Our monarchy, on the contrary, the monarchy which we shall establish by our votes, -is born of the right of the people, consolidated by universal suffrage, the symbol of the sovereignty of the nation, the consolidation of all public liberties; in short, the personification of the rights of the citizen superior to all institutions and to all powers. It is the monarchy which radically destroys the divine right and the supremacy of one family over the nation; the monarchy surrounded by democratic institutions, - the popular monarchy."

In accordance with its assurances, the Government published a series of decrees of a radical character. Liberty of the press was declared, the right of public meetings for pacific purposes was sanctioned, as well as the privilege of forming societies and associations. The introduction of universal suffrage was announced, the elections fixed for the beginning of the new year, and the Constituent Cortes convoked for February 12, 1869.

In the meantime the Republicans had not been idle. Clubs were formed in all the principal cities. More than a thousand newspapers, not to mention pamphlets, sustained and defended their principles; nor did they hesitate on the day of the monarchical mass meeting in Madrid to make a counter-demonstration by summoning a meeting for the purpose of organising a Republican central committee at the capital. Before an assembly of upwards of ten thousand people, Castelar, in a speech of great eloquence, developed his theory of the Federal Republic, and in terms of bitter irony pointed out the absurdity of the monarchy without a monarch.

"I ask," said he, "whether in order to have a monarchy it is right to say we wish a monarchy. No, a monarch must be at hand. A monarchy is a personal government, and on that account requires a peculiar personality, a personality of extraordinary dignity; of a dignity capable of being handed down for a hundred generations. The monarchy without a monarch is a ridiculous device which would excite mockery if there were not danger of its leading to bloodshed."

On November 22 the Republican central committee issued a proclamation in reply to the Monarchist manifesto of the 12th. "The Republic is the material form of the democracy, just as the human body is the material form of our life; just as human speech is the material form of thought. . . . The Republic is the State, reduced to its natural boundaries and its original powers; the society which substitutes for the arbitrary laws of the old governments the abolition of the death penalty, the reform of the penal law, re-establishment of the autonomy of our ancient colonies, so long oppressed and plundered; the reduction of the budget by more than half of the present scandalous amount; the suppression of indirect taxes, the honest payment of the national debt, the final abolition of the conscription for the army and navy, the complete accomplishment of the whole democratic programme."

This peaceable campaign of proclamations, pamphlets, and Utopian promises between the Monarchists and Republicans was rudely disturbed by conflicts which assumed a serious shape in some of the Southern provinces. The labourers of Puerto de Santa Maria, near Cadiz, became disorderly in consequence of the reduction of their wages. The governor declined to accept the aid of the militia of Cadiz in repressing the disturbances, but summoned the regular troops. The Cadiz militia then made common cause with the people.

A state of siege was proclaimed in Cadiz, and the militia ordered to lay down their atms. The result was a bloody contest in the streets of the city between the militia and the regular troops, which lasted through the night of December 5. On the 6th and 7th the city was shelled by the fleet; and it was not until the 8th that the efforts of the foreign consuls succeeded in effecting a suspension of hostilities. The intercession of Castelar and Figueras with the Madrid Government was fruitless, and the declaration of the state of siege in the province of Cadiz and the orders to the militia to lay down their arms were sustained. General Caballero de Rodas, who had taken command of the army of Andalusia after the battle of Alcolea, was ordered to suppress disorder with a stern hand.

The people of Cadiz saw that further resistance was useless, and on December 13 the militia, in reply to the demands of the commander-in-chief, delivered up their arms. In the neighbouring province of Malaga, the events in Cadiz and the order to disarm issued to the volunteer militia of Malaga created great excitement. On hearing of the approach of Caballero de Rodas, the citizens of Malaga constructed barricades and prepared for a sturdy resistance. A committee of prominent citizens endeavoured to persuade the commander-in-chief to defer the unpopular disarmament, but his reply was a proclamation declaring a state of siege, ordering a general disarmament within the space of twenty-four hours, and warning noncombatants to leave the city at once. The result was a street combat bloodier than that of Cadiz, ended only after three days of hard fighting, by the united efforts of the fleet and the army.

These events caused excitement and irritation among the Republicans, who openly charged the Government with a policy of intimidation in the Republican strongholds of the South for the purpose of assuring a monarchical majority in the Constituent Cortes. So strong was this feeling throughout the country that the Minister of the Interior felt impelled to issue a circular declaring that the Provisional Government had no intention of infringing upon the public liberties or of anticipating the decisions of the Cortes.

The course of events had developed a situation which had been unforeseen by the leaders of the Revolution of September, and which made the election for the Constituent Cortes a struggle for supremacy between the Republicans and the supporters of a constitutional monarchy. With the exception of certain Democrats, the three great parties of the Revolution were all monarchical, and their leaders had no conception of the popularity of Republican principles through the country at large.

This popularity was enhanced by the assurances everywhere given in Republican addresses and manifestoes, that one of the first acts of the Republic would be the abolition of the conscription. In Spain, where relief from military service can be obtained by the payment of a fixed sum, this abolition would mean not only exemption from military service, but also, with a large class of people, relief, from a certain form of taxation. The Republicans argued that the great reforms effected by the Revolution, such as universal suffrage, freedom of the press, freedom of meetings and associations, were incompatible with a monarchy.

The present Government, they argued, is really a republican government, because it derives its powers from the nation and is responsible to the nation for the exercise of those powers. All that is required for the establishment of the Republic is legalisation of the status quo by the Constitutional Convention. The Republican is therefore the true conservative party, and the establishment of a monarchy will be a danger to the order and tranquillity of the country.

The Provisional Government, on the other hand, having already embodied the promised reforms in decrees, had no further dazzling attractions to hold out to the people. But it delivered a serious blow to the prospects of Republican success at the election by retaining the age of majority at 25 instead of reducing it to 20, as urged by the Republicans, though it abolished all property qualifications. Down to 1865, this qualification had been the payment of 400 reals in direct taxes. (A real amounts to about five cents, United States money)

In 1865 this was reduced to 200 reals. But the retention of the age of majority at 25 excluded a large number of young men whose votes would have strengthened the Republicans. A decree of the Minister of the Colonies also excluded the colonies from the operation of the decree of universal suffrage, and fixed the large property qualification of 1000 reals. 

The order with which the election for the Constituent Cortes was effected in the beginning of January, 1869, was very creditable to the Spanish people in their first exercise of the right of universal suffrage. In Madrid, where the feeling ran high between the Monarchists and Republicans, complete tranquillity reigned. No so-called official candidates were presented by the Government, as is customary in Spanish elections; and it was claimed that for the first time in the history of the country entire liberty was given to the voters.

The Government was, however, charged by the Republicans with the exercise of judicious pressure and with skilful manipulation of the soldier vote at certain} points where overwhelming Republican victories threatened. In a country where the elections always result in a sweeping victory for the Government and in an unimportant minority for the opposition, the return of 70 Republicans was evidence of a distinct advance over the electoral methods hitherto applied. Even in Madrid, with its swarm of government employees, the Republicans secured a respectable minority, and in Catalonia and Andalusia presented an almost unbroken front.

The advantage in the contests rested with the Progressists, who returned about 140 candidates. The Unionists returned between 60 and 70, and the Monarchist wing of the Democratic party not more than 30. Of the three parties of the Revolution, the Progressists had a larger representation than the other two combined. A few ancient Unionists who had separated from their party at the time of the Revolution and supported the fallen dynasty under the lead of Canovas del Castillo, and the same number of Carlists, completed the composition of the House. The Republicans, of course, constituted the real opposition.

An event occurred at this time which showed that if the disturbances in the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga originated in a desire for too much liberty, the sentiments which prevailed elsewhere could be seen in the fanaticism of the North. The Minister of Public Works, Ruiz Zorilla, issued a decree declaring all the archives, libraries, and other scientific, artistic, and literary collections of the cathedrals, chapters, cloisters, and military orders to be national property. These were to be kept for public use in the national libraries, depositories, and museums, and the libraries of the seminaries were to be left to the clergy. In the preamble of the decree a number of cases were mentioned in which valuable treasures, documents, and antiquities had been ruined or had disappeared through the ignorance or avarice of the clergy, by exposure to the weather or from other causes.

On January 25, the day appointed for the execution of the decree, each governor was to examine and prepare an inventory of all the treasures kept in the churches within his province. The Governor of Burgos, Gutierrez de Castro, while proceeding to carry out the order in the beautiful cathedral of that city, was, it is alleged, at the instigation of the Carlist clergy, brutally assassinated by a mob, his body stripped and mutilated. This murder caused great excitement throughout the country, and drew forth a proclamation from the Provisional Government, calling attention to the development of a formidable conspiracy, the purpose of which was to kindle again the fires of religious fanaticism. The Liberal papers called upon the Government to suppress the salary of 11,000 dollars paid out of the treasury to the Papal Nuncio ; and on the night of December 27 a mob collected in the streets of Madrid, and with shouts for religious freedom proceeded to tear down the Papal arms from the Nuncio's palace.

Cortes Meets

The Constituent Cortes met on February 11. In looking over the lists of the members, one finds many distinguished names. There were many, like Olozaga, Rios Rosas, Rivero, Serrano, and Prim, who had long played an important part in the history of the country and who have since passed from the scene. There were others, like Canovas (Prime Minister in the last Conservative Cabinet, and assassinated by an Italian anarchist in August, 1897), Sagasta ( Prime Minister in the present Liberal Cabinet, June, 1898), Moret (Minister of the Colonies in the Liberal Cabinet which resigned in May, 1898), who have since held the highest offices in the State, and who are to-day the leading figures of Spanish contemporary history. In the Republican opposition, there were a number of men of first-rate ability, -men like Orense and Figueras, with a long public life behind them, and others like Castelar, Pi y Margall, and Garcia Ruiz, younger or of less experience, but ready to defend with brilliant enthusiasm and often with fascinating eloquence their cherished ideals.

The President of the Provisional Government opened the session with a speech of marked moderation. He referred shortly to the causes of the Revolution, the result of which had placed Spain abreast of modern civilisation. The Provisional Government was established only to level the ground and to trace roughly the outlines of what it was the duty of the Constituent Cortes to construct. He referred to the disturbances of public order, alleging that if at any time the Government had acted in apparent contradiction to the liberties proclaimed, it was because the very salvation of the results of the Revolution required such action. Allusion was made to the assassination of the Governor of Burgos as an example of Carlist fanaticism.

The President then explained, at some length, the serious financial condition of the country, and the need of immediate and radical economies. The civil war in Cuba, inherited from the previous regime, would soon be repressed. Foreign governments, even those which had waited many years before recognising the government of Isabella II, had promptly admitted the entire legality of the sudden change effected by the Revolution.

"All these circumstances," he said, "and many others which I omit, to avoid abusing the attention which you have been good enough to accord me, prove that Providence has blessed the sacred work of the Revolution, and that it is your duty to bring it to a happy conclusion. All these circumstances will make the rivals of our glory and prosperity feel that the nation is sufficiently prepared to decide upon its lot, and to settle its own sovereign destinies. And now permit us in conclusion to say that we, members of the Government, do not make any display of merits which do not exist, or of services which are scarce worthy of mention; but that we do congratulate ourselves that by a capricious stroke of fortune our humble names are united with the beginning of a new era which is to be an era of regeneration and prosperity for this noble people."

The speech of the President, which skilfully avoided the burning question of the form of government, made a favourable impression. The Constituent Cortes of 1869 in the name of the nation was declared legally opened, and proceeded to its organisation. Rivero was elected President by 168 votes against 50 for Orense, with four Vice-Presidents and the same number of Secretaries. Among the VicePresidents there was no Republican, and only one among the Secretaries. The Cortes was finally organised on February 22, and the Republican leader, Figueras, called the attention of the House to the auspicious circumstance of its being the birthday of Washington.

A communication was read from the President of the Provisional Government, resigning, in his own name and in that of his colleagues, the powers which they had exercised since October 8, 1868. In a speech Serrano also urged the House to use every effort to end the present crisis by enacting a constitution and establishing a permanent government. "Speeches were made by Admiral Topete and General Prim, the two other leaders of the Revolution who were members of the Government, the former explaining his reasons for having initiated the movement in Cadiz, and the latter denouncing as a calumny the rumours which charged him with intending to bring about a restoration of the Bourbons. Amid the applause of the Deputies, he prophesied that the dynasty of the Bourbons would " never - never - never ( " Jamas ! Jamas ! Jamas ! ") return to Spain."

The majority then brought forward a resolution to thank the members of the Provisional Government, and at the same time to entrust General Serrano with the formation of a new ministry to exercise the functions of an executive. To this the Republican minority responded by a counter-resolution, providing that the Cortes, being the genuine representative of the sovereignty of the nation, containing and preserving in itself all the powers of the State, should discharge the duties of an executive by means of a committee of its members.

This proposition and counter-proposition gave to the majority and minority the first occasion for measuring their forces in a parliamentary contest. Remarkable speeches on the Republican side were made by Figueras and Castelar, who charged the Provisional Government with being dictatorial in character, illegal in origin, and inconsistent in policy. "While the Minister of Public Works," said Castelar, "gives us free education, -freer perhaps than exists even in the United States, - the Minister of Justice is engaged in friendly intercourse with the Papal Nuncio. By the decree of the Minister of Public Works, we can explain even Positivist philosophy in the universities, and say that the heavens recount not the glory of God, but the glory of Newton and Laplace; on the other hand, the Minister of Justice publishes indulgences. While the one grants to our consciences all the heaven of the intellect, the other scarcely permits us to eat meat on Friday."

General Serrano, according to the same orator, owed the Presidency solely to his influence with the army. Politically he was but the chief of a fraction of the Chamber, the leader of the seventy Deputies of the Liberal Union. His elevation proved that the Revolution of September was nothing more than an ordinary pronunciamiento so common in Spanish history.

"None, absolutely none, of the nations of Europe does what we do. The Moderate party is Narvaez, the Progressist is Espartero or Prim, the Liberal Union is O'Donnell or Serrano. Unless they command, we are so feeble that we cannot live. We resemble those ancient Vandals who fixed a sword in the ground and then worshipped it."

Pi y Margall attacked the economic policy of the Government, - an easy task where years of deficits had brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy. During his long exile he had become saturated with the theories of Proudhon, and now seized on the occasion to develop his views in favour of the general intervention of the State in all walks of life so long as the ideas of great thinkers had not penetrated the lowest classes of society. He demanded the suppression of the standing army, the abolition of the salt and tobacco monopoly, and the collection of almost all the revenue of the State from protective duties.

The majority put forward two of their most distinguished speakers, Martos and Moret, to answer these attacks of the Republicans. The former, being the leader of the Democrats, stood nearer among the Monarchists to the Republicans themselves. He argued that a democratic monarchy was the best form of government for the Spanish people, and in reply to the charge that the Provisional Government was a soldier government, he reminded Castelar that the United States had also conferred the highest honours of the State upon Washington and Grant, soldiers who had been successful leaders at critical periods in their country's history. Moret dissected with great force and ability the socialistic themes of Pi y Margall. He demanded whether the other Republicans were as extreme in their views, and whether there was not a profound and radical contradiction between the Republican ideals of Pi y Margall, of Orense, and of Castelar.

Figuerola defended the financial policy of the Government; and the Minister of Justice, Romero Ortiz, who was charged by the Republicans with Ultramontanism and by the Ultramontanes with Radicalism, defended himself with success. It was impossible for him to suppress at a stroke the appropriations for the clergy, and reduce at once 16,000 priests to poverty. This would create an anti-revolutionary army perfectly organised and perfectly disciplined, an army extending like a net from one end of the Peninsula to the other.

"The suppression of the Church in the State," he said, "is a complex problem of the greatest gravity; a political, economic, and social problem difficult of solution." As already stated by Moret in his speech, the separation of Church and State would necessitate an indemnification to the clergy for the disamortised church property, so that the separation would really place the Church in a position of dangerous independence and influence. On the other hand, there was no inconsistency in suppressing the colleges of the Company of Jesus, many of which had already been suppressed by the revolutionary juntas, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a dangerous organisation obeying some mysterious and unknown power residing in Paris, several of the members of which had plotted and perpetrated the murder of the Governor of Burgos.

Contrary to the provisions of the Concordat, the number of nunneries had grown to such an extent that they cost half as much as the whole department of Justice and the courts of the country. He had therefore, by a decree of October 18, abolished all convents and monasteries established since July, 1837. As to the publication of the indulgences, he did not compel any one to purchase them, and he saw no reason why the Treasury should be deprived of the 16,000,000 reals produced by their sale.

The Minister of Public Works, in a passionate speech, referred in bitter terms to the assassination of the Governor of Burgos, and, by citing several cases, showed the necessity for the issue of the order which caused the death of that official, - the order to rescue artistic and literary treasures of the Church from the ruin into which they were falling through the ignorance and carelessness of their clerical guardians.

The Minister of the Interior, Sagasta, defended the measures of the Government in consequence of the disturbances at Cadiz and Malaga.

After a debate extending over the greater portion of three sittings, in which the advantage seemed rather to be with the majority, the proposition of the latter was carried by a vote of 180 to 62.

General Serrano, in a graceful address, thanked the Chamber for its continued confidence, and assured it that the Government would have no other policy than the will of the Assembly. He hoped that the Republican minority would be conquered not by force but by reason and argument. - The Government would present a series of economic reforms, but it should be understood that great sacrifices must be made by the country, and that "glory, honour, and liberty were never conquered without sacrifices."

The President of the Executive Power, as he was now called, made no changes in his Cabinet. A committee of fifteen members of the Cortes was elected to prepare the draft of the Constitution, with Ologaza as President, and Moret and Romero Giron (Minister of Public Instruction in the present Liberal Cabinet, June, 1898), as Secretaries. No representation was given to the Republicans in this committee, which was composed of representatives of the three parties, Progressist, Unionist, and Democratic. Without waiting for the report of the committee on the proposed Constitution, the Republicans, with the enthusiasm of youth, kept bringing forward almost daily special laws for executing the promises of the Revolution. Bills were prepared by them establishing civil marriage, suppressing the 'bctroi duty, the tobacco and salt monopolies, and abolishing the conscription.

In order to prevent this continued introduction and discussion of bills by the Republicans, Gabriel Rodriguez of the majority, on March 12, brought forward a proposition for the establishment of four permanent committees of nine members each, who were to be appointed directly from the Cortes.

These committees were to have charge, respectively, of all bills and propositions relating to municipal and provincial organisation, elections, general legislation, and public order. This, with the committee on the Constitution, would make five standing committees, and was a marked deviation from the regular procedure in the Spanish Cortes.

At the beginning of each session the two Houses which compose that body, the Lower House, or Congress, and the Upper House, or Senate, are divided by lot into seven sections, each of which elects a president, vice-president, and secretaries. Every month or two these sections are recast by a new allotment. The Houses adjourn and go into sections for the purpose of electing committees. The only permanent committee of the regular Cortes is the budget committee, composed in the Lower House, or Congress, of five members elected from each section, or thirty-five in all, and in the Senate of three members from each section, or twentyone in all. An ordinary or temporary committee for the consideration of any ordinary bill which may be introduced consists of seven members, one elected from each section.

Every new allotment of the sections produces a corresponding change in the committees; and since the composition of the sections depends on chance, there is no possibility of an exclusion of the minority from the committees by the majority. The proposition of Rodriguez to throw the charge of current business into the hands of four permanent committees, elected by the whole House, instead of entrusting each separate bill when introduced to a temporary and special committee, elected by the sections for the purpose of considering and reporting upon it, was intended to do away with the element of chance, and to place the handling of bills entirely under the control of the majority.

Rodriguez argued that the procedure of the Constituent Cortes could not be and ought not to be the same as the procedure of the ordinary Cortes, and that, its work being to organise the country and introduce reforms, some sacrifice ought to be made to secure more method in the transaction of business.

This proposition caused great excitement on the Republican side, where it was regarded as an attack on the rights of the minority. Figueras at once moved that it should not be taken into consideration. He argued that it robbed the individual Deputies of their right of initiation and discussion, because every bill could be effectually buried by the committees. His motion was rejected by only 101 to 91 votes, and the debate proceeded on the original proposition. The Republican leaders, encouraged by the smallness of the majority against them on the vote on the motion of Figueras, strained every nerve to procure the rejection of the proposition.

Orense informed the majority that they were virtually expelling the minority from the Constituent Cortes, and that the consequences would be fatal not only to the country but to the Revolution. Castelar charged the Government with attempting a coup d'etat, a charge rejected both by the Minister of War and the President of the Executive. The Republican hopes were not realised, the proposition being adopted by an increased majority, - 145 to 63.

Of all the reforms promised by the Revolution, the abolition of the conscription was the most popular through the country, and the Republicans had turned that popularity to their own advantage by continually urging the reform. The Republicans Blanc and Joaquin Garrido had both introduced bills, the former for the abolition, and the latter for the suspension of the conscription already ordered for the year.

Garrido supported his bill with violence, and Castelar with pathos described the appearance of a country village on the day of the conscriptions. The Government, while expressing the hope that the reform might be introduced at some future time, denied the possibility of the suppression of the standing army in the present state of the country, with an insurrection in Cuba, the threats of a Carlist rising in the North, and the possibility of conflicts in the South as shown by the events at Malaga and Cadiz. The Republicans could not refrain from the temptation to make political capital by announcing this as the most conspicuous reform in their programme. They daily presented petitions which poured in from all parts of the country.

Conscription Protests

On March 14 a meeting was held in Madrid to protest against the levy of conscripts, and addresses were made by the two Republican Deputies, Orense and General Pierrad. The violence of their language was made the subject of an interpellation, on the next day, by a member of the majority, and these speakers were charged by the Ministers of War and of the Interior with making attacks upon the sovereignty of the Constituent Cortes, and with uttering ideas which tended to lead to insurrection. Force was given to these charges by events which occurred at Jerez two days later, on March 17. The people of that city, on learning that the usual annual levy of troops would be made, tore from the walls the notices posted by the city government, erected numerous barricades, and prepared to make armed resistance.

The contest began on the evening of the 17th between the insurrectionists and the garrison of the town. The latter, in view of the size of the movement, after several hours of combat, decided to wait for reinforcements from Cadiz. On the next day the battle was renewed by the combined forces of the Government, and after a bloody conflict all the barricades, to the number of more than thirty, were captured and the insurrection suppressed before the close of the day. Several hundred were killed on both sides, the greater loss being on the side of the populace. Six hundred prisoners were taken.

In the sitting of the Cortes on the 18th, the Minister of the Interior read the telegrams from the Governor of Seville giving information of the outbreak at Jerez, and a resolution was at once brought forward declaring that the Constituent Cortes gave its entire support to the Executive to re-establish and maintain public order and to execute the resolutions voted by that body "in order to secure the liberties and rights proclaimed by the glorious Revolution of September."

Figueras, in behalf of the Republicans, expressed disapproval of an appeal to force, but the resolution was voted unanimously.

The events at Jerez and the threatened disturbances in other parts of Andalusia widened the breach between the majority and the minority, and also began to sow the seeds of dissension in the ranks of the latter, where a certain number, in opposition to the views of the more moderate leaders, were in favour of forming a party of action. This feeling of uneasiness was not decreased either in the ranks of the Government or of the opposition, when, a few days later, on March 22, a demonstration was made by the Madrid populace in front of the House of Deputies itself while the debate was proceeding on the government bill for a levy of twenty-five thousand men.

The women played an important part in the demonstration, and created such a disturbance as on several occasions to drown the voices of the orators in the Chamber. The Minister of War ordered the troops to their barracks, and the crowd dispersed only after great exertions had been made by Figueras, Castelar, Sorni, and other Republicans. It seemed possible at one time that the crowd would endeavour to break into the sacred precincts of the House. After the rejection of several Republican amendments, the bill for the levy of 25,000 men was approved on the following day by a vote of 124 to 47.

The Report of the committee and the draft of the Constitution were presented to the Cortes on April 8. According to the regulations, the debate was to be first on the whole Constitution and then separately on each section.

In the debate on the totality, the Republican orators, Castelar and Figueras, attacked the Constitution because it was too monarchical, and charged the Democratic members of the committee with having sacrificed their principles. Canovas del Castillo attacked it because it was not monarchical enough, and charged his former colleague, Rios Rosas, the Liberal Unionist member of the committee, with having sacrificed his principles; while the Carlist orators, Vinader and Cruz Ochoa, became frenzied at the prospect of religious liberty. The two sections of the Constitution which caused the greatest amount of debate were Articles 20 and 21, on the relations between Church and State, and Article 33, on the form of government. The articles on Church and State had caused the greatest discussion in the committee; and both in the debates on the whole Constitution and on the separate sections were to be the subject of the most elaborate argument and of the greatest exhibition of oratory of all the long and eloquent debates of the Constituent Cortes.

Church and State

Extreme views on this important question were held on the one hand by the Republicans, who were not only in favour of religious liberty, but also of the entire separation of Church and State, and on the other by the Ultramontanes, who opposed not; only the separation of Church and State, but the free', practice of any other than the established form of t religious worship. The leading representatives of the latter were Canon Manterola, the Bishop of Jaen, Monescillo, and Cardinal Cuesta, Archbishop of Santiago.

The divisions of opinion in the committee itself were admitted by its members. There were some, like Moret, the Secretary, who openly stated in the beginning of his speech in defence of the Constitution that he was a partisan of the complete separation of Church and State, and others, like the President, Olozaga, who took the Ultramontane view of the question. Articles 20 and 21 were therefore, as has been stated, the result of a compromise, and were as follows: 

"Article 20. The nation binds itself to maintain the worship and ministers of the Catholic religion.

"Article 21. The exercise in private or public of any other religion is guaranteed to all foreigners resident in Spain without any further limitations than the universal rules of law and morality.

"If any Spaniards profess any other religion than the Catholic, the provisions of the former paragraph are also applicable to them."

The fiercest combat over these articles was waged between the orators of the two extremes, the Republicans and the Ultramontanes, the former led by Castelar and the latter by Manterola. It was in reply to Manterola that Castelar delivered his great speech on religious freedom -- one of the greatest efforts of a life full of oratorical triumphs.

The arguments of the Canon Manterola carried the Cortes back to the Middle Ages. The theme of his discourse was that the Constitution was not Catholic enough. The first line of Article 21 only stated that the State "binds itself," not that the State was bound to support the Catholic religion. This did not declare that the Catholic religion was the religion of the State; the State had therefore no religion. Article 21 declared that "I, the State, officially have no religion. The State, therefore, does not believe in God."

Many passages, like the following, for example, were sufficient to make the House forget in what century its members were living: "Spain has been Catholic. Here in Spain no religion is publicly professed which is not the religion of the Catholic Church. But if this Constitution should become the definite constitution of Spain, this House, this Government, comes before the Spanish people, saying: `Spaniards, know this : until to-day we believed that the Catholic religion was the only true religion, and upon this belief we tried to base the moral and social order of Spain; but beginning with this day, departing from our individual beliefs, -departing from those beliefs which we may hold as individuals, from this day forth we open the doors of Spain to all other forms of worship, to all other religions. All forms of worship, all religions, can enter here, and can enter with all their sacrifices, even though those sacrifices may be of human blood.' . . . Yes, indeed, gentlemen of this House, the Mohammedan can come here and take to himself many wives, and abandon his wife and children of a former marriage. Nor is this the only thing: A Spaniard abandons his wife -- admitted up to that time to have been his wife by law -- and marries another woman. An appeal must be made to the courts, you will say; but where are the courts if the votary of the new religion has broken the marriage tie in virtue of his new faith ? . . . And if new temples are erected to false deities and new pagodas to the gods, by what law can you prevent such madness gaining a foothold in Spain? Have you not said that the sanctuary of the conscience is inviolable? . . . Ah, gentlemen, would that I might prove a lying prophet, but I cannot deceive you. I cannot deceive myself when I prophesy days of sorrow, days of gloom, days of death; when I prophesy a social cataclysm."

The speaker went on to refer to the progress of Catholicism in the United States, and concluded with the following peroration: "I believe that if our unhappy country suffers the immense misfortune of allowing herself to be dazzled by the glitter of temporal advantages which will never come, if she has the misfortune to throw herself into the fleshless arms of religious liberty, on that day the Spain of memories, the Spain of ancient glories, is dead. On that day its name will have disappeared from the map of civilised nations. On that day -- may God forbid it! - this poor nation will become a charnelhouse; the destroying angel will have collected its cold ashes, will have heaped them on the foul tomb of oblivion, and over the earth of that unknown sepulchre will write in letters of fire, `Here lies an apostate people who abjured its eternal welfare to obtain earthly benefits, and remained without the one after having lost the other.' "

All of this speech was received with coldness by the House, and parts of it with marks of disapprobation; and there was great expectation when Castelar rose to reply. He began by stating that if there had been any doubts as to the assertion which he had already made, that the Catholic Church, organised as a power of the State, with its ideal of authority, with its ideal of infallibility, with its ambition for the extension of its ideas over all nations, was a great and constant threat for human rights in the organisation of a free state - if any doubts of the truth of this assertion had been felt, these doubts must have been removed by the speech they had just heard.

That speech, delivered by a dignitary of the Church, proved that even after so many religious wars, after so many concordats in which the Church had been forced to acknowledge the civil existence of other religions, it still remembered, it still was unable to forsake, its ancient belief, the belief of Gregory VII and Innocent III, the belief that all civil powers are a usurpation of its sovereign power; for "what has Sefior Manterola been claiming during the whole of this afternoon? What has he been demanding from the members of the committee during the whole of his long speech? He has been demanding, he has been claiming, that it is impossible to be a Spaniard, that it is impossible to have the title of Spaniard, that it is impossible to exercise civil rights, that it is impossible to aspire to the higher magistracies of the country, without wearing, printed by force upon the flesh, the stamp of a religion imposed by force, not of a religion accepted by the reason and by the conscience. . . . The dogma of the protection of the Church by the State has ended forever. The State has no religion, nor can it have one, nor ought it to have one. The State does not confess, the State does not commune, the State does not die."

The speaker then proceeded to show how Spain had suffered from religious intolerance, from the Inquisition, "the dagger of the Church;" how by the treatment of the Moriscos, by the banishment of the Jews, the country had been deprived of sources of wealth and elements of greatness. Spinoza, Disraeli, Manin, were all descendants of Spanish Jews; and in Leghorn he had met Jews who still spoke Spanish, who still had Spanish schools, and who after three centuries of injustice had never forgotten the land where rested the bones of their fathers. He closed with these impressive words: "Great is God on Sinai; the thunder heralds Him, the lightning accompanies Him, the earth trembles, the mountains are rent asunder. But there is a God still greater than He, not the majestic God of Sinai, but the humble God of Calvary, nailed to the Cross, wounded, crowned with thorns, with the gall upon his lips, saying, ` Father, pardon them - pardon my executioners, for they know not what they do.' Great is the religion of might, but greater the religion of love. Great is the religion of implacable justice, but greater the religion of merciful pardon; and I, in the name of this religion, in the name of the Gospel, come here to ask you to write upon the face of your fundamental code, religious liberty, which is liberty, fraternity, equality among all men." The speaker sat down amid prolonged applause, while members from all parts of the Chamber crowded around him.

Monescillo, Bishop of Jaen, followed on the same lines as his predecessor Manterola, arguing against the danger to education of the introduction of religious liberty. "Take, for example," said he, "a professor of botany. One might naturally think that the belief of a professor of botany would not be of any importance. But suppose that he examines a flower in the presence of his pupils, and explains to them that this flower is the product of its own exclusive force after a progressive series of spontaneous generations. This statement on the part of a professor of botany would mean that there is no creation, that there is no creator, and would be a denial of the existence of the Supreme Being."

Cardinal Cuesta, the Archbishop of Santiago, declared that there existed no such thing as freedom of thought, because no one could think that two and two made five, or that the three angles of a triangle were not equal to two right angles. In the same way there was no liberty of thought which enabled any one to believe that any religion could be true except the Catholic.

"Religious freedom means simply scepticism. The Spanish clergy have their hands full in the combat with rationalism : it is not necessary to fight against Protestantism because it is already dissolving like a worm-eaten corpse. The learned men of England, of Germany, of the United States, are either becoming converts to Catholicism or are swelling the ranks of rationalism. This is the phenomenon which is passing in the world."

Until this debate on religious liberty in the Constituent Cortes the Spanish clergy had had matters all their own way. Unlike their brethren of Germany and France, whom friction with Protestantism and revolution had aroused to intellectual effort, they seemed entirely without experience in controversy. In this way may be explained in some degree the use of arguments having the air of intellectual antiquities which could be so easily met by opponents like the Republicans Castelar, Benot, Garrido, Pi y Margall, the Democrat Echegaray, and in behalf of the Government by the Minister of Justice, Romero Ortiz.

The speech of the debate which ranks in eloquence with that of Castelar, and in closeness of reasoning perhaps surpasses it, was delivered by the Democrat Jose Echegaray, who to-day ranks as the first of Spanish dramatists. This was his first speech, a speech which, in the words of Castelar, "places its author among the first orators of our country."

The following passage, which refers to an incident that had lately occurred in Madrid on the Quemadero de la Cruz, where the auto de fe of the Inquisition was formerly held, was more effective than any amount of argument, and made a great impression on the Chamber and on the country.

"Do you know," said the Speaker, "what is the Quemadero de la Cruz? I will explain to you what it is, and I wish you to go and see it. I would that this debate might be held near that horrible monument, in order to see whether there would be any one who would dare to defend the unity of religion. The Quemadero de la Cruz is a bed of land; it is, we might say, a geological bed. Do you know what a geological bed of land is? Nature opens her great book, spreads her wide pages, and there we see in well-arranged layers, clay, slate, sand, and pebbles; they are the lines of the great book in which the geologist studies the formation of the planet on which we live. The Quemadero de la Cruz is likewise a great book, is likewise a great page, a gloomy page, wherein useful but pathetic teaching is inscribed. The Quemadero de la Cruz with its alternate layers is a bed of land, which might well be called not geological, but theological. In the alternate strata of the Quemadero de la Cruz you will see layers of coal impregnated with human fat, then remains of calcined bones, and then a layer of sand which has been thrown over it all, and then another layer of soil, and another of bones, and another of sand, and so continues this horrible mass. Not many days ago -- and I am responsible for this statement -- children at play, while thrusting with a stick, turned up from these layers of ashes three objects, which of themselves are of great eloquence, - three grand discourses in defence of religious liberty. These children upturned a piece of rusted iron, a human rib almost entirely calcined, and a lock of human hair, burned at the end. These three arguments are all very eloquent. I should like the gentlemen who oppose religious liberty to subject them to a severe scrutiny; I should like them to ask of that lock of hair what was the cold sweat which its roots absorbed when the flame of the stake burst forth, and how it stood on end upon the head of the victim; I should like them to ask that calcined rib how the breast of the poor Jew palpitated against it. I should like them to ask that piece of iron, which was perchance a gag, how many woful groans, how many shrieks of anguish it stifled, and how it began to rust on receiving the ensanguined breath of the victim, for whom that hard iron had more compassion, had more pity, was more human and more merciful than the infamous executioners of that infamous theocracy."

If the arguments of the clerical opponents of religious liberty had startled their hearers and weakened their cause, it must be admitted that the tactless behaviour of certain Republicans, notably of the Deputy Suner y Capdevila in attacking Christianity in a particularly offensive manner, outraged opinion within and without the Chamber. This erratic Deputy devoted one speech to trying to prove that Christ had brothers, until he was stopped by the President. On another occasion he saw fit to deliver a lecture on the Immaculate Conception with comparisons drawn from Chinese cosmogony, until he brought the Minister of Marine to his feet to protest against his ridiculing the belief of the great majority of the Spanish people. A resolution of censure against the speaker, signed by Vinader and other Carlists, was proposed, but was not considered. Such speeches, however, not only injured the Republicans with the Liberals of the majority, but caused them to lose prestige through the country at large, where the clergy did not fail to take advantage of the occasion to represent the whole Republican party as the atheistical enemies of all religion.

The amendment of the Republicans to Article 20, to establish complete separation between Church and State, was rejected, and the article itself was passed by a vote of 176 to 76. The Republicans objected to the illiberal form of the second clause of Article 21, which granted freedom of worship to foreigners, and then went on to say that " if any Spaniards profess any other religion than the Catholic, the provisions of the above paragraph are also applicable to them." But as the provisions of the paragraph gave full religious liberty to Spaniards as well as to foreigners, it was decided not to vote against it, but instead, as a protest against the form of the article, not to vote at all. The second part of Article 21 was therefore passed by 163 votes against 40. Both Articles 20 and 21 were, therefore, approved in the same form as reported by the committee.

Article 21, even in its somewhat unsatisfactory shape, marked a great advance in Spanish liberalism. As Castelar said in his closing address, explaining the withdrawal of the Republicans from the vote which was about to take place: "When the clock sounds the next hour, there will have disappeared 'forever the religious intolerance which for so many ,generations has been for us a blot and a dishonour. The Chamber can therefore understand with how much regret those men withdraw from this vote, who believe themselves to be the representatives of human rights in all their extension and of liberty in all its forms."

The debate on religious liberty in the Constituent Cortes in 1869 has deserved special notice, not only on account of the importance of the principle at stake, but as being an example in its highest form of a type of discussion not to be found to-day in the deliberative bodies of any other country. Although in a debate in the Spanish Cortes the number of speakers is limited, the time allowed to each is unlimited. In addition, each speaker has the right to "rectify," or to make explanatory speeches commenting upon the answers made to his own speech. Any member of the House, whether or not a speaker in the debate, has a right to speak, if he has been alluded to by any other member during the discussion.

The result is wide latitude to the individual speaker and to the debate itself. In a country where eloquence is so well cultivated and so highly prized, and where every man, even the humblest, seems to be a born orator, the temptation to leave the subject in hand and to indulge in flights of oratory is often irresistible ; a temptation heightened by the enthusiasm of the moment and the rapt attention of an audience more susceptible to such impressions than the colder races of the North.

An admirable example of these characteristics of Spanish oratory is afforded by this debate on religious liberty. There is too great a disposition to leave the question of religious liberty and the relations between Church and State for the enunciation of individual religious views; for history, poetry, and metaphysics in general.

This tendency was well described by one of the speakers "We have heard," said Senor Mata, "long and erudite dissertations on the existence of God, on the need of religion in society, on the dogmas of the Catholic religion, on the excellence of that religion, on its advantages in reference to other forms of worship, on the origin, development, increase, and influence on civilisation of Catholicism, all points very important, but which, as has already been said, pertain to the sphere of councils, synods, or theological academies rather than to the Constituent Cortes, whose aim, exclusively political, is to give a constitution to the country."

For displays of eloquence, the Spanish Cortes is today unequalled by any other deliberative assembly in the world; but in reading the report of a debate like the one just considered, one is impressed as by the view of some tropical landscape where the very luxuriance of the vegetation often oppresses the eye and enervates the senses.

The Cortes now voted to hold two sittings daily, in order to press forward with the Constitution. The other article which shared with the articles on religious liberty the honour of exciting to the utmost degree the feelings of the Chamber, was the article on the form of government. The articles on this subject proposed by the committee were as follows:

Article 32. All powers emanate from the nation.

Article 33. The form of government is the monarchy.

Numerous amendments were brought forward by the Republicans, -amendments to the effect that the form of government should be decided by a plebiscite; that the form of government should be the Federal Republic; that it should be a directory of five. All of these amendments were defeated by a party vote, the 70 Republicans voting for the amendments against the rest of the Chamber. All the leaders of both sides engaged in the debate, which was even longer than the one on religious liberty. It was amid great excitement that the vote was finally reached on the night of May 20. Article 32 -- that all powers come from the nation -- was approved unanimously. Article 33 -- that the form of government was the monarchy -- by 214 against 71.

With the settlement of the two burning questions, religious liberty and the form of government, the interest in the discussion ceased, and the voting on the remaining articles of the Constitution advanced with rapidity. The opposition took no further active share in the proceedings.

The patriarch of the Republicans, Orense, Marquis of Albaida, withdrew after the vote on the form of government, and appeared no more in the Constituent Cortes. While from April 8 to May 20 inclusive, only 33 articles had been passed, on May 21, the day following the vote for the monarchy, 37 articles were approved, among them the important provisions relative to the irresponsibility of the monarch, the veto, his right to declare war, the formation of the two Chambers, and the method of choosing the Senate. At this rate a few days sufficed to end the discussion on the articles, and on June 1 a vote was taken on the whole Constitution -- 214 for and 55 against.

The new Constitution consisted of eleven titles, containing in all 112 articles. Universal suffrage, freedom of the press, and liberty of reunion were all therein embodied. Article 16 provided that no Spaniard in the full enjoyment of his civil rights could be deprived of his right to vote, of his right to publish his ideas and opinions orally or in writing, of peaceable meetings, of forming associations, of addressing petitions to the King, the Cortes, or the other authorities.

Articles 20 and 21 made the Catholic religion the religion of the State, but allowed the practice in public or in private of any other religion to any foreigner residing in Spain, and to any Spaniard who might not be a Catholic. Article 32 declared that all powers came from the nation, while Articles 33 and 77 made the form of government an hereditary monarchy. The Cortes was to consist of two houses, - the Senate and the Congress. Senators were restricted to certain classes and were elected by the provinces, while Deputies to the Congress were to be elected directly by the people.

June 6 was the day appointed for the promulgation of the Constitution. At two o'clock on that day the President, followed by the Secretaries, occupied the tribunes which had been erected in front of the building. There were also present the Diplomatic Corps, the Council of State, the members of the Supreme Court, representations of military, literary, and scientific bodies, as well as committees and representatives from the municipalities of the whole country. The Constitution was then read to the people by two Secretaries.

After the reading, the President of the Cortes arose and said: "As President of the Constituent Cortes, I declare, in the name of that body, that the Democratic Constitution of 1869 has been solemnly promulgated." There were acclamations from the immense crowd; in the evening the public buildings, many private houses, the Prado, and the Retiro were illuminated; bands of music played in the open squares, and there appeared to be general rejoicing at the introduction of a new order of things.

Chapter III: The Serrano Regency and the Search for a King