Spain Part 4

_Valladolid_ (52,000) was till the middle of the sixteenth century the capital of Spain, and is likely to become of great importance in the near future as the point of junction of all the Spanish and Portuguese railways of the north and west. The Douro flows through the centre of the province, and the plains of Valladolid are perhaps the most fertile of all those in North-western Spain. It is a great centre for the corn-trade of the Castiles, and the smoke from its tall chimneys tells also of manufacturing industry. There are here two colleges for Scotch and Irish students for the Roman Catholic priesthood. They were established at the time of the persecutions in England, but are much less frequented now than formerly. Medina del Campo (4500) an ancient commercial city, was ruined in the wars of the _comuneros_, but may recover somewhat of its former traffic as a junction of railways. A town of similar name and standing, Medina de Rio Seco (4500), is in the north of the province; both are situated in rich corn-growing plains.

Tordesillas (3500), on the Douro, owes its existence to the junction of roads which cross the river by its n.o.ble bridge. In this province is the Castle of Simancas, wherein are deposited the archives of Spain, as those of the Indies are at Seville. Long closed to the world, they are now open to the researches of scholars, and guides and inventories in aid are being published during the present year.

_The Balearic Isles._

These islands are geologically a submarine continuation of the Valencian mountains which sink into the sea at Cape Nao. They are divided into two groups: (1) Minorca, Majorca, Cabrera, and a few islets; the nearest point of which to the mainland is Soller on Majorca, ninety-three miles distant; (2) Iviza and Formentera, with some smaller satellites, are within sixty miles of the Spanish coast. The whole superficies of the islands is nearly two thousand square miles. The inhabitants number about 290,000. The climate is equable but exceedingly variable within somewhat narrow limits; the average both for Minorca and Majorca being sixty-four, the highest temperature ninety, and the lowest forty-four.

The average rainfall is nearly twenty inches. Majorca, the largest of the islands is about sixty miles from east to west, and fifty from north to south. The surface is very broken, but with a few fertile plains; the greatest elevation is 5000 feet. Minorca, twenty and a half miles to the east of Majorca, is twenty miles long by six broad. Iviza, the largest island of the western group is only four miles by four. The highest points of these two islands are about 1000 feet; but Iviza retains traces of volcanic action which seem to connect it geologically with the extinct Catalan volcanoes, by way of the Columbretes rocks, and the Point de la Bana at the mouth of the Ebro. Majorca and Minorca are remarkable for erections called "Talayots," similar to the "Nuraghies"

of Sardinia; they are the work of one of the many prehistoric, or at least unrecorded races whose blood mingles in the veins of the present inhabitants, and the origin of them has given rise to almost as many theories as those of the round towers of Ireland and Scotland. In the west of Majorca is the remarkable and extensive cavern of Arta. The language of the islanders is one of the purest dialects of the Provencal speech. The only separate race now in the islands is that of the "_Chuetas_" or converted Jews, who still keep apart notwithstanding their nominal Christianity. The population is mostly engaged in agriculture, and the islands export fruits, oil, leather, and a few cattle, to an annual value altogether of 350,000_l>_, while the imports amount to 210,000_l>_. The land is cultivated mostly by peasant proprietors and metayers in small holdings, and by reason of steady emigration those who remain are fairly prosperous. The people show strong aesthetic tastes, and the art school of Palma is one of the most flouris.h.i.+ng of the whole of Spain. The chief towns on Majorca are Palma, on the east coast, of 58,000 inhabitants; Manacor, in the centre, of 12,500; Felanitz, 10,000; and Llummayor, Soller, Inca, and Pollensa, of about 8000 each. Minorca has only two towns of importance, Port Mahon, 22,000, and Ciudella, 7000, at opposite extremities of the island. Port Mahon is perhaps the finest harbour in the Mediterranean, and is also one of its strongest fortresses; during the English occupation the town attained great prosperity. Iviza has only one town, of the same name as the island, containing 5500 inhabitants. We have noticed before that the majolica ware was not made in these islands, but at Valencia, and that it acquired the name from Balearic vessels being used for its export to Italy.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY AND POLITICAL CONSt.i.tUTION.

In order to understand the present const.i.tution, the political condition, and the aspirations of the Spanish nation, it is absolutely necessary to have some slight acquaintance with its previous history.

This we propose to give as briefly as possible.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there is no doubt that the inhabitants of Northern Spain, under some of the petty kings, enjoyed more const.i.tutional liberty than any other people in Europe; that their inst.i.tutions generally, and especially their munic.i.p.al privileges, were more in accordance with the ideas of modern freedom and self-government than those of any other nation at that date. The feudal system never attained in Northern Spain, except in parts of Catalonia, the systematic development, and the organized oppression of the lower cla.s.ses, which it reached in many other parts of Europe. The peculiar inst.i.tution of "_behetria_," which prevailed in Leon and the Castiles, and by which a serf was free to go whither he would "from sea to sea," with all his goods, and to put himself under any lord he chose, was of itself an almost sufficient check to excessive tyranny by the n.o.bles. The old Roman munic.i.p.al organization, of the towns had been preserved by tradition throughout the whole of the Visigothic times down to 711, nor had the practical working completely died out at the epoch of the early reconquest of the north. Hence many of the charters or "_fueros_"

granted to the towns and cities by the kings are evidently founded on a recollection of former inst.i.tutions, modified according to the necessities of the times. Thus the charter of Leon (1020) expressly allows exemption from all arbitrary exactions, and grants the free election of the _Alcalde_, and of the munic.i.p.al council, with only the appointment of the judges by the king. By the _fuero_ of Arganzon (1191) it is expressly stated that if these royal officers overpa.s.sed their duties, it would be lawful to kill them without incurring any responsibility. Similar but still more strongly-worded clauses are found in all the Basque _fueros_, and in the coronation oath of Aragon.

The representatives of the burgesses, "el estado llano," the low estate in the "Cortes" or parliaments, began much earlier in Spain than in other countries. Burgesses sat in the Cortes at Leon certainly in 1188, if not in that of Burgos in 1169. In Aragon they were present still earlier, in 1134, in Navarre in 1194, in Catalonia, where feudalism was more developed than elsewhere, in 1218. These dates are simply those of the first mention of the fact, not necessarily that of its first inst.i.tution; the records rather imply their presence at former sessions.

We find also early protests against judicial and administrative abuses which prevailed long afterwards in other parts of Europe. In the _fuero_ of Arganzon (1191) the inhabitants claim exemption from the ordeal of iron, hot-water, or battle. In 1152, the _fuero_ of Molina demands that justice be done to all, and truth spoken without favour or bribery of any kind whatever. The original capitulations granted to the Moors and Mudejares of Castile, and especially to those of Aragon, breathe the same liberal spirit. They are granted full liberty in the exercise of their own religion, and to live under their own laws in their own quarters, subject only to some fixed tribute and service. The spirit of bigotry and of hatred between the two races commenced with the foreign monks, with the semi-religious military orders, and with the legal cla.s.ses; afterwards it spread to the common people through envy at the better use which the Jews, Mudejares, and Moriscos made of the privileges granted to them, and the consequent superiority of their condition compared with that of the serfs and lower cla.s.ses of the Christians. It is this fact which explains the rising of the population at Saragossa in favour of the inquisition against the Mudejares and Jews. Travellers in Spain, even to the middle of the fifteenth century, were scandalized at the toleration of the Moors by the king and the court. Theologians, lawyers (except the royal judges), medical men, and traders were they who called for oppression of the Moors; the two last cla.s.ses evidently through jealousy of the superior skill and industry of Moors and Jews as doctors and merchants; the literary cla.s.s, the poets, n.o.bles, and kings were in favour of toleration. Afterwards indeed, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the ravages of the pirate s.h.i.+ps of Algiers and Tunis roused an indignation and excited a far more intense abhorrence than had existed in earlier times, when Christian and Moslem knights met in fair and equal warfare.

The development of these early liberties, and the progress of the cause of toleration and of true civilization in Spain, were checked by circ.u.mstances which would a.s.suredly have acted in a similar way in any other nation. The establishment of the military orders, the conquest of the south, especially the last campaign against Granada, put forces into the hand of the king greater than those possessed at that time by any other monarch. The richest half of Spain, the newly-conquered Mussulman provinces, had not only no liberties of their own except those granted in their respective capitulations, and which were speedily revoked, but had neither knowledge of, nor any interest in the liberties of the north. They were entirely at the mercy of their conquerors, Ferdinand and Isabella, who had the control of the finest army of Christendom. The masters.h.i.+p of all the great semi-monastic military orders, which had hitherto been elective, was now granted to Ferdinand by Pope Innocent VIII. (1492), and they were incorporated with the crown by a bull of Adrian VI. (1523). An almost equally powerful engine in the royal hands was the secret police of the Santa Hermandad (1476), founded to restrain the excesses of the n.o.bles and the practice of private war. The success of this inst.i.tution in the cause of order explains both the inst.i.tution and the popularity of the inquisition. It is easy to see what a leverage was thus put into the royal hands to destroy the liberties of the north of Spain. Add to this that the separate kingdoms, Navarre, Aragon, Valencia, the Castiles, and the Basque Provinces had not yet been united under a single head, nor had learned to work together, except in war, for a single purpose. Catalonia and Aragon had indeed some sympathy with each other, but they had none with Leon and Castile; their peculiar language and habits isolated the Basque Provinces and Navarre from any of the rest. A century of free representation and debate in a national Cortes might have changed all this, but the opportunity was not given.

The discovery and the conquest of America, and the subsequent emigration of the bolder spirits, turned men's thoughts away from internal reform and the home const.i.tution. Next the fatal election to the empire of Charles V. threw into his hands fitting agents, in his foreign and ecclesiastical ministers and governors, wherewith to crush any rising of the people. Cardinal Ximenes was the only minister in Europe who at that date could have pointed to a standing army with the proud words, "With these I govern Castile; and with these I will govern it, until the king, your master and mine, takes possession of his kingdom."

Yet even to the end of the seventeenth century the king swore to preserve the ancient privileges of Aragon and Catalonia. The "_fueros_"

of Navarre were intact until 1840, and those of the Basque Provinces till 1874. The wonder is, not that the Spanish liberties were crushed, but that the memory of them should have continued so long, and after so many ages of repression should yet be a living force with which every statesman and ruler of Spain has still to make his account.

The suppression of Spanish liberty had already begun under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, but the death of Francis I. and the retreat of Charles V. into the cloister of San Juste definitely closes both the period of chivalry and of such liberties as existed through the Middle Ages in Europe. With Philip II. begins the era of statesmans.h.i.+p and of bureaucratic centralization, when nations were really ruled from the closet and with the pen, not with the sovereign's sword or by his presence in the field. It is difficult for an Englishman to sympathize with the view, but the period of Philip II. is still looked upon by the majority of Spaniards as the golden era of the external position of Spain. His absolutism, and his concentration in his own person of all civil and religious rights, are condoned in their eyes by the glory of his having made Spain the arbiter of Europe and the champion of Catholicism. But with his successor set in that strange and progressive decadence of intellectual power in the sovereigns of the Austrian dynasty in Spain, which ended in the almost idiotcy of the childless Charles II. Spain, which in the reign of Philip II. had all but imposed the sovereign of her choice in France, in the reign of Charles II. was ruled according to the intrigues and caprice of the court of Versailles.

Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV., though vastly superior to the late Austrian sovereigns, could never thoroughly emanc.i.p.ate himself from the tutelage of the country to whose armies he owed his crown; and the family degeneracy, which had shown itself in the Austrian sovereigns, again appeared in the Bourbon family, and communicated itself to the whole nation. The military and naval greatness of Spain disappeared, the very wish for const.i.tutional liberty died out, commerce and literature were almost extinct, the population was declining in numbers and increasing in misery, the country was daily growing poorer, and its wealth was ebbing slowly away to other lands. The n.o.ble aristocracy of Spain, once so full of loyal self-respect in the age of the Cid, grovelled at the sovereign's feet, jealous only for precedence in matters of court etiquette, or clamorous for posts in the colonies as a means of corruption, and of enriching themselves by the plunder of the provinces they administered. The only king who showed some royal talent, and who intelligently endeavoured to effect the improvement of Spain, was Charles III. (1759--1788). Unfortunately both he and his able ministers, instead of basing their reforms on the native liberties and const.i.tutions of Spain, imitated almost wholly the spurious liberalism of the encyclopaedists and doctrinaires of France. Hence few of their reforms took root. Those that were not immediately done away with did not grow or develope. The successors of Charles III. were still more feeble than his immediate predecessors, and the condition of the royal family was such that Napoleon had no difficulty in forcing them to abdicate, and to crown his brother Joseph king of Spain; but the nation, unlike the royal family, refused to acquiesce in this usurpation of their rights, and rose as one man to avenge the burning wrong.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORT OF CADIZ.

_Page 153._]

The modern history of Spain begins naturally with that of the War of Liberation, May 2nd, 1808, and politically with the Cortes of Cadiz, 1812, and with the const.i.tution then promulgated. This declares: That the Spanish nation is not the patrimony of any family or person; that the sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, which is the conservator of its own liberties and rights. The sole religion is and shall always be the Apostolic Roman. The legislative power resides in the Cortes with the king. The suffrage was universal, and one deputy was to be elected for every 70,000 souls. Entails and feudal privileges had been abolished by a law of August 6th, 1811, the liberty of the press was voted, and in 1813 the inquisition was suppressed. The French had been expelled, chiefly through the a.s.sistance of England, and the king had returned from captivity; all looked well for the new era. But in 1814 Ferdinand VII. violated the oath which he had sworn to observe the const.i.tution; the inquisition was re-established; the feudal exactions on real property were restored; and the fatal policy of violent reaction and of ruthless vengeance on political opponents was inaugurated which has wrought such deadly harm to the cause of progress in Spain. After an absolute government of six years, Riego raised the standard of revolt at Cadiz, and again Ferdinand swore to observe the const.i.tution of 1812: further reforms were established. In 1820, t.i.thes were partially suppressed, and the Church was forbidden to acquire any more real property. A law of May 3rd, 1823, affirmed in stronger terms the law of 1813 on the abolition of entail: the religious orders were done away with. But in the same year, with the a.s.sistance of a French army under the Duc d'Angouleme, Ferdinand conquered the liberals and again violated his oath to observe the const.i.tution. Every act of the Cortes for the last four years was annulled. Riego, with other chiefs of the liberal party, was put to death under circ.u.mstances of atrocious cruelty, others were banished, and a crafty and tenacious system of persecution was directed against every liberal for the rest of the reign. During this reign, too, through denial of all reform or suppression of any abuse, the whole of the vast colonial empire of Spain on the continent of the Americas was totally lost.

On the death of Ferdinand VII., June 29, 1833, another element of discord was introduced. The first Bourbon king, Philip V., in defiance of ancient Spanish precedents to the contrary, had introduced the Salic law from France, and had procured its solemn promulgation by Cortes.

Ferdinand VII., with the consent of Cortes, abrogated this law, and left the crown to his only child, Isabella II., an infant of less than three years old, with her mother, Christina of Naples, as regent. His brother, Don Carlos, who, since the king's last marriage, had been intriguing against him with the ultra-conservative party, claimed the throne under the law of Philip V. Henceforth a dynastic question was added to the standing const.i.tutional one.

The Carlists declared themselves the champions of legitimacy, the divine right, and of absolutism; and thus forced the party of Isabella, the Christinos, to appeal for support to the liberal and const.i.tutional party, though they had no more real attachment to the cause, and no more intelligent appreciation of its benefits than had their opponents. A blunder of the liberal party in hesitating to confirm the "_fueros_" of the Basques, the last vestige still intact of the ancient const.i.tutional and munic.i.p.al liberties of Spain, greatly strengthened their opponents, who at once seized the opportunity and loudly confirmed them. A war of seven years followed, in which the older liberal generals lost all their former military prestige against Zumalacarregui in the Basque Provinces, and against Cabrera in Aragon. But the a.s.sistance of England, and still more the incapacity of Don Carlos, at length enabled Espartero to finish the war by the convention of Vergara, August 30, 1839, by which _fueros_ were confirmed to the Basques on their laying down arms. Cabrera continued the war in Aragon and Catalonia, but two years afterwards was forced with his followers to take refuge in France. During this period const.i.tutional liberty had apparently made great progress in Spain, and several useful reforms had been set on foot. But its course had been marred by deeds of atrocious violence, such as the ma.s.sacre of the monks and the destruction of the convents in 1835, when valuable treasures, both in art and literature, which had been spared in the great Peninsular War, were finally lost. All ecclesiastical and church property had been declared national, and the sale of it had been commenced, t.i.thes were wholly suppressed, the _mesta_ was abolished--with results as to the division of property detailed in a former chapter. From the regency of Christina dates, in a great degree, the shameless corruption, the selfish intrigues, the abuses of all kinds among the upper _employes_, which with rare exceptions have marked every subsequent government of Spain. A reaction set in in 1843, with Narvaez as its real chief. To his stern administration, however, are due the establishment of the normal and technical schools, the foundation of the present educational system in Spain, and the inst.i.tution of the _guardias civiles_, a kind of police after the model of the French gendarmerie or the Irish constabulary, and which has proved itself the most trustworthy body in Spain in defence of law and order under all changes of government. It would be a weariness to the reader to recount all the changes from liberalism to absolutism which followed during the reign of Isabella II. No administration succeeded in impressing on the bulk of the nation the fact that it was honest and capable; none won respect abroad. Perhaps that of O'Donnell (1858-63), during which occurred the successful campaign in Morocco, was the least corrupt and inefficient; but the indignation of the country at the shame and corruption of both court and government broke forth at last, and a movement, headed by Admiral Topete and the fleet at Cadiz, in 1868 overthrew the Government, forced Isabella to fly, and declared the Bourbons incapable of ruling in Spain.

On the abdication of Isabella II. in favour of her son, and her retirement into France, a provisional government was formed with Serrano, Topete, and Prim as chief members, to hold the reins of power until Cortes should elect a new sovereign. The choice proved far more difficult than was expected. Topete and others favoured the claims of the Duc de Montpensier, the brother-in-law of the late queen, but the objection to any of the Bourbon family was at that time too strong; others desired to seize the opportunity of uniting Spain and Portugal under one head by electing a member of the Portuguese royal family; but this was rejected by the princes of Portugal. Two years were spent in these debates, but at last the choice of Prim prevailed, and Amadeo, the second son of Victor Emmanuel II. of Italy, was elected sovereign, 16th November, 1870. The murder of his chief supporter, Prim, before he reached Madrid, deprived him of the only support which might have consolidated his dynasty. Had it not been for the deeply-rooted dislike of all Spaniards to a foreign ruler, Amadeo would have proved by far the best sovereign that had sat upon the throne for many generations. He honestly respected the const.i.tution. His court was pure and incorrupt.

He was intelligently devoted to the best interests of Spain; but he found all his efforts at improvement and reform utterly thwarted by the intrigues of the n.o.bility and of the upper _employes_ of every kind, and after a trial of two years he resigned a post which he could no longer maintain with true dignity and self-respect, and retired to Portugal, February 11th, 1873. Thereupon a republic was proclaimed by Cortes, with Figueras, Castelar, and Pi y Margall as chief ministers. But the events of the last few years, the weakening of the central authority, the attention which the Carlist rising in the north had drawn to the ancient "_fueros_" or const.i.tutional privileges of Spain, on the one side, and the incidents of the war with the Paris Commune in France, together with the influence of those of the communists who had found refuge in the industrial cities of the east and south, on the other, produced constant revolts in favour of a federal or cantonalist government of the separate provinces. On July 15th, 1873, Don Carlos (Carlos VII.) the grandson of the Don Carlos (Carlos V.) of the seven years' war, although both his uncles and his father had solemnly renounced their rights to the throne, re-entered the Basque Provinces, from which he had been quickly driven by General Moriones at Oroquieta in a former attempt, and raised the standard of legitimacy and divine right. On the other hand, one after the other, Alcoy, Malaga, Seville, Cadiz, and, a few months later, Cartagena and Valencia, revolted in a communistic or cantonalist conspiracy which threatened the dismemberment of Spain, and the destruction of her armaments. It was only after severe fighting, which strained the resources of the Government to the utmost, that these cities were subdued. Meanwhile Don Carlos had established himself firmly in the Basque Provinces, and his brother Alfonso headed considerable forces in Aragon and Catalonia. Fortunately Barcelona held aloof from the cantonalist and _intransigente_ movement of Cartagena and Valencia.

These events, however, had shown the necessity of tightening the reins of discipline in the army. Salmeron, who was now at the head of the ministry, exerted himself to restore order, and endeavoured to work the republic in a conservative sense. A year or two after, at the instigation of Castelar, the penalty of death for mutiny was again enforced. After Moriones and Serrano in the north had both failed in their attempts to raise the seige of Bilbao, Concha at last succeeded, May 2, 1874; and Martinez Campos, who had crushed the insurrection in Valencia, was making way against the Carlists in Aragon and Catalonia.

Between these generals, with Pavia and others, a conspiracy was formed to restore the Bourbon monarchy under Alfonso XII., son of Isabella.

Serrano offered only a doubtful resistance, and Castelar, opposed by the _intransigente_ party, found himself almost alone in upholding a conservative republic. The death of Concha, before Estella, in Navarre, June 27, 1874, delayed for some months the proclamation of Alphonso, but at length it took place, on December 30, 1874, and the republic fell without a struggle. Alphonso XII. landed at Barcelona in the first days of 1875, and entered Madrid on January 14th. In spite of some checks, caused by the incapacity of his generals, his power was quickly augmented. Many who, through hatred of the republic and of the cantonalist excesses, had joined the Carlist ranks, abandoned the cause when monarchy was restored. Don Carlos had proved to be as incapable as his grandfather had been, and much less reputable in his private life.

By the end of August, Martinez Campos had taken Urgel, in Catalonia, and by the close of the year he was free to a.s.sist Quesada in the Basque Provinces. The united armies were successful, and on February 28, 1876, Don Carlos entered France, leaving his followers and the Basque Provinces entirely at the mercy of the conquerors. The consequence to them has been the partial loss of their _fueros_, the incorporation of the Basque conscripts with the rest of the army, and the annexation of the provinces for the first time to the crown of Spain.

With Alphonso XII. entered Spain, as his chief adviser, Canovas del Castillo. Whether nominally prime minister, or out of office, he has really held the reins of power--with the exception of the nine months'

ministry of Martinez Campos in 1879--from 1875 to February, 1881. On the whole his exertions have been beneficial to Spain. By an arrangement dated January 1, 1877, and by lowering the rate of interest, he saved the public credit, which was on the verge of utter bankruptcy.

Insensibly he has detached himself from the progressive liberal movement, and his rule has become more and more conservative. The decree for toleration of religion, pa.s.sed in the first months of the republic of 1868, has been greatly modified, and interpreted in a sense more and more unfavourable to religious freedom: But he has not succeeded in breaking down the many abuses of the administration, or in putting an end to the corruption of the upper _employes_, or in insuring freedom and purity of parliamentary election; and until this is effected the future of Spain must still be doubtful.

_Present Const.i.tution and Administration of Spain._

It would be tedious and little instructive to our readers to detail the various const.i.tutions under which Spain has been governed since 1812. We will give a sketch, as far as we are able, of the last only. By a comparison of this with the const.i.tution of Cadiz, it will be seen that, in spite of all reactions, Spain has really progressed in the way of freedom and good government.

The const.i.tution of the Spanish monarchy, June 30, 1876, declares Alphonso XII. de Bourbon to be the legitimate King of Spain. His person is inviolable, but his ministers are responsible, and all his orders must be countersigned by a minister. The legislative power resides in the Cortes with the king. The Cortes is composed of two legislative bodies, equal in power--the Senate and the Congress of Deputies.

The Senate is composed (1) of senators by their own right, who are--sons of the kings, grandees of Spain with 3000_l._ yearly income, the Captain-General of the Forces, the Admiral-in-Chief, the Patriarch of the Indies, the Archbishops, the Presidents of the Council of State, of the Supreme Tribunal, of the National Accounts, of the Council of War, and of Marine, after two years' service; (2) of life senators, named by the crown; (3) of senators elected by the corporations of the State, or the richest citizens--half of these must be renewed every five years.

All senators must be thirty-five years of age, and the number of cla.s.ses (1) and (2) together must not exceed that of the elected senators, which is fixed at 180.

The Congress of Deputies is returned by the electoral Juntas, one deputy being elected for every 50,000 souls. Deputies are elected by universal suffrage, and for a period of five years. The Congress meets every year at the summons of the king, who has power to suspend or close the session; but in the latter case, a new Congress must meet within three months. The president and vice-presidents of the Senate are nominated by the king, those of the Congress are elected from its own body. The initiation of the laws belongs to the king, and to both legislative bodies; but the budget, and all financial matters, must be first presented every year to the Congress of Deputies. No one can be compelled to pay any tax not voted by Congress, or by the legally appointed corporations. The sittings are public, and the person of deputies is inviolable. Ministers may be impeached by the deputies, but are judged by the Senate.

Justice is administered in the king's name, and judges and magistrates are immovable.

The provinces are administered (1) by a governor, who, with his immediate subordinates, is nominated by the Government; (2) by a Provincial Deputation, elected by the householders of the province. All members must be natives of, or residents in, the province; their number varies according to the population. (3) Five members elected from the Provincial Deputation form a Provincial Commission to conduct business when the deputation is not sitting. These authorities and bodies answer nearly to the prefects and general councils of the French departments.

They are of much greater political importance in those provinces which have preserved some of their ancient rights than in others.

Below the provincial are the munic.i.p.al authorities, the Alcaldes (mayors), Ayuntamientos (munic.i.p.al councils), and the Juntas Munic.i.p.ales. The internal administration of every parish is entrusted to an Ayuntamiento or munic.i.p.al council, elected by the residents, and composed of the Alcalde or mayor, the Tenientes or a.s.sistants, the Regidores or councillors. The Junta Munic.i.p.al is composed of all the councillors of the Ayuntamiento, and an a.s.sembly of three times their number, and by them the munic.i.p.al accounts are to be audited and revised. The number of the Ayuntamiento varies according to the population; one Alcalde, one Teniente, six Regidores, for 1000; and one Alcalde, ten Tenientes, thirty-three Regidores, for 100,000. The real independence and free action of these bodies varies much in different provinces and in different circ.u.mstances. The smaller bodies are quite under the thumb of the central government; the larger ones in the great towns and in the more independent provinces are much less easily influenced.

The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman is declared to be the religion of the State, and the nation is bound to maintain its wors.h.i.+p and its ministers. "But no one shall be molested on Spanish ground for his religious opinions, nor for the exercise of his respective wors.h.i.+p, except it be against Christian morals. Nevertheless, no other ceremonies or public manifestations shall be permitted than those of the religion of the State." These last two articles are evidently equivocal, and subject to great diversity of interpretation and of application.

All foreigners are free to settle in Spanish territory, and to exercise therein their respective trades and professions, with the exception of those which require special t.i.tles. The expression of opinion, the press, the right of public meeting, of a.s.sociation, and of pet.i.tion, except from armed bodies, are respectively free. No Spaniard or foreigner can be arrested or detained illegally. He must either be set at liberty or be brought before a judge within twenty-four hours of his arrest. No Spaniard can be arrested without a judge's warrant, and the case must then be heard within seventy-two hours after his arrest; otherwise he must be set at liberty on his own pet.i.tion or on that of any other Spaniard. Domicile is inviolable. Such are the princ.i.p.al articles of the present Spanish Const.i.tution. In spite of the excess of some republican governments and the reaction of others, real progress has been made, excepting only in the equivocal law on religion, and that on marriages between Catholics and Protestants.

_Administrative Spain._

For military purposes, Spain is mapped out into five "capitanias generales," conferring the rank of field-marshal on the possessors of that office. The number of marshals, generals, and superior officers of the special corps in active service is over 500. The number of the army on a peace footing is fixed at 90,000, the infantry numbering 60,000, the cavalry 16,000, artillery 10,000, and engineers 4000. Universal conscription is nominally obligatory, but with the power of purchasing a subst.i.tute for a fixed sum of 80_l._ The time of service is eight years, four of which are spent in the active army and four in the reserve. In the colonies the time is four years only, the whole of which must be spent in active service. Besides the regular army in Spain are the corps and garrisons in the Philippine Islands, in Porto Rico, and in Cuba, where the mortality is so great that the troops need constant renewal.

In addition to the above must be reckoned the militia of the Canary Islands, the "guardias civiles," a kind of constabulary like that of Ireland or the gendarmerie of France. These are about 15,000 men, and are some of the best and most trustworthy troops in Spain; the carabineros or custom-house officers, who guard the frontiers, form another corps of about 12,000. Towards the close of the late Carlist and Cuban wars the actual army was far above these numbers, and it is probable that 150,000 men were under arms on the side of the Government in the Basque Provinces alone. The Spanish soldier is one of the best in Europe, if properly commanded. He is sober, and has great powers of endurance; is an excellent marcher, and a trustworthy sentinel; persistent both in attack and defence, he still retains the steadiness of the old Spanish "tercios," which were once the terror and admiration of Europe. The Basques under Zumalacarregui in the first Carlist war, and the Catalans under Martinez Campos in the last, earned high praise from all foreign officers who saw them. But too often these fine qualities of the private have been rendered of no avail, owing to the utter want of skill and competency in the officers and commanders, and still more by reckless corruption and mismanagement in all things relating to the commissariat and supplies. Another element of deterioration has been the use of the soldiery as mere tools of political intrigue in the frequent revolts and _p.r.o.nunciamientos_ of ambitious generals. The scientific corps, however, the artillery and engineers, have always stood aloof from sedition. It was an attempt to corrupt the former and to a.s.similate it in this respect to the rest of the army, which led to the abdication of King Amadeo. The generals who have achieved the greatest reputation in the Spanish army are Quesada and Martinez Campos. Moriones, who distinguished himself in the Basque Provinces during the last Carlist war, has lately died. Blanco and Jovellar acquired distinction in Cuba, and Loma as a good brigadier in the Carlist war. Serrano, Pavia, and others are better known in the field of politics than in that of military action.

For naval purposes the coast of Spain is divided into three departments--Ferrol, Cadiz, and Cartagena, at each of which ports is a naval a.r.s.enal. The jurisdiction of the marine extends as far as the tide and seventy feet beyond. The three departments, are divided into _tercios navales_, _partidos maritimos_, and districts. The Spanish navy consists of 121 s.h.i.+ps, five of which are armoured vessels of the first cla.s.s, and eleven unarmoured; eighteen belong to the second cla.s.s, and fifty-six to the third, some of which are monitors and armoured gunboats. There are also thirty-one smaller vessels, and a few s.h.i.+ps employed for training and for harbour services. The whole fleet mounts 525 guns, and is over 20,000 horse-power. The sailors number 14,000, with 504 officers of all ranks, and the marine infantry 7000, with 374 officers. The old fame of Spanish s.h.i.+p-building, except for small vessels, has almost entirely pa.s.sed away. In the great war at the beginning of the century, the finest vessels of our navy were prizes taken from Spain. Spanish navigators, too, have long lost their old renown, though the Basques are still esteemed as mariners. The ironclad frigates and monitors of modern Spain have been almost all constructed in foreign dockyards. The armoured gunboats, however, built in Spain are a good and useful model.

The merchant marine consists of 226 ocean-going steamers and 1578 ocean sailing-vessels measuring altogether 460,000 tons. Smaller vessels make up a total of 3000 merchant-s.h.i.+ps, less than one-fifth of the number of those of Great Britain.

For the administration of justice the country is divided into Audiencias Territoriales, Provincias, and Partidos Judiciales. The Audiencias, or courts of appeal, are fifteen, with 373 judges or procureurs. There are also 500 judges of first instance, and there is also a justice of peace or alcalde in each town or munic.i.p.ality. All pleadings are still conducted in writing in Spain; there is no verbal examination or cross-examination in public. Suits both civil and criminal are thus dragged out to an inordinate length. Judges are still suspected of being open to bribery, and confidence in the just administration of the law is as a consequence severely shaken. It is not uncommon for witnesses to be summoned to testify to facts which happened many years before, and it not unfrequently happens that either the princ.i.p.al witnesses or the criminal himself is dead before the case is decided. As a conspicuous instance, we may remind our readers that General Prim was a.s.sa.s.sinated in open day in Madrid in 1870, and the case has not yet been adjudged.

The discipline of the prisons is in general extremely lax, and many crimes, especially forgeries, are there concocted with impunity. There is, however, a great difference in the treatment of the prisoners in different prisons. Up to 1840 the office of Alcaide, or governor of a prison, was sold by the Government to the highest bidder, and the purchasers made the most they could out of the wretched prisoners by starving them or by accepting bribes for illicit indulgences, and for furnis.h.i.+ng what they were bound to provide, so that it was commonly said "that the _bagnios_ of Algiers were less terrible than the prisons of Spain." Perhaps the worst of them all, up to the year 1833, was the old prison of the city of Madrid, one dark dungeon of which was termed "El Infierno"--h.e.l.l. Almost as bad was the Prison de Corte and the famous Saladero. There was no cla.s.sification, no cleanliness, and in some of the cells neither light nor ventilation. In some of the country prisons the cells were like the dens of a menagerie, and the starving prisoners thrust their hands through the bars to beg food of pa.s.sers-by. At last has arisen an ardent band of philanthropists, of whom Senors Lastres and Vilalva are at the head, and the first stone of a new prison in Madrid, arranged on modern principles, was laid by the king in February, 1877.

Hospitals, lunatic asylums, and asylums for the sick and aged poor, and other charitable establishments are of very varied descriptions in Spain. Some of them, like the famous establishments of Cadiz, Seville, Madrid, Cartagena, Valencia, and Cordova, are admirably managed, and yield in practical benefit to none of other lands. The first lunatic asylum ever founded was that at Valencia by Padre Jofre Gilanext, in 1409; three others, at Saragossa, Toledo, and Seville were founded in the fifteenth century. That of Barcelona is said to be now the best public lunatic asylum in Spain. Many others are nearly as good, while one or two of the private asylums near Madrid are excellent; but in some provinces these establishments, both public and private, are still in a very wretched state.

Since 1848 there have been a little over 4000 miles of railway laid down in Spain. The princ.i.p.al lines are the two which run from the extreme ends of the French Pyrenees to the capital, connecting Spain with the great European communications. Next in importance are those from the Mediterranean ports Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, to Madrid; Malaga and Granada are connected with the metropolis by the line from Cadiz. A rather circuitous route by Badajoz, Ciudad Real, and Toledo is the only line at present open to Lisbon, but a more direct one is in course of construction. The communications with the extreme north-west are not yet completed, but the branch of the Great Northern Company from Santander, which brings the products of the Asturian coal-fields to Madrid, is of great importance. Other valuable lines are those of the valley of the Ebro, from Miranda del Ebro by Saragossa to Barcelona. Should any of the schemes projected for a direct route from Paris to Madrid, by any of the central pa.s.ses of the Pyrenees, through Saragossa, be carried into effect, the line from the latter place to Madrid will be one of considerable traffic. The coast-line from Barcelona to Valencia is of great value to one of the richest wine and fruit districts of Spain.

Shorter lines, which may have a considerable influence on the welfare of the country, are those which connect the great mineral fields with the chief lines of transport or with the nearest port. It has been remarked that hitherto, with some exceptions, Spanish railways have had less influence in developing local traffic than those of any other European country. The Great Northern lines, too, have suffered seriously from interruptions caused by civil war, by floods, and other accidents since 1868.