FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC
[Sidenote: Last Years of Dom Carlos’ Reign.]
At the opening of the twentieth century, Dom Carlos was in the twelfth
year of his reign, and Senhor Hintze Ribeiro (d. 1st August, 1907) was
his Prime Minister. The Parliamentary system copied from England was in
use, with the difference that whereas in England the political views
of the Government depend on the result of the elections, in Portugal
the result of the elections depended on the political views of the
Government which “made” them, after the Government itself had been made
for personal or party reasons at Lisbon. The two principal parties,
were the _Regenerador_ or Conservative, under the leadership of Senhor
Hintze Ribeiro, and the _Progressista_ or Liberal, under the leadership
of Senhor José Luciano de Castro (d. 9th March, 1914). These continued
to alternate in power by a system of connivance and compromise known as
Rotativism. The _Regenerador_ Ministry of Senhor Hintze Ribeiro lasted
from 25th June, 1900, till 1904. In an earlier _Regenerador_ Ministry
under Senhor Hintze Ribeiro the Minister of the Interior had been Senhor
João Franco, who in 1901 separated himself from the _Regenerador_ party.
In 1903 he formed a new party entitled _Regenerador Liberal_. With the
resignation of Senhor Hintze Ribeiro in 1904, Senhor José Luciano de
Castro came into office, and held the elections in the following year.
In March, 1906, Senhor Hintze Ribeiro was again Premier, but only for a
few weeks, during which he held another general election. The election
as a Republican deputy of Senhor Bernardino Machado gave the populace of
Lisbon an opportunity to show its Republican leanings, and the severe
repression of the demonstration made on his arrival at Lisbon led
indirectly to the fall of the Government. Both the great parties had now
met with such resistance in Parliament or in public opinion that they
found it impossible to govern.
[Sidenote: João Franco.]
On the 18th of May, King Carlos, breaking through the Rotativism which
has been so frequently attacked, turned to the _Regenerador Liberal_
party, and its leader, Senhor João Franco, became Premier. The King
considered that he had found the “man of character” to put the political
house in order, and he openly said so, thereby giving great offence to
all the other politicians who amazingly fitted on the cap, and said: “He
accuses us of political corruption.” Senhor Franco had come into office
with the support of the _Progressistas_, under Senhor José Luciano de
Castro, without which, indeed, it would have been impossible for him
to control the Parliamentary situation. In the new Parliament, elected
in August, four Republicans were elected, including Dr. Antonio José
de Almeida and Dr. Affonso Costa; Senhor Hintze Ribeiro’s party (the
_Regenerador_) was represented by thirty deputies, Senhor Castro’s by
over forty, while the Government secured for itself only seventy. So
long as the new Premier could count on the votes of the forty-three
_Progressista_ deputies, he was able to face the noisy scenes of the
Chamber, but when that support was withdrawn a few months later it only
remained for him to resign or to dissolve Parliament. Since the leaders
of the _Regeneradores_ and of the _Progressistas_ had both within the
last few months come to a similar dilemma, and there was no likelihood of
finding a statesman of stronger character and greater ability than Senhor
Franco, the King accepted the latter alternative and on 10th May, 1907,
Parliament was dissolved.
[Sidenote: The Republicans.]
Henceforth Senhor Franco stood alone, the best-hated and most calumniated
man in Lisbon. It was in Lisbon that the Republicans had principally
spread their doctrines, by gossip, pamphlets, and newspapers among the
half-educated classes, who received with scandalised anger whatever
accounts of Royal extravagance and of the wickedness of the Jesuits were
furnished to them. If Senhor Franco was hated in Lisbon, the King was not
much more popular. He himself had summed up the situation as “a Monarchy
without Monarchists,” and the last Premier of the Monarchy, Senhor
Teixeira de Sousa, declared that the Monarchy fell because it had against
it the passion of many and the indifference of the majority. “There are
no Royalists in Portugal,” said Senhor João Chagas, a good instance of
the bad habit of calling Lisbon Portugal. The passions were concentrated
in Lisbon, and the indifference in the provinces only served to throw the
lurid politics of the capital into stronger relief.
[Sidenote: The Civil List.]
The _adeantamentos_, that is, sums advanced by the Treasury for the
King’s expenses, were a favourite catchword of the Republicans, and a
frequent motive of calumny. But when Senhor Franco proposed to increase
the Civil List, which had remained stationary for the last three-quarters
of a century at a _conto_ (about £200) a day, and do away with the
_adeantamentos_, the storm of opposition and abuse only increased.
[Sidenote: Stormy Opposition.]
Here was a firm and able statesman, anxious to carry through financial,
political and social reforms, and it might have been expected that he
would have received some support from those who had the interests of the
country at heart. Perhaps the Republicans considered the reforms too
late, or rather a little too early, since for them the first, the chief,
reform was now a change of _régime_: reforms did not please them unless
they could be carried out by themselves. But it was not the Republicans
alone who were to blame for the loss of this great opportunity of
restoring order and stable government in Portugal. If the Republicans
shrieked, the Royalist parties were no less clamorous against Senhor
Franco. All those whose interests were menaced by the proposed reforms,
all the comfortable rotativists and political hypocrites, all those who
wished to gain credit by themselves initiating the reforms, and hated
them when coming from another, were united against Senhor Franco. Senhor
Franco, however, did not lose his head but continued his work with
calmness and courage. He succeeded in decreasing the deficit and giving
some hope of gradually abolishing it altogether. But as the opposition
increased he was obliged to increase the rigour of his dictatorship.
Various newspapers were suspended and the censorship became very strict.
The fact that the suspended newspapers included _O Dia_, then the organ
of the _Alpoimistas_ (that is, the _Progressistas Dissidentes_, under
the leadership of Snr. José Alpoim), _O Mundo_, a Republican newspaper
then in its eighth year, the Progressista _Correio da Noite_ and the
Regenerador _Populo_ suffices to show the force of the opposition with
which the hated “Dictator” had to contend, and also how impartial he
was in his efforts to effect reforms which most disinterested persons
acknowledged to be excellent and necessary. He had not begun by employing
arbitrary methods. “The Republican party,” wrote a Portuguese journalist,
“asked above all for liberty, and the first thing the Government of João
Franco did was to give it liberty. He gave it liberty of the Press and of
association; he allowed it to demonstrate noisily in streets and squares.
What was the result? The Republicans declared in the newspapers that they
did not want the liberty given them by the Government, and one newspaper
even wrote: ‘The more liberty they give us the more we will require; we
must force them to compromising violence or disgraceful compromise.’”
[Sidenote: Party Passions.]
Never have party passions so blinded all the politicians of a country
to that country’s interests as in the violent and, one may well add,
cowardly attacks on Senhor Franco. There was even a plot to kidnap him,
and place him on a man-of-war in the Tagus. It is scarcely surprising
that Senhor Franco should have been obliged to resort to methods more
arbitrary, which of course drew scandalised cries of rage from those who
had made them necessary. In Lisbon the lowest interpretation was placed
on all his actions. Senhor Franco had no delight in violence, but he
considered that it was the duty of a Government to govern, and that if
this was rendered impossible for it by constitutional means it must
govern as best it might. The dictatorship was only temporary, in fact the
elections were fixed for April of the following year (1908). But with the
extraordinary respect for convention and nice superficial scruples about
formalities that characterises Portuguese politics (which sometimes seems
to be a game to see who has the skill to govern most constitutionally
and worst), a certain number of Royalists preferred to go over to the
Republic than to acquiesce in anything so unconstitutional (and opposed
to their interests) as the dictatorship.
[Sidenote: Arrest of the Conspirators.]
Could Senhor Franco have counted on the support of public opinion outside
Lisbon he might have mastered the situation, but the mass of the people
continued as usual remote and apathetic, and it only remained for him
to order the arrest of those whose avowed object was to make government
impossible. Never under the Monarchy was a Republican arrested because
he was a Republican. Republicans were allowed to retain high office in
the army and in the civil service. But the men now arrested were known to
have entered into a definite conspiracy to overthrow the Government and
to seize the person of the Premier, if not to kill him. In January, not
for the first time, a turbulent Republican journalist, Snr. João Chagas,
was arrested, as also a more dangerous because more underhand Republican,
Snr. França Borges, of the _Mundo_. The arrest of the Republican deputy,
Snr. Affonso Costa and of the Visconde de Ribeira Brava, followed a
week later (28th January, 1908). Dr. Antonio José de Almeida had been
arrested a few days before. These were the darlings of a certain and
not the most orderly section of the Lisbon people, and on their arrest
disturbances occurred which were suppressed by the Civil Guard. And here
it may be remarked that while Snr. Franco held the perfectly legitimate
view that order must be maintained at all costs, he could scarcely be
held responsible for the way in which his orders were carried out in
detail. The methods of the Lisbon police and soldiers of the Guard are
strange and ill calculated to lessen the anger of a crowd. Even under
the Republic mounted soldiers of the Guard have been known to slash
with their naked swords at innocent persons standing on the pavement
who did not amount in all to a dozen, and were not dreaming of revolt
or rebellion, being armed only with the not very warlike weapons known
as umbrellas. The suppression of riots in January, 1908, was no doubt
characterised by the same methods. A decree of January 31st (anniversary
of the rising at Oporto in 1891, from which the Republican movement
really dates) came to set a fine edge on the indignation of the Lisbon
Republicans, who had been schooled to believe the worst of Snr. Franco
and the King. By a decree of the preceding November political crimes were
to come before three judges, the _Juge d’Instruction Criminelle_ and two
coadjutors, their verdict to be without appeal. The new decree allowed
the Government to interfere and banish the accused. (Not for a moment
was there any idea of imprisoning these confessed conspirators in the
_Penitenciaria_.)
[Sidenote: Murder of the King and of the Crown Prince.]
Like lightning the news spread through Lisbon, exaggerated into the
announcement that all the Republican leaders were to be deported to
Africa. King Carlos was, with the Queen and the Crown Prince, at Villa
Viçosa, to the south of the Tagus, but was returning to Lisbon on the
following day. The report was diligently circulated that he was coming
in order to sign a decree deporting Snr. Affonso Costa and the other
leaders. The King was met at the quay of the _Terreiro do Paço_, or
“Black Horse Square,” by Prince Manoel, and the Premier, Snr. Franco,
and entered an open carriage with Queen Amélie, the Crown Prince, and
Prince Manoel. The carriage was about to leave the spacious _Terreiro do
Paço_ when several men sprang towards it, and in an instant Dom Carlos
and the Crown Prince fell back mortally wounded by several bullets. The
Queen was seen standing up in the carriage waving her bouquet of flowers
in order to deflect the aim of the assassins. The Infante Manoel was
slightly wounded in the arm. The first words spoken by Queen Amélie and
Queen Maria Pia, mother of Dom Carlos, when they met, have been thus
recorded: “They have killed my son”—“And mine.” The murder was followed
in Lisbon by no wave of generous feeling, and if sadness was felt by many
it was in the words of Camões, an _apagada e vil tristeza_.
[Sidenote: Republican Heroes.]
Was this peculiarly hideous and dastardly crime the work of the
Republicans? They denied it at first for the sake of foreign opinion,
but subsequently they have accepted it as one of the glorious deeds of
Portuguese history. Thousands of Republicans defiled past the graves of
the murderers, Buiça and Costa, who had been cut down by the police, and
the procession to their graves has been continued on each anniversary of
this cowardly deed. The Democrats have now erected a costly mausoleum in
honour of its authors. On the first anniversary of the Republic their
names appeared written up in one of the principal streets of Lisbon among
the heroes of the nation. Even while King Manoel was still on the throne
Snr. João Chagas addressed one of his _Cartas politicas_ to the shade
of Manoel Buiça: “You did something great,” he says, “very great. You
rehabilitated, you dignified the people.” Yet a people so “rehabilitated”
could only be a despicable rabble. It will be seen that the Republicans,
or at least the Democrats, have accepted and glory in this crime as their
own. If at the time they repudiated it for the sake of appearances (since
it was evident that a Republic ostensibly based on a deed of the kind
could have little chance of winning the sympathy of foreign nations),
in fact the Republican leaders and the Lisbon shopkeepers who supported
them gave it their hearty approval, with that strange callousness which
appears more repulsive when combined with sentimentalism and vague
humanity. The more enlightened Republicans knew, of course, that the
King was not responsible for the dishonesty or incapacity prevailing in
Portuguese politics, and that his interference in politics was strictly
defined and limited by the Constitution. There was no reason why honest
and able men should not rise to a prominent place in politics, and if the
Republicans held a monopoly of such men they would have been well advised
to reform the Monarchy from within, by pocketing their Republicanism and
rising to high office under the Monarchy. The very fact that the King
chose and stuck to Snr. Franco in the face of all opposition shows that
he was far from being anxious to encourage corruption and incompetence.
[Sidenote: King Manoel’s Reign.]
No sensible critic has accused Snr. Franco of either incompetence or
corruption. But the King’s death naturally caused the fall of Snr.
Franco, and the Monarchy was left to attempt to carry out reforms, but
without the only politician disinterested enough or of firm enough
character to make the attempt successful. The situation in the new reign,
especially during its last Ministry, with its sincere programme of
reform, was similar to that under Snr. Franco’s dictatorship, except that
the strong will had departed. The weakness and lenience displayed towards
the Republicans did not for a moment disarm them; the reforms proposed
only served to infuriate them. It was considered that the strong hand had
been tried and failed, and an opposite policy was adopted. Almost the new
king might have been expected to go and lay a wreath on the tombs of the
assassins, so conciliatory was the Government. The Republican leaders
were released, the basest insults and calumnies and active conspiracies
were allowed to go on unchecked. “Conspiracy proceeded on all sides”
(“_Conspiravase por toda a parte_”), says Snr. João Chagas, and he ought
to know. The Republicans looked forward to a Portugal so different from
that of the Monarchy that it would scarcely be recognised. They had no
reforms to offer other than those advocated by the Royalists and they
were finally reduced to saying that what they wanted was—a revolution.
“Only a revolution could satisfy the thirst for justice of Portuguese
society: a revolution to punish the crimes of the dictatorship and
definitely expel the old politicians from power.”[60] But it was not
yet too late for the _velhos politicos_ to stave off the revolution.
Unhappily, however, after the death of Dom Carlos they appeared in all
their worst faults, with no strong directing hand to restrain them. Dom
Manoel, thus at the age of eighteen suddenly raised to the throne beyond
all expectation, was in an extraordinarily difficult position. His tastes
inclined rather to letters and music than to the art of government. He
soon found, moreover, that the party leaders were thinking not of his
interests, or the interests of Portugal, but of their own.
[Sidenote: Rotativism in Action.]
The Ministers rose and fell at intervals of a few weeks. At first Admiral
Ferreira do Amaral formed a coalition ministry, which naturally pleased
nobody, while its weakness towards the Republicans excited criticism.
Had the Republicans been as unconnected with the murder of the King as
for the sake of appearances they at the time pretended, they would have
been the first to demand an instant and searching inquiry; as it was,
the government, in order to conciliate the Republicans, allowed the
investigations to be rather a matter of form than anything else, and the
exact truth will now never be established, although the inference is
clear. Admiral Ferreira do Amaral was succeeded by Snr. Campos Henriques,
who, however, had the support of neither the _Vilhenistas_ (Snr. Julio
de Vilhena had succeeded to the leadership of the _Regenerador_ party
on the death of Snr. Hintze Ribeiro), nor of the _Progressistas_. Snr.
José Luciano de Castro, although himself in retirement, continued to
command the situation and pull the political wires, occupying much
the same _rôle_ of Cabinet-maker as Señor Montero Rios in Spain. Snr.
Campos Henriques was speedily succeeded in the Premiership by his War
Minister, Snr. Sebastião Telles, whose ministry did not last a month,
and who was in turn succeeded by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of
the preceding Cabinet, Snr. Wenceslao de Lima. Snr. Wenceslao de Lima
occupied a somewhat similar position to that of a Republican Premier, Dr.
Bernardino Machado, four years later. His Ministry was formed with the
support of the _Regeneradores_ or _Vilhenistas_ and the _Progressistas
dissidentes_ or _Alpoimistas_ (whose leader, Dr. José d’Alpoim, was
the personal enemy of the veteran Snr. José Luciano de Castro). But he
wished to please also Snr. Castro’s _Progressistas_ by maintaining the
Civil Governors and Mayors appointed by them. This is, of course, an
all-important matter after the constitution of a Portuguese Ministry, for
as these officials will make the elections it is a bone of contention to
which party they shall belong. The difficulty of a non-party Ministry of
Concentration or Coalition is to find a sufficient number of non-party
persons to fill these posts. In 1914 Snr. Bernardino Machado was accused
of favouring the officials of Dr. Affonso Costa as in 1909 Snr. Wenceslao
de Lima was accused of favouring those of Snr. Castro. And, like the
_Almeidistas_ and _Camachistas_ of the later day, the _Alpoimistas_ and
_Vilhenistas_ combined to overthrow the Government. On 21st December
(1909) a new Cabinet was formed under Snr. Francisco Beirão. It lasted
for six months. It was a _Progressista_ Ministry, and had to face the
unflagging opposition of both _Alpoimistas_ and _Vilhenistas_, and of the
Republicans. No stone was left unturned to discredit the Government. The
sugar monopoly “scandal” was exploited to the utmost, and Dr. Affonso
Costa sought to implicate persons of the Court in it. It seemed indeed
that honesty was only dear to Portuguese politicians when they were able
to unearth something damaging to their opponents. The Ministry fell on
the 19th of June, and after a crisis lasting a fortnight Snr. Teixeira de
Sousa agreed to form a _Regenerador_ Ministry.
[Sidenote: The Last Ministry of the Monarchy.]
In the new Cabinet Snr. Anselmo de Andrade was Minister of Finance and
Dr. José de Azevedo Castello Branco Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was
this _Regenerador_, or nominally Conservative, Government which proposed
reforms that should have satisfied the most ardent reformers. They
included the alteration of certain clauses in the _Carta Constitucional_,
the reorganisation of the House of Peers, the reform of the electoral
law (allowing proportional representation to Lisbon and Oporto) of
the administrative code (re-establishing the _juntas geraes_ and so
diminishing centralisation),[61] of education, of justice. It was
proposed to make civil registration compulsory. The contract between
the State and the Bank of Portugal was to be revised. Customs duties
were to be paid in gold.[62] Roads and irrigation were to receive
especial attention. Other measures were to affect the Army, the Navy,
the colonies. These are some of the reforms sketched in the speech from
the Throne read by King Manoel at the opening of Parliament on the 23rd
of September, 1910. Mere words? But it only depended on the opponents
of the Government to translate some of them at least into reality. The
Government was only too willing but, apart from the opposition of the
Monarchical parties, the Republicans did not want reform—they wanted a
revolution. Had angels from Heaven drawn up a programme of reforms the
Republicans would still have cried for a revolution. They did not allow
Snr. Teixeira de Sousa a breathing space to carry out some of these
reforms any more than they had allowed it to Snr. João Franco.
[Sidenote: Republican Lisbon.]
The elections had been held on 28th August, and resulted in the return
of 89 Ministerialists, 41 opposition _Bloquistas_, and 14 Republicans.
Ten of the latter were returned by Lisbon (where the voting was
proportional). With 10,000 votes apiece, the Eastern section of the
capital returned Dr. Bernardino Machado, Dr. Antonio José de Almeida,
Dr. Affonso Costa, Dr. Alfredo de Magalhães and Dr. Miguel Bombarda,
and the Western section Snr. João de Menezes, Admiral Candido dos Reis,
Dr. Theophilo Braga, Snr. Alexandre Braga and Snr. Antonio Luis Gomes.
The Government was in the seven thousands in both districts, while the
candidates of the Monarchical Opposition _Bloco_ received 5,000 votes
apiece in the _Circulo Occidental_ and 2,000 in the _Circulo Oriental_.
The King, in obedience to the natural wishes of Queen Amélie, had not
left the Palace for some months after the assassination of the 1st of
February, 1908, but in the spring of that year he opened Parliament in
State, and read the Speech from the Throne. In 1910 he was present at
King Edward’s funeral, and in the same year made a journey through the
North of Portugal, which in some districts became a triumphal progress,
the peasants pressing eagerly to welcome their King.
[Sidenote: The Revolution of 1910.]
After the opening of Parliament (which was then adjourned till the end of
the year), the King proceeded to Bussaco to celebrate the anniversary of
the battle in which, on the 27th of September, 1810, Wellington checked
the advance of Masséna. The Duke of Wellington was present (as also,
according to _O Seculo_, “Sir Olman, the historian”). The King held a
great military review. It is reported that the sentiments of the Army
towards the King were expressed in the words: “They killed the other [Dom
Carlos], but if they touch this one they will have us to deal with.” A
week later the Republic had been proclaimed. On the 3rd of October, _O
Seculo_ in its weekly summary of events could write, “_Correu serena
a semana_—without anything worthy of mention.” On that very day the
Revolution was hastened by the act of a madman, who shot one of the
Republican deputies, Dr. Miguel Bombarda. The crime was, of course,
attributed to the Royalists, but the Republicans have not shown that
clemency towards opponents which hushed up the details of King Carlos’
murder, and had the death of Dr. Bombarda been due to something more than
the act of a single individual, the world would have heard of it. Dr.
Bombarda had earlier sat in Parliament as a Royalist, but he had recently
joined the Republican party. On the 8th of August he had been the chief
organiser of an anti-clerical demonstration described as “the greatest
demonstration ever held in Lisbon,” and on the 28th of August was elected
one of the ten Republican deputies for Lisbon. The _Carbonarios_ had been
carefully organised, and had done their work well, so that everything
was prepared for a revolutionary movement now or later. Mutinies had
already occurred on men-of-war, the marines having been won over to very
advanced views, and the loyalty of the First Artillery and Sixteenth
Infantry Regiments had been undermined. These regiments, and marines
from men-of-war in the Tagus, under the command first of Admiral Candido
dos Reis (who, under the impression, it is said, that the movement was
a failure, committed suicide during the night of the 3rd), and then of
the _Carbonario_ Lieutenant Machado Santos, were able in a few hours
to bring the Revolution to a successful conclusion, in the face of the
greater part of the Army, which was loyal to the King: a signal example
of the slowness and apathy which have always permitted a handful of
men of energetic action to impose themselves temporarily in Portugal.
According to the Lisbon Press, the total casualties of the Revolution
were a little over 100 killed and 500 wounded. At eleven o’clock on the
morning of the 5th of October the Republic was formally proclaimed at
Lisbon, and Dr. Theophilo Braga installed as President of the Provisional
Government. The provinces followed suit without a murmur. “If Lisbon
turns Turk to-morrow,” Eça de Queiroz had written, “all Portugal will
wear the turban.” Lisbon had now turned Turk, and the three other towns
of Portugal, Oporto, almost exclusively Royalist, conservative Coimbra
and clerical Braga, proceeded to don the turban. The rest of the country
docilely did as it was bidden, and in its ignorance was as much affected
by the recent change from Monarchy to Republic as it has been by recent
changes of Ministry. The King had been entertaining the President-Elect
of the Brazilian Republic, Marshal Hermes de Fonseca at dinner in the
Necessidades Palace, on the evening of the 3rd. During the night the
fire from two men-of-war in the river below was directed against the
palace. Early on the morning of the 4th the King, accompanied by a small
escort, left the palace, and subsequently embarked on the Royal yacht at
the little fishing village of Ericeira, to the north of Cintra (the same
which in the sixteenth century gave its name, “King of Ericeira,” to one
of the Sebastianist impostors), with Queen Amélie, Queen Maria Pia, and
his uncle, the Duke of Oporto.
[Sidenote: Professionals and Professors.]
The field lay open to the Republicans—professors who dreamed that they
would soon see their doctrines become realities, professional politicians
who had waited long for their turn, _Carbonarios_ who had been skilfully
trained as spies. The _doctrinaires_ were rapidly disillusioned, and soon
retired from active politics, leaving the more practical politicians
to go hand in hand with the _Carbonarios_ if they wished to maintain
themselves in office. For the moment, amid the Utopian dreams of a new
Portugal, moderation prevailed.
[Sidenote: Rhetoric.]
On the 5th a proclamation was issued to the Portuguese people, marked
by that abstract and bombastic style which disfigures the literary work
of the President of the Provisional Government: “The maleficent dynasty
of Bragança, wilful disturber of social peace, has now been proscribed
for ever.... Now at length terminates the slavery of our country, and,
luminous in its virginal essence, rises the beneficent aspiration of a
_régime_ of liberty.” The good _bourgeois_ of Lisbon were delighted.
They felt that now at last they had a head of the State who knew how to
speak. A more practical proclamation was that of the 7th to the effect
that, “Since to-day there can be no foolish attempts or hopes on the part
of a _régime_ which has shamefully ended in a moral overthrow that adds
greater humiliation to the tremendous lesson taught it by the Republican
arms ... there is no reason for citizens to keep in their possession the
arms of which they made such heroic use.” Throughout the country was
posted up the decree declaring the family of Bragança proscribed for
ever, and the orders of nobility extinct—bringing to many a village the
first inkling that such a thing as a revolution had occurred. In Lisbon
the Republicans had triumphed by sounding persistently two notes, that
of the _adeantamentos_, to prove that the fall of the Monarchy would
fill the Exchequer, that of anti-clericalism, to show that the religious
orders were withholding the wealth of the nation.
[Sidenote: Republican Promises.]
Thus, apart from the dreams of the _doctrinaires_, the movement was
essentially materialistic, and what support the Republicans had won in
the country was obtained by promises of cheaper food and cheaper houses.
Had the revolution been a proof that the Portuguese nation was alive, it
might have been welcomed at whatever cost; but unfortunately it was the
outcome of the nation’s apathy, which gave a free hand to a comparatively
small body of politicians imbued with foreign ideas. And had the
Republicans been as practical as they were materialistic, the Revolution
might, again, have been welcomed; but they looked rather to abstract
principles—positivism, liberty, humanity—than to the actual conditions
in Portugal. How materialistic was the creed of the Republicans may be
gathered from the following quotation from _O Seculo_ a few days after
the Revolution: “The Court is not wanted because with the exception
of two or three noble houses of large fortune, it consisted of persons
without money.... The _bourgeoisie_ is the safe of the nation, and it is
nearly all on the side of the Republic.” Rarely has franker expression
been given to the unmannerly creed that families in which civilisation
is a tradition of centuries, and which have often done signal service to
their country, should be cast aside if they happen to be poor. How _naïf_
was the Republican idea of Monarchy is shown by the remark in the same
leading article of the same newspaper: “The man who presides over the
destinies of the nation is now no longer a man in high boots and flowing
robe with a little stick in his right hand; he is a man dressed like any
other.”
[Sidenote: Humiliating Monarchy.]
And the new President, Dr. Theophilo Braga, declared on the 15th of
October that “Science tells us that monarchies have no _raison d’être_
because they humiliate the men who accept them.” Thus in a brief sentence
all the nations of the North of Europe are dismissed humiliated. It was
a moment of pardonable excitement, and some sincere Republicans believed
that a new era of peace and prosperity had dawned for Portugal.