RECENT EVENTS
[Sidenote: A Minority in Power.]
It may have been hoped by many both in Portugal and abroad that a new
period of well-being for Portugal had begun. It was known that the change
had been effected by a small section of Portuguese at Lisbon, but there
was apparently some expectation that this small section would gradually
extend its influence until the Portuguese Republic and the Portuguese
people had indeed become one. It was believed, especially outside of
Portugal, that the corrupt and inefficient interplay of party cliques at
Lisbon was for ever at an end, and it was also believed, especially in
Portugal, that the magic of the name Republic would restore prosperity
to the national finances. Better administration, the development of
Portugal’s resources, decentralisation, the improvement of conditions in
the colonies, these were some of the problems by which the Republicans
were confronted. Foreign opinion was prepared to support a _régime_ which
should encourage all that was best in the country, peasant and nobleman
alike, to co-operate in this huge effort of regeneration. A small
minority, of course, refused to co-operate, and the mass of the people
relapsed into indifference as it became apparent that the Republicans,
far from attracting waverers and conciliating their opponents, intended
to rule as one clique more rather than as representatives of the
Portuguese nation. The first Parliament of the Republicans, packed with
their supporters, the municipal authorities appointed from Lisbon, the
electoral law delayed from session to session, the “invention” of the
clerical question, were so many indications of the gulf existing between
the Republic and the country, and that the Republicans were aware of
their isolation.
[Sidenote: “Ordem e Trabalho.”]
“_Ordem e Trabalho_”—“Order and Work” was the motto chosen by the
Republic, but with that Portuguese love of words for their own sake or
for the sake of appearances, the legend was far removed from the reality.
On the very day after the citizens of Lisbon had been requested to give
up their arms an assault was organised on the Convent of Quelhas. From
the windows or roof of the convent Jesuits were said to have fired
repeatedly on the mob, and to reconcile this assertion with the fact that
the convent when entered was found to be empty, underground passages
were devised for their escape, although in reality such passages did
not exist. A few days later more firing was reported from the Jesuit
convent at Campolide, described by the Republican Press as a “fortress
of murderers and brigands.” In the next few months all the offices of
Royalist newspapers were attacked and wrecked, both at Lisbon and in the
provinces. At Coimbra and elsewhere the Royalist and the Catholic Clubs
were assaulted and plundered.
[Sidenote: Decrees.]
Apart from the activity of the _Carbonarios_, the first months of the
Republic were marked by an almost equal number of decrees and strikes.
Every day the _Diario do Governo_ came out bursting with new decrees, the
Provisional Government being determined to make hay before the slower
procedure of Parliamentary forms came to check progress.
[Sidenote: Strikes.]
And nearly every day one or several classes of workmen, taking advantage
of the new permission to strike, struck. The strikes were the reality,
the decrees were too often theoretical,[63] although some of them, such
as that of agricultural credit, 2nd February, 1911, were excellent in
principle. _O Seculo_ might speak with complacency of “the evident
identification of the people with the Government,” of “the close union
between the people and the Government,” but all these decrees and the new
Constitution provided by the Constituent Assembly left the people cold.
The salaries voted to themselves by its representatives in Parliament did
not fill it with enthusiasm: it would have preferred cheaper _bacalhau_.
The _octroi_ duty on certain articles was remitted, but it was soon
discovered that while the State lost several hundred _contos_ the price
of the articles did not diminish.
[Sidenote: The Constitution.]
The people found but small compensation in the clauses of the
Constitution which declared that “The sovereignty belongs essentially
to the nation,” or “Members of the Congress are representatives of the
nation and not of the clubs which elect them.” Each Parliament was to
last three years, and each year was to have one session of four months,
from 2nd December to 2nd April. Parliament cannot be dissolved before
the end of three years (the result being that the frequent changes
of government are not even in appearance connected with the people).
Senators are elected for six years, half their number being renewed at
the elections to the Chamber of Deputies every three years.
[Sidenote: President Arriaga.]
The President of the Republic must be of Portuguese nationality and over
thirty-five years of age. He is elected for four years, and cannot be
President twice in succession.[64] For the first term of the Presidency
(August, 1911, to August, 1915) Dr. Manoel de Arriaga was elected.[65]
Ten days after the election of the President, Snr. João Chagas, since
the Revolution Portuguese Minister in Paris, formed the first regular
Government of the Republic (3rd September, 1911).
[Sidenote: First Royalist Incursion.]
It did not last ten weeks; a period which included the first Royalist
incursion under Captain Paiva Conceiro. The expedition was not of great
importance. The danger to the Republic lay in the possibility of the
whole of the North of Portugal rising in favour of the Monarchy; but,
although there were many isolated disturbances they just failed to break
into a general conflagration. The organisation of _Carbonario_ spies
throughout the country and the municipal authorities appointed by the
Republicans undoubtedly acted as a powerful check on the inhabitants.
[Sidenote: Snr. Chagas’ Ministerial Statement.]
On the 4th of September Snr. Chagas had read his ministerial statement to
Parliament. His principal object, he said, was to carry on the work begun
by the patriotic and disinterested members of the Provisional Government,
and his principal care to reconcile the work initiated by them with the
situation of the Republic’s finances. The Republic was to be a _régime_
of conciliation for all Portuguese. Some days later the Premier addressed
a large crowd from a window of the Ministerio of the Interior. That day,
he said, was the last of the revolutionary period, and began a period
of order, peace and work. Unfortunately it did nothing of the kind, and
Snr. Chagas was glad to get back to Paris.[66] Snr. Chagas’ promises
had been too moderate to satisfy the extremists. Reconciliation of all
Portuguese was a large order for the Democrats who were never tired of
demonstrating that a Portuguese Royalist was far worse than an assassin.
[Sidenote: Dr. Augusto de Vasconcellos.]
The new Ministry under the Premiership of Dr. Augusto de Vasconcellos was
presented to Parliament on the 16th of November, 1911. Dr. Vasconcellos
declared that the Government would be decidedly anti-clerical. He spoke
of the urgent need of adapting administration to the actual political
condition of the country, and of creating “an atmosphere of tranquillity,
peace, and confidence.” The Government received the support of the
leaders of the various tendencies of Republican politics which had now
crystallised into separate parties. Dr. Affonso Costa, Dr. Antonio José
de Almeida, and Dr. Brito Camacho.[67] Yet all was not plain sailing for
the Government. Snr. Machado Santos even declared (_O Intransigente_, 8th
December, 1911) that every day that passed discontent increased. And the
_Seculo_, four days later, said: “Unless Portuguese politicians leave
little party questions on one side, and devote themselves seriously to
the economic development of the country, the country is doomed.” “The
Parliamentary system has only served to embarrass for the most part the
normal life of the nation” (_O Seculo_, 12th December, 1911). The Budget,
according to the same newspaper (28th December, 1911) was “but a very
close copy of those of the Monarchy.” And while it was found impossible
to allow sufficient money for the most urgent expenses of schools and
roads, the Minister of Marine presented a project to construct three
20,000 ton cruisers, twelve torpedo destroyers, etc., at a total expense
of 45,000 _contos_.
[Sidenote: Fresh Disturbances.]
At the end of January, 1912, a revolutionary strike at Lisbon, coinciding
with a widely extended strike movement in Alemtejo, was met by the
Government with the declaration of martial law, and the arrest of
over a thousand suspected Syndicalists and workmen. It was during the
weakness of this and the following Government that the _Carbonarios_
were allowed to commit some of their worst outrages with impunity.
The “laws of defence” voted by Parliament at the beginning of July on
the occasion of the second Royalist incursion were opposed even by _O
Seculo_, which remarked in a leading article (6th July, 1912): “It is
certain that we are thus entering upon a purely arbitrary _régime_
which will no doubt be temporary but which nevertheless is a detestable
instance of the Parliament abdicating in favour of the Government, of
this and succeeding Governments.... The laws to which we are referring
are so vague and indefinite that they favour any desire of persecution or
vengeance.” Since the Royalist “army” was as negligible as in the autumn
of the preceding year the excitement was deliberately fanned by the
_Carbonarios_.
[Sidenote: Dom João d’Almeida.]
It was during the second Royalist incursion in the summer of 1912 that
Dom João d’Almeida, a Portuguese of noble family, serving as an officer
in the Austrian army, was taken prisoner. His sentence of six years’
confinement in a solitary cell in the _Penitenciaria_, to be followed by
ten years of deportation to a penal settlement, was severe, but under the
circumstances, naturally so. Unfortunately, however, for its credit, the
Republic neglected to treat him as an officer and a gentleman.
[Sidenote: Carbonario Outrages.]
Persons known to be Royalist were set upon in the street, beaten,
wounded, and then arrested as conspirators. But the worst feature was
the encouragement given by the Democrat Press to the perpetrators of
these outrages. The murder of Lieutenant Soares elicited no protest from
the Republican Press. It was not till September that _A Republica_,
organ of the moderate Republicans, found its voice to protest generally
against the abuses: “The number of those who dislike or distrust the
Republic or have retired from politics is enormous, owing to the narrow
persecutions of the demagogues, headed by Dr. Affonso Costa.”[68] On the
16th of June Snr. Duarte Leite constituted another coalition government
(Democrats, Evolutionists, Unionists, Independents) in succession to
that of Dr. Augusto de Vasconcellos, who remained in office as Minister
for Foreign Affairs. Parliament met a little before the date fixed by
the Constitution, and the Government was soon in crisis. Discontent
was fairly general. An attempted _coup d’état_ by advanced Republicans
had occurred at Oporto. No municipal elections had been held since the
Revolution.
[Sidenote: The Financial Situation.]
The statement made to Parliament by the new Finance Minister, Snr.
Antonio Vicente Ferreira in November, concerning the financial situation
did not mend matters. He admitted that the finances were in a most
serious state, and that the deficit would be enormous. “As there can be
no doubt,” said _O Seculo_ (4th December, 1912), “that waste is going
on, and indeed increasing precisely when it seemed that it should have
disappeared, the logical and irrefutable conclusion is: The politicians
of the Republic are personally as honest as may be, but as administrators
of the public finances they rank with what was bad in the administration
under the Monarchy. Is this due to discreditable concessions? to weakness
or cowardice? We do not know.”
[Sidenote: Dr. Costa in Power.]
The Government was _demissionario_ before the end of the year, and
after a fortnight of attempts to constitute a moderate Government, Dr.
Affonso Costa was sent for by the President and on the 9th of January
formed, with a ministry of nonentities, the fifth government of the
Republic.[69] This Democrat Ministry maintained itself in office for a
little over a year, and during that time some of the worst elements of
the Republic were in clover. _O Mundo_, under the editorship of Snr.
França Borges, now became an official organ, and made full use of its
new opportunities. In its inquisitorial ardour it spared not even the
impartial and moderate _Diario de Noticias_ nor the distinguished poet
who was serving the Republic as its Minister in Berne, Snr. Guerra
Junqueiro, nor the President of the Republic, nor any moderate person.
The _Carbonarios_, moreover, knew that whatever they did would be
supported by the Government, and the Government, by organising new groups
of _Carbonarios_ in its special service, saw to it that whatever they did
should benefit the Democrat party. The Democrats, the _Carbonarios_ and
the _Mundo_ formed a trinity which came very near to being as disastrous
to the Republic as, according to the Democrats, the “august trinity of
Braganças, Jesuits and English” had been disastrous to Portugal. Dr.
Costa, when Premier, declared that he agreed with every word written in
_O Mundo_. It is the creed of the Democrats that outside the Republic
there are no Portuguese, and outside the Democrat party there are
no Republicans. Those who do not belong to the Democrat party can,
therefore, scarcely be good Republicans.
[Sidenote: Bombs and Risings.]
Yet it became impossible in 1913 to continue to ascribe all disturbances
to the Royalists. The movements of April and July of that year and the
bomb thrown at the procession in honour of Camões on the 10th of June,
killing and wounding several persons, were the work of Anarchist and
Radical Republican elements. Yellow badges inscribed with the letters
R.R. (_Republica Radical_) were freely distributed, and the number of
bombs manufactured in Lisbon was so great that even the Republicans who
had exalted the bomb as the instrument of liberty, began to like it less
when it was directed against themselves. Well-intentioned Republicans
were exhorted to give up the bombs in their possession, and after July
hundreds of bombs were thus daily delivered voluntarily or discovered
by the police in Lisbon. The _Mundo_, which continued to harp on the
time-honoured theme that the bomb-throwers were Jesuits, must have failed
to convince even the most enthusiastic of its readers. Obviously from the
point of view of the Republic, Royalist conspiracies were far preferable
to these plots and disturbances within the very bosom of the Republic.
[Sidenote: Crowded Prisons.]
As early as February, 1913, on the day after Snr. Machado Santos’
Amnesty Bill had been discussed in Parliament, the _Alta Venda_ of the
_Carbonarios_ had posted up a notice in the streets of Lisbon, warning
citizens that the Royalists were actively conspiring. Rigorous vigilance,
said the notice, is needed; all Portuguese worthy of the name must be
at their posts to destroy the miserable plots of the reactionaries.
The warning, subsequently explained Snr. Luz Almeida, head of the
_Carbonarios_, was dictated by fear of “the wave of false generosity
which was invading the spirit of sincere Republicans.” In other words,
there had been serious talk of an amnesty for the political prisoners
with which the prisons throughout the country had been crowded since the
proclamation of the Republic. In December, 1912, the President addressed
a letter to the Government in favour of an amnesty for the prisoners and
the recall of the bishops. The Government did not see its way to grant
either, but in the following October, on the third anniversary of the
Republic, a pardon (_indulto_) was given to some three hundred among
the uneducated prisoners of the _Penitenciarias_, who sought it as a
favour. The injustice was manifest, especially as it was not among the
uneducated classes that persons were most likely to have been arrested
and imprisoned merely for their Royalist opinions. The “defenders of the
Republic” did not intend the cells thus vacant in the _Penitenciarias_ to
be left long unoccupied, and they were to be filled by persons of higher
social importance than the released peasants.
[Sidenote: Movement of October, 1913.]
The “Royalist movement” of October, 1913, was prepared by means of
_agents provocateurs_, with the object of making a clean sweep of all
those suspected of being unfriendly to the Republic who were not yet
in prison. The most celebrated of these agents, Homero de Lencastre,
succeeded in securing the arrest of the Conde de Mangualde and other
Royalists, and the movement thus organised became a pretext for arresting
Royalists by the score. The proof of the existence of the Royalist
movement consisted chiefly in these arrests. The first and last items
on the programme of the “White Ants” and _Carbonarios_ were—arrests.
The Lisbon police had not been taken into the confidence of these
unofficial defenders of the Republic. In the words of the head of the
Lisbon police himself: “Neither the Minister of the Interior nor the
Civil Governor ever gave the Lisbon police any definite information
concerning the ‘conspiracy,’ with which the Oporto police, it was
said, was acquainted in all its details. Only vague words: ‘A great
affair,’ ‘we are on a volcano,’ ‘the men are working bravely,’ and so
forth. Certain indications were received from the police at Oporto, but
these indications were very vague: ‘Many people compromised,’ ‘over
four hundred officers have signed documents with their own blood,’ and
so forth.” _Muita gente compromettida_: there in three words is the
_raison d’être_ of the October “Royalist conspiracy” which succeeded
in overcrowding the prisons throughout the country till the Amnesty
Bill was passed in the following February. Snr. Azevedo Coutinho almost
alone succeeded in escaping, on board an English boat, to the extreme
mortification of the _Carbonarios_.
[Sidenote: Partial Elections.]
The partial election of members of the Chamber of Deputies, rendered
necessary by the vacancies due to deaths, resignations, and diplomatic
and other appointments, were held on the 16th of November, and resulted,
as had been foreseen, in the return of Democrats for all but two
constituencies. Dr. Affonso Costa thus had a good working majority in
the Lower House, which enabled him to dispense with the support of the
Unionists, by which he had been kept in office during the earlier part
of the year.
[Illustration: DOORWAY OF THE UNFINISHED CHAPELS, BATALHA
[_See p. 96_]
[Sidenote: Parliamentary Deadlock.]
The majority in the Senate was, however, anti-Democrat. Thus a difficult
situation arose which in the beginning of the following year led to a
deadlock between the Government and Parliament. A senator, Snr. João
de Freitas, had made certain accusations against the Premier, Dr.
Affonso Costa, and the Premier, instead of attending in the Senate to
refute the charges, answered by a letter which the acting President of
the Senate considered lacking in respect to that House, and therefore
refused to read. The Government thereupon in its turn refused to have
anything to do with the sittings of the Senate, and it therefore became
impossible to carry through certain necessary business such as the
passing of the Budget. At the same time the Government was threatened
with another general strike, and to avert this it adopted the old method
of surrounding the building in which the strikers held their meetings and
arresting hundreds of workmen. This did not add to the popularity of the
Government, which was already hated owing to the arrest of hundreds of
Republicans after the April and July disturbances. The prisoners had been
sent partly to Elvas and partly to Angra do Heroisno, since the prisons
of the capital were insufficient. The Lisbon Republican Press, which had
kept silence concerning the sufferings and ill-treatment of the Royalist
prisoners and the condition of the prisons, now told of the sufferings
and ill-treatment of the Republican prisoners, of the insanitary
state of the prisons, and the badness and insufficiency of the food.
A demonstration was actually held in Lisbon against the Government of
Dr. Affonso Costa, and a large crowd, organised by Snr. Machado Santos,
proceeded to the palace of Belem, where the President of the Republic
lives, to show their wish for an amnesty, which the Democrat Government
had declared unnecessary and inopportune.
[Sidenote: President Arriaga’s Letter.]
It was evident that Dr. Costa’s days as Premier were numbered, and when
the President addressed to him a letter proposing that a government of
concentration should be formed in order to grant an amnesty, revise in
a more moderate sense the Law of Separation between Church and State,
pass the Budget and hold the General Election, the Government resigned
(25th January, 1914). A crisis of over a fortnight ensued. The Democrat
Government had fallen because it was in opposition to the President of
the Republic, to the majority in the Senate, and to public opinion. The
President had been on the point of resigning more than once during the
last two years as he saw his moderate policy ruthlessly cast aside by the
extremists. His definite resolution to resign unless his conciliatory
policy were now adopted, produced its effect. But the Democrats still had
a strong majority in the Chamber of Deputies, which made it impossible
for the Evolutionists or Unionists to form a Ministry. The attempt
to constitute a non-party Government also failed. One of the most
significant features of the crisis was the extreme unwillingness of the
abler Republican politicians to take office. It was not till the 9th of
February that Snr. Bernardino Machado was able to constitute a Cabinet,
all the new Ministers, with the exception of the Premier, holding office
for the first time. The Premier took the portfolio of Foreign Affairs,
as in 1910-11, and retained it during three months, until Snr. Freire de
Andrade was appointed.
[Sidenote: The Amnesty.]
The Ministry came into power with the solemn obligation of immediately
introducing an amnesty to Parliament. Ten days later (19th February) it
redeemed this promise, and after an all-night sitting the Amnesty Bill
was passed in the Chamber of Deputies. The amendments made by the Senate
were rejected by the Lower House, and the Bill as voted by the Chamber of
Deputies became law on the 21st of February. The terms of the Bill were
unsatisfactory and gave rise to much criticism, but its actual results
were all that could be desired. All the political prisoners without
exception were released, and only eleven “leaders” or “instigators,”
among the thousands of prisoners and _émigrés_, were banished, for a
space of ten years. A less creditable clause was that by which all abuses
of authority were included in the amnesty. The clause by which all the
untried prisoners were to be tried subsequently to their release received
widespread criticism, and was often misinterpreted, as was but natural
considering its strange and apparently contradictory character. For the
law expressly said that these persons even if sentenced to imprisonment
could not be imprisoned. Then why try them? it was said. The reason
apparently was to have an opportunity to distinguish who were leaders or
instigators, and also to show that these persons had not been arrested
unjustifiably. Another point more justly criticised was the indefinite
power conferred by the law to banish leaders and instigators. Only eleven
persons, however, were regarded as leaders, and not allowed to return to
Portugal, whereas it was calculated that the amnesty would include some
3,000 persons, of whom 572 were untried prisoners and 1,700 _émigrés_.
The new Government was obliged to walk circumspectly, for although it
leaned towards the Democrats and consulted the wishes of Dr. Affonso
Costa, it did not content the extremists of that party, and it contented
scarcely anyone else. It did not profess to look upon itself as more
than a stop-gap ministry, temporarily pouring oil on the troubled waters
between a storm and a storm.
[Sidenote: Seventh Republican Government.]
It was succeeded by a Democrat ministry, presided over by Snr. Victor
Hugo d’Azevedo, Democrat President of the Chamber of Deputies. Regardless
of the fact that a great World War was now raging, the thoughts of
political parties were bent almost exclusively upon the forthcoming
elections. The real reason for the fall of Dr. Bernardino Machado’s
Government was that the Democrats were determined to run no risks and
to make the elections themselves. For this it was essential to have a
Democrat at the Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Alexandre Braga,
considered to have much skill in the political intrigues required, was
accordingly appointed Minister of the Interior. Everything seemed to
point to an overwhelming return of Democrats at the election. Press,
Opposition, public opinion were gagged, telegrams to the foreign Press
suppressed. “Ministerial oppression,” said General Pimenta de Castro,
“reached such a point that even liberty of thought was strangled.” A
packed Democrat Parliament seemed assured. But there were two elements
which proved too vigorous to be gagged and bound. One of these was the
bitter discontent of the other political parties who saw the elections
escaping them; the other was discontent in the Army. When the Democrat
Government proceeded to interfere with the Army and, moreover, attempted
to hamper the President of the Republic’s action, and to force him
into declaring martial law, the cup brimmed over, and a military
_pronunciamento_ led to the fall of the Ministry and to the appointment
of General Pimenta de Castro.
[Sidenote: Pimenta de Castro.]
The Democrats still had a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, but,
when they attempted to meet and “confer of their miserable fall,” like
Satan and his angels on the burning lake, they found the entrance of
the Congresso guarded against them. The country had had enough of their
constitutional hypocrisies. From thenceforward General Pimenta de
Castro’s Government, welcome to the country, went serenely on its way,
although bitterly attacked by the Democrat opposition which even went to
the length of spreading abroad in their Press that the Government was
responsible for the rise in prices, although it was well known—to all
but the ignorant readers of such newspapers—that the pinch of the war
would be felt in the Spring. The President of the Republic also came in
for his share of foul abuse, owing to the fact that by the firmness and
strength of character displayed by him the election hopes of the Democrat
party had been ruined. It may well be argued that his action also saved
the Republic, since it is difficult to believe that the Republic could
have lasted many months longer in the rarefied atmosphere produced by the
Democrats in power. There was a general breath of relief throughout the
country, and by an odd paradox this new Government born of a military
movement, this “dictatorship,” this “tyranny,” proved the most moderate
Government that Portugal had seen since the Revolution of 1910. With
equal moderation and firmness one measure after another was enacted in
order to bring about the long-dreamt reconciliation of all Portuguese.
Churches were restored to the use of the faithful, officials arbitrarily
dismissed were restored to their posts, the “White Ants” were sent about
their business, their so-called “Committee of Public Safety” abolished,
and finally in April (1915) a general amnesty emptied the prisons and
allowed the eleven exiles of the 1914 amnesty to return to Portugal.
[Sidenote: Moderate Dictator and Constitutional Tyrants.]
O but, say the Democrats, it was all so unconstitutional! Such a
dictatorship! _Of course_ it was unconstitutional. The Constitution
has been so ordered that the Democrats having installed themselves
in power—and they had been in power in fact if not in name since the
Revolution—could never be dislodged by constitutional means. Their
majority in the Chamber of Deputies was secure, their majorities in the
town councils throughout the country, and in the officials responsible
for returning the new deputies equally secure. It became necessary
to dissolve these bodies, by force if they would not go willingly.
But the country which had suffered from four years of constitutional
tyranny was delighted to have a little unconstitutional moderation. In
vain the Democrats cried out that it was a dictatorship worse than the
dictatorship of Snr. João Franco. If, answered common-sense opinion,
the Government which empties the prisons, maintains order and acts in
every respect so fairly and moderately, is a dictatorship, then may all
succeeding Governments be tarred with the dictatorial brush. Only so
will the future of the Republic and of Portugal be secure. It is quite
true that the situation in some respects resembled that of Snr. João
Franco’s Government, and it is a striking and bitter comment on the seven
intervening years that to find a government as good as that of General
Pimenta de Castro one has to go back to that of Snr. João Franco. They
are like two rocks, and the seven years between a sea of slush and molten
fire.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH, BATALHA
[_See p. 96_]
[Sidenote: Revolution of May, 1915.]
Scarcely had these words been written when the guns of the fleet
early on the 14th of May announced the determination of Democrats and
_Carbonarios_, having found no support in public opinion, to overthrow
by force the Government of General Pimenta de Castro. For two days
Lisbon was cut off from the outside world and bombarded from the river.
Scores of persons lost their lives, hundreds were wounded. The rebels
triumphed. General Pimenta de Castro was arrested. The Democrat Press
had done its work well. The sergeants in the army had been encouraged to
mutiny against their superior officers, and the officers who resisted
the mutiny of the sailors were arrested or killed. The commander of
the _Vasco da Gama_ was shot dead, the commander of the _Almirante
Reis_ died some days later of his wound. The Democrat revolutionary
committee nominated a new government with Snr. João Chagas as Premier.
The new Premier was, however, shot by the Senator João de Freitas when
on his way to Lisbon, and, although not mortally wounded, resigned the
premiership some days later. This was the only _contretemps_ in the
Democrats’ plans. Otherwise their victory was complete, and they at
once set about making the elections. In certain States of South America
one has heard of such proceedings, of a party winning its way to power
by means of civil war. (The peaceful and exceptionally well-governed
country of Chile, ignorantly confused with the pungent red Chili pepper
of the Portuguese Republic, naturally resented any such comparison.) But
even over those States the World War had thrown a steadying influence.
That a party in Portugal should take this opportunity to copy Mexico
stamps that party more effectively than would reams of comment. It
suffices to state the fact, and the Democrat party will always be known
as the party which, under cover of the World War, raised itself to
power over the dead bodies of its fellow-countrymen. The object of the
Revolution of the 14th of May, say the Democrats, was to restore the
Constitution. The falseness of this argument will be obvious to any but
the wilfully obtuse when it is remembered that the general election
was fixed for the 6th of June, and that they would therefore in twenty
days have had constitution to their hearts’ content. As a result of
their proceedings, Dr. Arriaga, the moderate President of the Republic,
resigned, accompanying his resignation with a very dignified protest
addressed to Parliament. The Democrat members of Parliament thereupon
chose the Democrat, Dr. Theophilo Braga, to succeed him (29th May, 1915).
General Pimenta de Castro was deported to the Azores and dismissed from
the Army. Were not the injustice of it a bitter shame and humiliation to
all true Portuguese, this persecution as dictators and tyrants of two
old men who have been Liberals and Republicans for over a generation,
and have done and suffered so much for the Republic (but not for the
_Carbonario_-Democrat clique) would be highly diverting.