c a s : E L A R 613 influential conservative members of the last parliament of the provinces and Navarre at the head of 20,000 men, Savoyard king, which had suspended its sittings shortly Martinez Campos to Catalonia with several thousand, and after proclaiming the federal republic. A sharp struggle Lopez Dominguez, the nephew of Marshal Serrano, to was carried on for weeks between the executive and this begin the land blockade of the last stronghold of the commission, at first presided over by Martos, and, when cantonal insurgents, Cartagena, where the crews of Spain’s he resigned, by Salmeron. In the background Marshal only fleet had joined the revolt. Serrano and many politicians and military men steadily Castelar next turned his attention to the Church. He readvocated a coup d’etat in order to avert the triumph of newed direct relations with the Vatican, and at last induced the republicans. The adversaries of the executive were 1 ope Pius IX. to approve his selection of two dignitaries prompted by the captain-general of Madrid, Pavia, who to occupy vacant sees as well as his nominee for the promised the co-operation of the garrison of the capital. vacant archbishopric of Valencia, a prelate who afterwards The president, Salmeron, and Marshal Serrano himself became archbishop of Toledo, and remained to the end a lacked decision at the last moment, and lost time and c ose friend of Castelar. He put a stop to all persecutions many opportunities by which the republican ministers anc re ^ ^gi°us orders, and enforced respect of profited. . The federal republicans became masters of the ru. Church property. He attempted to restore some order in situation in the last fortnight of April 1873, and turned the treasury and administration of finance, with a view to the tables on their adversaries by making a pacific blood- obtain ways and means to cover the expense of the three less pronunciamiento. civil wars, Carlist, cantonal, and Cuban. The Cuban The battalions of the militia that had assembled in the insurgents gave him much trouble and anxiety, the bull-ring near Marshal Serrano’s house to assist the anti- famous Virginius incident nearly leading to a rupture democratic _ movement were disarmed, and their leaders, between Spain and the United States. Castelar sent out the politicians and generals, were allowed to escape to to Cuba all the reinforcements he could spare, and a new France or Portugal. The Cortes were dissolved, and the governor - general, Jovellar, whom he peremptorily infederal and constituent Cortes of the republic convened structed to crush the mutinous spirit of the Cuban militia, but they only sat during the summer of 1873, long enough and not allow them to drag Spain into a conflict with the to show their absolute incapacity, and to convince the United States. Acting upon the instructions of Castelar, executive that the safest policy was to suspend the session Jovellar gave up the filibuster vessels, and those of the for several months. crew and passengers who had not been summarily shot This was the darkest period of the annals of the Spanish by General Burriel. Castelar always prided himself on revolution of 1873-74. Matters got to such a climax of having terminated this incident without too much damage disorder, disturbance, and confusion, from the highest to to the prestige of Spain. the lowest strata of Spanish society, that the president of At the end of 1873 Castelar had reason to be satisfied the executive, Figueras, deserted his post and fled the with the results of his efforts, with the military operations country. Pi y Margall and Salmeron, in successive in the peninsula, with the assistance he was getting from attempts to govern, found no support in the really im- the middle classes and even from many of the political portant and influential elements of Spanish society. elements of the Spanish revolution that were not republican. Salmeron had even to appeal to such well-known reac- On the other hand, on the eve of the meeting of the tionary generals as Pavia, Sanchez Bregna, and Moriones, federal Cortes, he could indulge in no illusions as to what to assume the command of the armies in the south and in he had to expect from the bulk of the republicans, who the north of Spain. Fortunately these officers responded openly dissented from his conservative and conciliatory to the call of the executive. In less than five weeks a few policy, and announced that they would reverse it on the very thousand men properly handled sufficed to quell the day the Cortes met. Warnings came in plenty, and no less cantonal risings in Cordoba, Sevilla, Cadiz, and Malaga, a personage than the man he had made captain-general of and the whole of the south might have been soon pacified, Madrid, General Pavia, suggested that, if a conflict arose if the federal republican ministers had not once more given between Castelar and the majority of the Cortes, not only way to the pressure of the majority of the Cortes, composed the garrison of Madrid and its chief, but all the armies in of ‘£ Intransigentes ” and radical republicans. The president the field and their generals, were disposed to stand by the Salmeron, after showing much indecision, resigned, but president. Castelar knew too well what such offers meant not until he had recalled the general in command in in the classic land of pronunciamientos, and he refused so Andalusia, Pavia. This resignation was not an un- flatly that Pavia did not renew his advice. The sequel is fortunate event for the country, as the federal Cortes not soon told. The Cortes met on 2nd January 1874. The only made Castelar chief of the executive, though his intransigent majority refused to listen to a last eloquent partisans were in a minority in the Parliament, but they appeal that Castelar made to their patriotism and common gave him much liberty to act, as they decided to suspend sense, and they passed a vote of censure. Castelar the sittings of the house until 2nd January 1874. This resigned. The Cortes went on wrangling for a day and was the turning-point of the Spanish revolution, as from night until, at daybreak on 3rd January 1874, General that day the tide set in towards the successive developments Pavia forcibly ejected the deputies, closed and dissolved that led to the restoration of the Bourbons. the Cortes, and called up Marshal Serrano to form a On becoming the ruler of Spain at the beginning of provisional government. September 1873, Castelar at once devoted his attention Castelar kept apart from active politics during the to the reorganization of the army, whose numbers had twelve months that Serrano acted as president of the dwindled down to about 70,000 men. This force, though republic. Another pronunciamiento finally put an end to aided by considerable bodies of local militia and volunteers it in the last week of December 1874, when Generals in the northern and western provinces, was insufficient Campos at Sagunto, Jovellar at Valencia, Primo de Rivera to cope with the 60,000 Carlists in arms, and with the at Madrid, and Laserna at Logrono, proclaimed Alphonso still formidable nucleus of cantonalists around Alcoy and XII. king of Spain. Castelar then went into voluntary Cartagena. To supply the deficiencies Castelar called out more than 100,000 conscripts, who joined the colours exile for fifteen months, at the end of which he was in less than six weeks. He selected his generals without elected deputy for Barcelona. He sat in all subsequent parliaments, and just a month before his death he was respect of politics, sending Moriones to the Basque elected as representative of Murcia. During that period
