Huntsville gazette., 1882-07-01
The Spanish Cortes.

rivals the Massachusetts House of Rep
aresentatives. 1T IS. the Chamber of Dep
uties, or the Cortes, here. remember
saving the same thing of the Hungarian
Diet nine years ago. In these three
bodies of representatives it has seemed
to me that representative institutions
are more favorably illustrated than in
any others, perhaps twenty in all, which
have seen in the world. l was fortu-
nate yesterday in witnessing and hear
ing the debate which the Journals re-
gard as the most exciting of the session
and which brought to the front several
of their most distinguished speakers.
The house is a little larger than our
Representative Chamber in Boston, not
quite so well proportioned, l thought,
but arranged on the same plan, as
suppose are most such houses in the
world. the House of Commons being the
great exception. The seats rise boldly
from the level of the floor in the
amphitheater They are all of red
velvet except the Ministerial chair,
which is the front bench right of the
Speaker, and is of dark blue. They con-
stantly allude to eI baaeo dsut. All the
Ministers we're present yesterday. Sa-
gasta at their head. martinez and Sa-
gasta both spoke.
There is tribune for speakers, as in
France, in front of the President. But
while everyone uses it in France no one
chose to use it here. The speakers
stood in their seats, exactly as in our
Legislature. There are large and ele-
cant lobbies and refreshment rooms all
around the house, and it is clear enough
that usually these may have as many
members in them as the chamber. But
as have said, it was not SO yesterday.
The subject of discussion was the in
PRODUCTION of the jury into their system
of jurisprudence. Four or five times
has the jury been tried in Spanish juris-
prudence since 1872, and as often
thrown out again, in one or other reac-
ton. 1t seems to be agreed on all
hands that the present Government
party, or at least that part of it known
as thee Constitutionals, had declared jury
trials to be one of their demands before
they we're in power. Now they are in
they are keeping their pledge by re-
arrangement of the whole judicial sys-
tenn, and they declare with great earn
estness that jury trial is to be part of
this scheme. The bill which the Gov
ernment supports has been reported by
a commission, has passed the Senate,
and for two or three days has been be-
fore the House. At this juncture, as l
understand the matter, the leaders OF
the "Democratic- -Monarchic" party, one
of the largest sections of the opposition,
finding that there were members of the
"Liberal-Dynasty," or Government
party, who thought the bill did not 60
far enough, really hoped to make a
breach in that strong body on this ques
ton. Senior Linarez Rivas introduced,
as an amendment, a MORE out-and-out
bill. The speaking on Friday had de-
veloped the fact that there was some
little uncertainty in the Government
camp, and yesterday, therefore, became
a fieId-day in which everybody OF note
took occasion to define his position, not
so much in regard to jury trial as in re-
gard to everything else in the political
history of the last twenty years.
aln Sagasta, who is very wise and very
eloquent man, closed with one of his
brave and spirited speeches, and carried
the house with him triumphantly. The
session, if there had been any, was
quite too small to be important, and the
other parties in opposition had no care
to play into the hands of the "Demo-
cratic -Monarchists.n 1t was, therefore,
a brilliant debate and nothing more.
What interested me most, as stran-
ger, was the real dignity and decorum
of the whole scene in the midst of the
excitement, often intense, of people of
southern race, to whom the whole
business is still experimental. They
cry, ssHear, hear" as in England; they
cry, "Very WE'LL" {" Good" and in
other ways applaud. You hear occa-
sional Kisses, but T was not sure but
these came from the gallery. The
speaking was too personal, and the
President, a fine old Roman, held the m
up quite closely when this happened.
But all this was still dignifed. Nom
looked at newspaper or pretended to
read. Every man sat as if he were list
ening. When, on the report of dis
tinguished speaker, the lobbies emptied
themselves and hundred men filled
the vacant spaces to the right and left
OF the CHAIR, no man presumed to cross
10 his own seat, if thus he would have
to pass between the President and the
orator. If you saw any one in that
range you were sure it was one of the
pages or other officers of the house.
They all speak with perfect ease, no
man with any scrap of paper in his
hand. The hall is not bad for the voice,
and one can hear any speaker easily in
the gallery. They claim the floor, as
think they do in France, in advance, so
that the President has little list of men
who wish to speak, and, from time. to
time, he tells who they are. fancy
there is rule prohibiting men from
speaking more than once, forI observed
almost every one spoke {" in explana-
tion," or &c for correction" or justi-
flying himself personally"
The House is composed Of men most
of whom are much younger than most
of our National representatives, or else
mems hair stays on their heads here
longer than in America. They looked
as young as does our Massachusetts
House; another point of the strong re-
semblance noticed between these two