The San Francisco call., 1897-08-15

OF the urban population and without any
reference to the requirements and de-
Yelopment of agriculture, the peasantry
have remained unaffe cted by modern
progress, stepped on the contrary in the
Grass ignorance of three centuries ago and
utterly Indifferent to everything except
to the behests of their priests and the eX-
actions of the tax collector. 1t Is imn,a-
terial TO them who wields the executive
power at Lisbon. Perhaps they do not
even know; for they cannot read or write,
the latest official returns issued by the
Portuguese Govern ment showing that no
less than 50 per cent of the inhabitants OF
the kingdom-that is to say over a OOo, uoo
OF the total population OF {, 1000, OO0-are en-
tirely illiterate, and, as such, debarreo
from the polls. For, ridiculous though 1t
may appear under the circumstances, the
educational test constitutes one OF the
qualifications for the exercise of the elec-
toral franchise. Just at the present mo-
ment, however, the peasantry are
seething with discomfort duo 10 the ex-
cessive and ever-increasing taxation to
which they are subjected, and they will
cheerfuly welcome and submit to any
change OF rulership no matter what 1t Is,
that will tend to alleviate the crushing
burden of imposts with which they are at
present literally overwhelmed.
The urban population is republican to
the very core. The chambers of COM
merce, the chamb bers of manufacture, the
associations of wine-growers and wine
dealers, the industrial guilds, the banking
classes, the legal and medical professions,
the faculties and students of the various
universities and colleges. nay. even the
very officers and~s soldiers of the army, par
ticularly the scientific branches of the
latter, are nearly all openly professed foes
of The monarchy and acknowledged re-
publicans, who are firmly convinced that
Portugal will never recover her former
prosperity as we'll as her prestige among
the nations of the universe until she
adopts form of government that exer-
cises less blighting influence upon the
life of the people than the oeplorable rule
of the house of Braganza AS for the
urban labor element it is almost wholly
socialist.
Until quite recently neither the King
nor yet his Ministers were able to gather
sufficient courage or summon enough en-
ergy to deal with this condition of affairs.
They did not dare to remove Colonel Elias
Garcia, who is one of the republican
chiefs, from his position as professor of
military engineering at the army school
at Lisbon, which is the Portuguese coun-
terpart OF West Point. Nor has the King
made any attemp. as yet TO remove from
the roster of the army the name Of
Latino Coelho, who, in addition to
his commission as general of artillery,
is president of the State Polyteohnical
School at Lisbon and member of the Ma
tional Academy of Sciences. Yet he is
the second of the triumvirate which di-
rects the destinies of the republican cause
in Portugal. True, the King on one occa-
sion caused the summary arrest at pub
lie meeting of Manuel Arriaga, the cele-
prated and popular lawyer, renowned as
the most eloquent orator of the land of
Camoens, and who is the third OF the tri-
umvirate But after Arriaga had been de-
tained for couple of days on board a
man-o -of-war lying at anchor in the Tagus
the King got frightened and had him set
at liberty. All the principal newspapers
OF Lisbon, Oporto and OF the other cities
and towns are violently republican, vying
with ons another in their denunciations of
the King, and, in fact, the latter has abso-
lutely no adherents except among the Of
fetal classes-that is 10 say, among the
bureaucrats of the civilian portion of the
administration.
Now, however, matters have reached
crisis. The kingdom, with a national
debt of nearly $1,000 900 and only
$55 900. 600 revenue-on paper-is bank
rupt, the treasury empty. and the Govern.
ment, without vestige of financial credit
left either abroad or at home, with no fur
ther means of borrowing, and the national
banks 60 depleted OF their bullion reserves
that specie payments have long been sus-
pended by order of the crown, is now COM
PEELED to create fresh taxes in order 10
provide the necessary lunds for carrying
on the administration. I ese taxes have
been enacted by the legislature in which
the present Cabinet, thanks to dishonest
manipulation of the baIlot-boxes and the
| abstention OF by far the largest moiety