The National tribune., 1910-10-13
TUE REVOLUTION IN PORTUGAL.

THE REVOLUTION IN PORTUGAL
Events in the little kingdom of
Portugal stir the world. Portugal has
an area of 34,52S square miles, which
makes it little larger than Maine and
little smaller than Indiana. On this
is a population of 5,42s,625, being $50. 6
to the square mile. Only 81 per cent of
the people reside in cities. and the larg-
I est city is the Capital, Lisbon, with a
population of $4,000. There has been
an extensive emigration from Portugal
of late years, with about 10000 people
leaving the kingdom every year to seek
better wages and living mainly in Bra
zil and the United States Portugal
bears something of the same relation
to Spain that our States along the Pa
cific Coast do to the interior. The winds
from the ocean bring heavy rains and
abundant moisture, which produces lux
uriant vegetation, but as they reach the
boundaries of Portugal the high noun
tains wiring the moisture out of the
clouds, and on the other side in Spain
are cloudess skies, thirsty soil and
treeleSs plains.
Portugal has a long history, very
much the same as Spain's, dating back
to 1000 years before Christ, and over
it swept the Carthaginians, Romans,
Arabs, Goths and Vandals, each leaving
their traces. The people are a small,
dark haired, long-headed race, with
stature from five feet three inches to
five feet three and one-quarter inches.
The activity of the Portuguese in the
slave trade brought many negros to the
country, and large portions of the popu-
lation, especially in the Provinces of
Algarve and Estremadura, are mulattos.
The Portuguese were once the most
daring and successful of explorers, and
they made many important colonies,
which they worked under the bad old
colonial system, where a colony was
for the conquerors to get
rich upon. This demoraliZed the Por-
tuguese spirit, leading to a contempt
for ordinary business methods and caus-
ing their own countryS resources to be
neglected. On top of this came the bad
old ecclesiastical system, where the
became the profession of those
who wanted to live off their neighbors.
To facilitate this the Church and the
Court had to be in firm alliance and
resist everything that looked like a
spirit which would develop
solid opposition to the exactions of the
noble and ecclesiastical orders. The
struggle for a Constitutional Govern
ment began during the Napoleonic trou-
bles, when the King of Portugal left
The country with his court and took up
his residence in Brazil, where he re-
mained for many years There We're
he same struggles, revolutions and
revolutions with the clerical
party when it was in the ascendancy,
absolutism in the most obnox-
Gus form, and the progressive party |
when it came in, curtailing the privi- |
eyes of the priesthood.
The condition of things In Portugal is |
very much like that in Spain, except |
hat it is worse. The vice of slave |
rading corrupted the Portuguese even |
more than it did the Spaniards, and |
heir rule of the colonies was even more |
yrannical and selfish. Nor is there so |
arge proportion of the manufacturing |
md mercantile classes which form the |
backbone of the resistance to clerical |
SIN and absolutism in Spain. The |
session of an unusually large portion of |
he very best lands, upon which they |
)ay no taxes and bear no burdens The |
are desperately poor and ig- |
lorant, with nearly four-fifthS of the |
people unable to read. While a Repub- |
EXCELLENT men at its head, it is unlikely |
hat it can maintain itself for the same |
eason that exists in all the other Latin
Countries. That is, the men outside of |
he narrow court cabal have been de-
lied all share or knowledge of public |
business, and have had no training in |
he forms of popular government. with,
# course. the common people densely |
gnorant of what the popular Govern
nent means and of their responsibilities
o it. The best that can be hoped for
8 the establishment of a bureaucracy
ike that OF France. The French So
allied Republic has been the strongest
nd best Government the country has
Yer had, and the people have pros
ered under it to an extent wholly un-
recedented in the previous annals of |
he country. Portugal will undoubtedly
pproach a French model, and if she
hall succeed in even making a poor
of it will be vastly better off
han she has been for hundreds of years
nder the Kings and priests