The National tribune., 1910-08-11
THE TROUBLE IN SPAIN.

man Catholics. The King and his pres
cnt Cabiitet belong to the party which
protests fgainst the extreme ecclesias-
tical tyranny under which Spain has
suffered d for centuries, and would be-
Gin SEPARATION of the Church and
State. Asainst. them are the ultra
Homanists. who represent the last eN-
;rcme of ecclesiastical authority-in all
things, civil as we'll as religious, and to
whom the days of the Inquisition are
ideal. Spain has been struggling for
ward toward this rupture between the
two parties for a century. and no mat
ter who has been on the throne, the
middie-class progressive people have
steadily insisted upon a forward move
ment against the bad old order of
things.
The struggle really began when Fer
dinand VII returned to Spain after the
Napoleonic wars and was forced by the
people to accept liberal Constitution
This curtailed the power of the Church,
and abrogated the enormous privileges
of the religious orders. The reaction
soon set in, and Ferdinand was obliged
t. forsake the liberal path and return
10 that of strict absolutism. Six years
later another revolution took place
which abolished the Inquisition and re-
stricted the religious orders. This con-
dtion of things only lasted three years,
when the priests stirred up the peas
ants to revolt and brought a French
army into the country, which set the
hands on the clock back again. The
French army held the people down un-
til 1927, when the Liberals again came
into power. These influenced the King
to abrogate the Salic law and revive the
old law admitting females to the sue
cession. This was for the benefit of his
daughter, Isabella, he having no sons.
His brother, Don Carlos, who felt him
self cheated out of the throne, raised a
rebellion, and gathered about him the
more rabid of the priesthood and who
had great influence with the peasantry.
This was the beginning of the Carlist
wars which have plagued Spain ever
since. The Liberals supported Queen
Christina, who became Regent on the
death of her husband, King Ferdinand
VII, and they also supported her daugh-
ter, Isabella II. A new Constitution
was adopted in 1884, and since that
time the principle of constitutional gov
ernment has been developing in spite of
the bitter antagonism of the ultra-Ro-
man Catholics. 1t is rather interesting
- 70 Of rtc
Catholics. who left Ireland after the
unsuccessful rebellion of 1898, have
been generally in the lead in this effort
to reform the State and its relations to
the Church. man with the character
istic name of O'Donnell was for a long
in the Kingdom and the head Of the
Liberal Union Party. In 1851 con-
cordat was concluded with the Pope, by
which the privileges Of the Church were
much cdrtaiIed and the immense hold
ings of land by the Church upon which
it paid no taxes were reduced. In re-
turn it was agreed that no religion but
Catholicism was to be tolerated in the
Kingdom.
In 1863 the pendulum began to swing
backward again to the absolutism in
politics and ecclesiastical tyranny.
There followed revolts and revolutions.
The army and navy both declared in
favor of the supremacy of the State
over the Church. The uprising became
so strong that Isabella II had to leave
the country, and q liberal monarchical
Constitution was adopted and several
foreign Princes were invited to take
the throne Finally Amadeus. Duke of
Aosta, son of King Victor Emanuel,
accepted the Crown, but at the end of
three years he was so worn out with
the troubles and difficulties of the posi-
ton, especially by a formidable out
break of the Carlists, that he resigned.
A Republic was declared, with Castillo,
one of the most brilliant of Spanish
statesmen, as President. 1t was found
that the country was not ready for a
Republic, and in 1874 Alphonso XII. a
son of Isabella ii, was put upon the
throne. The Carlists were suppressed.
and a much less liberal Constitution
was auOpteu- AfpnOHSO Ali uitu III
1885, and his widow. Christina, became
Regent for her son, the present King.
Under her reign Liberalism once more
and q law was adopted pro-
viding for universal suffrage. Premier
Canovas del Castillo was assassinated in
1897 by the reactionaries. but was sue
ceeded by another Liberal Minister, who
carried on the reform policy without
fiinching. He adopted a very stern pol
icy toward the overgrown monastic in
stitutions, which were felt to be seri-
Gus burden upon the country and a
check upon progress. The present Min,
istry has been In power since Oct. 81,
1909, and has shown great capacity and
firmness in dealing with the troubled
conditions. 1t has not only had to deal
with the ultra ra-Romanists on one side,
but the quite as unreasoning and fanat-
ical Socialists and Anti-Clericals on the
other. A painful incident in this was
the trial and execution of-Prof. Ferrer,
a we'll known Socialist leader and edu-
Gator. It was claimed by the Govern
ment that FerreS not only advocated
doctrines which would destroy society,
but that he had actually led rioters in
the destruction. Of property. murder of
children and the outrageous abuse of
monks and nuns. Americans and Eng