The Washington herald., 1911-07-11
The Situation in Portugal

false alarm that the enemies Of the re-
public had invaded the national palace.
rising in the north, where the peas
antry pray for the restoration of Dom
Manuel, was put down with difficulty.
Just as Portugars revolution last Octo-
ber was made at Paris, so the FrenCh
capital is now the headquarters of the
intrigue against President Braga's gov
ernment. The attempt which IL to no
made to overthrow it seems based upon
the ground that Braga and mis- advisers
are opportunists, weak, inefficient. and
betray-rs Of :he People.
From the moment of its first proclama-
ton the permanence Of the young repub-
lie has been doubted by the well in
formed. Yet there was not good reason
until within the past month or so to sur
mise that Braga's fall was imminent or
that public order was to be disturbed in
Portugal. Things now, however, are ripe
for a royalist counter-revolution. Never
theless, the friends of the monarchy
could do 1t no worse service than to pre-
cipitate a reactionary movement just
now, which they seem bent upon doing.
Portugars policies, according to the
London Post, "ought to be allowed to
grow still worse, before an effort is made
to render them better While distrust-
ing fantastic stories about Spanish
troops on the Portuguese frontier and
British cruisers in Portuguese estuaries,
it is legitimate to doubt the stability of
the new republic. The censor still is sup
pressing news, which is inconsistent with
freedom. Opposition journals still face
suspension, and the army and navy con-
tain many assembling monarchists.
All was to be we'll when the first gen.
eral elections would be held. That event
proceeded quietly enough, and the Re-
publicans elected 100 out OF go deputies.
but their triumph was solely due to the
abstention OF the monarchical factions.
It is true the republic was saved on that
day, but when an opposition paper point
ed out that not one monarchist candidate
had been in the field, 1t was suppressed
by the police. That newly elected assem-
bly,, as It were. came together in an at
mosphere Of treason to the republic.
The Pope injected trouble into the po-
litical atmosphere of Portugal by his
encyclical condemning the law separat-
ing state and church. Its restrictions
upon the freedom Of action were styled
by the Pope a satire upon the Portuguese
republics so-called liberal principles and
altogether unworthy Of any civilized peo-
pie Pope Plus, previous to this. had
ordered the papal 7uncio to withdraw
from Lisbon. This left the Vatican with
only a single nunciatuEe Of first-class
rank in Europe, that at Vienna. When
the late Pope died there still were four
great Roman Catholic powers with am
bassadors accredited to the Holy See.
Nowadays papal diplomats find little op-
portunity for official activity.
Republicans throughout Portugal are
beginning to concede the blunder they
made in choosing a philosophical Presi-
dent Braga seems unable TO solve his
political problems in his library. He fails
to realize that while at Lisbon anti-cler-
icalism is the fashion, the rural districts
continue fanatically religious. Braga's
enthusiasm for the principles of the first
French revolution perplex and even stag
ger the Portuguese mind.
To capture Lisbon was one thing. To
hold Portugal is quite another matter.
Braga is an erudite philosopher, but as
the head OF a republic the difficult prob
lens are still to be solved. He is an alb
surdity-a fgurehead full OF impracticable
theories. His best friends concede that
he did not prove himself a strong man.
The recent first elections sounded the
death knell OF the young republic.
FLANEUR
Copyright. 1911. by Court Gossip syndicats)