Portugal of the Portuguese

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

In the new Cabinet Snr. Anselmo de Andrade was Minister of Finance and Dr. José de Azevedo Castello Branco Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was this Regenerador, or nominally Conservative, Government which proposed reforms that should have satisfied the most ardent reformers. They included the alteration of certain clauses in the Carta Constitucional, the reorganisation of the House of Peers, the reform of the electoral law (allowing proportional representation to Lisbon and Oporto) of the administrative code (re-establishing the juntas geraes and so diminishing centralisation),[61] of education, of justice. It was proposed to make civil registration compulsory. The contract between the State and the Bank of Portugal was to be revised. Customs duties were to be paid in gold.[62] Roads and irrigation were to receive especial attention. Other measures were to affect the Army, the Navy, the colonies. These are some of the reforms sketched in the speech from the Throne read by King Manoel at the opening of Parliament on the 23rd of September, 1910. Mere words? But it only depended on the opponents of the Government to translate some of them at least into reality. The Government was only too willing but, apart from the opposition of the Monarchical parties, the Republicans did not want reform—they wanted a revolution. Had angels from Heaven drawn up a programme of reforms the Republicans would still have cried for a revolution. They did not allow Snr. Teixeira de Sousa a breathing space to carry out some of these reforms any more than they had allowed it to Snr. João Franco.

Republican Lisbon.

The elections had been held on 28th August, and resulted in the return of 89 Ministerialists, 41 opposition Bloquistas, and 14 Republicans. Ten of the latter were returned by Lisbon (where the voting was proportional). With 10,000 votes apiece, the Eastern section of the capital returned Dr. Bernardino Machado, Dr. Antonio José de Almeida, Dr. Affonso Costa, Dr. Alfredo de Magalhães and Dr. Miguel Bombarda, and the Western section Snr. João de Menezes, Admiral Candido dos Reis, Dr. Theophilo Braga, Snr. Alexandre Braga and Snr. Antonio Luis Gomes. The Government was in the seven thousands in both districts, while the candidates of the Monarchical Opposition Bloco received 5,000 votes apiece in the Circulo Occidental and 2,000 in the Circulo Oriental. The King, in obedience to the natural wishes of Queen Amélie, had not left the Palace for some months after the assassination of the 1st of February, 1908, but in the spring of that year he opened Parliament in State, and read the Speech from the Throne. In 1910 he was present at King Edward’s funeral, and in the same year made a journey through the North of Portugal, which in some districts became a triumphal progress, the peasants pressing eagerly to welcome their King.

The Revolution of 1910.

After the opening of Parliament (which was then adjourned till the end of the year), the King proceeded to Bussaco to celebrate the anniversary of the battle in which, on the 27th of September, 1810, Wellington checked the advance of Masséna. The Duke of Wellington was present (as also, according to O Seculo, “Sir Olman, the historian”). The King held a great military review. It is reported that the sentiments of the Army towards the King were expressed in the words: “They killed the other [Dom Carlos], but if they touch this one they will have us to deal with.” A week later the Republic had been proclaimed. On the 3rd of October, O Seculo in its weekly summary of events could write, “Correu serena a semana—without anything worthy of mention.” On that very day the Revolution was hastened by the act of a madman, who shot one of the Republican deputies, Dr. Miguel Bombarda. The crime was, of course, attributed to the Royalists, but the Republicans have not shown that clemency towards opponents which hushed up the details of King Carlos’ murder, and had the death of Dr. Bombarda been due to something more than the act of a single individual, the world would have heard of it. Dr. Bombarda had earlier sat in Parliament as a Royalist, but he had recently joined the Republican party. On the 8th of August he had been the chief organiser of an anti-clerical demonstration described as “the greatest demonstration ever held in Lisbon,” and on the 28th of August was elected one of the ten Republican deputies for Lisbon. The Carbonarios had been carefully organised, and had done their work well, so that everything was prepared for a revolutionary movement now or later. Mutinies had already occurred on men-of-war, the marines having been won over to very advanced views, and the loyalty of the First Artillery and Sixteenth Infantry Regiments had been undermined. These regiments, and marines from men-of-war in the Tagus, under the command first of Admiral Candido dos Reis (who, under the impression, it is said, that the movement was a failure, committed suicide during the night of the 3rd), and then of the Carbonario Lieutenant Machado Santos, were able in a few hours to bring the Revolution to a successful conclusion, in the face of the greater part of the Army, which was loyal to the King: a signal example of the slowness and apathy which have always permitted a handful of men of energetic action to impose themselves temporarily in Portugal. According to the Lisbon Press, the total casualties of the Revolution were a little over 100 killed and 500 wounded. At eleven o’clock on the morning of the 5th of October the Republic was formally proclaimed at Lisbon, and Dr. Theophilo Braga installed as President of the Provisional Government. The provinces followed suit without a murmur. “If Lisbon turns Turk to-morrow,” Eça de Queiroz had written, “all Portugal will wear the turban.” Lisbon had now turned Turk, and the three other towns of Portugal, Oporto, almost exclusively Royalist, conservative Coimbra and clerical Braga, proceeded to don the turban. The rest of the country docilely did as it was bidden, and in its ignorance was as much affected by the recent change from Monarchy to Republic as it has been by recent changes of Ministry. The King had been entertaining the President-Elect of the Brazilian Republic, Marshal Hermes de Fonseca at dinner in the Necessidades Palace, on the evening of the 3rd. During the night the fire from two men-of-war in the river below was directed against the palace. Early on the morning of the 4th the King, accompanied by a small escort, left the palace, and subsequently embarked on the Royal yacht at the little fishing village of Ericeira, to the north of Cintra (the same which in the sixteenth century gave its name, “King of Ericeira,” to one of the Sebastianist impostors), with Queen Amélie, Queen Maria Pia, and his uncle, the Duke of Oporto.

Professionals and Professors.

The field lay open to the Republicans—professors who dreamed that they would soon see their doctrines become realities, professional politicians who had waited long for their turn, Carbonarios who had been skilfully trained as spies. The doctrinaires were rapidly disillusioned, and soon retired from active politics, leaving the more practical politicians to go hand in hand with the Carbonarios if they wished to maintain themselves in office. For the moment, amid the Utopian dreams of a new Portugal, moderation prevailed.

Rhetoric.

On the 5th a proclamation was issued to the Portuguese people, marked by that abstract and bombastic style which disfigures the literary work of the President of the Provisional Government: “The maleficent dynasty of Bragança, wilful disturber of social peace, has now been proscribed for ever.... Now at length terminates the slavery of our country, and, luminous in its virginal essence, rises the beneficent aspiration of a régime of liberty.” The good bourgeois of Lisbon were delighted. They felt that now at last they had a head of the State who knew how to speak. A more practical proclamation was that of the 7th to the effect that, “Since to-day there can be no foolish attempts or hopes on the part of a régime which has shamefully ended in a moral overthrow that adds greater humiliation to the tremendous lesson taught it by the Republican arms ... there is no reason for citizens to keep in their possession the arms of which they made such heroic use.” Throughout the country was posted up the decree declaring the family of Bragança proscribed for ever, and the orders of nobility extinct—bringing to many a village the first inkling that such a thing as a revolution had occurred. In Lisbon the Republicans had triumphed by sounding persistently two notes, that of the adeantamentos, to prove that the fall of the Monarchy would fill the Exchequer, that of anti-clericalism, to show that the religious orders were withholding the wealth of the nation.

Republican Promises.