Thus, apart from the dreams of the doctrinaires, the movement was essentially materialistic, and what support the Republicans had won in the country was obtained by promises of cheaper food and cheaper houses. Had the revolution been a proof that the Portuguese nation was alive, it might have been welcomed at whatever cost; but unfortunately it was the outcome of the nation’s apathy, which gave a free hand to a comparatively small body of politicians imbued with foreign ideas. And had the Republicans been as practical as they were materialistic, the Revolution might, again, have been welcomed; but they looked rather to abstract principles—positivism, liberty, humanity—than to the actual conditions in Portugal. How materialistic was the creed of the Republicans may be gathered from the following quotation from O Seculo a few days after the Revolution: “The Court is not wanted because with the exception of two or three noble houses of large fortune, it consisted of persons without money.... The bourgeoisie is the safe of the nation, and it is nearly all on the side of the Republic.” Rarely has franker expression been given to the unmannerly creed that families in which civilisation is a tradition of centuries, and which have often done signal service to their country, should be cast aside if they happen to be poor. How naïf was the Republican idea of Monarchy is shown by the remark in the same leading article of the same newspaper: “The man who presides over the destinies of the nation is now no longer a man in high boots and flowing robe with a little stick in his right hand; he is a man dressed like any other.”
Humiliating Monarchy.
And the new President, Dr. Theophilo Braga, declared on the 15th of October that “Science tells us that monarchies have no raison d’être because they humiliate the men who accept them.” Thus in a brief sentence all the nations of the North of Europe are dismissed humiliated. It was a moment of pardonable excitement, and some sincere Republicans believed that a new era of peace and prosperity had dawned for Portugal.
CHAPTER XII
RECENT EVENTS
A Minority in Power.
It may have been hoped by many both in Portugal and abroad that a new period of well-being for Portugal had begun. It was known that the change had been effected by a small section of Portuguese at Lisbon, but there was apparently some expectation that this small section would gradually extend its influence until the Portuguese Republic and the Portuguese people had indeed become one. It was believed, especially outside of Portugal, that the corrupt and inefficient interplay of party cliques at Lisbon was for ever at an end, and it was also believed, especially in Portugal, that the magic of the name Republic would restore prosperity to the national finances. Better administration, the development of Portugal’s resources, decentralisation, the improvement of conditions in the colonies, these were some of the problems by which the Republicans were confronted. Foreign opinion was prepared to support a régime which should encourage all that was best in the country, peasant and nobleman alike, to co-operate in this huge effort of regeneration. A small minority, of course, refused to co-operate, and the mass of the people relapsed into indifference as it became apparent that the Republicans, far from attracting waverers and conciliating their opponents, intended to rule as one clique more rather than as representatives of the Portuguese nation. The first Parliament of the Republicans, packed with their supporters, the municipal authorities appointed from Lisbon, the electoral law delayed from session to session, the “invention” of the clerical question, were so many indications of the gulf existing between the Republic and the country, and that the Republicans were aware of their isolation.
“Ordem e Trabalho.”
“Ordem e Trabalho”—“Order and Work” was the motto chosen by the Republic, but with that Portuguese love of words for their own sake or for the sake of appearances, the legend was far removed from the reality. On the very day after the citizens of Lisbon had been requested to give up their arms an assault was organised on the Convent of Quelhas. From the windows or roof of the convent Jesuits were said to have fired repeatedly on the mob, and to reconcile this assertion with the fact that the convent when entered was found to be empty, underground passages were devised for their escape, although in reality such passages did not exist. A few days later more firing was reported from the Jesuit convent at Campolide, described by the Republican Press as a “fortress of murderers and brigands.” In the next few months all the offices of Royalist newspapers were attacked and wrecked, both at Lisbon and in the provinces. At Coimbra and elsewhere the Royalist and the Catholic Clubs were assaulted and plundered.