The Ministry came into power with the solemn obligation of immediately introducing an amnesty to Parliament. Ten days later (19th February) it redeemed this promise, and after an all-night sitting the Amnesty Bill was passed in the Chamber of Deputies. The amendments made by the Senate were rejected by the Lower House, and the Bill as voted by the Chamber of Deputies became law on the 21st of February. The terms of the Bill were unsatisfactory and gave rise to much criticism, but its actual results were all that could be desired. All the political prisoners without exception were released, and only eleven “leaders” or “instigators,” among the thousands of prisoners and émigrés, were banished, for a space of ten years. A less creditable clause was that by which all abuses of authority were included in the amnesty. The clause by which all the untried prisoners were to be tried subsequently to their release received widespread criticism, and was often misinterpreted, as was but natural considering its strange and apparently contradictory character. For the law expressly said that these persons even if sentenced to imprisonment could not be imprisoned. Then why try them? it was said. The reason apparently was to have an opportunity to distinguish who were leaders or instigators, and also to show that these persons had not been arrested unjustifiably. Another point more justly criticised was the indefinite power conferred by the law to banish leaders and instigators. Only eleven persons, however, were regarded as leaders, and not allowed to return to Portugal, whereas it was calculated that the amnesty would include some 3,000 persons, of whom 572 were untried prisoners and 1,700 émigrés. The new Government was obliged to walk circumspectly, for although it leaned towards the Democrats and consulted the wishes of Dr. Affonso Costa, it did not content the extremists of that party, and it contented scarcely anyone else. It did not profess to look upon itself as more than a stop-gap ministry, temporarily pouring oil on the troubled waters between a storm and a storm.
Seventh Republican Government.
It was succeeded by a Democrat ministry, presided over by Snr. Victor Hugo d’Azevedo, Democrat President of the Chamber of Deputies. Regardless of the fact that a great World War was now raging, the thoughts of political parties were bent almost exclusively upon the forthcoming elections. The real reason for the fall of Dr. Bernardino Machado’s Government was that the Democrats were determined to run no risks and to make the elections themselves. For this it was essential to have a Democrat at the Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Alexandre Braga, considered to have much skill in the political intrigues required, was accordingly appointed Minister of the Interior. Everything seemed to point to an overwhelming return of Democrats at the election. Press, Opposition, public opinion were gagged, telegrams to the foreign Press suppressed. “Ministerial oppression,” said General Pimenta de Castro, “reached such a point that even liberty of thought was strangled.” A packed Democrat Parliament seemed assured. But there were two elements which proved too vigorous to be gagged and bound. One of these was the bitter discontent of the other political parties who saw the elections escaping them; the other was discontent in the Army. When the Democrat Government proceeded to interfere with the Army and, moreover, attempted to hamper the President of the Republic’s action, and to force him into declaring martial law, the cup brimmed over, and a military pronunciamento led to the fall of the Ministry and to the appointment of General Pimenta de Castro.
Pimenta de Castro.
The Democrats still had a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, but, when they attempted to meet and “confer of their miserable fall,” like Satan and his angels on the burning lake, they found the entrance of the Congresso guarded against them. The country had had enough of their constitutional hypocrisies. From thenceforward General Pimenta de Castro’s Government, welcome to the country, went serenely on its way, although bitterly attacked by the Democrat opposition which even went to the length of spreading abroad in their Press that the Government was responsible for the rise in prices, although it was well known—to all but the ignorant readers of such newspapers—that the pinch of the war would be felt in the Spring. The President of the Republic also came in for his share of foul abuse, owing to the fact that by the firmness and strength of character displayed by him the election hopes of the Democrat party had been ruined. It may well be argued that his action also saved the Republic, since it is difficult to believe that the Republic could have lasted many months longer in the rarefied atmosphere produced by the Democrats in power. There was a general breath of relief throughout the country, and by an odd paradox this new Government born of a military movement, this “dictatorship,” this “tyranny,” proved the most moderate Government that Portugal had seen since the Revolution of 1910. With equal moderation and firmness one measure after another was enacted in order to bring about the long-dreamt reconciliation of all Portuguese. Churches were restored to the use of the faithful, officials arbitrarily dismissed were restored to their posts, the “White Ants” were sent about their business, their so-called “Committee of Public Safety” abolished, and finally in April (1915) a general amnesty emptied the prisons and allowed the eleven exiles of the 1914 amnesty to return to Portugal.
Moderate Dictator and Constitutional Tyrants.
O but, say the Democrats, it was all so unconstitutional! Such a dictatorship! Of course it was unconstitutional. The Constitution has been so ordered that the Democrats having installed themselves in power—and they had been in power in fact if not in name since the Revolution—could never be dislodged by constitutional means. Their majority in the Chamber of Deputies was secure, their majorities in the town councils throughout the country, and in the officials responsible for returning the new deputies equally secure. It became necessary to dissolve these bodies, by force if they would not go willingly. But the country which had suffered from four years of constitutional tyranny was delighted to have a little unconstitutional moderation. In vain the Democrats cried out that it was a dictatorship worse than the dictatorship of Snr. João Franco. If, answered common-sense opinion, the Government which empties the prisons, maintains order and acts in every respect so fairly and moderately, is a dictatorship, then may all succeeding Governments be tarred with the dictatorial brush. Only so will the future of the Republic and of Portugal be secure. It is quite true that the situation in some respects resembled that of Snr. João Franco’s Government, and it is a striking and bitter comment on the seven intervening years that to find a government as good as that of General Pimenta de Castro one has to go back to that of Snr. João Franco. They are like two rocks, and the seven years between a sea of slush and molten fire.
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH, BATALHA