PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA, LIBERAL PRIME MINISTER
And yet Alfonso XII., who was overborne by what he considered the experience of the two leaders, had the welfare of his country at heart, for he said to Ernest Daudet: “I am Sovereign, and as long as I am King of Spain I will never allow a Ministry to be overthrown by an intrigue in the palace, as it has frequently happened hitherto. If the country wants a Liberal Government, it shall have it; but, before talking of liberty, Spain herself must have both liberty and stability. As to those who say I am not accessible to truth, it is because they have not tried to show it to me. The country is difficult to manage; it is impatient, and cannot see, as I do, that its condition requires prudence and management. We have remade the army; we have not had a manifesto for three years. We have a standing army of 80,000 men, and we have been able to send 20,000 to Cuba. The insurrection of Cuba is a great wound, and it must be healed before we can cure the other evils.” But the King was never allowed to take the sure means of healing these wounds; he was never permitted to say: “I wish to respect the people and their votes, and by the Law of the Universal Suffrage they can go to the polls.”
With the loss of the love of his life, the young Queen Mercedes, Alfonso seemed to become enervated, and self-interested courtiers found that they could use the King’s pocket for the protection of needy ladies of all ranks.
Canovas and Sagasta were both aware of this abuse, and, indeed, both these Ministers were themselves under the influence of certain ladies, who used their power over these Ministers to their own pecuniary advantage; for they themselves were liberally rewarded for the titles which they persuaded these politicians to ask the King to grant.
The Queen’s ignorance of Spanish when she first came to Madrid made it more difficult to contravene the influence of the camarillas, which wove their nets round the young husband, whose real wish for the welfare of the country would have made him a willing disciple of good advice.
Moreover, flattering courtiers carefully concealed from the King the sad results which would inevitably follow his course of self-indulgence, and the palace became a constant scene of camarillas and intrigues which could but be disastrous to the land.
Even Nakens (whose protection of the anarchist Morral, after the bomb tragedy of the royal marriage morn of May 30, 1906, led to his being imprisoned for nearly two years) pays tribute to the wish of the young King to act for the welfare of the kingdom, for, in a collection of his articles published when he was in gaol,[23] we read an appeal to Alfonso to consider his own good with regard to his health, and not to listen to self-interested advisers.
[23] “Muestras de mi Estilo,” Nakens.
“Nobody,” says the writer in this appeal, “has the courage to warn you of the impending evil. When the doctors order you change of climate, the Government opposes the course for reasons of State. ‘Reasons of State’ imperil the life of a man! And a man to whom we owe so much!