[1898-1902 A.D.]
In spite of the severe up-hill struggle that is before Spain, it is everywhere believed that the loss of her colonies is the greatest blessing that could have befallen her. So great a drain were they upon the industries, the morals, and the population of the home-country, and so corrupt had their administration become that their removal resembled the amputation of a limb given over to gangrene. Already signs of healthier conditions are numerous, and, as industry, like charity, should begin at home, the outlook of the new attention to the great natural resources of the peninsula is most alluring.
Not the least sign of promise is the growing popular feeling against the vampire of priestcraft. Early in her history Spain developed the most advanced and organised liberties of all European governments. Then she came under the sway of the church, and it became for centuries her boast that she was the most faithful and meekest of disciples. At the same time she became and continued the most ignorant, the most depraved and superstitious, the most blood-thirsty, of all European nations. Her loyal subjects were proud of their chains; haughty in the obstinate ignorance of her Jesuitical schools and the fiery intolerance of their rulers and people. Her non-orthodox were broken on the rack, tormented and burned at the stake after suffering all the diabolic ingenuities of the Inquisition. Her provinces, as the Netherlands, were kept in ceaseless and odious war. Her colonies were steeped for centuries in oppressions resulting in the absolute obliteration of whole races, and the lasting savagery of others. And these horrors were, practically without exception, done in the name of the church and with its official approval. It is clear to the outside world that Spain must shake loose the affectation of religion from the education of the masses, from the intrigues of the court, and from the politics and everyday life of the people, before this brave and brilliant race can take its place in line with the rest of Europe on the march of civilisation and the betterment of mankind.
In 1902, the regency of Maria Christina came to an end: her son was declared of age and crowned as Alfonso XIII.[a]
FOOTNOTES
[124] [Hume[c] vividly describes this royal progress: “Through the stark and ruined country he went; the emaciated and famished inhabitants, hardly one of whom but had some dear one killed in the war, filled to overflowing with love and hope of better times under the sway of their new king. They had suffered so much for him; he was young and had suffered too, they said, in his exile: surely he would be good to them, make bread cheap, and heal their bleeding wounds. Most of the towns on the way had changed the name of their great square from Plaza Mayor to ‘Plaza de la Constitucion’; and the marble slabs bearing the latter inscription were now torn down and splintered, and the thoughtless mob, little knowing or caring what it all meant, shouted themselves hoarse with cries of ‘Death to liberty and the Constitution!’ and ‘Long live Ferdinand.’”[c] The amazing cry of “Hurrah for chains!” was also heard.]
[125] The name Persians was given to the servile deputies who had signed the memorial in which the period from 1608 to 1814 was compared to the old Persian saturnalia of crime which accompanied a change of rulers.
[126] [Spanish kings had been ruled by favourites before; but Lerma and Olivares, even Valenzuela and Godoy, were men of education and breeding, whilst the secret advisers of Ferdinand were, many of them, coarse, ignorant buffoons. Meeting at night with noisy mirth they settled over the heads of the ministers questions of national policy, and even made and unmade ministers in mere caprice. Ministers were appointed or dismissed arbitrarily by Ferdinand for the most puerile reasons, and were sent into prison or exile at the idle fancy of the king. The members of the camarilla were treated in the same way, being one day in high favour and the next in jail. There were over thirty ministers in the six years from 1814 to 1820, an average of two months’ duration for each. The most prominent member of the camarilla was a low buffoon called “Chamorro,” who had been a water-carrier, another, Ugarte, was a second-hand broker; Tattischeff, the Russian minister, was also a member.[c]]
[127] The blood-thirsty Elio tortured to death a woman who had just given birth to a child.
[128] That is, “Swallow it,” meaning the constitution, a popular street song of Cadiz, which may be compared with the “Ça ira!” of the French Revolution.