It must not be supposed that the whole of the Conservative party shares the Carlist and Ultramontane views of the majority. The old school of Conservatives, led by Canovas, supported the Constitutional Monarchy as strongly as do the Liberals, and even now a contingent of strong constitutional Conservatives exists, although it is not easy to detect their influence on the general policy of the party with which they act. Their existence, however, was proved in October, 1909, when some of the leading men of SeÑor Maura’s party withdrew their adhesion to his leadership upon his declaration of “implacable hostility” towards the whole of the Liberal party. They saw, as did every one else, that the reactionary policy of the Ultramontane Premier was imperilling the existence of the Constitutional Monarchy.

To appreciate the disinterestedness of men who thus cut themselves off from the acknowledged leader of their party, whether in office or in opposition, the unwritten law of an alternate share of the spoils must be borne in mind. Thus a politician who deliberately deserts his party, from whatever motive, loses all chances of a salaried appointment when that party again has power to confer these political plums.

I make no apology for putting the facts thus plainly. They are spoken of with cynical frankness by all Spaniards, and it is considered a matter of course that any statesman who refuses to sell his favours to the highest bidder will be removed from place at the earliest opportunity by the intrigues of the many who live by political corruption.

It will be seen that once the rule of alternating office by mutual arrangement be broken, the end of the whole system of gerrymandering the elections would be brought within sight, for any Government which enjoyed the confidence of the nation would remain in office year after year, once the people were permitted to make their voice heard in the elections.

SeÑor Maura, or those who inspired him, of course foresaw this after the fall of his Cabinet in October, 1909, and his address to his party on that occasion marks an epoch in the history of political reform in Spain, although perhaps not precisely on the lines he intended.

His party, he said, must fight without truce against the Liberals, “ex-Ministers and ex-Presidents of Council who reach office in collaboration with anarchists.” Nor must his own party stand alone, he said, for it would be necessary to seek the alliance of all, no matter how different their political ideals, who desired to check the advance of revolution. From that moment all relations between Liberals and Conservatives must cease. Any other course would be treachery, for only thus could the nation be saved from the reproach and the ruin with which it was threatened.

In the opinion of SeÑor Maura, the party against which he thus proclaimed war to the knife includes every shade of Liberalism in Spain, from the most loyal Monarchists down to the rioters in CataluÑa, while his right-hand man, SeÑor La Cierva, Minister of the Interior in the Ultramontane Cabinet, went so far as to accuse SeÑor Moret of being at “one end of a chain which linked Liberals, Radicals, Democrats, Republicans, and Socialists with the persons who fired the Religious Houses in Barcelona and scattered anarchy broadcast by encouraging the abominable sedition taught in the lay schools.”

When SeÑor Maura declared that all relations between the two parties must cease, he no doubt expected that the party to obtain power and keep it would be his own. But the dissatisfaction caused in his own party by his violent speech showed that they did not all share his views, and for a time it looked as though there might be a split in the camp. The Clericalists foresaw days of leanness, for if Maura’s calculations went wrong and Moret was able to carry out his project of electoral reform, their occupation and their livelihood would be gone. How the dissentients were brought into line we need not inquire. But the occasion forced one of the most statesmanlike of the Conservatives to make a public confession of his faith, and it then became manifest that in SeÑor Sanchez Toca, ex-Minister and ex-Alcalde of Madrid, the spirit of Canovas and Silvela still survives, although he with one or two more seem to stand almost alone among their party against the tide of reaction.

After three years of loyal support, said Sanchez Toca, in an interview with the representative of the Conservative Correspondencia de EspaÑa—the organ of all that is left of the old Conservative policy—SeÑor Maura should have consulted his Cabinet before taking a resolution which completely alters the normal course of national politics. “I stood aghast,” said he, “at the thought of the incalculable results that must spring from those furious voices convoking the whole Christian world to a holy war against Ministers holding office under the Crown, to whom even the name of Liberals was denied, and shouting with anathemas that he was no true Conservative who held other relations than those of implacable hostility with men appointed to office by the King.” And he concluded by pointing out that the true Conservative faith irresistibly impels those who hold it towards conciliation instead of provocation, and that if this reason for its existence failed, the Conservative party must disappear.

Whether Sanchez Toca could have formed a party under his own leadership on the old Conservative lines it is not possible to guess; for after making the protest of which the above is a brief abstract, he left Madrid, and it was announced that he intended to make a protracted sojourn abroad, so that no one was able to accuse him of self-seeking in his secession from the Ultramontane party. The dignity of his position, as compared with that taken up by the supporters of the “implacable hostility” which has become a byword among the scoffers, needs no emphasis.

I have dwelt at perhaps undue length upon his part in the affair, because it is assumed abroad that SeÑor Maura represents an united Conservative party, which, as the above declaration proves, is by no means the case.

How completely this was misunderstood by many of the English journalists who wrote about Spain in 1909 was shown by their comments upon the strength displayed by Maura in holding the whole “Conservative” forces together, and their complete misapprehension of the real causes of the dissensions which have always prevailed in the Liberal camp.

The modern Conservatives and the modern Liberals are so nearly alike in their policy as regards the Crown and the Constitution, that they might almost be classed as one party, under the general name of Monarchists. In the matter of electoral reform there seems hardly anything to choose between them, although on the question of the Religious Orders Moret’s views are perhaps rather more advanced than those of Sanchez Toca, Dato, or Gonzalez Besada, the three most prominent Conservative-Monarchists of to-day. Unfortunately, the popular distrust of the very name of Conservative is so great that it would be difficult for any one thus labelled to convince the people that he meant fairly by them. Even Moret’s policy of conciliation is taken by the masses to indicate fear of the Jesuits, rather than as a calculated avoidance of action which might lead to disturbances.

The constant commendation given by the Conservative and even by the Liberal Press of England to the strength and unity of the “Conservative” party under SeÑor Maura, and their adverse comments on the dissensions in the Liberal camp, have materially added to the difficulties, already serious enough, which block the path of Moret and those of his creed, and have strengthened the party of clerical reaction and absolutism.

The Heraldo, in an article on the benefits to the nation to be expected from Moret’s support of Canalejas’ Government, spoke as follows of the influence of England upon Spanish affairs:

“It now appears probable that the democratic Government will be consolidated by the disappearance of the danger to which we have referred [the split with Moret’s party]. If this proves the case, all Europe will recognise with satisfaction how the personal convictions of the monarch, strengthened perhaps by the healthy influence of his illustrious connections by marriage, are leading Spain along the paths of prosperity and gradually relieving us of the nightmare of reaction which has weighed so heavily upon our nation during the minority of Don Alfonso and the early years of his manhood.”

Centuries of government by the rich for the rich, and by the Church for the Church, have contributed to make reform exceedingly difficult, but at length the issues between political morality and the maintenance of the old abuses have been clearly set before the nation, in the struggle which ended with the dismissal of SeÑor Moret. He determined to have the country freed from the tyranny of the Cacique. His opponents desired to maintain the system. That was the whole point at issue.

At the moment it seemed as if those interested in the maintenance of a corrupt system had won a signal victory, and the men who are working for the moralising of political life would have been more than human had they spoken no word of the bitterness they felt at seeing, as it seemed, their work undone and their hopes frustrated. But there are apparent defeats which mark a stage on the road to final victory, and such a stage was marked, for the people of Spain, by the fall of Moret in February, 1910.

Turning to the other main body of political opinion, the Liberal party, with its offshoot, the Republicans, it is worth noting that many of these, including several of their most prominent and influential leaders, although professing republican opinions, are in reality staunch upholders of the constitutional Monarchy, their republicanism being more in the nature of a political counsel of perfection than a policy that they are actively forwarding. Thus Montero Rios, the leader of the Radical wing of the Liberals, who, if not avowedly a Republican, is closely allied to that party, recently said, À propos of the split in the Liberal camp which seemed imminent after the resignation of Moret, “I have always urged that our group should submit to the leadership of Moret, because he alone can hold the party together.” Melquiades Alvarez, one of the acknowledged leaders of the Republicans, made in October, 1909, an important speech in which he offered “a final truce” with the Monarchy, and Republican support to a programme of liberty of worship, restriction of the power of the Religious Orders, neutral schools, and social reform. “With the adoption of this programme permanent stability would be afforded to the Throne on the model of the English dynasty—a crowned Republic.” And Soriano, another prominent man in that party, said about the same time “The Republican revolution should be spiritual, not material. We do not desire to overthrow the Monarchy, but to implant education and progress” (italics mine). The term “Republican,” as used by the men of this school of thought, seems to connote a social and political Utopia rather than a particular form of government, and “republican” principles are quite compatible with an undeviating support of the Constitutional Monarchy.

These “idealist” Republicans would not thus group their party with the supporters of the Monarchy if they believed that the existence of the Throne were prejudicial to the nation. Nor would the Liberal-Monarchists accept without protest such an association with themselves, did they believe that these men were working to overthrow the Monarchy.

The truth is that all Spanish politicians who have the good of their country at heart recognise, even though they may disapprove, the traditional respect for the kingly office which is implanted in the mind of most peoples who have lived from childhood under the Monarchical system. In Spain, where the King who united Castile with Leon and expelled the Moslems from nearly the whole of the South is venerated as a saint, the tradition exists more strongly and has greater weight in determining the action of the masses at any given moment than in any other country except perhaps Russia.