Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/1002

 SERRANO Y DOMINGUEZ.

985

nation which assailed it. After this Serrano turned Liberal, and just before the accession to power of Narvaez, accepted the Captaincy- General of Grenada. Having been implicated in a rising at Sai'agossa, in 185 1, he was exiled, but returned diu'ing the revolution of July in that year, and became an active supporter of the O'Donnell-Espar- tero Cabinet. In the rupture which followed between these two, he sided with the former, and having been nominated Captain- General of New Castile — an ap- pointment which placed Madrid in his power, — in the coup d'etat of 1856 he played into O'Donnell's hands. In 1857 he was sent as ambassador to Paris ; in 1859 he was appointed Director and Colonel-General of Artillery ; and in June, 1865, Cap- tain-General of Madrid. On the return to power of Narvaez, towards the close of the year 1866, Serrano vehemently opposed him in consequence of the illegal proroga- tion of the Cortes. As president of the Senate he was delegated, together with Seilor Rios Rosas, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, to present to the Queen a protest signed by large numbers of the members of both Chambers. The Ministry, however, caused the two Presidents and those who signed the protest to be prosecuted, and Marshal Serrano was confined for a brief period in the military prison at Alicante. The revolution of Sept., 1868, again brought him into prominence. Queen Isabella having fled the country and her dynasty being proscribed. Marshal Serrano hastened to Cadiz on the 19th, where, in conjunction with Prim and Topete, he became the principal actor in the revolution. A few days afterwards the Junta at Madrid made him President of the Council of Ministers, and nomi- nated him Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Prim being assigned to the Ministry of War, Mid Admiral Topete to the Minis-

try of Marine. The Cortes, to which he was returned by the city of Madrid, extended and consoli- dated his powers. The monarchial form of government having been decided upon, Serrano was elected Regent by 193 votes against 45, on June 16, 1869, and he continued to act in that capacity until Prince Amadeo, son of King Victor Em- manuel, was prevailed upon to accept the Spanish Crown. In May, 1872, Marshal Serrano was engaged in suppressing the Carlist insurrection in Navarre. On Feb. 27, 1874, he was appointed Presi- dent of the Executive Power in Spain, and left Madrid to take command of the Army of the North. Bilbao was relieved (May 1) by the Republican forces imder Marshals Serrano and Concha, who compelled the Carlists to abandon their intrenchments. Serrano soon afterwards returned to Madrid, where he received a grand ovation (May 6). In Dec., 1874, the Mar- shal-President betook himself to Lasema's head-quarters at Logroflo, with the ostensible object of taking arms against the Carlists, but in reality to test the loyalty of the Northern Army to the Republic. It had been intimated to him that Alfonso, the Prince of the Asturias, would be proclaimed King, as in- deed he was on the last day of the year. Serrano, to preserve ap- pearances, thereupon withdrew to France, but he was back again at Madrid in the course of a month (Feb. 1, 1875). He became a mem- ber of the new Spanish Senate, and in this capacity he refused, on May 12, 1877, to be a member of the Commission charged with the duty of presenting to the King the ad- dress voted in reply to the royal message. In 1882 he propounded a programme as the leader of a new political party entitled the Dynastic Left. Soon after the Cortes met, Serrano made his appearance in the Senate and propounded the authoritative programme of his