Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/343

 1899.] Spain. — Catalonia Refuses to Pay Taxes. [335

pointed an Executive Committee, which lost no time in framing and presenting to the Cortes a bold petition insisting upon a reduction of at least 150,000,000 in the Budget, and protesting against the foolish squandering of the public funds, especially in the fortification of the coasts. The temper of the populace was aroused, and constant collisions took place between the soldiery and the people. At Saragossa many lives were lost, in consequence of an attack made upon the Jesuits' College ; at Madrid the shops were closed, disturbances being nightly expected, and in nearly all the larger towns excesses were reported. Sefior Silvela began by declaring in the Cortes that he would not hesitate to proclaim the whole of Spain in a state of siege, but he found it more easy to prorogue the Chamber without waiting for the Budget to be voted, contenting himself provisionally with the Budget of his pre- decessor.

The vacation, however, brought no harmony within the Cabinet, the schism became more marked, and at length (Sept. 28) Sefior Silvela tendered its resignation. The mean- ing of this move was at once apparent. The outgoing President was requested to reconstruct his Cabinet, which he did by throwing over General Polavieja and substituting General Azcarraga, who had already filled the same post in the last days of Canovas del Castillo's Administration. At the same time Count Torreanaz became Minister of Grace and Justice, a post in which he found no sinecure, for the traders of Catalonia had come to the conclusion to pay no taxes, on the ground that no Budget had been voted. A league with such an object was not difficult to form; but on this occasion the taxpayers displayed a decision and energy rarely to be met with in the history of their country. The captain- general, Despujols, who commanded in Catalonia, could find no Better way of quieting the province than throwing into prison some hundreds of the recalcitrants, but this was borne with the utmost equanimity by those who remained at large, and from neither the bond nor the free were taxes obtainable.

On the reassembling of the Cortes (Oct. 30) the Government

was at once interpellated on the matter by the Socialist deputy

for Barcelona, Seilor Sol Ortega, who violently protested against

the measures taken by the captain-general. The effect of this

philippic, however, was somewhat lessened by the revelation

made by the Minister of the Interior in his reply, which was to

the effect that the stern patriot had already paid, as an advocate,

the taxes which, as a deputy, he advised others to withstand.

In like manner the protest raised by the Bepublican deputies

against the acts of the Captain-General of Barcelona were

equally abortive, a vote of censure upon him being rejected

(Nov. 2) by 75 to 53 votes. On this point, however, the

Government perceived the necessity of giving way, as there

were more serious points in discussion. The committee re- VjOOyivL