Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/296

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS from every side of the Assembly and I should like to hear one, in the language of moderation, from the government. Discussions carried on in that manner, with eloquence and good judgment, give us hope for the future; for the laws of history do not permit a dictatorship to fasten itself upon a people whose faces are lighted by the fires of eloquence.

Mr. Sagasta defended the dictatorship, and in doing so he drew an awful picture of our social condition, talking of crimes and criminals, and telling you that our education in the past had been very bad, and that the corruption of to-day was very great. And what have the republicans to learn from that? For three centuries, yes, more than three centuries, our Church has been an enemy to the human conscience.

For many centuries it has been inimical to the national will. Consequently, if there is anything very bad or vicious here to-day, it is owing to institutions with which we have nothing to do. And more, this evil, this viciousness, owe their existence to a lack of respect among the people for law. This lack of respect for law is born of the systematic abuse of power by our arbitrary government. Judges nominated by a party and appointed to revise the electoral lists; schools, so-called, for filling convents and military barracks; the jury outlawed; public life closed to the democracy; political corruption extending from above down