it is they who have placed every obstacle to the establishment of a monarchy? If I remained silent, my silence might afford nutriment to the hope of a restoration in which I have never believed, and which now more than ever seems to me impossible. What does Mr. Collantes wish? Now that I am about to retire from public life, all my days and evermore a liberal; and having always practiced liberal principles while in power, why should I not now, as I have done in other critical times, say, 'God speed liberty! A liberty that I trust may be a reality in my country. This cannot be; and for this I neither reproach the republicans nor the conservatives. The former know what I said to them in the morning, and the latter what I said at night. I regret to have dwelt so long upon this; but I believe you will pardon me for it, as well as for the disorder in my ideas. You don't know what I have suffered in these last eight days. I shall conclude by defining my position with offense to no one, and respecting the conduct of all. I believe that he who as president of the constituent Cortes most of all influenced the establishment of the monarchy, that he who went to Italy to offer the crown to the Duke of Aosta, that he who has been minister of the King and twice president of the council of ministers, that he who has given the pledges that I have given, and who is placed in the situation in which I find myself, that he who cherishes the personal regard that I have professed for the late King-and my colleagues know it well-for they know that I have supported the dynasty and monarchy in the Tertulia club, and that I have been a liberal and a radical in the palace; he who has been thus placed and who now finds himself here, and who after all this has no faith, as I have had none for a year or more, neither in parties nor in men, could have no motive under existing circumstances to remain in public life unless he believed he could in some manner contribute to the triumph and consolidation of liberty. But I would be worthless in the realization of this dream. I retire, then, gentlemen, to private life; but I cannot do less than add a few more words, for one cannot abandon in a moment the inclinations and the feelings one has had during a lifetime. My party elected me its chief, and those of them who are here, and those who find themselves elsewhere, are at liberty to make for the port they find most agreeable. As to the situation of my country, I wish to record that the only way in which republicans and monarchists could have allied liberty and order was to have supported resolutely, each within their sphere, the dynasty of Savoy. At the same time I wish it to be recorded that neither the liberals nor the republicans have overthrown the dynasty. When it was proposed to suspend the constitution upon the allegation that anarchy menaced the country, I could not comprehend how that gov ernment could have wished these guarantees suspended, when precisely those who provoked the anarchy were the advocates of the measure. Mr. Ulloa demanded the floor.) I do not make allusions to anybody, I conclude, I am a monarchial partisan of the dynasty of King Amadeo, of Savoy. I have been his president of the council of ministers-and I do not recognize my right to be anything else. I desire good fortune and felicity for those who are here charged with the duty of guarding liberty. All the world knows where my sympathies go, and I need not affirm them. I have done.

ESTEBAN COLLANTES. "Do not apprehend, gentlemen, that I shall have anything to say, dissenting from the noble and patriotic declaration of my worthy friends Señores Salaverria and Marquis de Bazzanallana. I would not have added a word, because we know how critical are the circumstances, and my friends agree in believing that the first as a deputy and the second as a senator have given full expression to our patriotic

convictions. I shall therefore be brief, clear, and concise, confining my self strictly to the allusion made to me. I regret at this moment to appear as an antagonist of Mr. Zorrilla, whom I esteem and with whom I desire no conflict to-day, as he has said he is about to retire from public life. All public men have obligations to fulfill; I find no reason to shrink from those imposed on me four years ago, as a true monarchist, as a sup porter of a dynasty that I served in its days, but a dynasty in whose palace I did not set foot from July 17, 1854, until I saw it in exile. Thus one may say that he is a monarchist. Thus one may say that he had pledges voluntarily contracted and which he knew how to fulfill without abandoning his convictions in moments of disaster. What has happened, gentlemen? An elective monarch has abdicated the crown. Did we invite him here? Have my friends contributed to his departure! Has he abandoned the throne because we have been factious? What has been the attitude of the conservative minority; not only in this but in all the legislatures of the late dynasty? Their conduct may stand as a model for the past and for the present, and I point to it as an example for the future. Have we conspired against a monarchy that we have neither brought here nor have recognized? Nevertheless there have been conspiracies of one sort or another against this monarchy, originating in various political parties. When Don Amadeo renounced the crown, we did not oppose the proposition to pay him a tribute of courtesy and respect, because Don Amadeo had been seated on the throne of Ferdinand and Isabella. The policy that I offer to my friends, whose aptitude and intelligence enables them to see their duty better than I can point it out, is that they should know how to await their triumph. The radicals have given success to the republicans. Who knows but what the republicans may give it to us. Let us await events. Republicans, you are on the threshold of power. Promote the welfare of the country and we shall not stint you in our applause nor refuse you our sympathies if the country is happy and prosperous. But if, unfortunately, the day shall come in which you are yourselves convinced, as Don Amadeo was convinced, that the republic is impossible, let it be understood that there is a Spanish prince in whom the country sees its future, its felicity, and its welfare. I reserve for the prince Don Alfonso all my affections, my constancy, and my loyalty. Don Amadeo leaves us, we being the only ones who have never conspired against his authority, although we have never recognized it. He leaves us because he has learned that he had no other supporters than they who were monarchists and partisans of his dynasty only while he gave them power, and who turned against him the moment he changed his cabinet. Therefore he renounced the crown. Remember our conduct to-day that you may follow it to-morrow if you fail in your undertaking. We do not favor the republic. We are true monarchists, but we are no obstacle in your efforts to promote the happiness of the country, if this be compatible with your doctrines. We all find a lesson and a reproach in the events now passing. If we do not profit by them to promote the happiness of Spain, we are lost without remedy. At all events history will judge us and do justice to the rectitude of our intentions and the nobleness of our acts."

ALVAREZ BUGALLAL. "Only two words, gentlemen. Mr. Martos has said, with the frankness that distinguishes him, and with the authority that belongs to him as a member of the committee that reported the con stitution, that the proposition under consideration is openly in conflic with the supreme law. The pending proposition submits to the deliber ation of the two chambers united that which the chambers, whether united or separate, are notoriously and absolutely incompetent and pow

erless to decide in conformity with the fundamental law of the state. If your first act in establishing a republic is a violation of the fundamental law, with what right, with what authority can you hope to dominate hostile factions? Following Mr. Martos you will call the legal procedure I invoke useless scruples, superstitions, and pharasaical respect for legal forms; nevertheless, these only can it sanction with my vote and presence. Ah, gentlemen, to a scrupulous regard for forms of procedure, to a blind submission to the healthful delays characteristic of strictly legal courses, old England owes the undisputed and indisputable liberty which she enjoys. To the system of public safety and of improvised institutions, to the disregard of all forms and of all legal procedure, France owes, and the Spain of our time owes, that series of fruitless revolutions and shameful dictatorships in which we have lived, and in which we contime to consign ourselves."

Mr. ULLOA. "I am sure, gentlemen, that you will have appreciated not only the sobriety and the patriotism with which those on the conservative side of the chamber have participated in this debate. Not a word of recrimination has passed our lips, although rightly we might have indulged in them. But we never could have imagined anything so foolish and insane from anybody as the spectacle we have just witnessed, of an accuser bringing charges against us, when he himself should have been in the prisoner's box, the object of just accusation. Can anybody in the world doubt, after the speeches of Mr. Zorrilla, who is the author of the tremendous crisis in which we are involved, or who it is that has destroyed the dynasty and monarchy of Savoy? [Many deputies: You, you! Never, never! Noises.] I appeal to you on all sides of the chamber, whatever your politics may be, and however we may differ, and call on you to say, with your hands on your hearts, if we have not been insulted by Mr. Zorrilla. [Many deputies: No, no!] No? Will Mr. Zorrilla venture to deny it? What did he mean when he said that the dynasty and the monarchy had fallen, not by the hands of republicans or of radicals, but that it was the work of the men and the party that had demanded, in grave and solemn moments for the country, the suspension of constitutional guarantees ?”

ZORRILLA. "I have not said that.”

ULLOA. "Mr. Zorrilla forgets himself; if not in those words, in words involving the same meaning. [Many deputies: 'Let us vote as soon as this speech is finished.'] I am all the more surprised, inasmuch as Mr. Zorrilla knows, and admitted yesterday, when he yet thought it possible to maintain the dynasty-right well he knows with what warmth, with what disinterestedness, the conservative party offered him their support. How could I have believed, gentlemen, that to-day, a day that began happily for the new era, and that is ending disastrously for the country, we should be made the target for the wrath of Mr. Zorrilla? In view of the temper of the house, and having made this protest, demanded by self-respect and the dignity and decorum of the party I represent, I resume my seat."

MANY DEPUTIES. "Vote! vote!"

ZORRILLA. "I ask the floor." [Loud murmurs.]

VICE-PRESIDENT GOMEZ. "Your excellency has the floor, and the chair begs you to be as brief as possible, in order to calm the anxiety of the chamber."

ZORRILLA. "I have only to say to Mr. Estaban Collantes that I applaud his speech as an act of courage, and to make a single remark in reply to Mr. Ulloa. I have not discussed the circumstances under which he and his friends advised the suspension of the constitution. I referred

to the general belief that we would be compelled to resort to the measure we had rejected. If his excellency desired to make a speech, he had no occasion to seek a pretext in what I said, in order to obtain the floor. I did not say that the conservative party was responsible for the fall of the dynasty of Savoy. In making a comparison, I said the fault is not with the republicans; it belongs to the monarchists. Whoever is guilty knows it. As to the offer of yesterday on the part of the friends of the honorable gentleman, it is unnecessary for me to speak of it here. There were three offers, and I do not wish to discuss them now. When the time comes to speak of each one of the three, I will then say to the country what I think proper of them."

MANY DEPUTIES. "Vote! vote!"

CASTELAR. "Two words-because the exigency and the gravity of the moment do not permit me to say more. Gentlemen, the republican party does not claim the glory that might belong to it of having de stroyed the monarchy. Nor can we permit you to throw upon us the responsibility of this grave situation. No; nobody has destroyed the monarchy in Spain, nobody has killed it. In contributing to improve the opportunity before us I cannot in my conscience claim any merit in destroying the monarchy. The monarchy died by internal decomposition. The monarchy dies without any one having contributed to its death. It dies by the providence of God. With Ferdinand the Seventh fell the traditional monarchy. With the flight of Isabel the Second disappeared the parliamentary monarchy. With the renunciation of Don Amadeo of Savoy the elective monarchy falls. No one destroyed it. It died of nat ural causes. Nobody has brought the republic into being. It is the creation of circumstances. It comes from a conjuncture of society and nature and history. Let us salute it as the sun that rises by its own gravitation in the horizon of our country." [Great applause.]

The proposition was then read a second time. A division of the ques tion was demanded. The secretary read the first paragraph, in the following words:

"The national assembly, assuming all powers, declares the form of government of the nation to be republican, leaving to a constitutional convention the organization of this form of government."

Mr. ARDANAZ.

Read the second.”

"This is the first part-the form of government.

The secretary read as follows:

"And an executive power shall be named directly by the assembly, removable by and responsible to this body."

VICE-PRESIDENT GOMEZ. "The house will proceed to vote on the first branch of the proposition."

CALDERON COLLANTES. "In my judgment the proposition contains three parts: first, that which declares that the Cortes assume all public powers; second, that which establishes the form of government : third, that which provides for an executive authority."

FIGUERAS. "I ask the floor to say two words to my friend Mr. Calderon Collantes. I am sure Mr. Collantes, appreciating my good faith, will accept the explanations I am about to give. If the assembly had not already taken action prejudging in fact the first proposition, the de mand for the division of the motion into three parts would be admissi ble. But in view of the circumstance that the senate is here, and that together with the chamber, one assembly is thereby constituted, de nominating itself the National Assembly of Spain, we have virtually

assumed in this action that this body is the sole representative of the sovereignty, and that it possesses within itself supreme power.”

CALDERON COLLANTES. "This is not denied, and in this sense I shall

vote."

FIGUERAS. "I understand the object of Mr. Collantes. He says, and with reason, We find in this proposition a clause that we can approve, and for which we will vote. We find another which we cannot approve, since it is in conflict with our principles, and therefore we demand a division of the question.' Granted, the gentleman and his friends may, however, accept the proposition as it stands, because the first branch of it to which they might dissent only asserts an existing fact. If this vote had preceded the union of the two bodies, the gentleman and his friends might have desired to place themselves on record as questioning the proceeding. But in view of the declarations made, and the sense in which they are accepted by the house, it would seem that the attitude of his excellency and his associates cannot be misunderstood."

The first branch of the proposition was then adopted-258 in the af firmative, 32 in the negative.

FIGUERAS. "I ask the floor."

The PRESIDENT. "You have it."

FIGUERAS. "We have voted the first branch of the proposition declaring the form of government of the Spanish nation decreed by the representatives of the people. And, gentlemen, I think that our first act should be to announce these joyous tidings to the governor of Madrid and to the authorities of the province and the city. Let the announcement be made also by telegraph to the civil and military authorities of all the provinces of Spain, and likewise to all the governments with whom we maintain good relations. This act will be the rainbow of peace and concord for all good Spaniards. And this done, permit me, representatives of the people, in no tone of triumph nor of reproach, but because after so many years of struggle we have attained a form of government in which I believe the liberty and happiness of my country are incarnate, permit me to conclude these brief words saying only once, Long live the republic!" [Loud cries, "Viva! viva! viva!" and great applause.]

The second branch of the proposition was then approved without a division.

The PRESIDENT. "It seems to me proper that the session should be suspended, for the purpose of informal consultation preparatory to voting for the organization of the executive power."

This was agreed to; and at a quarter past 9 there was a recess.

At 12 o'clock midnight the sitting was resumed, when several members asked leave to record their votes in the affirmative on the proposition establishing a republic; which was given.

The PRESIDENT. "The assembly will now proceed to vote for those who will constitute the executive power."

The ballots having been counted and compared with the list of voters, and duly canvassed, it appeared that the whole number of ballots was 256, which were cast as follows: