PORTUGAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 44, 15 November 1907, Page 5

PORTUGAL.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEADLOCK. THREATS OF REBELLION. LOYAL REGIMENTS IN READINESS. DY TELEGIUPH—I'RES3 ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Lisbon, November 13. Owing to tho continuance of tho rcgiino of tho Premier (Senhor Branco) tho Republicans of Lisbon threaten rebellion and overthrow of tho monarchy. Sovoral loyal > rogimen ts in tho provinces havo boon ordered to be in readiness to procced to the capital. DOM CARLOS AND SENHOR FRANCO. Tho action of tho King, Doni Carlos, in dismissing Parliament and governing by decree through tho Cabinet has long been promoting a stbrm in Portugal. Opinions tlilicr as to tho result. Ono recent writer, who evidently has a bias against representative govenment, says that institution is' on its trial. , His article is interesting for its side-lights. We quote"Where thero is neither the demand for honest rulo nor the man capable of ruling, then anarchy is the judgo, and tho oxccutioncr is apt to bo a foreign conqueror. Poland ought to havo taught tho world that lesson. In a milder way Portugal is now providing an example how constitutional government maY be judged and oxecutcd. The history of tlio crisis' which has found a solution in tho dictatorship of Senhor Franco is in its dotails commonplace enough—at least in the Iberian Peninsula. BOTH SPOILERS. "A period of civil war and pronunciamientos was followed after 1593 by a period of alternation in office by two bodies of politicians, who boro the higti-souuding names of Regenerators and Progressives. Tho same see-saw went on in Spain, which tho Portuguese used to call the madhouse over the border, between Don Antonio Cn novas and Don Praxedes Sagasta. Regenerator Pompoy and Progressive Cajsar wero very much alike. The two, connections enjoyed alternate periods of consumption and digestion. Tho loaves and fishes woro amicably divided. In tho meantime, Portugal suffored from "lack of governance." Tho Treasury was pilfered. Seventy per cent, of somo of tho taxes wero sunk in costs of collection. The nation grow equally weary and contemptuous of the fluent person who said ho would regenerate, and on his eloquent rival' who said ho would show the road of progress. Both filled their pockets, and played their ploasant gamo of corruption.

SHAM PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. * "Portugal had, in short, a sham Parliamentary system, since tho wiiolo foundation was wanting. The country population looked upon voting and the choice of deputies as n mystery. The towns were bribed and coerced. If the two parties, which camo in and out liko tho figures on .a clock, had been led by men of governing capacity who had principles, Portugal might have done fairly well. But they were all inero office-seeking politicians. No salvation could come from them. After somo ton years of their manceuvros the mass of tho nation was sick and tired of constitutional government on suoh terms, and a small, but noisy, minority in tho capital was beginning to talk of a clean sweep and a Republican settlement. A settlement has been made, but not quito in that fashion. PORTUGUESE PREMIER AND PITT. "Dom Carlos, tho King, lias found his young Mr. Pitt in tho person of Sonhor Franco, and has, so far, beaten the Portuguese version of tho coalition of Fox and North by boldly assorting that he knows what the country wants bettor than thoy do. The're is, to bo sure, one material difference between the two cases. When George 111 dismissed the coalition Ministry and appointed Pitt, tho King and tho Minister had for a timo to < fight-n very facitous Whig House of Commons. But they had patience, And when tho time was come, they appealed to the country, and they swept' tho constituencies. When Dom Carlos' and Senhor Franco appealed to tho country thoy did not secure a working majority, anil wero for a timo compelled to fight on agaiiist a most riotous Cortes, The solution was found at Lisbon by tho simple process of turning tho Cortes into tho street and locking: tho door. ,It is truc < that dictatorships havo not been unknown in recent Portuguese history, and that crises have occasionally, been solved by tho timely application of a'bayonet. But in former cases the Dictator gbt a Cortes 'by bultying and bribory. To-day (he Cortes is put on the shelf as a superfluity, and is onlv to be brought down when there is some security that it will behave itself."