The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1911. A LESSON FROM PORTUGAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1052, 15 February 1911, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1911. A LESSON FROM PORTUGAL.

• The disturbed condition of Portugal will probably surprise and distress those simple and sanguine people who'hailed tho Bovolution as a great triumph for democracy and liberty". But to those who discerned tho ■real forces behind tho Revolution—the fotces that made such effective use '.of .the unpopularity of tho Monarohy—there is nothing sur-. prising the fact, which is amply attested by tho British and European press,. 'that all tho Revolution has given Portugal has been been a spell of abominable tyranny, and misfiovornment even worEo than that of tho Monarchy. The short career of the Republic illustrates very interestingly tho direction that ; government would take in almost any countrv: if the Socialists could ■ obtain iibsoluto control; indeed, it is an object lesson' upon Jacobinism at work. The leaders ..of the Republic,, knowing nothing of the art of government, and , '/destitute of practical... administrative ability, proceoJed, after arousing in the people, tin expectation of a golden aero of liberty, peace, and prosperity, to act according to their theories, with the result that they have. > produced chaos,■; and can only avert a social disruption- by ..a policy of flaked tyranny. , One of . tho first steps .of , : the- Government was to decreo. tho right to strike,-with the result that thero has be.cn a-swarm of strikes'in t every branch of industry, including;the- JPublio services and, "father amusingly, the State railways? ' At,' ono time during November about one hundred strikes wefo going on simultaneously, and all'that the Government could do, according fo the I'nlavra, was to beg the.p'ress to.write against tho strikers: '■''• ' .

This was-EcrioXis, but much more serious ia many 'ways was , a divorco. law, whbh niay have been the fruit of the Republican leaders'/ eagarness .to. enforoo thoir theories, but which may also have ken due to the rlcsiro of somo members of tho Cabinet to straighten out their 'own notoriously tangled matrimonial fairs. Tho .grounds for divorco • are greatly';''liberalised," and #t is actually 'p'rpyidod. that.;. niarrio,d couples may;'. legally separate by complying with iho simple formality of ooming before a magistrate and saying they k ar.c tired ,of each other. Since 99 per' cent of the population are Catholics this law is bo violently hated that , it ia rogardod as "an incessant and eloquent agent of antirepublic(ih:proselytism. Then there is the now llouso Rent law, which somo of our Jocal agitators will consider .a thoroughly. democratic measure. .'.lt exquisitely simple. Hitherto a tenant had generally paid six months'' rent on taldng a house. The'hew law.made one month's rent sufficient, and also laid it down that before, a tenant could-bo ejected for non-payment; of rent, the landlord j must.'produce-in . Court the written 'contract/. As it has never.booh customary'in .Portugal, to have writ-' tijn contracts in these matters, all existing , tenants are to all intents and purposes rent-freo 'owners of. tho/houses -they occupy. This is regarded as a. great triumph by the lower classes, and a Rent Law Defence League, with an enormous l membership, has been formed. This body, according to its programme, Ect : forth'in tho Diario ac ■Sotidat,: intends to keep the Government informed of tho best' way in which, at; the expense of tho. landjords, they, may increase the prosperity of "the classes which arc least favoured by fortune." The Mundo, the organ oi tho\Miriister for Justice, has declared that "it will not distress us wry- niuch. anyhow if we s&o some' of these'largo landowners in tho dock"r-quite tho vein, as New Zealandors .will recognise, of somo 'land nationalises in our own Parliament. In the past tho Republican papers' complained ■of the drastic vvoii laws '/under tho Monarchy, Liberty is now enthroned, and. the press is absolutely free, subject to tho right of,any chief of police .or Ministerial official to suppress .any publication whatever! Tho bitter and violent .treatment of tho religious orders has, of course, provoked the anger and disgust of Protestants as well as Catholics throughout the world. ■~'■'

■ Other unpopular acts were tho disarming of tho police and the wanton abolition- of tho ancient national colours of blue and white, for which Republicans as well as Monarchists have a deepj regard. And all the time , tho Minister for Justice , has been issuing all kinds of decrees. On December 5 it was decreed that whereas certain correspondents _ had been dispatching news "discrediting the country and the Government"— tho phraso has a familiar Boundsuch' as attributing strikes to tho powerlessness of the Government and referring to supposed indiscipline in tho Army,' these correspondents' wore to be warned not to continue their "campaign of discrediting the Republic." A few days later another decree was issued to enforce discipline in the Army, thereby admitting tho existence of tho indiscipline that it had been made a serious offence to report. One is reminded of Sin Joseph Ward's retrenchment scheme following upon his denial of excessive expenditure, and-hU half threat, to pa*« a law against those who "injured the

credit of the country." New Year was celebrated by the promulgation of a di'crco against pcrsoiis insulting the President or spreading false rumours. It is needless to add that the harshest possible Censorship of news is maintained. In the meantime nobody knows anylhing of uny constructive policy in tno mind of

the Government. The only active .Minister ha 3 been the Minister for Justice, whose decrees have thrown

tho laws into confusion. The other Ministers aro doing nothing. Ono reliable chronicler declared in December that "as to civil administration, public instruction, tho organisation of justice, and all the branches of national industry, the colonies, and national defence, thcro is nothing to show that the present Government has,, with regard to these subjects, any defined and settled plans."' Yet most of even the hostile critics are hopeful of a recovery, as they rely upon the economic vitality of tho country and the normal sobriety and industry of

tho bulk of tho people. But it is clear that in order to recover, Portugal will require a new Government or the restoration of the Monarchy. All tho troubles we have recounted wcro prophesied and expected by those observers who allow no plausibility of appearance to loosen their grip* upon first principles and the political axioms established by the historical records of mankind. And the first of those axioms is that human nature cannot be changed by changing the form of government.