FRANCISCO FERRER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 496, 19 October 1909, Page 2

FRANCISCO FERRER.

Francisco Ferrer, convicted by a Spanish court-martial of being the unseen director of the early disturbances in Barcelona, and who since has paid the extreme penalty, was the founder of the famous “Modern Schools” in Spain and the director of the Barcelona “Modern School.” Ferrer was also one of those who was charged with participation in the attempt made to assassinate the King and Queen of Spain on their wedding day in Madrid, May 31, 1906. Ferrer was acquitted. In his evidence at the trial, Ferrer declared that he had learned with surprise of the crime. He did not know that Morral bad sent bombs to Paris on the occasion of King Alfonso’s visit to that capital (where the King’s life had been previously attempted). P'errer denied that he had lent money to Morral to enable him to goj to Madrid for the King’s marriage, or that he had recommended Morral to Nakens. Nakeus was editor of the revolutionary journal El Mattiuo, which harboured Morral, the bombthrower, on the day of the crime. With regard to the acquittal of Ferrer on the charge of complicity in the crime of 1906, it was pointed out at the time by the Manchester Guardian that, “in his political philosophy Senor Ferrer is an Anarchist, like Tolstoy and many English thinkers of distinction.”. It was suggested in 1906 that tl{e main object of the Spanish Goverhment in accusing Ferrer was $0 destroy the “ Modern Schools.” The Manchester Guardian describes the “ Modern Schools” as “free voluntary schools in which the intellectual atmosphere is liberal and secular, in a country whose general educational system is enslaved to clericalism.” As a protest against the sacrifice of this reformer, a boycott is being instituted against Spanish goods and ominious revolutionary rumblings ar f e heard.