The New Portugal.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 15, 11 October 1910, Page 5

The New Portugal.

INTENTIONS OF THE REPUBLICANS. A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMME. CHURCH AND STATE TO BE SEPARATED. DETAILS OF THE CONSPIRACY. By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright. London, Otcober 9. Dr. Costa, Minister for Justice in the new Republican Ministry, cabling to the Times, states that the Portuguese provisional Government has received the final adhesions of the military in the provinces, and intends to develop lay education, strengthen the defences, promote the self-government of the colonies, establih a real budgetary equilibrium, expel the monks and nuns, and decree the separation of Church and State. The Miarquis of Pombal has been arrested at Lisbon for sheltering members of religious orders and concealing arms. Count Pombal is a descendant of a distinguished marquis of that name, who, amongst other things, expelled the Jesuits in 1759.

The conspiracy which established the republic was initiated by one admiral, six generals, eleven ex-ministers, two hundred university professors, and fiftyBeven associations, educational, agricultural and commercial. Prisoners broke loose and fired on the guards, who replitd. Two were killed and 16 wounded.

President Braga will occupy a portion of one of the palaces. Sir E. Grey has instructed the British Ambassador to consider his position at present as strictly unofficial. The Lisbon correspondent of the Observer wires that members of the religious association have been ordered to leave within 34 hours. KING MANUEL'S MEANS. London, October 9. King Manuel is stated to possess ample funds. Mergers of the Royal House and manv noble families have large investments abroad. Much of Queen Amelie's fortune is invested in France.

THE DEATH ROLL. Paris, October 9. The Echo de Paris states that President Braga has issued an announcement that the number of killed does not exceed 60. -- MODIFIED ACCOUNTS. STRONG FEELINGS AGAINST CLERICALISM. SHAMEFUL ACTS OF SACRILEGE. POPULACE'S REMARKABLE RESTRAINT.

Received 10, 10.15 p.m. Lisbon, October 10. The accounts of the fighting at the Quelhas monastery and convent, originally received via 'Madrid, have now been modified.

Reuter's special correspondent at Lisbon states that shots were fired, killing two sailors. The populace magnified the shots into bombs, and imagined that a large force of the Municipal Guards was inside the convent. When the gate was batered down, nobody was found. A search was then made for supposed tunnels connecting the convents. The bomb stories inflamed the people, assisting the soldiers. The church connected with the Quelhas monastery was wrecked, and statues, crucifixes, altaTs and partitions demolished. Sacred relics were stolen. A man put a stole round his neck, singing a mock mass. Officers did their best to stop the ribaldry. | A naval petty officer severely reprimanded a young soldier for wearing a biretta during the search and compelled j him to take it off. The correspondent emphasises, as explaining the strong feeling against the priesthood, the desire for emancipation from clerical domination. Their feeling against the latter was greater than their animosity against the dynasty. Their resentment is primarily aimed at the Jesuits. The populace in all other directions showed remarkable restraint for so serious a disturbance of order, notwithstanding the total absence of the police and -the arming of a large section of the population. Thee ruiser Newcastle has returned to Gibraltar.

REPUBLIC GENERALLY ACCEPTED. ADHERENCE OF THE COLONIES. Received 10, 10.15 p.m. London, October 10. Telegrams from Lisbon indicate that the republic has been generally accepted throughout Portugal. The Powers have been formally notified of the proclamation of the republic. AH the Portuguese colonies have expressed adherence to the republic. STORMING THE CONVENTS. ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE PRIESTS. PORTUGAL'S "NORMAL NATIONAL LIFE." LIGHTNING-LIKE TRANSITION. Received 10, 10.50 p.m. Lisbon, October 10. Armed parties night forced a n pntran'"'' into the Trinas Convent it Lisbon. The Sisters of Charity plnekily

assisted and twelve were slightly wound ed and were conveyed to tlie hospital The remainder were removed.

The Papal Nuncio allowed liis residence to be starched for arms. The search proved fruitless. Lisbon on Saturday night was excited anti-clerically. Streets were filled with singing and shouting mobs.

Cavalry patrols and sailors guarding the Merees Church were shot at. On entering the building they found nobody. The stories of the existence of tunnels were renewed and a fresh search made.

The Republicans attribute tlie shots from the monasteries to the priests wishing to create an impression of disorder. Colonel Machado, interviewed, commented on the priests firing at the Guards who were statiorfed at the doors of the church to protect them. He added that Portugal with lightning suddenness had reached normal national life.

The Times' Lisbon correspondent stales that transition was as smooth as if one Cabinet was formally succeeding another. There was no trace of reactionary resentment. Almost the entire populace were wearing republican favors. The command to respect life and property was everywhere obeyed. The citizens were ordered to respect the police, soldiers and priests.

There were no movements in the provinces as reported in favor of the old regime.

The banks and offices at Lisbon and Oporto have been re-opened. The deaths during the Lisbon fighting estimated at under 200.

MONKS AND NUNS. EXPULSION PROCEEDING. Received October 11, 12.30 a.m. Lisbon, October 10. The expulsion of moijks and nuns has begun, including Cardinal Netto and the Francisian order. The Bishop of Boja has entered Spain.

" VIRTUALLY PRISONERS." YOUNG KING'S PITIABLE CONDITION Little reference has 'been made to events in Portugal by the ordinary press services. Owing chiefly to American enterprise, however, the Government has not been able to entirely conceal its doing's, and the state of affairs revealed appears to be nothing short of scandalous. There were two versions as to the character of the late King. He was represented upon the one hand as a dissolute person and a spendthrift who wasted the nation's resources. Upon the other hand his admirers said he was disliked by the Radical or Republican politicians becau?e he refused to allow them to plunder the Treasury. In any case, he was shot down bv a band of assassins in a public square, and the subsequent action of the Republicans showed that .they approved, if they were not actually privy to, the outrage. The new boy King and the Queen Mother fell completely under the domination of the men who killed the King. It is stated that the condition of the young King and his mother was pitiable in the extreme, comparable only with that of Louis XVI. of France after the fall of the Bastille. "They are virtually prisoners in the Palace, and subject to all the insult, that a besotted populace can throw upon them." While the murderers of King Carlos were feted and acclaimed, the young Lieutenant Francesco Figueira, who Silled two of the la,te King's assassins, was dismissed from the Army. Indeed, at one time it was actually proposed to try him for his life.

As an indication of the tone and temper of the people of Lisbon it may be noted that the Municipal Council decreed that all Royal demonstrations must cease in order that the populace mighit not be annoyed. Neither the King nor his mother was allowed to appear in public without effacing all external marks of rank. It was evident that another tragedy was dawning. An American observer, commenting upon this state of affairs, says that if it were an honest struggle between Monarchy and Republicanism he would know where to place his sympathies. "But it is not an honest struggle. The men who murdered King Carlos, and who are now in control of the Government, are a mere pack of thieving wolves, who use the name of Republicanism to cajole a wholly illiterate people, and who care nothing for any particular form of Government so long as tb?v are left unmolested to plunder the public treasury. The King is said to be dying of chagrin and apprehension."

KING MANTEL'S POSITION. THE REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT. The truth nf tho Portuguese political conditions (wrote a correspondent cf the London Daily News a few months ago) is that the population is divided into two classes—a small one, verbose and more or less educated,'which consists of the members of the House of Lords and the Chamber of Deputies; and a large one—the people, almost illiterate, and completely ignorant outside a certain mean knowledge of local advantages and disadvantages . A more invidious but no less accurate division would be: about 300 pluckers and over 5,000,000 plucked. The House of Lords (C'nmara dos Pares) consists of fifty-two hereditary members, thirteen prelates an:l ninety life members. appointed bv the King; the Lower House, "elected" bv the people, numbers 138 members. It wants no especial genius in political manipulation to show how such a combination can be worked from above or from below.

At present all the power is in th 3 lower .stratum, which fact is likely to prove entaolysinal, as it (lid a few years aso when the flood of discontent swept Don Carlos from his meagre holding on Portuguese history. It is to l>e hoped everyone here hopes —'that, should King Manuel decide to abdicate, tho cession of the leadership of the State to the incohaie Republican party will be ail act of peace, "but the King will be tragically misadvised if he is foolish enough to talk about "in favor of." The favor is all the other v.av. Unconditional surrender will mean for him a pension which I may or may not. be paid; condition will mean death. This sounds rough, but there are moments when it is the publicist's duty to be brutally accurate. As for the policy of non-abdication, which is by far the most likely to be adopted, its value in statecraft is on the knees of many and various gods, whose counsel will probably have Horace's ironic "Virtus post minimis" as its frame. But, incidentally, it is playing with fire; a fact which is recognised by so many people that the Court is in a terrible miflndarv about the mnrr'asre of the I\i -: yidclisrinnus. It is essential that a

Queen should be fouml fov him soon, and, for the matter of that, just so soon as may 'be. But where is the Catholic Princess —and there are not so many of them—whose parents are prepared to gamble her safety, even against so nice a prize as a crown, when that crown may prove more uneasy even than the head that wins to wear it? THE PORTUGUESE PRETENDER. DOM MIGUEL OF BRAGAXZA. There is a "Pretender" to the. throne of Portugal in the person of Dom Miguel de Braganza. Until a year or tw r o <v. r o lie had been content to live in relative obscurity in Austria, where his ties of kinsmanship with tho Hapshurgs have caused him to be treated as a relative of the Imperial family—almost as one of its members. In fact, he lias received a colonelcy of a crack hussar regiment and the order of the Golden Fleece, precisely as if he had been born an Austrian duke. Born in Austria in 1-853 and educated in that country, he had been looked upon up till now as an Austrian in all but name and title, and was, moreover, believed to be so thoroughly contented with his lot that something akin to amazement was caused when he intimated that he had never renounced his claims to the throne of Portugal, and that when the hour arrived he would be ready and delighted to take possession.