al Concha, marquis del Duero, he would have
preferred to let events develop enough to allow of the dynasty being
restored without force of arms, and he severely blamed the conduct of
the generals when he first heard of the _pronunciamiento_ of Marshal
Campos at Sagunto. Sagasta thereupon caused Canovas to be arrested (30th
of December 1874); but the next day the Madrid garrison also proclaimed
Alphonso XII. king, and Canovas showed the full powers he had received
from the king to assume the direction of affairs. He formed a regency
ministry pending the arrival of his majesty, who confirmed his
appointment, and for six years Canovas was premier except during the
short-lived cabinets of Marshal Jovellar in 1875 and Marshal Campos for
a few months in 1879. Canovas was, in fact, the soul of the Restoration.
He had to reconstruct a Conservative party out of the least reactionary
parties of the days of Queen Isabella and out of the more moderate
elements of the revolution. With such followers he made the constitution
of 1876 and all the laws of the monarchy, putting a limited franchise in
the place of universal suffrage, curtailing liberty of conscience,
rights of association and of meeting, liberty of the press, checking
democracy, obliging the military to abstain from politics, conciliating
the Carlists and Catholics by his advances to the Vatican, the Church
and the religious orders, pandering to the protectionists by his tariff
policy, and courting abroad the friendship of Germany and Austria after
contributing to the marriage of his king to an Austrian princess.
Canovas crowned his policy by countenancing the formation of a Liberal
party under Sagasta, flanked by Marshal Serrano and other Liberal
generals, which took office in 1881. He again became premier in 1883,
and remained in office until November 1885; but he grew very unpopular,
and nearly endangered the monarchy in 1885 by his violent repression of
popular and press demonstrations, and of student riots in Madrid and the
provinces. At the death of Alphonso XII. he at once advised the queen
regent to send for Sagasta and the Liberals, and during five years he
looked on quietly whilst Sagasta re-established universal suffrage and
most of the liberties curtailed in 1876, and carried out a policy of
free trade on moderate lines. In 1890 Canovas took office under the
queen regent, and one of his first acts was to reverse the tariff policy
of the Liberals, denouncing all