persecution to the members at home.

Fortunately, the king's failing health and subsequent death
transferred the reins of government to the hands of the queen, who,
less absolutist than her consort, reopened the universities, which had
long been closed, and proclaimed a general amnesty, thus bringing the
expatriated and imprisoned Liberals back to political life.

After the king's death the pretensions of Don Carlos, his brother, lit
the torch of civil war, which blazed fiercely till 1836, when a
revolution changed the Government's policy and the constitution of
1812 was again declared in force. In 1837 the Cortes, though nearly
all the Deputies were Progressists, by a vote of 90 to 60, deprived
Cuba and Puerto Rico of the right of representation.

Another Carlist campaign was initiated in 1838. In 1839 Maria
Christina, having lost her prestige, was obliged to abdicate; then
followed the regency of the Duke de la Victoria Espartero, an
insurrection in Barcelona, the Cortes of 1843, an attack on Madrid,
and the fall of the regency, a period of seven years marked by a
series of military pronunciamentos, the last of which was headed by
General Prim.

Isabel II was now declared of age (1843), and from the date of her
accession two political parties, the Progressists and the Moderates,
under the leadership of Espartero and Narvaez respectively, contended
for control, until, in 1865, the insurrection of Vicalvaro gave the
direction of affairs to O'Donnell, Canovas del Castillo, and others,
who represented the liberal Unionist party. They remained in power
till 1866, when Prim and Gonzales Bravo raised the standard of revolt
once more and Isabel II was dethroned. Then another provisional
government was formed under a triumvirate composed of Generals Prim,
Serrano, and Topete, who represented the Progressist and the
democratic parties (September, 1868). They steered the ship of state
till 1871, and, seeing the rocks of revolution still ahead, offered
the Spanish crown to Amadeo, who, after wearing it scarce two years,
found it too heavy for his brow, and abdicated. He had changed
ministeriums six times in less than two years, and came to the
conclusion that the modern Spaniards were ungovernable.

A republican form of government was now established (February 11,
1873), and it was understood by all parties that it should be a
Federal Republic, in which each of the provinces should enjoy the
largest possible amount of aut