resigned, but not until he had recalled the general in command in
Andalusia, Pavia. This resignation was not an unfortunate event for the
country, as the federal Cortes not only made Castelar chief of the
executive, though his partisans were in a minority in the Parliament,
but they gave him much liberty to act, as they decided to suspend the
sittings of the house until 2nd January 1874. This was the turning-point
of the Spanish revolution, as from that day the tide set in towards the
successive developments that led to the restoration of the Bourbons.

On becoming the ruler of Spain at the beginning of September 1873,
Castelar at once devoted his attention to the reorganization of the
army, whose numbers had dwindled down to about 70,000 men. This force,
though aided by considerable bodies of local militia and volunteers in
the northern and western provinces, was insufficient to cope with the
60,000 Carlists in arms, and with the still formidable nucleus of
cantonalists around Alcoy and Cartagena. To supply the deficiencies
Castelar called out more than 100,000 conscripts, who joined the colours
in less than six weeks. He selected his generals without respect of
politics, sending Moriones to the Basque provinces and Navarre at the
head of 20,000 men, Martinez Campos to Catalonia with several thousand,
and Lopez Dominguez, the nephew of Marshal Serrano, to begin the land
blockade of the last stronghold of the cantonal insurgents, Cartagena,
where the crews of Spain's only fleet had joined the revolt.

Castelar next turned his attention to the Church. He renewed direct
relations with the Vatican, and at last induced Pope Pius IX. to approve
his selection of two dignitaries to occupy vacant sees as well as his
nominee for the vacant archbishopric of Valencia, a prelate who
afterwards became archbishop of Toledo, and remained to the end a close
friend of Castelar. He put a stop to all persecutions of the Church and
religious orders, and enforced respect of Church property. He attempted
to restore some order in the treasury and administration of finance,
with a view to obtain ways and means to cover the expense of the three
civil wars, Carlist, cantonal and Cuban. The Cuban insurgents gave him
much trouble and anxiety, the famous _Virginius_ incident nearly leading
to a rupture between Spain and the United States. Castelar sent out to
Cuba all the reinforcements he could spare, and a new governor-general,
Jovellar, whom he