131
In effect, Ruiz Zorrilla refused to abolish the quintas after he was in power, thus alienating the Republicans he had worked to win during his campaign (Hennessy, 163). Furthermore, his position against Church interests solidifid conservative elements against him (Carr, Spain, 323). His position was therefore undermined from the very beginning.
132
By this point, Amadeo could rely only upon Radical support. With his refusal to perwit the suspension of constitutional guarantees, Amadeo effectively estranged himself from his most reliable supporters: «Serrano announced his intention never to serve the king again; he himself, most of his fellow generals, and his political allies returned their decorations, refused to accept invitations to the court, and retired from politics». (Carr, Spain, 322)» Amadeo's fate was thus in Radical hands.
133
In a sense, Ruiz Zorrilla's ministry was a ministry of crisis. Forced to contend with the Carlist War, he could not abolish the quintas. This led to Intransigent domination of the Federal Republicans and resulted in a revolt in the provinces on 24 November, 1872 (the earlier revolt at El Ferrol on 12 October was Federal in name only). Later that year, in December, he was forced to abolish slavery in Puerto Rico due to North American pressure. When word of this leaked out, public confidence in Ruiz Zorrilla was badly damaged. And finally, unable to control members of his own party, particularly his minister of war, Fernando Fernández de Córdoba, he was pressured into open dispute with Amadeo over the famous Hidalgo affair, resulting in the king's abdication on 11 February, 1873 (Hennessy, 162-172; Carr, Spain, 323-325). With this, Radical power passed into other hands, and the party under Rivero's leadership declared for a Republic (in addition to the above references, v Carlos Cambronero, Las cortes de la revolución [Madrid, s.f.], 215-224).
134
Ironically, it was not until the Republicans were in power that the constitutional guarantees were suspended. Pi y Margall proposed such extreme measures on 30 June, 1873, but it was Emillo Castelar who finally pushed the measures through; according to Hennessy, Castelar adjourned the Cortes two weeks after his election as President of the Republic, and ruled by decree «for the next three and a half months. (Hennessy, 211, 233-234)» Galdós' assertion, made in May of 1872, had come true: «...los partidos que llevan al último límite la representacion, son los primeros que abdican toda iniciativa en manos de una autoridad personal. (XXVI, 142)»
135
The Hidalgo affair (v n. 37) was the direct result of the attempt by Fernández de Córdoba to reshape the army. For Galdós' pessimistic views on Fernández de Córdoba as a possible Minister of War, v XXVII, 558-559.
136
Payne, pp. 32-33, discusses the viability of a voluntary citizen's militia. He observes on p. 33 that during the Republic (on 22 February to be exact) the quintas were abolished. It was expected that there would be no trouble in obtaining 48,000 volunteers to cope with the national crises in Cuba and at home against the Carlists. But in fact by June, 1873, only 10,000 men had volunteered, and according to Payne their value as fighting men was dubious.
137
It is important to keep in mind that for Galdós the Conservative Party connotes an amalgam of interests in which Sagasta's Progressives also wielded influence (v the discussion of Sagasta's interim fusion government in Part II above).
138
Carr, Spain, p. 320. On Amadeo's attempts to forge a viable two-party system, v XXV, 134, 620-622. There is no question that Galdós was both impressed by Amadeo's efforts and impartiality and sympathetic to his position as a «transplanted monarch», a term he used to describe Amadeo almost twenty years later; and it is only then that he can bring himself to acknowledge Moyano's famous phrase which provided the epitaph to Amadeo's reign: «Los reyes nacen o se hacen; pero no se les hace.» ('Don Amadeo de Saboya, ex rey de España,' Política Española, Obras inéditas, IV [Madrid, 1923], 203-205)» Nevertheless, in the «Revista política interior» it is a circumstance whose deleterious effects Galdós scarcely admits.
139
Artículo recogido en Ensayos y estudios de literatura española (México, 1959). Esta serie de libros sobre la narrativa del XIX la forman: Introducción a una historia de la novela en España, en el siglo XIX (Valencia, 1955), Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (Zaragoza, 1955), Valera o la ficción libre (Madrid, 1957), Costumbrismo y novela (Valencia, 1960), Fernán Caballero. Ensayo de justificación (México, 1961), Pereda o la novela idilio (México, 1961).
140
Galdós, volumen I, Editorial Castalia, Madrid 1968. A fines de 1969 ha aparecido el segundo volumen que abarca desde La desheredada hasta Fortunata y Jacinta. La presente reseña sólo se refiere, en sus comentarios, al primer volumen.