subdivision, on the death of the proprietor, among the members of his
family, who in Spain are usually numerous, though it is interesting to
learn that in some of the Pyrenean valleys it has been preserved for
five hundred years by the habit of integral transmission to the eldest
child--son or daughter--coupled with the habit of voluntary celibacy on
the part of many of the other children. The economic situation of Spain,
then, is not free from defects; but there always exists a wide margin of
hope in a country where, as Frere said, "God Almighty has so much of the
land in His own holding," and its economic situation would not of itself
be likely to precipitate social revolution.
From Spain, socialism passed into Portugal; but from the first it has
worked very quietly there. Its adherents formed themselves into an
association in 1872, and held congresses, published newspapers, started
candidates, and actively promoted their views in every legitimate way.
Their programme was anarchism, like that of their Spanish allies; but,
unlike anarchists elsewhere, they repudiated all resort to violence,
for, as M. de Laveleye says, they are naturally "less violent than the
Spaniards, the economic situation of the country is better, and liberty
being very great, prevents the explosion of popular fury, which is worse
when exasperated by repression." Portugal is an agricultural country in
a good climate, where the people have few wants, and find it easy to
satisfy them fairly well. In the absence of any manner of acute
discontent, socialism could never have been much better than an abstract
speculation; and Portuguese socialism, if we may trust the complaints
made by the party elsewhere, seems now to have lost even the savour it
had. In March, 1888, one of the socialist newspapers of London reported
that the Portuguese working men's movement had, in the course of the
preceding ten years, given up the straightforward socialist character it
once had; that its leaders had entered into compromises with other
political parties, and threw themselves too much into experiments in
co-operation; that the party press was very lukewarm in its socialism,
and inclined more to mere Radicalism; and that one or two attempts that
had been made to start more extreme journals had completely failed; but
it announced with satisfaction, that at last, in January, 1888, a
frankly anarchist paper was published at Oporto--_A Revoluzao Social_.
About the same time the editor of a journal which had made some hostile
remarks on anarchism was shot, and anarchists were blamed and arrested
for the deed. There was a Socialist Congress at Lisbon in 1882, composed
of twelve delegates representing eight societies, all in Lisbon or
Oporto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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