the security of the state, and then only temporarily
and by means of a specific law. In no case may any other guarantee
which is named in the constitution be withdrawn, even temporarily.
When the Cortes is not in session the Government may suspend, through
the medium of a royal decree, any one of the guarantees which the
Cortes itself is authorized to suspend, but at the earliest
opportunity such a decree must be submitted to the Cortes for
ratification. It need hardly be pointed out that the opportunity for
the evasion of constitutionalism which is created by this power of
suspension is enormous, and anyone at all familiar with the history of
public affairs in Spain would be able to cite numerous occasions upon
which, upon pretexts more or less plausible, the guarantees of the
fundamental law have been set at naught.[848]

[Footnote 846: No. 1. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 199-203.]

[Footnote 847: By Article II Roman Catholicism is
declared to be the religion of the state. "The
nation," it is stipulated further, "binds itself to
maintain this religion and its ministers." Dodd,
Modern Constitutions, II., 201.]

[Footnote 848: An official text of the constitution
of 1876 is published by the Spanish Government
under the title Constitucion politica de la
monarchia Espanola y leyes complementarias (4th
ed., Madrid, 1901). The texts of all of the Spanish
constitutions of the nineteenth century are printed
in the first volume of Muro y Martinez,
Constituciones de Espana y de las demas naciones de
Europa, con la historia general de Espana (Madrid,
1881); also in the first volume--Constituciones y
reglamentos (Madrid, 1906)--of a collection
projected by the Spanish Government under the title
of Publicaciones Parlamentarias. English versions
of the instrument of 1876 appear in British and
Foreign State Papers, LXVII. (1875-1876), 118 ff.,
and Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 199-216. An
excellent brief treatise on Spanish constitutional
development is H.