note 871: So called from the _coup d'etat_ of
September, 1836, mentioned shortly.]

[Footnote 872: E. Bavoux, Costa Cabral; notes
historiques sur sa carriere et son ministere
(Paris, 1846).]

*698. Party Rivalries: the Rotativos.*--In the constitutional history of
the kingdom the reign of Pedro V. (1853-1861) possesses slight
importance. There was less civil strife than during the preceding
generation, but ministries took office in rapid succession and little
improvement was realized in practical political conditions. The period
covered by the more extended reign of Luiz I. (1861-1889) was of the
same character, save that its later years were given some distinction
by certain developments in the party situation. The death of the old
Chartist leader Saldanha in 1876 was followed, indeed, by the
appearance of a political alignment that was essentially new. Already
the Regeneradores, representing the Chartist-Septembrist coalition (p. 632)
of 1852, had disintegrated, and in 1877 the more radical elements of
the defunct party, known at first as the Historic Left, were
reorganized under the name of the Progressistas, or Progressives. The
new conservative elements, on the other hand, carried on the
traditions and preserved the name of the original Regeneradores. In
the Cortes the Progressistas assumed the position of a Constitutional
Left and the surviving Regeneradores that of a Conservative Right.
Both were monarchical and both were attached to the existing
constitution, differing only in respect to the amendments which they
would have preferred to introduce in that instrument. Of remaining
parties two were of importance, i.e., the Miguelists, representing
still the interests of absolutism, and the Republicans, who first
acquired definite party organization in 1881.

Between 1877 and 1910 the Regeneradores and the Progressistas shared
in rotation the spoils of office with such regularity that the two
acquired popularly the nickname of the _rotativos_. Both were
dominated by professional politicians whose skill in manipulating
popular elections was equalled only by their greed for the spoils of
victory. Successful operation of a parliamentary system presupposes at
least a fairly healthy public opinion. But in Portugal, upwards of
four-fifths of whose inhabitants are illiterate,[873] there has been
no such favoring condition, and the opportunity fo