government by which it
was succeeded was composed entirely of Progressives. The Speech from
the Throne at the convening of the Cortes, January 2, 1910, ignored
completely the grim realities of the political situation. Ostensibly
to afford the Beirao ministry an opportunity to formulate a programme,
the session was adjourned until March 3, at which time the members
reassembled, only to be sent back again to their homes until June 1.
At the second reassembling the ministry was opposed with such
virulence that it at once retired and, after some delay, the
Regeneradors came into power under Teixeira de Sousa. The Cortes was
dissolved and a national election, accompanied by grave disorders, was
held, August 28. At the election the Regeneradors obtained 80 seats,
the Progressives 43, the Republicans 14 (twice as many as they had
ever obtained before), and the Independents 2.[882] The new Cortes
assembled September 23; but two days later it was adjourned until
December 12, and, in point of fact, it never sat again.

[Footnote 882: Ten of the fourteen Republican
deputies were elected in Lisbon. The popular vote
in that city was: Republicans, 15,104; Monarchists
of all parties, 9,108. In 1908 the numbers were
13,074 and 10,982 respectively.]

*706. Overthrow of the Monarchy.*--During many months a plot had been
ripening in Republican circles looking toward the deposition of the
king, the overthrow of the monarchy, and the proclamation of a
republic. By reason of the confusion and repression which prevailed
perennially in Portuguese politics, the actual strength, numerically
and otherwise, of republicanism in the kingdom in 1910 cannot be
known. But it is sufficiently clear that the propaganda of the past
thirty years had borne much fruit and that among the artisan, trader,
and small burgher classes, and especially in the ranks of the army and
the navy, the enemies of the monarchy had come to be numerous and
influential. The leaders of the republican movement represented, on
the whole, the best educated and most progressive elements of the
country--largely lawyers, physicians, journalists and other men of the
professions and of business. In the later summer of 1910 various
intimations of a far-reaching revolutionary plot were received by the
Government and the date (September 14) which was at one time fixed for
the insurrection prove