d an impracticable one because the authorities
became aware of the project and subverted the republican plans by
ordering the warships on that day to quit the Tagus. Within official
circles it was generally assumed that the revolutionists, balked once,
would return to the project. The crash came, however, at a moment (p. 641)
when the Government was entirely off its guard, and its effects were
unexpectedly summary. The immediate incident by which it was
precipitated was the assassination in Lisbon, October 3, of a
distinguished Republican member of the Cortes, Dr. Miguel Bombarda.
Whether justly or not, the assassination was interpreted by the
populace as a political crime, and to the disaffected elements of the
army and navy the occasion seemed ripe for the execution of the
contemplated _coup_. October 4 open revolt broke out among the
national troops, and during the ensuing forty-eight hours a handful of
soldiers and sailors, aided by armed civilians, acquired the mastery
of the capital, put the king to flight, won over the country to their
cause, and proclaimed the establishment of a republican form of
government. The revolutionists were organized, the royalists were not,
and the defeat of the latter was complete. It was also substantially
bloodless. King Manoel, and the queen-mother Amelia, contriving an
escape from the royal palace, made their way to Eraceira, and thence
to Gibraltar. Subsequently they were conveyed to England.

*707. Measures of the Provisional Government.*--Meanwhile, October 5,
there was established at Lisbon a provisional government composed of
nine ministers and presided over by the scholar and litterateur,
Theophile Braga. The members of this government were drawn principally
from the group of Republican deputies representing the Lisbon
constituencies. A few had held high office under the monarchy, but
most of them, including Braga, were men of little or no experience in
administrative work. The flight of the king and the collapse of the
monarchist cause cleared the way for a speedy establishment of the new
order, and without awaiting a formal remodelling of the constitution,
the Braga government proceeded to carry into execution a number of
features of the Republican programme. October 7 it promised amnesty to
political and press exiles, the revocation of various illiberal press
and judicial laws, the suppression of summary magisterial powers, and
a long list of other administrative and jud