icial reforms. October 18
it abolished the monarchy and proscribed forever the royal house of
Braganza. On the same day it abolished likewise the Council of State
and the House of Peers, together with all hereditary titles and
privileges. In the course of further measures of reform relating to
public finance, agriculture, education, religion, and social welfare,
it issued a new electoral law and effected arrangements for the
convening of a national assembly to which should be committed the task
of framing a republican constitution. The electoral decree of March
15, 1911, conferred the franchise upon all Portuguese citizens of the
age of twenty-one who under the monarchy were entitled to its
exercise, and upon all, in addition, who were able to read and (p. 642)
write, barring soldiers, bankrupts, and ex-convicts. The two cities,
Lisbon, and Oporto, were created electoral districts in each of which
eight members were to be chosen by _scrutin de liste_ after the
Belgian, or d'Hondt, plan of proportional representation, and the
remainder of the country (including the colonies) was divided into
districts in each of which four members were to be chosen, also with
provision for the representation of minorities.

*708. The Constitution Framed and the Government Organized.*--The
elections to the Constituent Assembly took place May 28, 1911. There
were no monarchist candidates and, there having been neither time nor
occasion for the appearance of serious differences among the
Republicans, the event was attended by little excitement and by no
disorder. In many districts the candidates approved by the Provisional
Government were unopposed. The Assembly was convened June 19. By
unanimous vote of its 192 members the decree by which the monarchy had
been abolished and the Braganza dynasty banished was enacted into law,
whereupon the body addressed itself to the framing of a budget and the
adoption of organic laws relating to the nature and manner of exercise
of the political powers of the republic. A draft of the constitution,
framed by the Republican leaders, was read to the delegates July 3,
and August 18 it was voted, amid general acclamations, almost without
modification. The presidential election was fixed for August 23. Of
the two principal candidates, Dr. Manoel Arriaga represented the more
moderate wing of the Republican element, Dr. Machado Santos (the
provisional president) the more radical. Dr. Arriaga was elected by a