spartero and
finally Amadeus of Savoy on the throne. He attacked with relentless
vigour the short-lived monarchy of Amadeus, and contributed to its
downfall.

The abdication of Amadeus led to the proclamation of the federal
republic. The senate and congress, very largely composed of monarchists,
permitted themselves to be dragged along into democracy by the
republican minority headed by Salmeron, Figueras, Pi y Margall and
Castelar. The short-lived federal republic from the 11th of February
1873 to the 3rd of January 1874 was the culminating point of the career
of Castelar, and his conduct during those eleven months was much praised
by the wiser portion of his fellow-countrymen, though it alienated from
him the sympathies of the majority of his quondam friends in the
republican ranks.

Before the revolution of 1868, Castelar had begun to dissent from the
doctrines of the more advanced republicans, and particularly as to the
means to be employed for their success. He abhorred bloodshed, he
disliked mob rule, he did not approve of military _pronunciamientos_.
His idea would have been a parliamentary republic on the American lines,
with some traits of the Swiss constitution to keep in touch with the
regionalist and provincialist inclinations of many parts of the
peninsula. He would have placed at the head of his commonwealth a
president and Cortes freely elected by the people, ruling the country in
a liberal spirit and with due respect for conservative principles,
religious traditions and national unity. Such a statesman was sure to
clash with the doctrinaires, like Salmeron, who wanted to imitate French
methods; with Pi y Margall, who wanted a federal republic after purely
Spanish ideas of decentralization; and above all with the intransigent
and gloomy fanatics who became the leaders of the cantonal insurrections
at Cadiz, Seville, Valencia, Malaga and Cartagena in 1873.

At first Castelar did his best to work with the other republican members
of the first government of the federal republic. He accepted the post of
minister for foreign affairs. He even went so far as to side with his
colleagues, when serious difficulties arose between the new government
and the president of the Cortes, Senor Martos, who was backed by a very
imposing commission composed of the most influential conservative
members of the last parliament of the Savoyard king, which had
suspended its sittings shortly after proclaiming the federal republi