great towns, the Government candidate was always returned. The efficacy
of the system may be judged from the fact that in a country which was
at heart Republican, as events have amply shown, the Republican party
never had more than fourteen representatives in a chamber of about 150.
For the rest, the Monarchical parties, "Regeneradores" and
"Progresistas," arranged between them a fair partition of the loaves
and fishes. This "rotative" system, as it is called, is in effect that
which prevails, or has prevailed, in Spain; but it was perfected in
Portugal by a device which enabled Ministers, in stepping out of office
under the crown, to step into well-paid posts in financial
institutions, more or less associated with the State. Anything like
real progress was manifestly impossible under so rotten a system; and
with this system the Monarchy was identified.

Then came the scandal of the _adeantamentos_, or illegal advances made
to the King, beyond the sums voted in the civil list. It is only fair
to remember that the king of a poor country is nowadays in a very
uncomfortable position, more especially if the poor country has once
been immensely rich. The expenses of royalty, like those of all other
professions, have enormously increased of late years; and a petty king
who is to rub shoulders with emperors is very much in the position of a
man with £2,000 a year in a club of millionaires. He has always the
resource, no doubt, of declining the society of emperors, and even
fixing his domestic budget more in accord with present exigencies than
with the sumptuous traditions, the palaces and pleasure-houses, of his
millionaire predecessors. It is said of Pedro II. that "he had the
wisdom and self-restraint not to increase the taxes, preferring to
reduce the expenses of his household to the lowest possible amount."
But Dom Carlos was not a man of this kidney. Easy-going and
self-indulgent, he had no notion of appearing _in forma pauperis_ among