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 THE LIFE, TRIAL, AND DEATH OF 
 FRANCISCO FERRER
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THROUGH AFRO-AMERICA. An 
 
 English Reading of the Race Problem. 
 Demy 8vo, loj. bd. net. 
 
 " A pleasure to read. It grips one's interest from the 
 first page to the last. . . . Mr. Archer is precise where 
 so many writers are diffuse, and he gives his observation 
 and its fruits instead of vague generalisation based on 
 unsound theory." — Evening Standard. 
 
 ' ' Of real value as a contribution to the most urgent 
 of all discussions in American politics." — Pal/ Mall 
 Gazette. 
 
 ' ' A profoundly interesting book. The book is an 
 important contribution towards the sociology of the 
 race question in America." — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 " Interesting and suggestive." — Truth.
 
 FRANCISCO FERRER GUARDIA. 
 
 {^Frontispiece.
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE, TRIAL, AND DEATH 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANCISCO FERRER, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ARCHER 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 1911 
 
 Ali ri^hU reservtd
 
 PREFACE 
 
 When, at the request of the Editor of McClure's 
 Magazine, I undertook the investigation of which the 
 following pages are the result, I had barely heard the 
 name of Francisco Ferrer. In other words, I approached 
 the subject with the impartiality of ignorance. 
 
 The circumstances were these : Mr. Perceval Gibbon 
 had contributed to McClure's Magazuie an article on 
 Ferrer, which, though excellent so far as it went, was 
 written at a time when complete information was not 
 yet accessible. American Roman Catholics violently 
 assailed the article, and opposed to it the ecclesiastical 
 legend of Ferrer's character, career and crimes. Among 
 the insults they hurled at Mr. Gibbon was one which 
 probably left him " more than usual calm " — the sug- 
 gestion, to wit, that he must be lineally descended from 
 the infamous author of TJie Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire. Always willing to hear both sides of a question, 
 McClures Magazine printed an article by one of the 
 Catholic champions, which displayed an astounding 
 ignorance of even the admitted facts of the case, as set 
 forth in the official documents ; and meanwhile the Editor 
 commissioned me to go to Spain and undertake an in- 
 dependent enquiry into the whole matter. 
 
 My mind, as before stated, was a blank as regards 
 Ferrer, and I had no predispositions to contend against.
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 Certainly I was not a Roman Catholic; but I was in 
 no way committed to hostility to Catholicism. As a 
 matter of fact, had I convinced myself that Ferrer was 
 guilty, or even that he had had a fair trial, it would have 
 been very easy, and by no means disagreeable, for me 
 to have said so. My impartiality would have shone 
 conspicuous ; and, as for McClure's Magazine, it could 
 only have gained by confessing itself in error, and thus 
 effecting a reconciliation with a large and important 
 section of the American public. But I very soon saw 
 that I could not in conscience recommend recantation 
 on any point of the smallest importance. For a week 
 or two after I began to look into the case, my judgment 
 remained in suspense ; but I had no sooner procured and 
 read the official version of the trial, the Jiiicio Ordinario 
 seguido . . . contra Francisco Ferrer Guardia, than all 
 doubt was at an end. I knew that Ferrer had been the 
 victim, if not of a judicial crime, at any rate of an 
 enormous judicial stupidity. 
 
 It may perhaps be said — indeed, it has been said by 
 one critic — that I apply to Spanish procedure the test 
 of English legal principles and rules of evidence. This 
 is not really so. The little I ever learned of English 
 rules of evidence has long since vanished from my mind. 
 The tests I have sought to apply are simply those of 
 common sense and fair play. I have shown, too, that 
 even the rules of Spanish military procedure, grossly 
 unfair as they are to the accused, were not observed in 
 Ferrer's case, but were overridden to his disadvantage. 
 
 I shall not attempt to draw up a list of everybody, 
 in England and in Spain, to whom I owe thanks for 
 valuable assistance. To two men above all others my 
 gratitude is due : to Professor Tarrida del Marmol, for
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 his unwearying kindness in answering the multitudinous 
 questions which I put to him ; and to Mr. William 
 Heaford, for the generous way in which he placed at my 
 disposal, not only his invaluable letters from Ferrer, but 
 masses of other material, and notably the publications 
 of the Escuela Moderna. Without the help of Professor 
 del Marmol and Mr. Heaford my work would have been 
 almost impossible. Dr. L. Simarro, Professor of Psycho- 
 logy in the University of Madrid, and author of El Proceso 
 Ferrer y la Opinion Eicropea, most kindly facilitated my 
 task by giving me advance proofs of that masterly and 
 exhaustive study of the case. Mr. Charles Arrow, late 
 of the Criminal Investigation Department, besides render- 
 ing me other assistance, lent me a report of the Madrid 
 trial of 1907, which was of great service to me. I have 
 also to thank Mr. B. Walsh, of Barcelona, for very able 
 help in my enquiries in that region. 
 
 It may be asked whether I have gone to Catholic 
 authorities for their side of the case ? Certainly I have 
 done so. I have not only waded through files of the 
 Catholic press, and read Catholic books and pamphlets 
 (for instance, La Seniana Sangrienta, Villaescusa's La 
 Revolucion de Julio, Casimiro Comas's Francisco Ferrer, 
 etc., etc.), but I have been at some pains to seek out 
 persons who, I was told, could throw light on the case 
 from the Catholic point of view. These enquiries, how- 
 ever, were absolutely fruitless. They merely convinced 
 me that the so-called authorities neither knew nor wanted 
 to know anything about the case. It was sufficient for 
 them that Ferrer was a diabolical personage who deserved 
 death on general principles, whether he was guilty of the 
 particular crimes imputed to him or no. They repeated 
 to me legends which were conclusively disproved in the
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 official reports of the trial. They had not even been at 
 the trouble of mastering the theories of the prosecution. 
 I could have stated the case against Ferrer far more 
 plausibly than they could. 
 
 Both in Spain and out of it, Ferrer has very commonly 
 been called "the Spanish Dreyfus." The resemblances 
 between the two " affairs " are, indeed, unmistakable. In 
 each case we see militarism, inspired by clericalism, 
 riding rough-shod over the plainest principles and prac- 
 tices of justice. The victim in each case is a personage 
 hated by the Church — in France a Jew, in Spain a free- 
 thinker. If my reading of the Ferrer case is right, there 
 was not so much active and deliberate villainy at work 
 in it as there was in the Dreyfus case ; but, on the other 
 hand, the determination to convict, with or without evi- 
 dence, was even more manifest in the Spanish authorities 
 than in the French. The character of Ferrer was interest- 
 ing in itself, whereas Dreyfus, apart from his calamities, 
 would never have been heard of. But the great difference 
 between the cases lies in the fact that the Spanish 
 Government had the courage of its fanaticism, and killed 
 its man. Perhaps it took warning from the Dreyfus case, 
 and determined to seek security in the irreparable. It 
 is true that no argument, no revision, can undo the work 
 of that October morning in the trenches of Montjuich ; 
 but it may be doubted whether Don Antonio Maura and 
 the Ultramontane party may not find the ghost of Ferrer 
 more formidable than the living man could ever have 
 been. 
 
 If only one dared to hope that, in reparation for her 
 terrible blunder, Spain would seriously set about that 
 education of the people which was Ferrer's dream ! I do 
 not mean, of course, that his principles or methods should
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 be adopted. It would be extremely easy to start better 
 schools than his — schools in which the children should 
 have a chance of growing up into free and enlightened 
 human beings, unwarped by either religious bigotry or 
 anti-religious fanaticism. It would be extremely easy — 
 in any country but Spain. How sad that in that noble 
 and beautiful land, so richly dowered both by nature and 
 by art, there should be no middle course between spiritual 
 enslavement and vehement revolt ! 
 
 One good result must surely ensue from the Ferrer 
 case, when the passions of the moment have died away. 
 It must lead to the removal from the statute-book of the 
 wholly irrational and indefensible Ley de Jurisdicciones, 
 by which the lives and liberties of citizens are placed at 
 the mercy of incompetent military tribunals, in precisely 
 the cases in which those tribunals are necessarily least 
 able to take objective and impartial views. It cannot be 
 too clearly stated that Ferrer did not fall a victim to 
 " martial " law — to a hasty procedure excused by the 
 stress of military necessity. The "state of siege" had 
 long been at an end, and the normal law of the land 
 had resumed its sway. But it was the normal law of 
 the land that persons accused of offences against the 
 Army should be tried by the Army, and under a set of 
 rules which placed the prisoner at every possible dis- 
 advantage. It was not, in short, a case of " martial law," 
 but of "military law," — a very different thing — and it 
 affords a tragic warning, not for Spain alone, but for 
 all nations, against leaving the administration of justice 
 to soldiers, under any circumstances except those of 
 actual war. 
 
 London, 
 
 March lo, 191 1.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 I. Youth and Marriage i 
 
 II. The Three Revolver-Shots 7 
 
 III. Mademoiselle Meunier's Money ... 18 
 
 IV. The Escuela Moderna 28 
 
 V. The Crime of the Calle Mayor ... 63 
 
 VI. A Two-Years' Truce 81 
 
 VII. Barcelona 97 
 
 VIII. From London to Mas Germinal . . . .108 
 
 IX. The Melilla Adventure 119 
 
 X. The Red Week 127 
 
 XI. Ferrer Day by Day 143 
 
 XII. The Exiles of Teruel 150 
 
 XIII. The Legend grows 162 
 
 XIV. Capture and Imprisonment 171 
 
 XV. Procedure and Preliminaries . . . .179 
 
 XVI. The Trial in Outline 190 
 
 XVII. The Evidence— Opinion and Hearsay . . 195 
 XVIII. The Evidence — Statements which prove 
 
 Nothing 204 
 
 XIX. The Evidence— Relevant Accusations . .211 
 XX. The Evidence— Documentary . . . .222 
 
 XXI. Verdict and Execution 235 
 
 XXII. The Case Summed Up 242 
 
 Appendix 255 
 
 Index 325
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Francisco Ferrer Guardia . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Ferrer's Birthplace, Alella 3 
 
 The Ferrer Family at Bendigo, 1898 . . , -15 
 
 Soledad Villafranca 67 
 
 Mas Germinal 81 
 
 Mas Germinal (General View) 93 
 
 Courtyard and Cistern, Mas Germinal .... 93 
 
 The Living-room at Mas Germinal 94 
 
 Josfe Ferrer 95 
 
 Ferrer's "Study" at Mas Germinal .... 96 
 
 MONTJUICH 99 
 
 Ferrer's Birthplace 171 
 
 The Scene of Ferrer's Arrest 171 
 
 The Trial 190 
 
 The Fraternidad Republicana at Premia . . . 216 
 
 The Approach to Premia 219 
 
 The Ayuntamiento of PremiA 219 
 
 Facsimile of Letter to Mlle. Henriette Meyer . . 228 
 
 Ferrer's Coffin carried to Montjuich .... 239 
 
 Cavalry leaving Montjuich after the Execution . 241
 
 THE LIFE, TRIAL, AND DEATH 
 OF FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 YOUTH AND MARRIAGE 
 
 On October 9, 1909, Francisco Ferrer was sentenced to 
 death on the charge of being the "author and chief" of 
 what is known as the " Revolution of July " in Barcelona. 
 On October 13 the sentence was executed in the trenches 
 of the fortress of Montjuich. Instantly there arose a 
 storm of protest all over Europe. In Paris there was 
 rioting, attended by bloodshed ; and important indigna- 
 tion meetings were held in London, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, 
 Lisbon, Marseilles, Toulon, Lyons, Genoa, Venice, Naples, 
 Oporto, and many other cities. The execution was 
 denounced as a judicial crime of the blackest type, and 
 Ferrer was glorified as a martyr of free thought, done to 
 death by a sinister and vindictive clericalism. Nine days 
 later, the Maura Cabinet resigned, its fall being due in 
 great measure to the evil repute it had brought upon 
 itself and upon Spain by hurrying Ferrer to his death. 
 But, when the tempest of popular fury had subsided, 
 the Roman Catholics of all countries came forward to 
 the rescue and vindication of their Spanish brethren. 
 
 B
 
 2 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 They said (quite truly) that not one in twenty of the 
 people who shouted themselves hoarse in honour of the 
 atheist martyr knew anything of the facts of his case. 
 They said that Ferrer was a notorious evil liver, who had 
 left his wife and children to starve, while he spent with 
 his mistresses the wealth which he had wheedled out 
 of a too confiding old maid, by a hypocritical pretence 
 of piety and philanthropy. They said he had certainly 
 been concerned in Morral's attempt upon the King and 
 Queen of Spain, though he had so skilfully covered his 
 tracks that the crime could not be brought home to him. 
 They said that he taught bomb-making in his school, and 
 placarded on its walls an exhortation to regicide. They 
 said that he had engineered the Barcelona revolt in order to 
 make money by a stock-exchange gamble. And, finally, 
 they said that, after a trial conducted in strict] accordance 
 with the law of the land, he had been proved beyond a 
 doubt to have acted as organizer and director of an 
 insurrection which had been accompanied by murder, 
 sacrilege, and unprecedented scenes of rapine and havoc. 
 " Did any one ever deserve death," they asked, " if this 
 man did not .'' " 
 
 Assuredly he deserved death, by the laws of all nations, 
 if he was the instigator and director of the rising. But 
 was he ^ This is the point which we have to investigate. 
 
 It was in this character, and in this only, that he was 
 condemned. The prosecution formally renounced at the 
 outset all attempt to bring home to him any individual 
 act of violence. It was as "author and chief of the 
 rebellion " — " autor y jefe de la rebelion " — that he was 
 found guilty and shot. The phrase occurs not only in the 
 actual sentence of death, but nearly twenty times in the 
 three speeches for the prosecution, published with the
 
 s5 
 
 < 
 < 
 
 CL, 

 
 HIS BIRTHPLACE 3 
 
 sanction of the Spanish Government.* Other accusations 
 brought against him have, then, no real relevance. But as 
 he was unquestionably surrounded by a dense atmosphere 
 of evil report — an atmosphere which breathes from every 
 page of the official Process — it may be well, before examining 
 the essential points in the case, to analyze this atmosphere, 
 and distinguish between the elements of truth and of 
 falsehood in its composition. 
 
 Francisco Ferrer Guardia, son of Jaime Ferrer and 
 his wife Maria de los Angeles Guardia, was born at Alella, 
 a village some twelve miles from Barcelona, on January 
 lo, 1859. Ferrer is one of the commonest of surnames 
 in Catalonia, being, I take it, equivalent to the English 
 Smith, According to Spanish custom, he added his 
 mother's name, Guardia, to his actual surname, Ferrer. 
 His parents seem to have been fairly well-to-do agri- 
 culturists, and were " believing and practising Catholics." 
 His birthplace, known as the Casa Boter, is a substantial 
 house, standing, in a walled garden, on the highway 
 leading inland from Alella, within a stone's-throw of 
 the spot where he was arrested on the night of August 31, 
 1909. Outwardly, at any rate, his birthplace makes 
 much more show than his own so-called " villa " of Mas 
 Germinal. 
 
 Up to the age of ten, he attended the Municipal 
 School at Alella, and for the next two years he went to a 
 similar school at Teya, a neighbouring village. At the age 
 of twelve, his schooldays ended, fhe Municipal School of 
 
 ' In a pamphlet of 69 pages entitled Ordinary Process conducted before 
 the Military Tribunals , . . against Francisco Ferrer Guardia (ftticio 
 Ordinario seguido ante los Tribunates Mililares ert la Plaza de Barcelona 
 contra Francisco Ferrer Guardia). In future references to this publication, 
 I shall simply call it the Process. A translation of all the essential portions of 
 it will be found in the Appendix.
 
 4 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Alella was in his time, says my local informant, " little 
 better than a stable." It has since been " done up," and 
 is now a cheerful room enough, measuring some 40 feet 
 by 25, with a small inner room off it, which has no 
 window or means of ventilation. It serves a village of 
 1400 people. The walls are decorated with a crucifix 
 and gaudy pictures from the Lives of the Saints, together 
 with a printed hymn to the Spanish Flag, which the little 
 Catalans have to sing every day. There is no playground 
 save the village street. The schoolmaster, apparently an 
 intelligent man, receives a salary of less that ;^30 a year. 
 One has only to see the Escuela Publica of Alella to 
 understand Ferrer's conviction that education is the first 
 thing needful for Spain ; and it must be remembered that 
 Catalonia is not the most backward region of the Peninsula, 
 but the most advanced. 
 
 In an autobiographical note which Ferrer contributed to 
 the Almanack- Annuaire de la Libre-Pensie Internationale^ 
 for 1908, he says of himself: "While still a child he was 
 deeply moved by the stories told him by one of his uncles 
 of the conspiracies of General Prim and other revolution- 
 aries, who sought to overthrow the Bourbon monarchy. 
 And when, in 1868, Isabella II. was forced to abandon 
 the throne and take refuge abroad, Ferrer, then only nine 
 years old, took part in the popular rejoicings. All these 
 things left their mark upon his spirit. From that time 
 forward, he never ceased to interest himself in the political 
 struggle, taking his stand on the side of those who desire 
 more happiness and well-being, against those who are 
 
 ' In this document, as quoted in Un Martyr des PrHres, the date of his 
 birth is given as January 13, 1857 ; but I am assured by his brother that this 
 is wrong. One would suppose it a mere misprint, were it not that a few lines 
 lower down he is stated to have been eleven years old in 1868. In the text 
 I have substituted "nine " for ** eleven."
 
 MARRIED IN HASTE 5 
 
 determined that they alone shall enjoy life, often at the 
 expense of others." 
 
 At the age of thirteen he obtained employment in the 
 shop of a corn and seed merchant (some say a draper) in 
 San Martin de Provensals, a district of Barcelona. It is 
 usually said that the influence of this employer, an ardent 
 anti-clerical, undermined the orthodoxy which he had 
 imbibed at home, and had brought with him from home 
 and school ; ^ but it is evident from his own account, in 
 the passage above quoted, that the seeds of revolt had 
 been sown in his mind even before he left Alella. By 
 the time he reached maturity, in any case, he was an 
 avowed and ardent Republican and Freethinker. 
 
 At about the age of twenty he entered the service of 
 the Madrid, Saragossa and Alicante Railway Company, 
 and shortly afterwards married a young woman whom he 
 met in the train. As " inspector of tickets " he had con- 
 stantly to pass and repass between the French frontier 
 and Barcelona, and was thus enabled to become a valued 
 medium of communication between Ruiz Zorrilla, the 
 Republican leader, then in exile at Geneva, and his 
 adherents in Spain. " In this condition he continued," 
 said the Auditor-General,^ "until May 19, 1885, when he 
 resigned his post and settled in Paris ; this resolve being 
 connected with the insurrection of Santa Coloma [de 
 Fames], in which he took some part ; with the domestic 
 troubles which led to his separation from his wife, who 
 fired two shots at him ; and with a supposed robbery of 
 money from a priest who was travelling on the Gerona 
 line." It is characteristic of the judicial methods pursued 
 in this case that a *' supposed robbery " of which Ferrer 
 
 • Un Martyr des Frttres, p, 9 ; McCabe, The Martyrdom 0/ Ferrer, p. 13. 
 
 * As to thii officer and his function, see footnote, p. 35.
 
 6 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 was never formally accused, much less convicted, should 
 have been raked up to his prejudice, in a secret document, 
 never communicated either to him or to his Defender, 
 twenty-five years after the " supposed " event. From the 
 very language of the Auditor, however, it is clear that his 
 removal to Paris was in no sense a flight. He resigned 
 his post on a specified date, and departed.
 
 II 
 
 THE THREE REVOLVER-SHOTS 
 
 The domestic troubles above mentioned are absolutely 
 foreign to the question of Ferrer's guilt or innocence, and 
 the prosecution did not, in fact, dwell upon them at his 
 trial. But as it is constantly stated by his unofficial 
 accusers, clerical and lay, that he "abandoned his wife 
 and three children," the story of his unhappy marriage 
 must be briefly related. In such cases it very seldom 
 happens that the faults are all on one side, and the 
 essential facts are usually very hard to get at. In this 
 case, however, I have a witness to produce who had 
 every opportunity of observation, and whose testimony 
 leaves very little doubt as to the due apportionment of 
 responsibility. 
 
 Ferrer's early years in Paris were years of poverty and 
 struggle. He first became what is described as a wine- 
 broker, then opened a small restaurant in the Rue du 
 Pont Neuf; and from 1889 onwards he made his living 
 by giving lessons in Spanish, while acting as unpaid 
 secretary to Ruiz Zorrilla. He was beginning to acquire 
 some reputation as a teacher, when a sensational incident 
 brought his name into brief but undesirable prominence. 
 Under the heading of " Nouvelles Diverses," the Figaro 
 of June 13, 1894, published the following paragraphs: —
 
 8 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 A Woman's Vengeance. 
 
 About nine o'clock yesterday evening, three revolver- 
 shots caused a lively excitement in the Faubourg Mont- 
 martre. A woman had fired upon her husband. She 
 would have gone on firing if some passer-by had not 
 disarmed her. 
 
 While the injured man was taken to a neighbouring 
 pharmacy, his assailant was brought before M. Mouquin, 
 commissary of police. There she alleged that, being the 
 mother of four children, abandoned by her husband, she 
 had desired to avenge herself, and that she only regretted 
 not to have killed the wretch whom she hated. 
 
 After having had his wounds, which were very slight, 
 attended to, the husband told a wholly different tale. 
 
 He is named F. F , and is a teacher of Spanish. He 
 
 met his wife, ten years ago, in a railway-train ; she repre- 
 sented herself as being oppressed by her family ; he took 
 pity on her and married her. They came to live in Paris. 
 He has, in fact, had four children by her. One of these 
 died last August ; two are in Australia, in the care of a 
 
 brother of M. F ; the fourth, a child of three, is 
 
 being brought up at Moret [sic], under her father's direc- 
 tions. M. F has, indeed, left his wife, by reason, as 
 
 he states, of her misconduct. 
 
 The inquiry with which the magistrate is proceeding 
 will show on which side the truth lies. 
 
 On the following day (June 14) the same paper gave 
 another account of the case, this time entirely from the 
 point of view of the wife, who had gained the ear, it 
 would seem, both of the magistrate and the reporter. It 
 does not appear that Ferrer took any further steps in the 
 matter, or was examined even at the ultimate trial. This 
 is the lady's story as given in the Figaro of June 14, under 
 the heading of " L'Affaire Ferrer " : —
 
 "THE UNHAPPY MOTHER" 9 
 
 . . . They came to live in Paris, in tiie Rue Richer, 
 and each gave lessons in Spanish. But the peace of the 
 household was very soon troubled, and M. Ferrer, profiting 
 by an absence of his wife, carried off the furniture of their 
 flat, leaving to her the burden of a rather high rent. 
 Further, he carried off the three children who remained to 
 them. Two of them he sent to Australia, to his brother ; 
 and the youngest, a child of three, he put out to nurse at 
 Moree (Loire-et-Cher). When the poor woman returned, 
 great was her despair on finding her children gone. She 
 made several requests to her husband to be allowed to see, 
 to embrace them ; but she met with a flat refusal. M. 
 Ferrer had commenced an action for divorce against her, 
 and he declined, until the action was decided, to let her 
 see her children. Again and again the unhappy mother 
 had gone to M. Mouquin, commissary of police, to beg for 
 his assistance. The magistrate could only exhort her to 
 have patience, to be calm. She must await the authoriza- 
 tion of the Tribunal. All those who knew Mme. Ferrer, 
 and, knowing her respectability, were interested in her, also 
 advised her to wait. To wait ! she could do so no longer. 
 The obstacles placed in her way exalted her maternal 
 love, and if she could not see her children again, she pre- 
 ferred to die. It was with the fixed intention of shootingf 
 herself before her husband's eyes, if he persisted in keeping 
 her apart from her children, that she awaited M. Ferrer in 
 the Rue Richer. She came up to him and entreated, in 
 tones of supplication, to see her children. His only 
 answer was a disdainful silence, as he passed on his way. 
 Exasperated by his contempt, the unhappy woman had 
 no thought but that of vengeance. She fired at her 
 husband, but inflicted only an insignificant wound. 
 
 Yesterday morning she was again brought to the office 
 of M. Mouquin. She adjured the magistrate to tell her 
 where her children were. 
 
 "Two are in Australia, with your brother-in-law," 
 replied the commissary ; " the third is at Morce."
 
 10 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 " In Australia ! " she cried with anguish. " Ah ! they 
 are lost to me ! I shall see them no more ! " 
 And she fell senseless to the floor. 
 
 Had there been nothing else in this narrative to put us 
 on our guard, the melodramatic close would have sufficed. 
 Let us see how much truth there is in the whole story. 
 
 Here my task becomes a delicate one, for I have to 
 call a daughter to throw light on the domestic unhappi- 
 ness of her parents. On reading the above extracts from 
 the Figaro, Mme. Trinidad Ferrer wrote a long statement, 
 dated Paris, July 6, 1910, which she placed at my dis- 
 posal. I shall not reproduce it in full, for it contains many 
 painful details which it is quite unnecessary to go into ; 
 but in the portions I suppress there is not a single word 
 which tells against Francisco Ferrer. The ardent sincerity 
 of the writer must, I think, be manifest in every line. 
 
 As the statement follows no very definite order, I have 
 somewhat rearranged as well as compressed it. Thus it 
 runs : — 
 
 My heart bounded with indignation on reading the so 
 false version given by the Figaro of the sad incidents 
 which arose at that time between my parents. Confiding 
 in you, I shall do all I can to establish the truth and prove 
 to you what a man of duty and delicacy was my dear and 
 lamented father. . . . You will understand the struggle 
 which passes in me, and how painful is my task as regards 
 my mother ; but the accusations against my father, dead, 
 and by such a death ! are so monstrous and false that I 
 cannot but protest — for I tell the truth. 
 
 I was my father's eldest daughter. At the age of five 
 I came to France, with my mother ; for my father was 
 already there. Papa was for some time secretary to Ruiz 
 Zorrilla, and during that time he studied much ; for he 
 had gone into business quite young, and therefore his
 
 THE DAUGHTER'S DEFENCE 11 
 
 education was limited. It was only after many efforts 
 that he was able to give lessons in Spanish. Later, my 
 mother too gave lessons. Every Sunday, Papa went out 
 with me, and with my mother if she cared to come ; other- 
 wise with me alone. He was a gentle and affectionate 
 father, loving to answer all my childish questions, and 
 frequently evoking them. 
 
 We were four daughters. Paz, the second, was twenty 
 months younger than me. Luz, who died some time before 
 the affair of the revolver, in spite of all my parents' care 
 for her, was three years younger than me. Sol, who was 
 ten years my junior, has been brought up by my mother. 
 My sister Paz was brought up by my aunt Marieta, wife 
 of my father's brother Jose, and in 1892, at the age of 
 eight, she went with my uncle Jose to Australia. She 
 wrote to us regularly every week, and we as regularly to 
 her, except my mother, who seldom wrote. 
 
 In the light of this statement, what are we to think of 
 the distracted mother begging the commissary of police 
 to tell her where her children were, and swooning at the 
 terrible news of their having been spirited away to the 
 antipodes ? Trinidad herself had meanwhile joined Paz 
 in Australia ; but, as we shall see, her mother was perfectly 
 aware of her whereabouts. Her statement now enters 
 upon some scenes of family life, of which I shall say 
 nothing, except that the child's sympathies were always 
 with her father. Her evidence, no doubt, is subject to a 
 certain amount of discount. Even the most intelligent 
 and observant child cannot look very far beneath the 
 surface of a disastrous marriage. She shows that her 
 father acted, under extremely trying circumstances, with 
 rare patience and dignity; but it is only fair to remember 
 that patience and dignity may sometimes be precisely 
 the most unbearable qualities a man can display, and that
 
 12 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 he may even calculate upon their exasperating effect. I 
 see no reason to think that this was Ferrer's case ; Mme. 
 Trinidad's story, indeed, speaks as convincingly as possible 
 in her father's favour. I merely remind the reader that 
 it cannot be taken as absolutely proving more than that 
 the father earned the child's enthusiastic affection and 
 loyalty, and was in her eyes a much-tried and long- 
 suffering man. 
 
 She proceeds : — 
 
 In the evening, after his lessons were over, my father 
 used to copy manuscripts, which one of his friends procured 
 for him, at a very low rate of pay ; and it was one of my 
 mother's grievances that, on the evening after the death of 
 my sister Luz, my father spent part of the night at this 
 arid task. Had he not done so, he would have lost the 
 work ; and in spite of his great silent grief, he applied his 
 mind to the mechanical toil of a word-for-word copy. My 
 mother understood no grief which did not express itself in 
 cries and theatrical outpourings. 
 
 Being possessed by ideas of grandeur and luxury, my 
 mother was a poor economist ; and in order to guarantee 
 the future — that is to say, a few weeks in advance — my 
 father was obliged to give out daily the five or six francs 
 for household expenses. . . . My father paid the rent and 
 paid my teachers. On himself he spent nothing at all, for 
 he had purposely given up smoking, and never went to the 
 cafe. His only outlay was for newspapers and an occasional 
 book — often for me. 
 
 It was I who, with a child's wish to act for the best, 
 gave the immediate impulse to the separation of my 
 parents. This was how it happened. Coming home one 
 day from the communal school, I found that the table was 
 not laid for lunch and that no meal had been prepared. 
 The maid excused herself to Papa by saying that Mama 
 had gone out without leaving her any money. I then
 
 THE DAUGHTER'S DEFENCE 13 
 
 advised Papa to send me to a pension, and to separate 
 from Mama. They were too unhappy together ; and as 
 Mama also could earn her living, perhaps they would be 
 able to lead a quieter life apart. . . , That very day I 
 went into pension with a Mme. Tessier, who kept an anti- 
 clerical school at Montreuil ; and there I remained until I 
 went to Australia. 
 
 The writer adds that it may appear strange that so 
 young a girl should thus mix herself up in the troubles of 
 her parents, but that she is now twenty-eight, and does not 
 feel that she ought to have acted otherwise. 
 
 When I was at the pension [she continues] my mother 
 came to see me every Sunday, from five to six. She always 
 talked on the assumption that she was going to get a 
 divorce, and she wanted me to live with her after the 
 divorce, I was afraid that her tears would break down 
 my resolution ; and the horrid things she said of my father 
 made me sick at heart. It was then that I asked my father 
 to send me to Australia. He went with me to Marseilles, 
 and consulted the Captain of the Armand Beluc as to 
 how he could secure me an escort to Melbourne. On the 
 Captain's recommendation, I was placed under the care of 
 a respectable couple, having two children of their own, to 
 whom my father, in spite of his constant poverty, gave fifty 
 francs for my small expenses on the voyage. They handed 
 the fifty francs intact to my aunt, who came to meet me on 
 my arrival. 
 
 My mother was never ignorant of my address. At 
 each port of call I wrote to her (for one always loves one's 
 mother), and she knew the address of my uncle in Australia. 
 As to my sister Sol, who had been placed at nurse, my 
 mother could have kept her had she wished to, or could 
 have gone to see her, for she knew the address of the 
 nurse. 
 
 My father, in his delicacy, never told me that my
 
 14 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 mother had fired at him, and never complained of her to 
 me. Not till this year did I learn the result of the 
 revolver-shots, which was to deprive my father of the 
 greater number of his pupils, through the scandal which 
 they caused. This I say to show you how, in that dear 
 heart, which beat only for those he loved and for the 
 causes he thought just, there was no room for recrimi- 
 nations or for self-justification at the expense of the mother 
 of his children. 
 
 I shall quote no further from this most interesting 
 document. Let me only add that it is all the more con- 
 vincing, as the writer shows incidentally that after her 
 marriage a certain misunderstanding arose between her 
 father and herself, which was not quite healed for several 
 years ; but even during the time of partial estrangement, 
 she declares, he never failed to treat her with forbearance 
 and generosity. 
 
 On July 3, 1894, Mme. Ferrer came up for trial. 
 " Only one ball having taken effect," says the Figaro, " and 
 having caused but an insignificant wound, the accused was 
 not sent to the Court of Assizes, but brought before the 
 8th Correctional Chamber." She appears to have poured 
 forth afresh, with embellishments, the story of her wrongs ; 
 while Ferrer seems neither to have been present nor in 
 any way represented. 
 
 "'The Court,' said M. le President Flandin, 'demands 
 nothing better, madame, than to give full weight to all 
 these attenuating circumstances. But the deed which you 
 committed was a very grave one. You must at least pro- 
 mise that you will not again attempt your husband's life.' 
 
 " ' Oh, sir,' replied the accused, sobbing, ' I promise 
 that ! My husband is dead to me. I shall not do it 
 again. But let me have my child restored to me ! '
 
 
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 Pi 
 
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 75 
 
 
 
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 EXIT MME. FERRER 15 
 
 "Mme. Ferrer added that unfortunately it was to be 
 feared that her husband had sent the little girl abroad. 
 
 "The Court condemned the unhappy woman to one 
 year's imprisonment, but with application of the Berenger 
 Law." In other words, she was at once released under a 
 first-offenders act. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the mother did, shortly afterwards, 
 obtain possession of little Sol, and carried her off to 
 Russia, where she herself formed other ties. For years 
 Ferrer tried hard to obtain a divorce. In Spain it was 
 impossible ; it might have been possible in France could 
 he have secured naturalization, but in this he did not 
 succeed. Even down to 1898, we find him writing with 
 regret of the failure of his efforts.^ 
 
 Whatever judgment we may form as to Ferrer's part 
 in the sordid story above outlined, the hundred-times- 
 repeated statement that he "abandoned his wife and 
 three children " is manifestly false. So far was he from 
 abandoning the two daughters who were left, to him that, 
 in spite of his poverty, he twice — in 1896 and in 1898 — 
 scraped together enough money to go out to Australia 
 and see them. " At these times," writes Mme. Trinidad, 
 " he showed himself full of paternal solicitude for us, 
 qualified by the fear of restricting our little childish 
 liberties." She adds that she has recently learned, from 
 those who knew him at the time, that he submitted to 
 severe privations in order to meet the expense of these 
 voyages. After her father's death, moreover, Mme. Trini- 
 dad prosecuted the printer of a defamatory poster, exhibited 
 in Charlcvillc, France, in which, among many other 
 calumnies, it was stated that Ferrer was " miserable comme 
 pere." The "Jugement rendu par le Tribunal Civil de 
 
 ' Two letters of 1898 printed in La Ragione (Rome), November 11, 1909.
 
 16 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Charleville le 3 Mars, 1910," now lies before me, showing 
 that the printer had to pay 400 francs damages and the 
 costs of the action, and was moreover ordered to advertise 
 the judgment, at his own expense, both by bills to be 
 posted in various towns of the neighbourhood, and by 
 advertisements in the local papers. 
 
 The second daughter, Paz, does not, like Trinidad, 
 share her father's ideas. In a letter addressed to the Gil 
 Bias of November 16, 1909, she writes : "A Spaniard by 
 birth, I remain entirely a Spaniard, and respect the 
 religious and political institutions of my country, I have 
 often told my father so. He did not get angry; he 
 smiled, and that was all." At the same time she is no 
 less emphatic than her sister in declaring him to have 
 been a most considerate and affectionate father. " I 
 affirm," she says, " that I have never had any complaint 
 to make against him. When I wanted to devote myself 
 to the theatre, he opposed me. He used all the arguments 
 that a father can use to his daughter. But I had the 
 passion of my art. . . . He ended by yielding to my 
 entreaties. So long as I required it, he supported me ; 
 he gave me my first teachers. Whenever I have appealed 
 to his heart, his heart has answered. I cannot enter into 
 his reasons for arranging his private life as he did. All I 
 can say is that I think of him with unmixed gratitude and 
 love." 
 
 This young lady, while denying that her father was 
 "an organizer of revolts or a propagator of crime," has 
 come to the conclusion that " his death was imposed on 
 the Spanish Government by reasons of state." It would 
 be curious to know whether the Maura Cabinet values 
 this testimonial. 
 
 In sum, then, we may utterly dismiss the legend which
 
 HUSBAND AND FATHER 17 
 
 represents Ferrer as an unnatural and heartless father. It 
 is a falsehood without a shadow of foundation. That he 
 was a model husband cannot be affirmed with equal 
 certainty, though the evidence goes to show that he was 
 patient and forbearing under sore provocation ; and, at 
 any rate, the records of the 8th Correctional Chamber 
 of Paris are there to prove that he had not exactly a 
 model wife. He afterwards, as we shall see, formed 
 irregular ties which it was not in his power to legitimize ; 
 but this was not until, as his wife put it, " he was dead 
 to her," and she had placed the breadth of Europe, as well 
 as other obstacles, between them.
 
 Ill 
 
 MADEMOISELLE MEUNIER'S MONEY 
 
 There is no doubt that during the first ten years of his 
 life in Paris — that is to say, from 1885 to 1895, or even 
 a little later — Ferrer was closely connected with the 
 Spanish revolutionary-republican party, and was deep 
 in its councils. This he himself never denied. On the 
 other hand, he did not admit that he had ever been an 
 "anarquista de acci6n" — an abettor of bomb-throwing. 
 It is probably true that he at no time approved the 
 sporadic and insensate use of dynamite which has given 
 Barcelona an evil reputation. But we shall have to 
 consider later the validity of a document, dating from 
 1892, which, if it has not been garbled, shows that at that 
 date he thought of organizing a gigantic revolutionary 
 plot, into which the use of dynamite could not but enter. 
 The question of his views in the early nineties, however, 
 has no bearing upon his action in 1909 ; for it is absolutely 
 certain that, soon after the collapse of his family life, a 
 change began to come over his attitude towards the 
 republican party, and towards political action in general. 
 Briefly, he came to feel that political revolutions could 
 bear no lasting fruits in Spain so long as more than fifty 
 per cent, of his countrymen remained " analfabetos " — 
 illiterates — and the education of the remainder was
 
 MADEMOISELLE MEUNIER 19 
 
 miserable both in methods and in spirit. The reality of 
 this change of heart is questioned by his accusers, and we 
 shall have later to look into that point. It is certain, at 
 any rate, that he acted as though his conversion were real, 
 and devoted himself, with all his energy and enthusi- 
 asm, to education. How he was enabled to found the 
 " Escuela Moderna " — the Modern School — has now to be 
 related. 
 
 There lived in Paris in the 'nineties a certain Madame 
 Meunier, whose deceased husband had enriched himself 
 during the Haussmannizing of the capital. Her only 
 daughter, Jeanne Ernestine, was an accomplished musician 
 and something of a linguist. Both mother and daughter 
 were fond of travel, and in 1894 they made up their minds 
 to visit Spain. In preparation for this journey, Mile. 
 Ernestine desired to take lessons in Spanish, and thus 
 made the acquaintance of Francisco Ferrer. The lady 
 was at this time well advanced towards middle age, and 
 not even Ferrer's enemies have seriously attempted to 
 make out that their relation ever transcended the limits 
 of friendship. Calumny has in this case taken a different 
 line, and represented Ferrer as a Tartuffe who affected 
 piety in order to ingratiate himself with a devout and 
 saint-like daughter of the Church. Mile. Meunier, at all 
 events, took her course of lessons, and went with her 
 mother to Madrid, where the old lady died. Perhaps 
 this sad experience gave the daughter a distaste for 
 Spanish, or perhaps the scandal of the revolver-shots 
 made her draw away from Ferrer. At any rate, they 
 appear to have lost sight of each other for some time. 
 After the death of Ruiz Zorrillai in 1895, Ferrer, knowing 
 Mile. Meunier to be an autograph-collector, sent her a 
 letter of his late chief, and this led to a renewal of
 
 20 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 acquaintance, and of lessons in Spanish.^ But Ferrer, 
 as he himself confessed, always tried to make his 
 language-lessons a means of propagating his ideas on 
 politics and religion. " I cannot," he says, " conceive 
 life without propaganda. Wherever I may be — in the 
 street, in public places, in the tramway, in the train 
 — with whomsoever I may find myself in company, I 
 cannot but try to make a convert. I have often exposed 
 myself to rebuffs ; but I cannot help it, or rather I do 
 not try to help it. I would rather appear indiscreet than 
 withhold a word or an observation whereby I may possibly 
 make people reflect." This confession occurs in an article 
 entitled " The Origin of a Fortune " which he contributed 
 to the Espaila Nueva of June i6, 1906 — an article in 
 which he gives his own version of his relations with Mile. 
 Meunier. 
 
 The most interesting case I encountered [he says] 
 was that of a lady, Catholic, apostolic and Roman, 
 whose conviction amounted to fanaticism. More than a 
 year passed before I could speak to her of religion. 
 Thanks to the confidence with which my seriousness 
 inspired her, and to a certain affinity of taste in matters 
 of art, of travel and of manners, I was able at last to 
 permit myself to approach the subject on which my heart 
 was set. 
 
 As the fortress I wanted to take was a formidable one, 
 I could not attack it alone, but began by calling to my aid 
 Volney, whose Rtdns I induced her to read. Naturally 
 this book made a breach : it could not fail to do so in the 
 case of any person who, however fanatical, was at the 
 same time sincere. I gave her other books, and confined 
 myself to discussing with her the thoughts which these 
 works suggested to her. 
 
 ' The incident of the autograph was related to me by Mme, Trinidad 
 Ferrer.
 
 THE TIRELESS PROPAGANDIST 21 
 
 Such was my eagerness for propagating scientific ideas 
 that, on the appearance in France of Malvert's Science et 
 Religion, I paid, out of my savings, for the right of 
 translation, and commissioned my dear Nakens to trans- 
 late and publish it in Spanish. The first copy received 
 from Madrid I destined for my pupil, already less of a 
 fanatic, though still far from being sufficiently seasoned for 
 such reading. 
 
 A few days later I received a letter from her, reproach- 
 ing me with having sent her such a book, though I well 
 knew her beliefs, saying that she had burned it as an 
 insult to her deepest convictions, and announcing that she 
 required no further lessons from me. I replied that I 
 deplored having given her offence, but that, as I had done 
 it with the good object of instructing her, my conscience 
 was at ease, though I was sorry to lose her as a pupil. 
 
 At the end of the vacation, the lady presented herself 
 again, apologizing for her movement of impatience, and 
 asking me to resume my lessons ; but at the same time 
 begging that I would not talk to her of religion. To that 
 I agreed ; but not many lessons passed without the bone 
 of contention cropping up between us. 
 
 Those who lived in Paris during the Dreyfus Affair 
 will certainly never forget it. For my part, I cannot but 
 call it one of my most treasured memories. 
 
 I need not say that I was a Dreyfusard, and that I 
 often talked myself hoarse in pleading his cause. I lost 
 some pupils and made some enemies. 
 
 Like all the Catholics and reactionaries, the lady of 
 whom I speak was against Dreyfus ; and the result may 
 be imagined. How could I keep silent .'' How not talk of 
 religion ? How avoid disputes } To make a long story 
 short, I talked, I reasoned and I advanced proofs, until 
 she was convinced of the malignity, the hypocrisy, or 
 the ignorance of her friends, and of the justice of my 
 arguments. 
 
 From this time forward I was able to open my whole
 
 22 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 mind to her without rebuke, to expound to her my philo- 
 sophic ideas, and to demolish, stone by stone, the fortress 
 of her prejudices. She ended by accepting my views in 
 all that concerned the church {el cultd) and the priests ; 
 but she still feared to cut herself loose from the ideas of 
 the soul, of a life beyond the grave, and of God. 
 
 She was very fond of travelling. Her mother being 
 dead, she had now to find companionship in her adminis- 
 trators ; and she manifested a desire to visit Spain along 
 with me. I asked my fiancee to serve as her travelling 
 companion, and the three of us set off for Barcelona, 
 Madrid (where Sr. Nakens did us the honour to invite us 
 to an excellent fricassee of his own preparation), Anda- 
 lusia, etc. 
 
 Our lessons continued, and in the vacations we tra- 
 velled — to Portugal, to England, and finally to Italy and 
 Switzerland, where, at Geneva, on August 24, 1900, I told 
 her that I did not want any longer to lead this egoistic, 
 pleasure-seeking life, when there was so much to be done 
 for ignorant and suffering humanity. She agreed with me, 
 and offered to stand by me in whatever I proposed. 
 
 It may readily be imagined that during these journeys 
 my tongue was not idle, and that the exchange of ideas 
 went on incessantly. She believed that we were born with 
 the idea of God already implanted in our minds ; but I 
 convinced her, by argument and example, that a child 
 knows nothing except what it is told or taught. Thus she 
 came to agree with me that our ideas and beliefs are 
 simply those which are implanted in us in childhood, 
 except in so far as we may subsequently modify them. 
 
 I expounded to her my plan of teaching, based solely 
 upon the Natural Sciences, whereby the child and the 
 youth are able to explain to themselves the origin of all 
 things, and learn at the same time the trtie origin of all the 
 evils that afflict humanity : wars, pestilences, religions, etc. 
 She approved my plan, and placed at my disposition the 
 money necessary for the enterprise.
 
 FRATERNAL FRIENDSHIP 23 
 
 Ferrer then gives some details as to Mile. Meunier's 
 will, which I shall have presently to go into more fully 
 than he does. His statement concludes as follows : — 
 
 What may seem most surprising is that there was 
 never anything between us except a profound fraternal 
 friendship, founded on personal sympathy and similarity 
 in humanitarian feeling. Not even on New Year's day did 
 we ever exchange a kiss, though on that day, in France, 
 this custom obtains even between those who most detest 
 each other. However strange it may appear, this is the 
 simple truth ; and I am thereby enabled with all the more 
 confidence to exalt the principle which the Escuela 
 Moderna represents : the preparation for a free and happy 
 humanity, without wars or other struggles, individual or 
 collective. 
 
 I have reproduced this document at length, not merely 
 for the sake of the facts it embodies, but still more for the 
 clear insight it gives us into the writer's character. All 
 the facts, it may be said at once, are fully borne out by 
 independent evidence. But even if such evidence were 
 lacking, could any unprejudiced person read the statement 
 and disbelieve it ? Does it not bear the mark of candour 
 — nay, of ingenuousness — in every line ? From the — 
 somewhat irrelevant — point of view of our English preju- 
 dices, social and intellectual, it is at many points open to 
 criticism. The irrepressible proselytism of the man sug- 
 gests that detestable phrase, "bad form," while his crude 
 and self-complacent dogmatism must doubtless be very 
 distressing to cultured persons who keep their souls 
 quiescent in a twilight of "philosophic doubt." Without 
 being such a cultured person, I neither share Ferrer's 
 belief that "the origin of all things" is to be learnt in 
 a scientific text-book, nor do I consider this dogma a
 
 24 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 fortunate basis for a system of education. But whatever 
 our criticisms of the character revealed in this autobiographic 
 fragment, we must surely admit it to be a genuine, spon- 
 taneous, inartificial character, in nowise apt for year-long 
 dissimulation exercised in the interests of a ferocious 
 fanaticism. Yet that is the theory advanced by those who 
 insist that his enthusiasm for education was a mere cloak 
 for violent and bloodthirsty anarchism. 
 
 When Ferrer says that he invited his " fiancee " {novia) 
 to be Mile. Meunier's companion on their journeys, he 
 uses a word which may be literally accurate, since he was 
 at that time still trying to obtain a divorce, and, had he 
 succeeded, would have married this lady ; but their rela- 
 tion was not that usually understood by betrothal. The 
 lady's name has often appeared in print, but it is imma- 
 terial, and need not be repeated here. She is a French- 
 woman, cultivated and very intelligent. For about nine 
 years she shared Ferrer's life ; and she bore him, in 1900, 
 a son, named Riego, in honour of a Spanish revolutionary 
 hero of the early nineteenth century. The rupture between 
 them, which took place in 1905, was far from amicable, so 
 that, in respect to Ferrer's character as a man, the lady is 
 a hostile witness. All the more trustworthy is her evi- 
 dence as to facts within her knowledge ; and she has 
 confirmed to me, in every detail, Ferrer's account of 
 his relations with Mile. Meunier, who became her most 
 intimate friend. " Was Mile. Meunier a woman of intelli- 
 gence ? " I asked her. " EUe ^tait plutot bonne — tr^s- 
 bonne," was her reply. 
 
 The journeys which these three made in company 
 extended from Aberdeen in the north to Tangier in the 
 
 south. Mile. B recalls very clearly the conversation 
 
 at Geneva, in August, 1900, to which Ferrer refers. The
 
 MADEMOISELLE MEUNIER'S WILL 25 
 
 result of it was that Mile. Meunier determined to endow, 
 in one way or another, the educational work on which 
 Ferrer's heart was set ; and on returning to Paris she 
 consulted a notary on the subject. But at that time she 
 had little ready money at her command. A large part of 
 her fortune was tied up in an investment, excellent in 
 itself, but which precluded immediate realization ; and she 
 could look for no help from her man of affairs, Signor 
 Cesare Coppola, of Milan, who would have opposed to the 
 utmost any such employment of her means. She there- 
 fore made no immediate donation or allowance ; but in her 
 will,^ dated January 20, 190 1, she left to Ferrer a house in 
 Paris (11 Rue des Petites Ecuries), producing a yearly 
 revenue of about ;i^ 1400. This was, it would seem, some- 
 thing like half her fortune ; for the rest, she left to a 
 godson a house in Milan ; to six other god-children and 
 friends 94,000 francs, in sums ranging from 50,000 francs 
 to 2000 francs ; to seven persons (apparently a governess 
 and servants) annuities amounting in all to 10,900 francs ; 
 and to the Paris Conservatoire a yearly sum to found a 
 prize for harp-playing. Signor Coppola was to be her 
 residuary legatee and executor. 
 
 To the reh'gious institutions, to which, in bygone days, 
 she had been a liberal benefactress, she left nothing at all. 
 One paragraph of her will, however, ran as follows : — 
 
 I desire to die in the bosom of my Holy Mother the 
 Church. My burial shall be simple and religious, and of 
 the money immediately available at my death the sum of 
 3000 francs shall be devoted to the saying of masses (pre- 
 ferably in France) for the repose of my soul and that of 
 
 ' I have before me a copy of her will, deposited in the Archivio Notarile 
 of Milan. In it her name is spelt "Meunie" — no doubt by the Italian 
 copyist.
 
 26 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 my beloved mother. My body shall rest in the Cemetery 
 of Montmartre.^ 
 
 Signor Coppola, and after him all the enemies of 
 Ferrer, have asserted that he deceived Mile. Meunier as to 
 his ideas, and professed to be "ultra-conservative and 
 religious." Fortunately, there is no need to discuss the 
 question whether he was capable of such a monstrous 
 and elaborate fraud ; for the whole theory is disproved by 
 a letter from Mile. Meunier herself, quoted in the invalu- 
 able "Dictamen" of the Auditor-General.^ 
 
 She wrote to Ferrer on November 3, 1899 — 
 
 I used to cherish an admiring reverence for the clergy : 
 it is dead. I felt a respectful admiration for the men and 
 the processes of the law: it is dead. I esteemed and 
 admired soldiers : that feeling is dead. Dead, too, is my 
 general respect for all authority and government. . . . But 
 there is a Supreme Being, a God, the God of my mother, 
 the God whom she adored, who made her happy, and to 
 whom she owed her sweet and tranquil end. 
 
 The frame of mind disclosed in this letter is exactly 
 that which inspired the will ; and it is too common, surely, 
 to be called even paradoxical. Ferrer had succeeded in 
 convincing her reason, but not her feelings. She pro- 
 foundly respected him, and so far sympathized with his 
 practical aims as to feel sure that he would put her legacy 
 to a good use ; but she clung at once to the conception of 
 God, and to the practices consecrated by the fuller faith in 
 which her mother had died. It is very possible that, 
 
 ' Mr. Hilaire Belloc {^Dublin Review, January, 1910, p. 174) says that 
 Ferrer, "it is presumed, embezzled the money left for masses." It is hard to 
 see how he accomplished this particular villainy, seeing that it could not be 
 done without the connivance of his bitter enemy (and an ardent Clerical)* 
 Signor Coppola. 
 
 " Process, p. 305.
 
 A FAMILY SCENE 27 
 
 having travelled in Spain, she drew a clear distinction 
 between her ideal Catholicism and the Spanish clericalism 
 which her friend designed to combat. 
 
 One last trait may be cited, to illustrate the relation 
 between Ferrer and his benefactress. The anecdote is told 
 by Ferrer himself, and is so far open to suspicion. The 
 reader must form his own judgment as to whether it 
 bears the appearance of falsehood. It is to be found 
 in a letter written to El Pais, and reprinted in El 
 Imparcialoi October 14, 1909 — the paper which contained 
 the report of the writer's execution. After mentioning 
 several proofs of Mile. Meunier's full knowledge of his 
 opinions, Ferrer proceeds : " One day we were all three at 
 Alella, in the house of my family. As they were all 
 thoroughly convinced Catholics, I never appeared there 
 without getting into a religious discussion ; and in the 
 course of such a discussion I remember Mile. Meunier 
 turning to my mother and saying very affectionately, 
 *Do not let it trouble you, seiiora, that Francisco has 
 changed his ideas, for he is the best man in the world.' 
 My nephew Miguel Salillas y Ferrer, the candidate of the 
 Committee of Social Defence^ in the last Barcelona 
 elections, can bear witness to this fact." 
 
 ' An ultra-Catholic association, which was largely instrumental in hounding 
 Ferrer to his doom.
 
 IV 
 
 THE ESCUELA MODERNA 
 
 All parties admit that the house in the Rue des Petites 
 Ecuries was left to Ferrer absolutely, and without any 
 condition whatsoever ; ^ but he regarded the legacy as a 
 trust.2 The testatrix died on April 2, 1901, and in the 
 following September the now famous Escuela Moderna 
 was opened at 56 Calle Bailen, Barcelona. 
 
 The crying need for education in Spain is contested 
 only by those who think ignorance more wholesome than 
 knowledge for the average human soul, or whose interest 
 lies in affecting this opinion. The deficiencies of the 
 actual system are but faintly indicated in the fact that 
 10,000,000 men and women, out of a total population of 
 less than 20,000,000, cannot read or write. In theory, it is 
 true, elementary education has been compulsory since 1857, 
 
 * Here is the whole text of the paragraph making the bequest, the only 
 allusion to Ferrer in the will:— "Je legue a Mens. Francisco Ferrer, ne a 
 Alella, province de Barcelone (Espagne) et demeurant actuellement a. Paris, 
 43 rue Richer, la maison sise a Paris rue des Petites Ecuries, No. II." 
 
 * Signor Coppola tries to make out that Mile. Meunier believed that Ferrer 
 wanted to start a "Model Infant Asylum." Of this he adduces no shred of 
 proof, and a letter from Mile. Meunier to himself, which he quotes, in no way 
 confirms the idea. The lady, moreover, did not foresee her death, and it is 
 abundantly established that she intended, had she lived, to endow Ferrer's 
 enterprise. How could he possibly have hoped to deceive a living benefactress 
 as to the nature of his work ? The whole idea, indeed, is absurd, in the light 
 of the letter above quoted.
 
 SPANISH SCHOOLS 29 
 
 and free, since 1901, to children whose parents are unable 
 to pay. But the law, as a matter of fact, not only is not, 
 but cannot be, enforced ; for the material and means pro- 
 vided for carrying it into effect are flagrantly inadequate. 
 From a recent volume of statistics, summarized in the 
 Heraldo de Madrid in November, 1909, it appears that 
 "while four provinces have the full complement of ele- 
 mentary schools required by the law, the supply in all the 
 remaining 45 is deficient, the shortage per province being 
 from 772 schools downwards, and the total deficiency 
 amounting to 9505 schools. The total increase of school 
 supply between 1870 and 1908 is 2150 schools, or an 
 average of about 56 schools per year. At this rate it 
 would take over 150 years to catch up even to the school 
 provision required by the school law of 1857, without 
 allowing for any increase of population."^ The school- 
 masters allotted by law are, roughly speaking, one to every 
 thousand of the population ; and of course the actual supply 
 of teachers falls much below this modest allowance. The 
 salaries of teachers range from ;!^20 to ;^I20 a year, 
 and average about £dp, with a free house. They have 
 also the perquisite of a small grant for providing school- 
 books ; and as_ there is generally no one to see that the 
 books are actually provided, the result, in many cases, may 
 be imagined. The control of schools in villages and small 
 towns lies with the Ayuntamiento or Town Council, which 
 is practically dominated by the Alcalde, often himself 
 illiterate, and wholly careless of the interests of education. 
 In the above-mentioned report, the Ayuntamientos are 
 
 ' For these figures, and for other information in this chapter, I am indebted 
 to Mr. Rafael Shaw's excellent book Spai7t from Within (London, Fisher 
 Unwin, 1910), I may also refer the reader to El Atraso de Espana, by 
 "John Chamberlain," i,e, iJr. Cazalla (Semperc y Compania, Valencia y 
 Madrid).
 
 30 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 said to be in debt to teachers for arrears of salary amount- 
 ing to ;^ 280,000. Under such conditions, what sort of 
 efficiency can be expected ? ^ But still more amazing 
 things are related of the school buildings, not by irre- 
 sponsible observers, but by the Minister of Education, in 
 a report addressed to the Cortes: "More than 10,000 
 schools are on hired premises, and many of these are 
 absolutely destitute of hygienic conditions. There are 
 schools mixed up with hospitals, with cemeteries, with 
 slaughter-houses, with stables.^ One school forms the 
 entrance to a cemetery, and the corpses are placed on the 
 master's table while the last responses are being said. 
 There is a school into which the children cannot enter 
 until the animals have been taken out and sent to pasture. 
 Some are so small that as soon as the warm weather be- 
 gins the boys faint for want of air and ventilation.^ One 
 school is [surrounded by ?] a manure-heap in process of 
 fermentation, and one of the local authorities has said that 
 in this way the children are warmer in winter. One school 
 in Catalonia adjoins a prison. Another, in Andalusia, is 
 turned into an enclosure for the bulls when there is a bull- 
 fight in the town." 
 
 Is it to be wondered that Ferrer should feel that a 
 reform of education must be the first step towards any 
 permanent amelioration of the condition of the Spanish 
 people ? 
 
 It is a mistake, however, to suppose that Spanish 
 education, such as it is, rests mainly in the hands of the 
 
 ^ "He is hungrier than a schoolmaster" is, says Mr. G. H. B. Ward, "a 
 household proverb " in Spain. 
 
 - It will be remembered that the school at Alella, in Ferrer's time, was 
 
 " little better than a stable." 
 
 ' At Alella an inner room, with no window or means of ventilation, opens 
 off the main schoolroom.
 
 CLERICAL EDUCATION 31 
 
 priests. Clerical teaching is, as a rule, a luxury for the 
 rich. The Jesuits, the Padres Escolapios, and other orders, 
 have many colleges, some of them large and splendid. 
 From the heights of Tibidabo, above Barcelona, one looks 
 down on two such institutions, housed in sumptuous build- 
 ings that would do no discredit to Oxford or Cambridge. 
 But these are strictly commercial institutions, established 
 to provide the upper classes with safe knowledge and 
 sound theology. In the towns there are a good many 
 private schools kept by nuns, but these have no high 
 reputation. I cannot find that the religious orders con- 
 tribute much to education, except purely as a matter of 
 business, which means, of course, that they have little 
 share in the teaching of the poorer classes. The instruc- 
 tion given in the official schools, however, is by way of 
 being religious. "The schoolmaster, who has sworn to 
 protect 'the faith,'" says Mr. G. H. B. Ward, "is rigidly 
 supervised by the parochial priest and diocesan inspector." 
 Though the masters are themselves, as a rule, laymen, 
 they would probably never dream of departing from the 
 mechanical routine of religious exercises. So-called 
 religious pictures, of the poorest and tawdriest description, 
 are the invariable decoration of the schoolroom walls. 
 "The children," says Sr. Cazalla,"pass half of their school 
 hours in prayers and recitations of the catechism and of 
 * sacred history.' Very few learn to write ; some learn to 
 read, by reason of the extreme ease with which Spanish 
 lets itself be learnt." Which means, of course, that Spanish 
 is rationally spelt. 
 
 Mr. William Heaford, in his pamphlet, VEcole Moderne, 
 has shown that Ferrer was not so much the initiator as 
 the systematizer of the movement for democratic educa- 
 tion. Ever since the revolution of 18G8 sporadic efforts
 
 32 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 had been made by intelligent members of the Spanish 
 working-class to secure for their children something better 
 than the miserable instruction given in the official schools. 
 The revolt against the distressing conditions above 
 described began to make headway about 1885, and by 
 the end of last century there were many "Republican 
 schools" in various towns of Spain. What was new in 
 the Escuela Moderna was, in the first place, the application 
 of (more or less) modern and scientific methods of peda- 
 gogy, in the second place, the inculcation of definitely 
 rationalistic, humanitarian, anti-military and anti-patriotic 
 doctrine. Ferrer did not at all take the view that his 
 mission was simply to supply his countrymen with some- 
 thing better than the deplorable education furnished by 
 the State. He conceived his system to be an improve- 
 ment, not only on Spanish education (which would have 
 been a modest claim) but on education as commonly 
 practised in the world at large. He was conscious enough 
 of the difficulty of getting his ideas carried out — of 
 securing teachers, text-books, and school-material suited 
 to his views. But that the views themselves were abso- 
 lutely right, not for Spain alone, but for humanity, he 
 had no doubt at all. He could not, as he said, " conceive 
 life without propaganda " ; and propaganda could not begin 
 too early. Having attained absolute clearness on all 
 things mundane, and convinced himself that things extra- 
 mundane either did not exist or did not matter, he felt 
 that the first duty of the educator was to bring this gospel 
 home to the infant mind, before any shades of the prison- 
 house of supernaturalism had begun to gather round it. 
 There is not the least doubt that his teaching was not 
 merely anti-clerical but anti-religious. And even deeper 
 than the rebellion against supernaturalism lay the rebellion
 
 THE ESCUELA MODERNA 33 
 
 against class domination and exploitation. State-educa- 
 tion was in Ferrer's eyes at least as noxious as church- 
 education. 
 
 It is perfectly true, then — and we ought not, in fairness, 
 to lose sight of the fact — that the Escuela Moderna 
 was unmistakably and avowedly a nursery of rebellious 
 citizens. It might turn out " good Europeans " ; but, from 
 the point of view of any believer in the established order 
 of things, spiritual, administrative, or economic, its whole 
 effort was to turn out bad Spaniards. Consequently it 
 was only natural that it should excite the utmost horror 
 in clerical and conservative minds. Ferrer was from first 
 to last an ardent Revolutionist. He had come to think 
 that Spain was not yet ripe for revolution ; but the whole 
 object of his work was to correct her unripeness by 
 educating Revolutionists. His enemies averred, and no 
 doubt many of them sincerely believed, that his revolu- 
 tionism was synonymous with violent anarchism. I have 
 already indicated my disbelief in this accusation, and I 
 shall have later to go into the question in more detail. 
 But even on the hither side of violent anarchism, there 
 was much in Ferrer's teaching that, in any country in the 
 world, could not but strain toleration to its utmost limit. 
 We can hardly conceive what would happen if some one 
 were to set up in England an aggressively anti-religious, 
 anti-monarchical, anti-patriotic, anti-militarist, anti-capi- 
 talist school, which should, moreover, beget a whole crop 
 of imitative offshoots ; but it is quite certain that there 
 would be a great outcry, and a demand for prosecution 
 or repression. We cannot, then, blame clericalism and 
 militarism for combining against Ferrer, and seeking, in 
 mere self-defence, to put a check on his activities. Had 
 they used the law to silence him, it would have been a 
 
 D
 
 34 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 fair act of war ; but the accusation we are now investi- 
 gating is that they abused the law to kill him. 
 
 Ferrer's initial difficulty was, of course, to find teachers 
 able and willing to put his ideas into practice. The first, 
 or one of the first, on whom he laid his hand was a certain 
 Mme. Clemence Jacquinet, who is the subject of one of 
 the favourite and most frequently-repeated legends of the 
 prosecution. The Auditor-General, in his "dictamen," 
 gives the story its official form. Ferrer, he says, had 
 established " philosophico-mercantile relations " with Mme. 
 Jacquinet, who had been in charge of a " laic school " at 
 Sakha, in Egypt — a school which the British authorities 
 had closed as being " prejudicial," or, as we should say, 
 detrimental. Mme. Jacquinet, being an atheist, anti- 
 militarist, and anarchist, was a woman after Ferrer's own 
 heart. He therefore "snatched her from suicide," and 
 appointed her directress of the Escuela Moderna. 
 "Thus," the Auditor concludes, "Mme. Jacquinet, who 
 was weeded out of the soil of Egypt, by the authorities 
 of liberal England, as a noxious and dangerous germ, 
 being transplanted by Ferrer to Barcelona, took root, 
 developed, and brought forth abundant and most bitter 
 fruits in our calumniated Spain." This eloquent passage 
 has struck the reactionary imagination, and the fact that 
 " liberal England " could not tolerate Ferrer's first 
 directress has been cited in triumph by all the apologists 
 of the Maura Government. The only misfortune is 
 that it does not happen to be a fact at all. I was so 
 strongly assured of this in Barcelona, that, though the 
 matter was of small importance, I thought it worth while 
 to go to headquarters and get at the actual truth. 
 Information obtained from official sources in Egypt runs 
 as follows (I omit some details which have no reference to
 
 THE JACQUINET MYTH 35 
 
 Mme. Jacquinet) : " About ten years ago, a certain Hassan 
 Pasha Tawfik was Inspector of the Domains, and lived at 
 Sakha. Clemence Jacquinet was governess to his children, 
 and also used to give lessons in a school on the Domains 
 lands at Sakha. The school contained about 200 boys 
 and 30 girls. Mile. Jacquinet stayed for a year with the 
 Pasha at Sakha, and when he retired on a pension she 
 came with him to Cairo. . . . Six months after their 
 departure, the school closed for want of funds and order, 
 for the Domains had ceased their contributions, and the 
 Pasha his ' benevolences.' There is no ground for the 
 statement that the British authorities ' ordered the Pasha 
 to dismiss her and close the school.' It was rather a case 
 of 'le combat cessa, faute de combattants.' The pupils 
 vanished with the funds, and the funds vanished with the 
 Pasha. . . . Mile. Jacquinet remained with the Pasha for 
 two years in Cairo, and then left for Europe. She is still 
 in correspondence with the Pasha and his son, formerly 
 an employee of the Museum, and now at the Ministry 
 for Foreign Affairs." How the myth of Mme. Jacquinet's 
 expulsion from Egypt came into existence it is impossible 
 to say. Probably A said to B, " She must have been 
 expelled," and B said to C, "She was." But the fact 
 that the Auditor-General, professing to proceed upon docu- 
 mentary evidence, should dwell with rhetorical emphasis 
 on this wholly unfounded statement, shows with what 
 uncritical avidity P'errer's soldier-judges seized upon 
 every rumour that could be cited to his prejudice, and 
 set it down as a fact.^ 
 
 ' The Auditor-General is an officer whose business it was to send up the 
 sentence of the Military Tribunal to the Captain-General of Catalonia, 
 accompanied by a report recommending that it should be confirmed or 
 annulled, as the case might be. A? a matter of fact, the report is simply a 
 third indictment, supplementinji those of the Prosecutor and the Assessor, and
 
 36 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that Mme. Jacquinet's 
 opinions, when she took up her position at the Escuela 
 Moderna, were pretty much what the Auditor represents 
 them to have been. She was an atheist, an anti-militarist, 
 and, in a certain sense, an anarchist. " In a certain 
 sense ? " the reader may say. " Then in what sense ? " 
 In the same sense, probably, in which Ferrer was an 
 anarchist. It is time that we should look more closely 
 into this question. 
 
 In the manufacturing regions of Spain, the majority 
 of the working class, who in other countries would call 
 themselves socialists, reject the necessity for organization 
 which all sane socialists admit, and prefer to call them- 
 selves anarchists. The reasons for this are not quite easy 
 to define, but may probably be reduced to three. In the 
 first place, the workmen as a class are too ignorant to 
 form any clear conception of the complex mechanism of 
 society, and its absolute dependence on some sort of 
 directing intelligence. In the second place, the Spanish 
 character, when awakened to thought at all, is prone to 
 idealistic dreaming. In the third place — and this is 
 perhaps the strongest reason — a people which suffers 
 daily from the evils of highly-centralized misgovernment, 
 is naturally apt to confound organization with a vicious 
 centralization, and to fly from a bad system to the 
 specious alternative of no system. This tendency towards 
 anarchism renders Spanish socialism comparatively weak. 
 
 But are we to conclude that the majority of Spanish 
 workmen believe in, and practice, assassination, bomb- 
 throwing, and the other manifestations of " anarchism " 
 as it is popularly understood throughout Europe ? 
 
 introducing all sorts of fresh matter never submitted to the Court or brought 
 to the knowledge of the accused or his Defender.
 
 "ANARCHIST" AND "ACRATIST" 37 
 
 Certainly not. The distinction between anarchism as a 
 political theory and " anarquismo de accion " or terrorism, 
 is perfectly clear and perfectly recognized — except by 
 those who, hating all social idealism, make it a point of 
 policy to represent every radical as an actual or probable 
 dynamiter. The anarchists of Spain are a large political 
 party ; the terrorists, when they are not mere individual 
 fanatics, or scoundrels suborned by reactionism, are at 
 most an insignificant group. In order to counteract in 
 some degree the misapprehensions arising from the 
 ambiguity of the word " anarchist," another word, 
 "acratist" or "opponent of power," is often applied in 
 Spain to the theoretical anarchist. Now, Ferrer was 
 unquestionably an "acratist." He was thoroughly opposed 
 to military and capitalistic domination and exploitation.^ 
 There is nothing to show that he had given much thought 
 to the question of an ideal organization of society, and it 
 is very probable that, like so many of the class from 
 which he sprang, he instinctively tended to underrate the 
 necessity for any formal organization whatever. In other 
 words, he was an idealistic libertarian and equalitarian. 
 That he was at any time a terrorist, there is no proof 
 whatever. There is proof, if we accept in its entirety a 
 document already mentioned and to be examined later, 
 that in the early 'nineties he was prepared to organize 
 what was designed to be a ruthlessly sanguinary revolt ; 
 but this is a quite different thing from approving the 
 insensate crimes of unorganized terrorism. And whatever 
 may have been his sentiments in 1892, we have the 
 clearest evidence that he soon after underwent a total 
 
 ' Compare Prince Kropotkin's definition of anarchism as the doctrine 
 which seeks "to abolish the oppressive centralized organization of the State, 
 whose historical mission always was to protect and to maintain the exploitation 
 of man by man."
 
 38 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 change of heart in regard to political action. Some of 
 that evidence must be reserved for a later point ; in the 
 meantime, I shall merely quote his " Profession of Faith," 
 written while he was awaiting trial for complicity in 
 Morral's attempt on the life of the King and Queen of 
 Spain — a crime which, as we shall see in the next chapter, 
 his enemies conspicuously failed to bring home to him. 
 His declaration appeared in the Espana Nueva of Novem- 
 ber 14, 1906, and ran as follows : — 
 
 I detest all party names, from that of anarchist to that 
 of Carlist, for they are all obstacles to the educational work 
 undertaken by the Escuela Moderna, . . , 
 
 I have always denied to the Court that I am an 
 anarchist. I have denied it because here an anarchist is 
 thought of as a bloodthirsty being, an enemy of humanity, 
 and a partizan of evil for evil's sake ; whereas I am none 
 of these things. 
 
 On the contrary, I detest the shedding of blood, I work 
 for the regeneration of humanity, and I love good for its 
 own sake. 
 
 But if I am called an anarchist on the ground of a 
 published phrase of mine in which I speak of ideas of 
 demolition in the brain, I reply that here is the collection 
 of the books and " Bulletins " published by the Escuela 
 Moderna, in which will be found, in effect, ideas of 
 demolition ; but, mark this well, ideas of demolition in the 
 brain — that is to say, the introduction into the brain of 
 the rational and scientific spirit, for the demolition of all 
 prejudice. Is this anarchism ? If it be, I declare I did 
 not know it; but in that case I should be an anarchist 
 inasmuch as anarchism would seem to have adopted my 
 ideas of education, of peace and of love, not because I 
 have adopted any of its methods or processes. 
 
 Ferrer appeals, we see, to the publications of the 
 Escuela Moderna to show whether he was engaged in
 
 FORTY SCHOOL-BOOKS 39 
 
 training a generation of "anarquistas de accion." These 
 publications run to over forty small red-covered volumes, 
 and are very varied in their contents. Some are primers 
 of reading, arithmetic, geometry, geography, grammar, 
 etc. Some are outlines of history. Some are story-books 
 for children. Others are serious treatises like Malvert's 
 Origen del Cristianismo, La Stibstancia Universal by Bloch 
 and Paraf-Javal, and Lluria's Evolucion Super-Organica^ 
 furnished with a preface by Dr. Ramon y Cajal, a leader 
 among Spanish men of science, to whom one of the Nobel 
 Prizes was awarded some years ago.^ I do not profess to 
 have been all through the forty volumes, but I have 
 dipped into them at many of the points where inflamma- 
 tory teachings seemed most likely to occur, and I have 
 found nothing that can reasonably be construed as incite- 
 ment to violence or immorality. The teaching is frankly 
 "acratist," frankly inspired by the principle " ni dieu, ni 
 maitre " ; but there is no forecast, no suggestion, of any 
 resort to arms, and much less any recommendation or 
 palliation of terrorism. I do not even find that, in 
 passages treating of religion, there is any unseemly 
 scoffing or vulgar scurrility. 
 
 To gain a clear insight into the spirit of Ferrer's 
 teaching, we cannot do better than turn to his " Second 
 Reading Book," a translation by Anselrao Lorenzo of 
 The Adventures of Nona, by Jean Grave. I have before 
 me a copy of the second edition, to which Ferrer himself 
 prefixes a note to the effect that, in three years of practical 
 use, it has established itself as the children's favourite 
 
 ' This work may be read in English, translated by Miss Rachel Challice. 
 
 * Most of the books are translated from the French. Ferrer himself 
 made no contribution to the series. The only book he is known to have 
 written is a method of Espagnol pratique, published by Garnicr in the days 
 when he was teaching in Paris.
 
 40 FRANCISCO FERKER 
 
 book, and has more than fulfilled the hopes founded on 
 it. The pupils, he says, read it and make their own 
 comments upon it, under the direction of the teachers. 
 It penetrates to their intelligence and implants in them 
 a rooted conviction of the possibility of an order of things 
 in which peace and happiness shall reign supreme, very 
 unlike our present condition of social injustice, strife and 
 unhappiness. 
 
 Using the old-established mechanism of a dream, the 
 author sends his ten-year-old hero, Nono, through a series 
 of laboriously allegorical experiences. He has gone to 
 bed rather excited, for he has been a particularly good 
 boy for some time, and his father has promised to take 
 him out next day and let him choose a picture-book for 
 himself—" not an expensive one, of course, for the parents 
 of Nono were working people, and the rich people 
 squander money on frivolities to such a degree that 
 scarcely anything is left over for the working people to 
 buy their children what they require." His excitement 
 starts him off on a dream which, after beginning with the 
 usual encounters with talking insects and so forth, soon 
 develops into a sort of politico-economical Pilgrim's 
 Progress, 
 
 He saves a bee from drowning in a fountain, and the 
 grateful insect leads him to the palace of its mother, a 
 magnificent lady seated on the softest cushions, and served 
 by numerous attendants with exquisite foods, and beverages 
 of delicious perfume. Seeing Nono hesitate to approach 
 her, she says in a melodious voice, "Do I frighten you, 
 my child?" Now Nono has often heard it said, in his 
 father's house, that kings, queens, emperors and empresses 
 are flesh and blood like other people, differing only in 
 the cut and quality of their clothes ; but at school he has
 
 "ADVENTURES OF NOXO " 41 
 
 heard so much of their power, and their influence over 
 the destinies of the peoples, that his imagination cannot 
 but attribute to them some essential superiority. Having 
 heard, too, that the bees are governed by a queen, he 
 does not for a moment doubt that he is in the presence 
 of that august personage. 
 
 " No, your majesty," he makes haste to answer. 
 
 " Who has told you that I am a queen ? " asks the 
 lady smiling. 
 
 " I can see it, your majesty," replies the child. 
 
 " In what way can you see it ? " 
 
 " Because I can see the other bees doing you service ; 
 and besides, because you wear a crown." 
 
 " That is all nonsense," says the lady, laughing frankly. 
 " You take my hair for a crown ; and as for the bees that 
 you see serving me, you must know that they are not 
 slaves, nor ladies of the bedchamber, nor servants, but 
 good daughters who love to care for their mother." 
 
 Nono excuses himself by saying that he has been 
 taught at school that the bees are governed by a 
 queen. 
 
 "My child," says the lady, resuming her habitual 
 gravity, though still with a kindly smile, "Your teacher 
 is an ignoramus, who talks of what he knows nothing 
 about. Studying the life of our hives, men have judged 
 our customs by their own. They think of me as a 
 privileged being, as useless as a king, to whom the others 
 owe obedience, and whose will regulates the work of the 
 hives. The partizans of authority have found in this 
 error an argument in their own favour, and go on teaching 
 in schools that the bees are governed by a queen." 
 
 She then proceeds to expound the division of labour 
 as practised in the bee community, but draws a veil, if I
 
 42 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 am not mistaken, over some of its incidents. The word 
 " drone " nowhere occurs in her exposition. 
 
 After leaving the palace of the mother-bee, Nono finds 
 himself face to face with a tall and beautiful woman 
 beneath whose amiable smile he discerns a strong will 
 and potent energy. She is none other than the fairy 
 Solidaria, who conducts .him to the delightful region of 
 Autonomy, entirely peopled by good and happy children — 
 Mab, Hans, Pat, Sandy, Riri, Toto, Biquette, Delia, etc. 
 Here, too, we meet the beneficent genius of Labor, and 
 his sister Liberta, the fairy Electricia, and one or two 
 other allegorical characters. Nono's life in the land of 
 Autonomy occupies several chapters, very much in the 
 style of the ordinary moral story-book. 
 
 But one day, when the children are out in the woods, 
 under the care of Professor Botanico, Nono, in chasing a 
 butterfly, gets separated from his companions, and runs 
 against a strange personage — " a pot-bellied, flat-nosed 
 gentleman, of vulgar aspect ; richly dressed ; an enormous 
 gold chain dangling in front of his corporation ; his shirt- 
 front gleaming with diamonds ; a great carbuncle in the 
 knot of his cravat, his fingers covered with rings ; and 
 leaning on a gold staff." Though Nono does not know it, 
 this personage is in reality Monadio, .King of the neigh- 
 bouring and hostile realm of Argirocracy. They get into 
 conversation, and the stranger tactlessly remarks, " I 
 suppose you are out for a ramble with your masters ? " 
 
 "We have no masters," answers Nono energetically. 
 " They are our friends ; they work, play and amuse them- 
 selves with us. They teach us what they know ; but they 
 never oblige us to do what we do not want to do." 
 
 The stranger speaks with a cynical scepticism of the 
 joys of Autonomy, and, through a pair of magic field-
 
 AUTONOMY AND ARGIROCRACY 43 
 
 glasses, displays to Nono the splendours of Argirocracy. 
 Though somewhat impressed by what he sees, Nono 
 remains loyal to Solidaria, Botanico and the rest ; and 
 Monadio has at last to carry him off by force, after a series 
 of exciting adventures. 
 
 In Argirocracy, Nono finds himself deserted and 
 miserable, among a miserable population. In this king- 
 dom of capitalism there are three classes of people : 
 " those who enjoy all pleasures and do nothing ; those 
 who work and enjoy no pleasure ; and those who, in 
 the interests of the former class, force the latter class to 
 work." 
 
 Whatever may be the number of the do-nothings, it is 
 evident that they could not long have secured the obedience 
 of those who have to work continually in the midst of 
 privations, had it not been for the astuteness of Monadio 
 and his ministers. 
 
 This astuteness lay in persuading people that if there 
 were no one to put in prison those who refuse to do what 
 they dislike doing, it would be impossible to arrange the 
 business life and to be free — that people would dispute 
 and wrangle, and finally die of hunger. 
 
 Further, it was contended that there must be a class 
 of people who live in continual festivity, and squander 
 without ceasing, in order that those who are obliged to 
 produce may have plenty of work, and a little to eat. 
 
 All this had been inculcated on the Argirocracians, 
 from father to son, for thousands of years, and they, poor 
 people, were absolutely persuaded that it was impossible 
 to live in any other way. 
 
 After many painful experiences, Nono reaches Monadia, 
 the capital of this realm. Here he observes a curious 
 phenomenon. He sees a great many men in various 
 uniforms — soldiers, policemen, custom-house and octroi
 
 44 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 officers — and the odd thing is that they all appear to have 
 a double countenance, looking now like men, and again 
 like beasts or birds of prey, according to the angle from 
 which you regard them. He soon learns the reason of 
 this ambiguous physiognomy : — 
 
 As to the soldiers, they were chosen among the sons 
 of workmen and peasants, and, as soon as they had donned 
 their uniform, their faces began to change into the likeness 
 of a mastiff. 
 
 Those who could not acquire this aspect were sent far 
 away, to unknown countries, whence they seldom returned. 
 Others very soon died, because the crisis of transformation 
 was too much for them. 
 
 Yet this was only the first step ; those who survived 
 it generally passed with ease to a further change, and 
 assumed the appearance of tigers, which they preserved to 
 their dying day. 
 
 There were, however, in the army some who never 
 arrived at that physiognomy, and could not pass beyond 
 the appearance of greyhounds or retrievers. Of these, 
 that they might not lack some evil employment, they made 
 revenue officers or detectives. Some of these wore no 
 uniform, their duty being to mix with the people in the 
 streets, and particularly with the workmen in their work- 
 shops and taverns, and to report everything they heard to 
 the ministers of Monadio. These wore a countenance 
 somewhere between a retriever and a ferret, and spread 
 around them a pestiferous odour, which they tried, by dint 
 of precautions, to disguise as much as possible. 
 
 Owing to the force of habit, however, all these differ- 
 ences of aspect soon became almost imperceptible to the 
 inhabitants of the country. Even Nono, after a time, was 
 unable to discern them. 
 
 Among the masters, these particularities were more 
 strongly emphasized, and always ended in a resemblance 
 to wolves, eagles, crows, panthers, serpents, etc.
 
 ZOOLOGICAL SATIRE 45 
 
 Those who assumed the aspect of wolves, tigers, and 
 panthers were made officers in the army of Monadia. The 
 crows, hyenas, and jackals entered the magistracy, whose 
 duty it was to put out of the way the enemies of King 
 Monadio, and to lock up in prisons or similar establish- 
 ments those whom age or infirmity prevented from working, 
 and whose presence in public places would have imperilled 
 the tranquillity of those who do nothing. 
 
 There were some who took the form of turkeys and 
 peacocks : these were the courtiers of King Monadio. 
 Some who wore the appearance of guinea-pigs, made no 
 pretence of working at all, but confined themselves to 
 eating, drinking, sleeping, and loafing around. 
 
 Finally, the foremen and overseers, whom the masters 
 had raised from the ranks to posts of authority over their 
 fellow-workers, assumed the appearance of wolves and 
 mastiffs. 
 
 Nono at last apprentices himself to a tailor, who of 
 course " sweats " him. Here he lives for some time in 
 peace ; but unfortunately he gets into the habit of vaunt- 
 ing to his companions the blissful life of Autonomy, and 
 when this comes to the ears of the authorities they have 
 him arrested on a charge of preaching subversive doctrines 
 and sowing dissensions in the state. The picture of Nono 
 in prison, living on mouldy black bread and water, must 
 often have recurred to Ferrer while awaiting his trial in 
 the Carcel Celular of Barcelona ; but Ferrer, as we shall 
 see, had worse things to endure than black bread and 
 water. In many other respects he must have been 
 reminded of The Adventures of Nono, in the course of his 
 own adventures with the justice of his country. 
 
 Next day, Nono is brought before two officials of the 
 law. One has the head of a jackal, and " exhales a repug- 
 nant odour." This is the examining magistrate, charged
 
 46 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 with the " instruction " of his case. The other functionary 
 has before him paper, ink, and pens, and is evidently the 
 Prosecutor. He reminds Nono of a beetle. 
 
 The jackal, in a voice of hypocritical solemnity, asks 
 him if he knows what is the charge against him ? 
 
 " No, sir," replies Nono. " I hope that you will tell 
 me." 
 
 " Do not pretend ignorance. You know very well that 
 you have been guilty of inciting to disobedience to law, 
 contempt for our august monarch, and rebellion against 
 our sacred institutions." 
 
 Nono is silent for a moment, wondering whether he 
 can be an abandoned criminal without knowing it. 
 
 " You see," continues the jackal, " you dare not answer- 
 Come, my child — a good impulse ! Confess, and it will 
 be put down to your credit," he adds, " with mellifluous 
 hypocrisy." 
 
 " Your august monarch is a rascal," Nono replies, " who 
 deceived me abominably in order to carry me off from 
 Autonomy. I have always wanted to leave this accursed 
 country and return to my dear Solidaria ! " 
 
 The jackal raises his two front paws to heaven, and 
 cries " Guards ! keep this criminal in close custody ! Lead 
 him back to his dungeon ! " 
 
 For a long time Nono sees no one, except a man in 
 black, with white bands, who one day presents himself 
 under pretext of talking of what will happen to Nono 
 after his death. The physiognomy of this personage is 
 the most repugnant of all, for, along with several traits 
 common to all myrmidons of justice, he combines some- 
 thing of the appearance of a cockroach. Nono begs his 
 visitor to leave him in peace. 
 
 At last he is brought to trial in a court crowded with
 
 NONO AWAKENS 47 
 
 Monadians of all classes. " The variety of types was so 
 great that for a moment Nono thought he must be in the 
 Zoological Gardens. One half of the hall was filled with 
 people dressed in black ; they all had the faces of magpies 
 and parrots. The rest of the court, separated by a railing, 
 was occupied by people of the miserable classes ; and 
 there the likeness to oxen, sheep, and asses predomi- 
 nated. 
 
 " When Nono was placed at the bar, a sort of magpie 
 called out in a cracked voice : ' The Court ! ' and there 
 appeared on the platform four gentlemen, three in black 
 robes and one in red, with square caps and broad galloons 
 of gold. The red one, like a vulture, took his seat on the 
 tribune near the notables ; and the three black ones, who 
 resembled a red owl, a barn owl, and an eaglet, seated 
 themselves behind a sort of counter." ^ 
 
 Here we have done — certainly none too soon — with 
 this simple method of zoological satire. The trial of Nono 
 is conducted in the same style as the preliminary investi- 
 gation, and he is sentenced to imprisonment for life. Then 
 two of his companions, Hans and Mab, set out from 
 Autonomy to search for him, provided with an ever-filled 
 purse, and accompanied by a dancing pig and a swallow, 
 who is, so to speak, the intelligence-department of the 
 expedition. After many sad experiences of the evils of 
 life in Argirocracy, they make their way into Nono's 
 prison, and are on the point of rescuing him, when — Nono 
 wakes up in his bed at home in Paris. When he recounts 
 his dream to his parents, the father sagely observes that 
 
 * This passage was quoted, with not unnatural reprobation, by Sr. Ugarte, 
 Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, in his report to the Government on the 
 Barcelona Riots, It was Sr. Ugarte who first gave official form to tlie theory 
 of Ferrer's yuilt.
 
 48 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 there are many things in it which seem beyond the under- 
 standing of a child of his age. 
 
 I have gone at length into The Adventures of Nono, 
 because we have Ferrer's own word for its popularity in 
 the school, and for his entire approval of the doctrine it 
 conveys. Evidently, then, it may be taken as fairly repre- 
 senting the moral and political tendencies which prevailed 
 in the Escuela Moderna. To a conservative mind, these 
 tendencies are naturally abhorrent ; and even a liberal 
 mind may well doubt the wisdom of filling a child's brain 
 with such ideas. But this is the criticism of the citizen of 
 Argirocracy, the very person against whom the author's 
 satire is mainly directed, and who naturally does not like 
 it. If we start from the axiom that it is wrong to " stir up 
 class against class," such a book as The Adventures of 
 Nono is manifestly condemnable. But this comfortable 
 axiom of the comfortable classes cannot have any validity 
 for those who ardently believe that one class inflicts, while 
 another suffers, cruel and crying injustice, to the great 
 detriment of both classes. If the man who holds and dis- 
 seminates this opinion is to be treated as a criminal, there 
 is an end to freedom of speech, an end to toleration. Nor 
 can it plausibly be maintained that the law should step in 
 and say, " You may preach this doctrine to men, but you 
 must not teach it to children." The distinction between 
 justice and injustice is perhaps the first moral distinction 
 which a child can and does grasp, and it would be ridicu- 
 lous to pretend that it lies outside the proper sphere of 
 education. Our instinctive plea, that it is not fair to pre- 
 judice the mind of a child on subjects which he cannot 
 fully understand, is nothing but a fallacy of bourgeois self- 
 defence. We are ready enough to teach children that 
 they must order themselves lowly and reverently to all
 
 A DOUBTFUL PASSAGE 49 
 
 their betters, and do their duty in that state of life unto 
 which it has pleased God to call them, — why, then, should 
 those who hold the opposite view abstain from inculcating 
 it on the receptive mind of childhood ? Why should we, 
 of the privileged classes, claim an exclusive right to indoc- 
 trinate children with our views of social order? The 
 claim is not tenable in reason for a single moment. 
 
 But if the teacher urges and incites to violent methods 
 of vindicating his ideals of social justice, the case is altered. 
 Every nation asserts the right to prohibit and put down 
 any proceedings directly calculated to lead to what in 
 English law is termed a breach of the peace. Was this 
 the tendency of Ferrer's teaching ? Did it incite to acts 
 of violence and illegality ? There is in The Adventures of 
 Nono one doubtful passage, where Hans and Mab treat 
 sympathetically, and aid in his flight, a starving youth who 
 has struck a rich man who refused with insult to give him 
 alms. The incident occupies only half a page, and is in 
 no way emphasized ; but it undeniably tends to palliate 
 an assault prompted by hunger and despair. Otherwise 
 there is not the slightest suggestion of violent revolt, much 
 less of the methods usually associated with " anarchism." 
 The spirit of the book is purely, and even sentimentally, 
 humanitarian. 
 
 Another book in which the tendencies of the Escuela 
 Moderna may be clearly read is the Covipetidium of Uni- 
 versal History, by Clcmence Jacquinet, whose name is 
 already known to us. It was the first of Ferrer's school- 
 books, and opens with this prefatory note — 
 
 La Escuela Moderna 
 
 inaugurates the series of its publications in paying homage 
 to those who have suffered and suffer in the evolution and 
 
 E
 
 50 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 progress of humanity, while at the same time affirming its 
 ideal of justice and of peace. 
 
 The Founder. The Directress. 
 
 F. Ferrer Guardia. Cl, Jacquinet. 
 
 The book consists of three small volumes, and is 
 divided into five parts — 
 
 I. From Prehistoric Times to the Roman Empire. 
 II. The Middle Ages. 
 
 III. Modern Times. 
 
 IV. The French Revolution and its Consequences. 
 V. From Napoleon to Our Own Days. 
 
 Such a work could not but be sketchy and superficial. 
 Mme. Jacquinet, indeed, is not greatly concerned to crowd 
 her pages with facts, and devotes the bulk of her space to 
 her own interpretation of the great movements of history. 
 Her passages on Christianity and on patriotism are 
 perhaps as characteristic as anything in her book. After 
 tracing the doctrines and practices of Christianity to three 
 main sources, Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, and Buddhism, 
 she sums up as follows : — 
 
 Very far from being a civilizing force, Christianity has 
 always, throughout the course of history, placed obstacles 
 in the path of progress. We shall find in it the negation 
 of science, which disproves its dogmas ; the firmest sup- 
 port of absolutism, and of the inequality of the social 
 classes ; the oppressor of the human conscience in the 
 clamps of its false morality ; the odious standard in whose 
 shadow all crimes have been committed ; the vampire 
 ever thirsting for blood, to whom have been sacrificed 
 millions of victims. 
 
 Now it is the turn of patriotism — 
 The idea of the fatherland is the well-spring of all hatred
 
 ANTI-PATRIOTISM 51 
 
 and all injustice. Born of war, it prevents the peoples 
 from knowing and appreciating each other, and from 
 mingling in fraternal solidarity. ... In regard to history, 
 children are taught nothing but the wars which their 
 country has waged against others, every effort being made 
 to underestimate the losses suffered by their own side and 
 exaggerate the damage done to the other side. Hatred 
 of the foreigner is fostered throughout life by all possible 
 means, because it is a great resource to the governing 
 classes, permitting them to maintain armies which are 
 always ready for anything. 
 
 Rapacity and hatred are allied, in the patriotic idea, 
 with a vanity which would form the comic side of the 
 matter if it were not painful as an exhibition of human 
 blindness. . . . 
 
 We shall be told that the idea of patriotism has in- 
 spired sublime heroisms ; to which we reply that these 
 heroisms have in our own judgment been developed in 
 spite of the patriotic sentiment ; that their true cause was 
 the love of our fellow-men, and that on the day when we 
 shall no longer see ourselves confined within narrow and 
 irrational barriers, humanity will have infinitely greater 
 power to inspire abnegation. 
 
 In her review of recent times, Mme. Jacquinet takes up 
 an uncompromisingly " acratist " attitude. She will have 
 nothing to do with constitutionalism or parliamentary 
 government. " To delegate your power is to lose it," she 
 quotes from Elisce Reclus ; and again, "To vote is to 
 debase yourself" — a saying which she holds to be "as 
 just as it is beautiful." How society is to be organized, 
 or rather how it is to get on without organization, she does 
 not explain. 
 
 On the other hand, we occasionally find Ferrer toning 
 down, for juvenile consumption, the acratism of his French 
 originals. This is very noticeable in his Cat'tilla or First
 
 52 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Reading Book, which, beginning with the alphabet and 
 sillabary, ends with a condensed translation of a pamphlet 
 by Paraf-Javal, entitled VHjimanite: Interview de son 
 Oncle par ma Niece. In Ferrer's version of this materialist 
 catechism, three things strike us : first, the niece becomes 
 a nephew; second, a paragraph on the reproductive 
 function is omitted ; third, a long final section is wholly 
 suppressed, in which the Uncle develops his conception of 
 a materialist morality, ending "Anarchy is the doctrine 
 of the future. Even at present, among anarchists, we 
 ought to practise it." There is nothing very startling in 
 the suppressed section — nothing, probably, of which Ferrer 
 disapproved. But there are sentiments such as this : — 
 "The legislators of all countries are a band of megalo- 
 maniacs, victims of authoritary mania, for the most part 
 tobacco-poisoned and alcoholized, of an unimaginable un- 
 scrupulousness and ignorance" — which it is pleasant to 
 find that Ferrer did not hold to be precisely milk for 
 babes. 
 
 More important, however, than the text-books, as 
 evidence of the spirit and methods of the Escuela 
 Moderna, is the monthly " Boletin " which it issued. Of 
 the two series or "epochs " of this publication, sixty-two 
 numbers in all appeared ; and I have gone pretty care- 
 fully through all of them except the first ten, which were 
 inaccessible to me. The " Boletin " is, in fact, a journal of 
 education, addressed, not to children, but to parents, and 
 more especially to teachers. It consists very largely of 
 translations from Paul Robin, Elis^e Reclus, Flammarion, 
 Anatole France, Gustave Herve, Herbert Spencer, Haeckel, 
 Kropotkin, Gorki, Tolstoy, and French, Belgian, Italian, 
 and American specialists in education and hygiene. There 
 are, however, a few declarations, either signed by Ferrer
 
 OFFICIAL EDUCATION 53 
 
 himself, or manifestly proceeding from him. The most 
 important, perhaps, was published in the first number of 
 the second series, May, 1908. The ordinary governmental 
 or government-sanctioned schools of the day, he says 
 (referring not to Spain alone), are mere instruments of 
 capitalist and militarist reaction — 
 
 They have only one clear idea and one desire : that 
 the children shall learn to obey, to believe, and to think 
 according to the social dogmas which rule us. . . . The 
 object is always to impose on the child ready-made 
 thoughts ; to debar him from all thinking which does not 
 tend to the conservation of existing institutions : to make 
 of him, in short, a personage strictly adapted to the social 
 mechanism. . . . The whole value of education lies in 
 respect for the physical, intellectual, and moral will of the 
 child. . . . But nothing is more difficult than this respect. 
 The educator as we know him always imposes, obliges, 
 forces ; whereas the true educator is he who can defend 
 the child even against his (the educator's) own ideas and 
 volitions, appealing in a higher degree to the energies of 
 the child himself. . . . 
 
 It need not be said that co-education was a fundamental 
 principle of the school ; or that teachers "had to renounce 
 all punishment, material or moral," except such as might 
 lie in the necessary consequences of the fault itself. Re- 
 wards no less than punishments were tabooed, and the 
 incentive of competition so far as possible eliminated. 
 The merits of "integral education" are frequently insisted 
 on : a phrase which I take to be used in contradistinction 
 to "primary," "secondary," and "higher" education, and 
 to imply a sort of normal curriculum, not founded on any 
 class distinctions, but equally fitted for every citizen. 
 
 It is impossible not to smile at Ferrer's assumption 
 that dogmatism is foreign to the spirit and method of the
 
 54 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Escuela Moderna. He himself provides the best commen- 
 tary on this illusion by printing frequent extracts from 
 the essays of pupils. The little people — their ages are 
 generally stated, and range from 9 to 13 — simply repeat, 
 with a touching gravity and conviction, the collectivist 
 and humanitarian dogmas which have been instilled into 
 them. Of independent thought, or criticism of the official 
 notions, there is never a trace. It would be absurd, of 
 course, to look for anything of the kind : I merely point 
 out that if the masters made any attempt to " defend " the 
 pupils against the influence of authority and dogma, they 
 were absolutely unsuccessful. Many of the ideas enunci- 
 ated by these babes and sucklings are, to me, acceptable 
 enough ; yet I cannot but feel that a generation thus 
 indoctrinated would be apt to abound, if not in fanatics, at 
 least in prigs. 
 
 It seems to have been a custom to read out these 
 " sententise pueriles " at the little festivity — the prize- 
 giving without prizes — which brought the school year to a 
 close. I quote a few specimens which fairly represent the 
 spirit of the whole. Any one specimen, indeed, might 
 fairly represent all the others ; for they are as like as 
 bricks in a wall — 
 
 Kissing the Priest's Hand. 
 
 There are many children with whom this is a habit 
 though they know that priests are men like any one else, 
 and that they preach what they do not believe. More- 
 over, they invite religious persons to drop coins into a box 
 for the souls of the dead, and as there are no souls to 
 receive them, it follows that the real object is that the 
 priests may enjoy themselves at the expense of the 
 ignorant.
 
 THE YOUNG IDEA 55 
 
 Education. 
 
 Education may be very good or very bad, according to 
 what is taught. It is good when rational things are 
 taught, such as science. It is bad when metaphysical 
 things are taught, such as religion. 
 
 Los TOROS. 
 
 In the Roman times, human slaves fought with lions 
 and tigers. On other occasions men fought with each 
 other, and the brutalized public compelled the victor to 
 kill the vanquished. To-day we no longer do that, but we 
 still have bull-fights, in which men first enrage and then 
 kill the poor animals. What sort of a public is it which 
 enjoys this spectacle of torture and death ! 
 
 The Government and the Soldiers. 
 
 The Government commands and authorizes what is 
 not just. For example : it forces into the army and sends 
 to the war those who have not money to pay for their 
 release. If the soldiers whom they command to kill men 
 and burn villages remembered that they do not need to 
 kill or burn any one or anything, then those who enjoy 
 the benefits of war would have to do their own fighting. 
 
 Instruction. 
 
 Instruction is to the intelligence what food is to the 
 body. It perfects the human race, elevates the spirit of 
 man, purifies and embellishes it. By its means we must 
 solve the social question which is agitating us, and estab- 
 lish the empire of justice, now so necessary in order that 
 the human race may consider itself a true family, and 
 men may reach the point of loving each other like real 
 brothers.
 
 56 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 The Microscope. 
 
 Ancient science was kept back by the fact that it had 
 no means of observation but the unaided vision. To-day 
 science has at its command the microscope, with which we 
 can see the germs of diseases, and the organs of animals 
 and vegetables with their component parts. The micro- 
 scope is an invention of free men ; fanatics are incapable 
 of inventing anything, because they impute everything to 
 their God. 
 
 The Pious. 
 
 The pious say that we must not believe in science or 
 practise its teachings. They say there is an all-powerful 
 God ; in that case, if he can do everything, why does he 
 suffer the rich to exploit the poor ? 
 
 The Police. 
 
 The police arrest unhappy people who have stolen a 
 loaf for their family ; they take them to prison, and thus 
 make the misery greater. 
 
 The Tavern. 
 
 What a pity that there exist an infinity of taverns, 
 instead of free schools ! In the tavern men brutalize 
 themselves, and squander the resources of their families. 
 Women, too, suffer and degenerate, and children run about 
 the streets neglected, badly fed and badly clothed ; and 
 when they come to be men, not knowing how to read or 
 write, they go the same way as their parents. 
 
 Parasites. 
 
 Certain vegetable and animal organisms, which live at 
 the expense of others, and do nothing for themselves, are
 
 THE MARTYRS OF MONTJUICH 57 
 
 called parasites. There are parasites, too, in human society. 
 The rich men and the priests live upon the workman until 
 he is completely exhausted. 
 
 I have kept for the last an extract which has a tragic 
 significance little foreseen when it was published in 1904. 
 A girl writes as follows : — 
 
 The Inquisition. 
 
 . . . But are these times really past, and only matters 
 of history ? We have still, not very far from this truth- 
 teaching school {yerdadera Esctield), a castle which is the 
 centre of infection, with moats, subterranean passages and 
 dungeons. Even in the cultivated republic of the United 
 States, a prisoner is seated in a chair prepared for the 
 purpose, and carbonized by electricity. In all countries 
 there is some example of this Inquisition. It is time that 
 this relic of barbarism should disappear. Catalonia is 
 dishonoured by the presence of that castle, whose history 
 strikes horror to the traveller. It is necessary that we 
 should destroy that fantasm, and on its site lay out a 
 beautiful park ; and surely the free people who enjoy it 
 will sometimes think with sorrow of the martyrs who rest 
 under its verdure. 
 
 The "castle" thus stigmatized was, of course, Mont- 
 juich. It waited patiently for five years, and then it had 
 its revenge. 
 
 Some Dutch schoolmasters, it would seem, expressed 
 doubts as to the genuineness of the utterances of these 
 young philosophers, who were thereupon asked to state 
 their reflections upon this wholly gratuitous scepticism. 
 A girl of 13 wrote — 
 
 The thoughts which are printed in the Bulletin arc the 
 work of our own intelligence ; otherwise it would be a
 
 58 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 deception to publish them, and our teachers would be 
 hypocrites. 
 
 A boy of twelve thus expressed himself — 
 
 We can speak of the evils of society, such as religion, 
 property, war, and government, not only because of the 
 explanations of our teachers, but because we have arrived 
 at an understanding of justice and truth. We adopt the 
 ideas which we maintain because we know the truth, be- 
 cause we know what are the scourges of humanity, and 
 because we want to lead an industrious and happy life, 
 uniting ourselves with the whole human race in the in- 
 dissoluble bonds of fraternity, accompanied by liberty and 
 equality. 
 
 Another girl of 13 — 
 
 We write down these thoughts because every day we 
 receive lessons on some subjects connected with society, 
 religion, property, government, etc., and we understand 
 them, or if sometimes we don't, they are repeated to us 
 until we grasp them well. 
 
 Now listen to a boy of 10 — 
 
 Perhaps these professors think our brain is not yet 
 sufficiently developed, and I say nothing to the contrary ; 
 but if a child is always given rational explanations, he will 
 acquire as much intelligence as some grown-up persons — 
 if not more. 
 
 A shrewd rap for the Dutch professors ! 
 
 Whatever we may think of the wisdom of Ferrer's 
 educational methods, every page of these "Boletines" 
 bears witness to the sincerity of his enthusiasm. To 
 Clericals, Conservatives, and even to middle-class Liberals, 
 they must have given constant offence ; but I find in them 
 — with the exception of one article — nothing that goes
 
 TYRANNICIDE 59 
 
 beyond a reasonable liberty in the expression of opinion. 
 The one article excepted is a translation from the French 
 of Dr. Meslier, a Socialist deputy, which appeared on 
 November 30, 1905. It is an argument for the right of 
 insurrection, and even of tyrannicide, when a people has 
 no other resource against intolerable wrongs. It glorifies 
 Harmodius and Aristogiton, Brutus, Marat and Hebert, 
 and expresses the opinion that M. de Plevhe and the 
 Grand-Duke Sergius met only their deserts. It contains 
 no sentiments that have not been uttered a hundred times 
 in every college debating-club ; but it is undoubtedly, if 
 not an incitement to, at least a palliation of, violence.^ 
 Had it been produced in evidence against Ferrer in either 
 of his trials, it might not unjustly have prejudiced his case. 
 It may be pointed out, however, that, as believers in 
 Ferrer's guilt must — and do — allege him to have been a 
 profound and accomplished hypocrite, they will have some 
 difficulty in making his publication of such sentiments 
 tally with that fundamental axiom of their creed. No 
 sane man who was actually contemplating deeds of violence, 
 while hoping to elude punishment for them, would have 
 dreamt of printing Dr. Meslier's discourse. 
 
 The Escuela Moderna opened on September 8, 1901, 
 with 30 pupils, of whom 12 were girls. "There was," 
 says Anselmo Lorenzo, "a large attendance of repre- 
 sentatives of scientific bodies and labour organizations, 
 and Francisco Ferrer presided. ... I well remember the 
 
 * It may be worth while to put alongside of this theoretical defence of 
 tyrannicide an extract from an article by Hubert Lnj^ardcllc, published in the 
 JioUtin for April i, 1909, barely four months before the " Kevolution " : " After 
 all, every practically revolutionary action is bound to be slow and progressive. 
 It would be puerile to expect miracles of life. No mutiny, no insurrection, no 
 coup d^itat will ever effect the smallest transformation of the intimate reality of 
 things."
 
 60 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 emotion of Ferrer at that moment, and the simple and 
 unaffected greatness of his words " — 
 
 I salute you, dear children, who are the end and object 
 of the institution which is born at this moment, the 
 initial point of the practical life of an idea which will 
 endure along with humanity. I salute you, parents who 
 have honoured us with your confidence. I salute you, 
 workers who, as representatives of your comrades, do 
 honour to this occasion. Let us all understand that we 
 are not merely one school the more, but that we are the 
 first, and as yet the only school which refuses submission 
 to the powerful, which raises up the disinherited, which 
 establishes the equality of classes and sexes, which puts 
 within the intellectual reach of boys and girls the know- 
 ledge of nature and the last word of science, without 
 respect to privilege, as a homage due to truth and justice. 
 
 By the end of its first year the school counted 70 
 pupils ; and its numbers steadily rose until, in 1905, they 
 reached 126. But the influence of the school was by no 
 means to be measured by the mere number of pupils. It 
 gave an extraordinary impulse to education, not only in 
 Catalonia, not only in Spain, but more particularly in 
 South America. Old schools were reorganized, and new 
 schools started, upon the model of Ferrer's enterprise ; 
 and the text-books which he published found a wide 
 circulation,^ According to the Auditor-General, there 
 
 ' In 1905, they were used, not only in many schools in Catalonia, but also 
 in Seville, Malaga, Granada, Cordova, Cartagena, and Cadiz. Anselmo 
 Lorenzo, however, tells us that the extension of Ferrer's influence has to be 
 taken with a good deal of discount. Many schools called themselves 
 " rationalist" merely to be in the fashion, and because Ferrer supplied them 
 with books, and even scholastic material, on credit. But when the fashion 
 passed, and the danger began to appear, many of these schools called them- 
 selves "laic" instead of '•rationalist," dismissed the books of the Escuela 
 Moderna without paying for them, adopted others for which they had to pay
 
 NEMESIS 61 
 
 were, in 1906/ in the province of Barcelona alone, "47 
 sucursales de la Escuela Moderna." Mr. Hilaire Belloc, 
 concerned to explain to the readers of a Catholic review ^ 
 why the Spanish Government did not simply suppress the 
 schools and have done with it, has to admit that "the 
 system of public elementary education in Spain is so insuf- 
 ficient that it would be difficult for a Government to 
 protest against very well-managed and well-equipped 
 schools such as those which Ferrer had created." 
 
 So, for five years, all went well. On Good Friday, 
 April 12, 1906, seventeen hundred pupils of the free 
 schools of Catalonia were assembled at a festival in Bar- 
 celona, in pursuance of a custom which has obtained for 
 many years among Spanish anti-clericals. The choice of 
 such a day for such a celebration causes, and is meant to 
 cause, great offence to the Clerical party ; and, in a land 
 of religious equality, it would certainly be a sin against 
 good taste. Spain not being such a land, it is doubtful 
 how far our standards of good taste apply ; but, at any 
 rate, it was in this case an act of hubris^ of overweening 
 confidence — and Nemesis punctually followed in its track. 
 It was only six weeks later, on May 31, 1906, that Mateo 
 Morral, who had been employed as librarian at the Escuela 
 Moderna, threw a bomb at the newly-wedded King and 
 Queen of Spain, as theii marriage procession passed along 
 the Callc Mayor of Madrid. They escaped uninjured, 
 but 15 people were killed and many wounded, Ferrer 
 was arrested ; the Escuela Moderna and many others were 
 closed ; and, though he was acquitted of complicity in 
 
 money down, taught patriotic history, made their pupils learn lessons by rote 
 and sing the hymn to the flag, and introduced examinations and prizes — all 
 which things were anathema to Ferrer. 
 
 ' Process, p. 310. 
 
 • Dublin i?rt//«w, January, 1910, p. 175.
 
 62 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Morral's mad act, it was undoubtedly the beginning of 
 his end. 
 
 Having gone at such length into the substance and 
 methods of Ferrer's teaching, I must repeat with emphasis 
 that all this has nothing to do with the justice or injustice 
 of his sentence and execution. It was not as a deleterious 
 educator that he was condemned, but solely as "author 
 and chief" of the Barcelona riots. His soldier-accusers 
 generously applauded their own moderation in not drag- 
 ging in the enormities of the Escuela Moderna to the pre- 
 judice of the accused ; ^ while Ferrer offered to put all his 
 publications in evidence, but was denied any opportunity 
 of doing so. This chapter, then, is, strictly speaking, 
 irrelevant to the issue we are examining. The reader 
 must put aside his impressions of Ferrer's doctrine when 
 the time comes for forming his judgment as to Ferrer's 
 guilt or innocence of the crime for which he was shot. 
 On the other hand, if we find him innocent of that crime, 
 and are amazed at the virulence of the hatred which 
 strained every nerve to hurry him to his death, we cannot 
 too clearly remember The Adventures of Nono, the passage 
 on Christianity quoted from the Compendium of Universal 
 History, and the tone of the juvenile philosophers in their 
 published deliverances on priests, soldiers, and other 
 sacred subjects. 
 
 * Practically, of course, this self-congratulation was a self-contradiction ; 
 for it assumed that Ferrer's work as an educator could have been brought up 
 against him with damning effect. As a matter of fact, the Prosecutor did not 
 cite the Escuela Moderna to Ferrer's detriment ; the Assessor did cite it, 
 while pretending not to ; and the Auditor, in arguing for the confirmation of 
 the sentence, used this weapon of attack for all it was worth — and more.
 
 V 
 
 THE CRIME OF THE CALLE MAYOR 
 
 Ferrer spent a year in the Model Prison at Madrid 
 before he was brought to trial for complicity in the crime 
 of the Calle Mayor. 
 
 His imprisonment, however, was not so barbarous as 
 that which awaited him two years later in Barcelona. 
 He had a light and fairly roomy cell, with, it would seem, 
 permission to take exercise pretty freely in the corridor 
 and courtyard. These particulars one gathers from an 
 article by the governor of the prison, Don Rafael Salillas, 
 which appeared in a professional magazine,^ under the 
 title The Cell of Ferrer. The writer is an ardent disciple 
 of Lombroso, and treats his subject from a pedantically 
 Lombrosan point of view. He quotes a saying of that 
 master: "Walls are the madman's paper": and tries to 
 make out that Ferrer was next thing to a criminal lunatic, 
 because he wrote versified sentiments on the walls of his 
 cell ! The sentiments are, as a matter of fact, sufficiently 
 commonplace, and the versification is said to be wretched ; 
 but one may compose bad verses without being either 
 a lunatic or a criminal;^ and the prisoner's traditional 
 
 ' Revista Penitenciaria, vol. iv., No. 6, June, 1907. 
 
 * A contributor to El Mundo relates that shortly before the Madrid trial, 
 Ferrer's advocate, Enriiliano Iglesias, stated that Ferrer had given him a 
 manuscript of more than 1000 pages, consisting of poetical compositions. 
 "Are they good?" asked the journalist. "May I publish some of them?
 
 G4> FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 tendency to write on the walls of his cell would seem to 
 be comprehensible enough when we think of the deadly 
 monotony of prison life. Here are three of Ferrer's 
 quatrains, literally translated — 
 
 Do not expect anything from others, whatever beau- 
 tiful things certain wise and powerful persons may offer 
 you : for if they give, they also enslave. 
 
 To achieve the concord of all men in love and frater- 
 nity, without distinction of sex or class, that is the great 
 task of humanity. 
 
 No more let gods or exploiters be adored or served ; 
 let us all live like good comrades in mutual affection and 
 respect. 
 
 Such sentiments are certainly not calculated to set 
 the Thames, or even the Manzanares, on fire ; but that 
 Ferrer should have thought it worth while to inscribe 
 them on the wall of his enforced habitation is surely an 
 indication of a simple and sincere, rather than a degene- 
 rate or criminal, mind. Be it observed that there is no 
 sort of hypocrisy in them — no affectation of sentiments 
 which might tell in his favour at his approaching trial. 
 His radicalism and — if I may coin a word — his prole- 
 tarianism are not concealed. While under indictment for 
 complicity in the crime of a murderous anarchist, he 
 actually writes verses in which the inspiration is distinctly 
 " acratist," or, in other words, anarchist with a difference — 
 and that difference he must have known that his accusers 
 were only too eager to ignore and to deny. 
 
 Nor did he make any concealment of his anti-clerical 
 views : for Sr. Salillas shows, by the aid of six photo- 
 
 They would be 'good copy.' " "We must not publish any of them till after 
 the trial," replied Iglesias. "If we did, his case would be hopeless." X 
 understand this to be a jocose allusion to the badness of the verses.
 
 PURITANIC ATHEISM 65 
 
 graphs, that he plastered his cell with violently anti- 
 clerical caricatures from French and Italian comic papers, 
 and especially with the grotesque lampoons of L'Asino 
 These prints are thus classified by Sr. Salillas — 
 
 Anti-clerical ... ... ... ... 5^ 
 
 Anti-militarist ... ... ... ... 2 
 
 Revolutionary ... ... ... ... 3 
 
 Contrast of Classes ... ... ... 7 
 
 This delight in the ferocious insults which the Latin 
 caricaturist loves to hurl at the Church can scarcely be 
 regarded as a sympathetic trait in Ferrer's character. It 
 indicates, one cannot but think, a certain crudity of taste. 
 Yet I do not know by what right we set up our British 
 taste as an infallible standard. "Vulgarity," says the 
 philosopher, " is the behaviour of other people." 
 
 An anecdote related by Sr. Salillas is too charac- 
 teristic to be omitted. One day when Ferrer was taking 
 exercise, bare-headed as was his wont, he heard the bell 
 of the sacristan, and saw the prison chaplain bearing the 
 Viaticum to the infirmary. Instantly he ran back to his 
 cell, and returned wearing his cap ! I could not but think 
 of this trait when his brother Jose showed me, at Mas 
 Germinal, a little round window or ventilator in the stair- 
 case wall, which had originally been divided into four 
 quadrants by a cruciform moulding ; but now it showed 
 only one horizontal bar, the perpendicular arms of the 
 cross having been broken off by Francisco, who could 
 tolerate no such symbol in his neighbourhood.^ 
 
 Ferrer's trial began on June 3, 1907, and lasted for 
 six days. Every effort had been made to have him 
 handed over to a military tribunal, and it was doubtless 
 
 ' See illustration, p. 94. 
 
 F
 
 66 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the failure of these efforts that saved him — for the time 
 being. He was tried, along with several other people 
 supposed to be implicated in the crime, before the Fourth 
 Section of the Assize Court. 
 
 No one can read the reports of the trial without seeing 
 that the Court was by no means well-disposed towards 
 Ferrer, allowed great latitude to the Prosecutor, oddly 
 named Becerra del Toro (literally, Calf of the Bull), and 
 treated Ferrer's counsel, Emiliano Iglesias, with scant 
 consideration.^ Yet the result was the total failure of the 
 prosecution, and Ferrer's acquittal — a result which might 
 very well dispense us from looking further into the matter. 
 But as the clerical party (reversing its policy in the 
 Dreyfus case) insists on going behind the] c/iose jugee and 
 maintaining Ferrer's guilt, in spite of the verdict of the 
 court, it may be well to give an outline of the facts as 
 they appeared in evidence. 
 
 Mateo Morral Roca, aged 26, was the son of a rich 
 cotton-spinner at Sabadell, one of the industrial towns of 
 Catalonia. He was a man of some education, part of it 
 acquired in Germany ; but he was taciturn, morose, and 
 ill-balanced. He had had violent disagreements with his 
 father, apparently on account of his advanced opinions ; 
 and yet, oddly enough, one of his sisters became a pupil 
 at the Escuela Moderna. Ferrer admitted that he had 
 
 * Here is a characteristic fragment of dialogue. The Prosecutor, in his 
 final speech, was recapitulating the crimes of which he accused Ferrer, when 
 the latter remarked : "I cannot hear. Senor President, I wish to hear all 
 that the Prosecutor says." 
 
 Prosecutor : " I am speaking to the counsel for the accused. I am not 
 speaking to the gallery." 
 
 President (to Ferrer) : " Keep quiet and do not interrupt, or I shall have 
 you removed from the court." 
 
 Ferrer : " But I have a right to hear " 
 
 President : "It is enough if your counsel hears." 
 
 " Whereupon," says the report, "the incident terminated."
 
 I'hdio L au'/uix"'i' /^e/gc, Brussels. 
 
 SOLEDAD VILLAFRANCA. 
 
 {To face p. 67.
 
 SOLEDAD VILLAFRANCA 67 
 
 known him, pretty intimately, for about two years ; but it 
 was only on January 2, 1906, that they entered into any 
 business relation. Then Morral became, as it is usually 
 stated, librarian {bibliotecario) of the Escuela Moderna ; 
 but so far as one can make out from the very imperfect 
 reporting of the Spanish newspapers, this does not mean 
 that he simply superintended the school library (which 
 was probably far from extensive), but rather that he was 
 to undertake the management of the "biblioteca," or 
 series of school-books, which Ferrer had published and 
 was publishing. Some of the expressions used lead one 
 to suppose that Ferrer intended to make him his partner 
 in this branch of his activity. 
 
 Be this as it may, the library which Morral controlled 
 was located on the floor above the Escuela Moderna, in 
 the Calle de Bailen ; and there Morral seems actually to 
 have taken up his abode. Ferrer declared that he did not 
 know that Morral had rooms in the building, and the 
 prosecution tried to make out that he must have known. 
 The point seems unimportant, for Ferrer made no attempt 
 to minimize his intimacy with Morral ; but his advocate, 
 Iglesias, suggested a curious reason why Morral may 
 purposely have made a mystery of his habitation. 
 
 At this point a new character appears on the scene. 
 One of the teachers in the Escuela Moderna was a lady 
 named Solcdad Villafranca, young, intelligent, enthusiastic, 
 and very beautiful. Morral fell passionately in love with 
 her ; indeed it is suggested that it was in order to gain 
 access to her that he placed his sister at the school, and 
 became himself one of its staff. Mmc. Villafranca for 
 some time regarded him as a good friend, and he was on 
 such terms with her as to rebuke her for her expensive 
 and showy style of dressing, which was, he said, the only
 
 68 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 thing he did not like about her. He was himself almost 
 ascetic in his habits, regarding luxury as anti-social, and 
 unworthy of a friend of the people. At last matters 
 came to a crisis. In the beginning of May, 1906, Morral 
 made open advances to Mme. Villafranca, and became so 
 pressing that, in order to show that there was no hope for 
 him, she confessed that she loved another man. Morral 
 very soon divined or discovered that his successful rival 
 was none other than Ferrer : whereupon he said to Mme. 
 Villafranca, " Pues sobra uno de los tres " — " Then one of 
 us three is one too many." His manner was so strange 
 and threatening that for some time Mme. Villafranca went 
 in terror lest he should try to assassinate either Ferrer or 
 herself. Eventually, however, Morral reminded her of his 
 remark, and said he had come to the conclusion that he 
 himself was the one that must get out of the way. This, 
 to her great relief, he did, leaving Barcelona on May 20. 
 The suggestion made by Iglesias was that Morral 
 purposely concealed from Ferrer the fact of his having 
 established himself in the Calle Bailen, because his object 
 in doing so was to facilitate the secret relations which he 
 hoped to establish with Soledad Villafranca. 
 
 This portion of the story, of course, rests almost entirely 
 upon Mme. Villafranca's sworn statement ; but it is partly 
 confirmed by one or two half-crazy post-cards which 
 Morral addressed to her from Madrid, on the very eve 
 of his crime. If we accept her declaration (and no one 
 has cast doubt upon it) we learn that her relation to 
 Ferrer was still a secret so late as the beginning of May, 
 
 1906. The breach between Ferrer and Mme. B had 
 
 taken place in the previous year. It was complicated by 
 a misunderstanding with regard to money matters, but it 
 seems pretty safe to assume that the appearance of
 
 MORRAL AND NAKENS 69 
 
 Mme. Villafranca on the horizon had something to do 
 with it. 
 
 Morral betook himself to Madrid, a city with which he 
 was almost entirely unfamiliar. He went to the Hotel 
 Iberia, where Ferrer had once stayed, in 1903, and where 
 some sort of a banquet had been given in his honour. 
 There Morral remained for three days, and then, on May 
 24, took a room in a boarding-house, 88 Calle Mayor, 
 with a balcony overlooking the street down which the 
 marriage procession of the King and Queen was to pass 
 on its return to the Palace, only a few hundred yards 
 distant. The horror which ensued need not be described. 
 Having achieved his exploit, Morral walked calmly down- 
 stairs, and was lost in the bewildered and panic-sricken 
 crowd that thronged the streets. 
 
 He made his way to the opposite side of the city, 
 and presented himself at the office of El MoHn, a 
 Republican weekly paper, then, and now, edited by Don 
 Jose Nakens. Of Nakens, the Madrid correspondent of 
 the Daily Telegraph, a person of strongly conservative 
 leanings, gives the following account : — " He is a 
 revolutionary with an exemplary past. He might have 
 been deputy, Minister, whatever he chose : but he sacri- 
 ficed everything to his Republican ideal. A great writer, 
 he has always lived on the borderline of poverty. He 
 is sixty years of age, his figure is commonplace, even 
 vulgar; but his face is full of intelligence and his eyes are 
 very lively." 
 
 Nakens was put on trial along with Ferrer, on the 
 charge of harbouring the assassin. His evidence is thus 
 summarized in the Daily Telegraph of June 5, 1907 — 
 
 In the course of his examination Nakens said that at
 
 70 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 half-past three o'clock in the afternoon of May 31, while 
 he was in the editorial office of the MoHn, a newspaper 
 of which he is the proprietor and editor, an individual 
 appeared, saying he wished to speak with him alone. Con- 
 ducted into Nakens's private room, the man said : " I know 
 that you are incapable of selling me, and I place myself 
 in your hands. I have thrown a bomb at the Sovereigns. 
 There are victims. I want you to save me, and I tell you 
 that I shall not leave here unless either dead or to save 
 myself with your help." 
 
 Nakens said that he was terrified. Just then a friend 
 came in with news of the bomb outrage, and saying that 
 Nakens's daughter was close to the scene of the explosion. 
 He therefore left Morral locked in his room, and went to 
 look after his daughter, returning at five o'clock. " At 
 that hour," he continued, " I found Morral much perturbed, 
 and with his moustache cut. He told me that he had cut 
 it off with a pair of scissors, looking at himself in a small 
 hand-mirror. He was very nervous and said he must be 
 saved. His attitude was menacing, and he never took his 
 hand from the pocket of his coat, where, as I afterwards 
 learned, he had a Browning pistol." 
 
 In reply to further questions, Nakens said that he 
 repeatedly asked Morral to leave, but the latter begged, 
 wept, and threatened, saying that the die was now cast, 
 that he (Nakens) must save him, or both of them would 
 perish, for he was determined not to leave the house by 
 himself. Prisoner realized the dangerous position he was 
 in, and decided to accompany Morral. Moreover, he said 
 his conscience rebelled against denouncing a man who, 
 without knowing him, had placed himself in his hands, 
 confiding in his honour. 
 
 Relating how they got away, Nakens said they took a 
 tram, and throughout the journey heard nothing spoken 
 of except the attempt. Morral listened impassively while 
 several men said it was a brutal crime, and that the 
 assassin ought to be lynched. On leaving the tram,
 
 DEATH OF MORRAL 71 
 
 Morral said to him, "What a lot of blood! But it was 
 necessary. There was no other remedy." 
 
 They proceeded to a wineshop in the suburb of Cuatro 
 Caminos, kept by a Republican named Canute. The out- 
 rage was being talked about and condemned there, one of 
 the people saying, " If I knew the assassin I would drag 
 his coward's heart out." ]\Iorral calmly said, " I would do 
 the same if I knew him." 
 
 Nakens went on to relate how he succeeded in getting 
 a certain Bernado Mata to harbour Morral for the night, 
 and to procure him clothes in which to continue his flight, 
 Mata believing all the time that Morral was a journalist 
 " wanted " by the police for some press offence. Night 
 having fallen, Nakens parted from Morral, who pressed 
 his hand and said, " Thanks, Don ]os6, I knew you were a 
 man. Many thanks. I owe you my life." Morral entered 
 the house of Mata, and Nakens returned by tram to 
 Madrid. On the evening of Saturday, June 2, Morral 
 was run to earth, at the station of Torrejon de Ardoz, 
 fourteen miles from Madrid. He shot the rural guard 
 who tried to arrest him, and then shot himself, with the 
 before-mentioned Browning pistol. 
 
 Nakens was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment ; 
 but in consideration of his age, his high character, and the 
 fact that he unquestionably acted very much against his 
 own will, from an antique sense of obligation to a fugitive 
 who had, so to speak, seated himself at his hearth, the 
 sentence was soon remitted, and he was set at liberty. In 
 forming our estimate of his conduct, it is well to note that, 
 as he himself pointed out, he was not terrorized by Morral 
 into the course he took ; for when he had him locked up 
 in his office, it would have been the easiest thing in the 
 world for him to have handed the poor wretch over to the
 
 72 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 police. At the end of his examination Nakens said : " To 
 sum the matter up, I must own that in all I did to save 
 Morral there was a leaven of egoism. I feared lest 
 between the many years I have lived and the few that are 
 left me there should intervene the terrible silhouette of 
 the gallows." 
 
 Now Ferrer, as we saw in his account of his travels 
 with Mile. Meunier, was acquainted with Nakens, and 
 greatly admired him. It is worth noting that in the 
 photograph of Ferrer and his family taken at Bendigo 
 some ten years before these events, he is somewhat osten- 
 tatiously holding a copy of Nakens's paper El Motin {The 
 Revolt)} But Nakens not only was not an anarchist of 
 any shade whatever, but was noted for his resolute opposi- 
 tion to anarchism, and had been publicly thanked by 
 Sr. Moret, while prime minister of Spain, for his services 
 in combating the sect. The fact, then, that in November, 
 1905, Nakens had written to Ferrer asking for financial 
 aid for El Motin, showed that he, at any rate, did not 
 think of Ferrer as a militant anarchist. Ferrer replied 
 that for the moment he had no funds at his disposition, 
 but that he was negotiating a mortgage on his house in 
 Paris, and that, when this was concluded, he would come 
 to the assistance of the veteran journalist. As a matter 
 of fact, he sent him, early in 1906, a cheque for 1000 
 pesetas (;^4o), stating it to be on account of payment for 
 one or two books which he wished Nakens to write for the 
 library of the Escuela Moderna. Nakens, however, seems 
 in the meantime to have become doubtful whether he 
 could co-operate with Ferrer in his educational work, and 
 the cheque remained in his possession uncashed, when the 
 police descended upon him. 
 
 * See illustration, p. 15.
 
 A BASELESS PROSECUTION 73 
 
 Beyond the facts above related, there was absolutely 
 nothing to associate Ferrer with Morral's misdeed. The 
 prosecution tried, but totally failed, to make out that 
 Ferrer had supplied the criminal with money. There was, 
 in fact, no need for him to do so ; for bomb-throwing is not 
 a very costly sport, and Morral had received a large sum 
 from his father not long before the tragedy.^ What, then, 
 does the evidence amount to? There is absolutely nothing 
 in it beyond the bare fact that the two men knew each 
 other. It is not at all unlikely that Morral may have gone 
 to the Hotel Iberia because he had heard Ferrer mention 
 it ; but there was no evidence even of that. And if there 
 had been, what would it have mattered > Had Ferrer 
 been cognisant of his design, he would assuredly have 
 warned Morral not to go to an hotel with which his 
 (Ferrer's) name had been publicly associated. As for 
 Morral's action in throwing himself upon the chivalry of 
 Nakens, there is no reason to suppose that Ferrer had, 
 even unconsciously, anything to do with it. Nakens was 
 a famous man, whose character and whose views were 
 known to every one who took the smallest interest in 
 public affairs.2 If Morral had heard Ferrer express the 
 respect he certainly felt for Nakens, that might, no doubt, 
 have influenced him towards the course he took ; but even 
 if we make this needless assumption, it involves Ferrer in 
 no sort of responsibility. No one doubts that Nakens's 
 views were strongly opposed to anarchism in every shape 
 
 ' On this question of supply, no definite and conclusive evidence seems to 
 have been produced by either side, though it must surely have been easily 
 obtainable. Spanish justice appears to admit a great deal of assertion and 
 counter-assertion by advocates on points on which nothing that can be called 
 evidence is before the court. 
 
 * Nakens had acted with somewhat overstrained chivalry towards the 
 Italian Angiolillo, who, in 1897, assassinated Sr. Canovas ; and Morral referred 
 to this the moment he entered Nakens's office.
 
 74 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 and form. The Government, in releasing him, has fully 
 admitted it ; for, had he been an anarchist shielding a 
 fellow-conspirator, he would have had no claim to clem- 
 ency. The attempt to make out that Ferrer bribed 
 Nakens with a cheque for ;^40, to become an accomplice in 
 so reckless a crime, is too puerile for consideration. Even 
 if we assume that Nakens's vehement anti-anarchism was 
 hypocritical, or that he was capable of being bought over 
 to terrorism by a cheque of £^0, it is perfectly clear that 
 he would not have kept that damning instrument in his 
 possession a moment longer than necessary. It cannot 
 be argued that keeping the cheque uncashed was part of 
 his subtlety ; for that would mean that instead of risking 
 his neck for £/\.o he risked it for nothing at all. By no 
 conceivable device can the theory of the prosecution be 
 made to hold water. If Ferrer, Morral, and Nakens were 
 in a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy of lunatics ; and 
 Morral was by no means the maddest of the three. 
 
 It does not seem to be known where Morral procured 
 his bomb ; but there was no scrap of evidence to connect 
 Ferrer or the Escuela Moderna with this nefarious manu- 
 facture. Ferrer was shown to have gone about his busi- 
 ness as usual during the days before the crime, and on the 
 31st itself. He had made arrangements to go to Paris 
 (as he frequently did) on the following day, June i ; but, 
 struck with consternation by the news from Madrid, and 
 divining that an attempt would be made to implicate him 
 in the crime,^ he felt that this journey would wear the 
 
 * For a moment I was inclined to sec a slightly suspicious circumstance in 
 his instant realization that he was likely to be involved. It seemed as though 
 he had somehow associated Morral with the crime before any one else did. 
 But, on investigation, I found that Morral's name was known in Madrid, and 
 had been telegraphed to London, on the very evening of the event, so that it 
 must certainly have reached Barcelona as well.
 
 1906 AND 1909 75 
 
 appearance of flight, and consequently remained in Barce- 
 lona. On the Sunday following the fatal Thursday he 
 voluntarily placed himself in the hands of the police. His 
 enemies, of course, assert that he did so because he felt 
 the net to be closing round him. However this may be, it 
 is certain that any attempt on his part to elude arrest 
 would have been tantamount to a confession of guilt, and 
 would have been a capital folly. He had to choose 
 between two perfectly definite courses : either he must 
 take a firm stand on his innocence, or, by absconding, he 
 must, whether innocent or guilty, place himself in the 
 position of an outlaw, and see his life-work hopelessly 
 ruined. 
 
 It may perhaps be alleged that, by the same reasoning, 
 the fact that he went into hiding after the Barcelona riots 
 should be regarded as a confession of guilt. I am not at 
 all sure that he was not ill-advised in going into hiding ; 
 but the circumstances of 1909 were widely different from 
 those of 1906. Catalonia was in a state of war ; martial 
 law was proclaimed ; Ferrer learned that wild rumours 
 were abroad as to his having taken a prominent part in 
 the rioting ; and he knew that he was surrounded by ran- 
 corous enemies. His plan, as he himself states it with 
 perfect probability, was simply to keep out of the way 
 until the trouble was over and the excitement had calmed 
 down. Had his enemies laid hands on him while the 
 revolt was actually raging, he might have been subjected, 
 not to the " Juicio Ordinario," which at least made a show 
 of trying him, but to a "Juicio Sumari'simo," which would 
 have shot him practically at sight. 
 
 One of two details of the trial of 1907 remain to be 
 noted. 
 
 When we come to examine the documentary evidence
 
 76 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of 1909, we shall do well to bear in mind that among the 
 documents produced in 1907 there were several which 
 were manifestly spurious, were denounced by Ferrer as 
 forgeries, and were practically dropped by the prosecution. 
 They contained such sentiments as these — 
 
 " Against war, the gendarmery, and torturings there is 
 no other remedy than the bomb, the dagger, or poison." 
 
 " The carelessness of Artal" — a man who had attempted 
 the life of Maura — "in not poisoning his weapon has ren- 
 dered his sacrifice to some extent useless. Those who 
 follow him will know how to remedy this error by poison- 
 ing their daggers and bombs." 
 
 " The road to liberty will be a second Sicilian Vespers. 
 ... It will be a happy awakening to see annihilated in 
 another Sicilian Vespers the Alfonsos, Mauras, Tressols, 
 Portas, Despujols, and all tyrants, in one night." 
 
 The prosecution seems tacitly to have accepted Ferrer's 
 indignant disclaimer, and abandoned the attempt to bring 
 these effusions home to him. I find no mention of them 
 in the Prosecutor's speech. Moreover, as they no doubt 
 remained among the archives of the police, they would 
 certainly have been resuscitated in 1909, had there been 
 the slightest hope of making them appear genuine. 
 
 Among the witnesses who did not appear in person, 
 but whose declarations were read, was Mme. B — — , the 
 mother of Ferrer's son Riego. They had quarrelled, and 
 there was bitterness between them ; nevertheless she 
 testified that " although his ideas were very advanced, he 
 could not be called an anarchist," and that "he was in- 
 capable of having thrown the bomb, or induced any one 
 else to do so, for he was not a man who wanted to do 
 harm to any one." Ferrer's wife was also on the scene, 
 but there are contradictory reports as to whether she
 
 THE MISSING LEDGERS 77 
 
 wanted to speak for him or against him. Her evidence, 
 in any case, was not admitted. 
 
 There was one point, and one only, on which Ferrer's 
 case does not seem entirely clear and above-board. In 
 the Daily Telegraph report of his examination in chief, he 
 is represented to have said that no accounts were kept at 
 the Escuela Moderna, " as he did not require to render an 
 account to anybody, and therefore did not have any 
 books " ; whereas it appeared from the statement of one 
 of his employees, Batllori, that " the account-books previous 
 to June I were destroyed on instructions given by Ferrer 
 in a letter dated July 7, 1906." I suspect some misreport 
 or misunderstanding in this matter. It seems incredible 
 that the accounts, if they existed, should not have been 
 seized before July 7, five weeks after Ferrer's arrest. But 
 as the discrepancy exists in apparently trustworthy records, 
 I thought myself bound to note it.'^ The mere fact, if it 
 be one, that Ferrer should have taken measures to keep 
 his account-books out of the hands of the police, is no 
 evidence of guilt, but simply of a natural desire not to 
 compromise friends and fellow-workers. When an 
 anarchist-hunt is afoot, everybody is more or less in 
 jeopardy who appears to have had any relations, especially 
 of a financial nature, with one of the accused. 
 
 A writer known under the pseudonym of Federico 
 Urales, and declaring himself an anarchist, gave evidence 
 to the effect that Ferrer was not an anarchist, and had 
 specially warned him, in some negotiation as to school- 
 
 • On re-reading the reports, I find that the Prosecutor, in his final speech, 
 stated that Ferrer had the books destroyed the moment he learned of Morral's 
 crime. There is evidently a blunder somewhere ; yet the Daily Telegraph 
 correspondent circumstantially relates that the tardiness of the police in seizing 
 the books, and the fact that Ferrer was free to order their destruction so late 
 as July 7, caused much surprise,
 
 78 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 books, that " the h'brary of the Escuela Moderna was not 
 anarchist, but purely impartial." Urales also gave evidence 
 — hearsay evidence, but no attempt seems to have been 
 made to contradict it — as to overtures made by a municipal 
 magistrate to certain journalists with a view to their con- 
 ducting a campaign against Ferrer in the press. They 
 were to be given access to the " dossier " of the prosecution, 
 from which they were to extract and publish the documents 
 which were thought most compromising to the prisoner. 
 It is true that these particular journalists are represented as 
 having declined to lend themselves to such a machination ; 
 but it is none the less true that an active and unscrupulous 
 campaign against Ferrer was carried on while his case was 
 under judgment. The chief importance of Urales' evidence 
 lies in the light which it throws upon the tactics of the 
 prosecution in 1909. It explains how, before the Barcelona 
 trial, the press was carefully fed with compromising docu- 
 ments, into the authenticity of which we shall in due time 
 have to inquire. 
 
 As a specimen of the class of evidence admitted in 
 Spanish courts, I may quote the following, from the ex- 
 amination of Don Leoncio Ponte, Lieutenant-Colonel of 
 the Barcelona gendarmery : — 
 
 Question: "What relation do you think exists be- 
 tween the attempt committed by Morral and the accused 
 Ferrer ? " 
 
 Answer : "Simply that Ferrer is the director of the 
 whole. {Sensation^ Ask any business man in Barcelona, 
 and you will see that he will answer : Ferrer.^* 
 
 This declaration of the Lieutenant-Colonel was actually 
 emphasized by the Prosecutor in his final speech as a 
 peculiarly weighty piece of evidence ; and we shall find 
 the same gallant officer giving evidence of no less cogency
 
 MORRAL'S LETTER 79 
 
 in the Barcelona trial. It must be owned, however, that 
 in Madrid the balance was kept even ; several witnesses 
 being allowed to depose that opinion in Barcelona was 
 favourable to the accused. For instance, Don Alejandro 
 Lerroux, the Republican leader, laid it down that every 
 one in Barcelona, except the priests, was completely on 
 Ferrer's side. 
 
 On the other hand, a piece of evidence of very different 
 value, which was known to be in existence, was not placed 
 before the court. It was a letter from Morral to a Russian 
 friend in Paris, written some time before the outrage, in 
 which he said, " I have little confidence in men like 
 Francisco Ferrer, Tarrida del Marmol, and Anselmo 
 Lorenzo, who are simple enough {bastants tontos) still to 
 believe in educational methods in a country like Spain." 
 Knowing too well to entrust such a precious document to 
 the post, a Spanish exile to whom I have spoken took the 
 actual letter from Paris to Perpignan, where he was met 
 by Sr. Batllori of the Escuela Moderna, who conveyed the 
 letter to Madrid. Emiliano Iglesias had been advised of 
 its existence, and asked to prolong the case until it 
 arrived ; but he replied that he was already certain of 
 securing an acquittal ; and as a matter of fact Ferrer was 
 a free man before Batllori reached the capital. The letter 
 remained in Ferrer's keeping, and is in all probability 
 among the documents seized by the police in 1909. 
 Needless to say, the prosecution made no mention 
 of it. 
 
 It is curious to note that Ferrer was not in this instance 
 tried on a capital charge. The Prosecutor, after reckoning 
 up the crimes laid to his account — namely, " 2 frustrated 
 regicides, 24 murders, and 107 woundings and maimings " — 
 demanded the imposition of the penalty of imprisonment
 
 80 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 for " i6 years 5 months and 10 days." The judges, on 
 the other hand, found that the Prosecutor had "failed to 
 establish any link between the presumption engendered 
 by the opinions of the accused, and the actual misdeed 
 committed." On his release Ferrer immediately returned 
 to Barcelona, where he met with a triumphal reception.
 
 
 < 
 
 u 
 o 
 
 <
 
 VI 
 
 A TWO years' truce 
 
 One thing, at all events, Ferrer's enemies had succeeded 
 in doing — they had made him famous. Before his arrest, 
 and the closing of the Escuela Moderna, no one, practi- 
 cally, had heard of him out of Spain and Spanish America, 
 while even in Spanish-speaking countries he was known 
 mainly to two classes of people : militant anti-clericals and 
 militant clericals. When the news of his arrest was tele- 
 graphed to the English papers, his name was not given ; 
 he was simply " the director of a school in Barcelona." 
 But after his trial he was a celebrity. The attempt of the 
 reactionaries to crush a rationalist educator aroused the 
 sympathy of all who were interested in educational pro- 
 gress ; and at the same time his name began to be cited as 
 a bugbear in the clerical press, and in reactionary circles, 
 far beyond the limits of the Peninsula. The legend of his 
 enormities — how he had deserted his amiable and ex- 
 emplary spouse, left his children to starve, hypocritically 
 defrauded a rich and devout benefactress, and established 
 a school where the texts on the wall were incitements to 
 regicide, and the elements of bomb-manufacture formed 
 a fundamental part of the curriculum — this lurid legend 
 grew and crystallized till it became an article of faith in 
 many pious bosoms. The police of Paris and London, too, 
 taking their keynote from their Spanish colleagues, began 
 
 G
 
 82 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 to keep a watchful eye on him, and to regard him as a 
 dangerous character ; though after some investigation, 
 I have failed to discover that they had any ground for this 
 opinion, other than suggestion from Madrid. 
 
 On his release from prison, Ferrer tried to obtain 
 authorization to re-open his school ; but after procrasti- 
 nating for two years, the education department decided, 
 on the very eve of his death, that the authorization could 
 not be accorded. The reason alleged was that the books 
 employed did not fulfil the statutory requirements. 
 
 Debarred from carrying on his work in the narrow 
 sphere he had chosen, he was forced to seek a wider outlet 
 for his energies : the more willingly, indeed, as inter- 
 national organization was only a logical consequence of 
 his principles. In December, 1906, while he was still only 
 in the middle of his year of durance, he had written from 
 the Carcel Modelo to William Heaford in London : " Yes, 
 my dear friend, I accept the rendezvous you give me in 
 Paris : not, however, that we may celebrate my liberation, 
 but in order to found a League for the defence of the 
 liberty of Rationalist Education throughout the world. 
 This would form the solid basis of peace fo/ the future 
 amongst nations and individuals. To you, first of all, 
 I communicate this idea." The idea took definite shape 
 in a circular issued in April, 1908, inviting adhesion to a 
 "Ligue Internationale pour I'Education rationnelle de 
 I'Enfance." Its principles were thus set forth — 
 
 (i) The education given to childhood ought to rest 
 upon a scientific and rational basis : consequently every 
 mystical ^ and supernatural notion ought to be banished. 
 
 (2) Instruction is only a part of this education, which 
 
 ' It seems rather odd to find Maurice Maeterlinck figuring as a member of 
 this League.
 
 THE RATIONALIST LEAGUE 83 
 
 ought to include, along with the formation of the intelli- 
 gence, the development of character, the cultivation of 
 the will, the preparation of a morally and physically 
 well-balanced human being, whose faculties are har- 
 moniously associated and carried to their maximum of 
 power. 
 
 (3) Moral education, far less theoretical than practical, 
 ought mainly to result from example, and to rest on the 
 great natural law of solidarity. 
 
 (4) It is necessary, especially in the teaching of early 
 childhood, that programmes and methods should be; adapted 
 as exactly as possible to the psychology of the child, a 
 point now almost entirely neglected, whether in public or 
 in private teaching. 
 
 Anatole France became Honorary President of the 
 League, Ferrer was President, C. A. Laisant, Vice-President, 
 Charles Albert, Secretary, while the International Com- 
 mittee consisted of Ernest Haeckel (Germany), William 
 Heaford (England), Giuseppe Sergi (Italy), Paul Gille 
 (Belgium), and H. Roorda van Eysinga (Switzerland). It 
 had for its organ a magazine named L'Ecole Renovee, 
 founded by Ferrer in Brussels, but afterwards transferred 
 to Paris. The numbers of this review which I have seen 
 are of an austerely serious and technical character, demo 
 cratic, no doubt, but no more inflammatory than (say) the 
 Edinburgh Review. 
 
 Ferrer had at one time an idea of starting a Normal 
 School at Barcelona ; but this plan was either abandoned 
 or postponed. On the other hand, he revived the monthly 
 Bulletin of the Escucla Modcrna, and opened the new series 
 (May, 1908) with a sort of summary of his educational 
 creed. From this document I have already made a short 
 quotation (p. 53) ; but as it contains the clearest exposition 
 of his ideas that he has anywhere given us, I shall here
 
 84 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 reproduce the whole substance of it, omitting only repeti- 
 tions and inessential amplifications. It is headed — 
 
 The Renovation of the School. 
 
 To those who wish to renovate the education of children 
 two methods are open : To work for the transformation of 
 the school by studying the child, so as to prove scientifically 
 that the present organization of education is defective, 
 and to bring about progressive modification ; or, to found 
 new schools in which shall be directly applied the prin- 
 ciples . . . held by those who eschew the conventionalities, 
 prejudices, cruelties, trickeries and falsehoods, upon which 
 modern society is based. 
 
 There is much to be said for the first method. It 
 corresponds to that evolutionary conception which all men 
 of science defend, and which alone, according to them, can 
 succeed. 
 
 In theory they are right, and we are quite ready to 
 recognize it. . . . But in reality, I do not believe that 
 those who struggle for human emancipation can expect 
 much from this method. Governments have ever been 
 careful to hold a high hand over the education of the 
 people. They know, better than any one else, that their 
 power is based almost entirely on the school. Hence, 
 they monopolize it more and more. The time is past 
 when they opposed the diffusion of instruction, and when 
 they sought to restrain the education of the masses. These 
 tactics were formerly possible, because the economic life 
 of the nations allowed the prevalence of popular ignorance, 
 that ignorance which renders mastery easy. But circum- 
 stances have changed. The progress of science, dis- 
 coveries of all kinds, have revolutionized the conditions 
 of labour and production. It is no longer possible for a 
 people to remain ignorant ; it must be educated in order 
 that the economic situation of one country may hold its 
 own and make headway against the universal competition. 
 In consequence, governments want education ; they want
 
 AN EDUCATIONAL CREED 85 
 
 a more and more complete organization of the school, not 
 because they hope for the renovation of society through 
 education, but because they need individuals, workmen, 
 perfected instruments of labour, to make their industrial 
 enterprises and the capital employed in them profitable. 
 And we have seen the most reactionary governments 
 follow this movement ; they have realized perfectly that 
 their former tactics were becoming dangerous to the 
 economic life of the nations, and that it is necessary to 
 adapt popular education to new necessities. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Forthwith began terrible struggles for the conquest of 
 the school ; in every country these struggles are still con- 
 tinuing with intensity ; here, bourgeois republican society 
 triumphs ; there, clericalism. All sides know the im- 
 portance of the game, and recoil from no sacrifice to secure 
 a victory. Every one's cry is : " For and by the School," 
 * * * * * 
 
 If the governing powers had, as men, the same ideas 
 as benevolent reformers, if they were really concerned for 
 the continuous reorganization of society in the sense of 
 the progressive disappearance of slavery, we might admit 
 that scientific effort alone would improve the destiny of 
 nations. But we should reckon without our host. We 
 know too well that those who dispute for power have in 
 view nothing but the defence of their own interests ; that 
 they busy themselves .only with conquering what they 
 want for themselves, for the satisfaction of their appetite. 
 Long ago we ceased to believe in the words with which 
 they mask their ambitions. Certain naive persons still 
 refuse to believe that there is not among them, after all, 
 some little sincerity, and imagine that they, too, sometimes 
 desire the happiness of their fellows. But these become 
 fewer and fewer, and the positivism of the century has 
 become far too cruel for us to deceive ourselves longer as 
 to the intentions of those who govern us.
 
 8G FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 The organization of the school, far from spreading the 
 ideal which we imagined, has made education the most 
 powerful means of enslavement in the hands of the govern- 
 ing powers to-day. Their teachers are only the conscious 
 or unconscious instruments of these powers, modelled, 
 moreover, according to their principles ; they have from 
 their youth up, and more than any one else, been sub- 
 jected to the discipline of authority ; few indeed are those 
 who have escaped the influence of this domination ; and 
 these remain powerless, because the school organization 
 constrains them so strongly that they cannot but obey it. 
 It is not my purpose here to examine the nature of this 
 organization. It is sufficiently well known for me to 
 characterize it in one word : constraint. The school 
 imprisons children physically, intellectually and morally, in 
 order to direct the development of their faculties in the 
 paths desired. It deprives them of contact with nature, 
 in order to model them after its own pattern. And this 
 is the explanation of all which I have here set forth: the 
 care which governments have taken to direct the educa- 
 tion of the people, and the bankruptcy of the hopes of 
 believers in liberty. The education of to-day is nothing 
 
 more than drill. 
 
 * * * » * 
 
 There is no reason for governments to change their 
 system. They have succeeded in making education serve 
 their advantage ; they will likewise know how to make 
 use, to their advantage, of any improvements that may be 
 proposed. 
 
 It is sufficient that they maintain the spirit of the 
 school, the authoritarian discipline which reigns therein, 
 for all innovations to be turned to their profit. 
 
 ***** 
 
 One may judge with what ease education receives the 
 stamp they wish to put upon it, and how easy is the task 
 of those who wish to enslave the individual. The best 
 methods become in their hands only the more powerful
 
 AN EDUCATIONAL CREED 87 
 
 and perfect instruments of domination. Our own ideal is 
 certainly that of science, and we demand that we be given 
 the power to educate the child by favouring its develop- 
 me it through the satisfaction of all its needs, in proportion 
 as they arise and grow. 
 
 We are convinced that the education of the future will 
 be of an entirely spontaneous nature ; certainly we cannot 
 as yet realize it, but the evolution of methods in the direc- 
 tion of a wider comprehension of the phenomena of life, 
 and the fact that all advances towards perfection mean the 
 overcoming of some constraint, — all this indicates that we 
 are in the right when we hope for the deliverance of the 
 child through science. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Let us not fear to say that we want men capable of 
 evolving without stopping, capable of destroying and 
 renewing their environments without cessation, of renew- 
 ing themselves also ; men whose intellectual independence 
 will be their greatest force, who will attach themselves to 
 nothing, always ready to accept what is best, happy in the 
 triumph of new ideas, aspiring to live multiple lives in one 
 life. Society fears such men ; we therefore must not hope 
 that it will ever want an education able to give them 
 to us. 
 
 A trial has been made which has already given excel- 
 lent results. We can destroy all which in the present 
 school answers to the organization of constraint, the 
 artificial surroundings by which the children are separated 
 from nature and life, the intellectual and moral discipline 
 made use of to impose ready-made ideas upon them, 
 beliefs which deprave and annihilate natural bent. With- 
 out fear of deceiving ourselves, we can restore the child to 
 the environment which entices it, the environment of 
 nature in which he will be in contact with all that he loves, 
 and in which impressions of life will replace irksome 
 book-learning. If we did no more than that, we should
 
 88 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 already have prepared in great part the deliverance of the 
 
 child. 
 
 In such conditions we might already freely apply the 
 data of science, and labour most fruitfully. 
 
 I know very well that we could not thus realize all 
 our hopes, that we should often be forced, for lack of 
 knowledge, to employ undesirable methods ; but a certi- 
 tude would sustain us in our effort, namely that, even 
 without reaching our aim completely, we should do more 
 and better in our still imperfect work than the present 
 school accomplishes. I like the free spontaneity of a 
 child who knows nothing, better than the world-knowledge 
 and intellectual deformity of a child who has been 
 subjected to our present education. 
 
 What we have attempted at Barcelona others have 
 attempted elsewhere, and we have all seen that the work 
 is possible. And I think it should be begun without 
 delay. We should not wait until the study of the child 
 has been completed before undertaking the renovation 
 of the school ; if we must wait for that, we shall never 
 do anything. We will apply what we know, and, pro- 
 gressively, all that we shall learn. Already a complete 
 plan of rational education is possible, and, in such schools 
 as we conceive, children may develop, happy and free, 
 according to their natural tendencies. We shall labour 
 to perfect and extend it. 
 
 A complete criticism of this document would be a 
 complete tractate on education. Even were I capable 
 of doing so, it is no part of my business to sift the true 
 from the false, the sound from the unsound, among 
 Ferrer's ideas. I am not concerned with their justice, 
 but only with their sincerity ; and that cannot be 
 established by argument. If any one can read the fore- 
 going pages, and believe the writer was affecting an 
 enthusiasm for education in order to cloak murderous
 
 AN AMBITIOUS DESIGN 89 
 
 and incendiary designs, he is of course free to do so ; but 
 such an extreme of credulity is certainly rare. It is not 
 as though Ferrer affected any tenderness or consideration 
 for the existing social order. His hostility to it declares 
 itself in every line, along with the belief that the school 
 is the most effective point of attack on it. If any one 
 tells me that he holds this belief to be hypocritical, I can 
 only reply that I am much more disposed to doubt his 
 sincerity than Ferrer's. 
 
 A favourite allegation against Ferrer as an educator 
 is that it was his confessed object to " flatter all the 
 appetites of youth." This expression occurs in the 
 dictamen of the Auditor-General and in many other 
 places. It is probably an amiable paraphrase of the 
 sentence in which Ferrer lays it down as his purpose " to 
 educate the child by favouring its development through 
 the satisfaction of all its needs, in proportion as they arise 
 and grow." 
 
 Among the projects which he nourished during this 
 period of seeming security was that of publishing what 
 he called an Encyclopccdia of Higher Popular Education. 
 It was to consist of fifteen volumes, dealing with the 
 following subjects : — 
 
 i) The Evolution of the Worlds. 
 
 '2) The Story of <^he Earth. 
 
 '3) The Origin of Life. 
 
 (4) The Evolution of Living Things. 
 
 '5) The Factors of Organic Evolution. 
 
 [6) The Origin and Development of Man. 
 
 [7) Thought. 
 
 [8) The History of Civilization. 
 
 [9) Religions. 
 (10) Law and Morals.
 
 90 FJ^ANCISCO FERRER 
 
 (ii) Social Organization. 
 
 (12) Economic Systems. 
 
 (13) The Evolution of Technics and Art. 
 
 (14) The Factors of Social Evolution. 
 
 (15) Man and the World. 
 
 It would be unfair to criticize such a scheme from its 
 mere headings ; but there is an appearance of overlapping 
 in the suggested classification which leads one to doubt 
 whether Ferrer was quite equal to the editorship of such 
 a work. But that he had seriously undertaken it is 
 beyond question : he had even made considerable progress 
 in arranging for contributions to it. Meanwhile he kept 
 his publishing-house (at 596 Calle Cortes, Barcelona) busy 
 in various ways, and was, at the time of the catastrophe, 
 actively preparing illustrated editions of U Homme et la 
 Terre by Reclus and of Kropotkin's La Grande Revolution. 
 
 One of the statements which Ferrer's enemies appar- 
 ently hold most damaging to his reputation, and are 
 consequently never tired of repeating, is that he increased 
 his fortune by speculations on the Stock Exchange. The 
 implication is, of course, that he gambled with Mile. 
 Meunier's money in order to gratify his own luxurious, 
 if not vicious, tastes. This is stated in so many words 
 by the more violent of his assailants ; others more deli- 
 cately insinuate it after this fashion : " He gambled with 
 success on the Stock Exchange, greatly increased his 
 wealth, but consistently applied what could be spared 
 from the private consumption of his mistress and himself 
 to a well-organized anti-Christian propaganda." ^ 
 
 Now it is perfectly true that Ferrer, in his dealings 
 with money, showed considerable business capacity : a 
 form of worldly wisdom which is not reckoned criminal, 
 ^ Mr. Hilaire Belloc in the Dublin Review, January, 1910.
 
 INVESTING OR GAMBLING? 91 
 
 one understands, even in the Society of Jesus. As the 
 initial expenses of the Escuela Moderna far exceeded the 
 annual income derived from Mile. Meunier's legacy, he 
 was very soon obliged to borrow money ; and in course 
 of time he placed several mortgages on his Paris property. 
 Some of the money thus raised he invested judiciously, 
 notably in a new Barcelona Building Company (Fomento 
 de Obras y Construcciones), the shares of which steadily 
 rose. It is probably untrue to say that he "greatly 
 increased his wealth " : ^ a more accurate statement would 
 be that by handling his resources judiciously he found 
 means to devote larger sums to his work than he could 
 otherwise have commanded without making fatal inroads 
 on his capital. To say that he "gambled" on the Stock 
 Exchange is a gross misrepresentation. It may seem 
 idle to cavil at such a vague expression as "gambling," 
 which is only an unfriendly term for dealings in which 
 it is admitted that Ferrer did engage. But we shall have 
 occasion to estimate the damage which may be done by 
 the reckless repetition of vaguely defamatory language 
 when we find the Prosecutor, in the Barcelona trial, so 
 possessed by the legend of Ferrer's "gambling" as to 
 hint, confessedly without a shadow of evidence,^ that he 
 engineered the riots in the interests of some Stock 
 Exchange "deal." 
 
 Whatever word we choose to apply to his methods of 
 administering his property, the one thing certain is that 
 his motive in money-making was solely to further what 
 
 • Common report ridiculously exaggerated his means. He was frequently 
 spoken of as a "millionaire," which he never was even in pesetas, much less 
 in dollars or pounds. These exaggerations contributed to his undoing, for 
 they led people to think of him as a man who could, if he would, finance a 
 revolution. 
 
 * See pp. 203, 281.
 
 92 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 he regarded as his mission. There is an overwhelming 
 amount of testimony to the fact that his scale of personal 
 expenditure was in no way altered after he came into his 
 fortune. His way of living was as frugal in the days of his 
 wealth as it had been in the days of his poverty. We 
 can follow all his movements in the later years of his life. 
 In London he does not put up at the Savoy or the 
 Carlton, but seeks out a modest Bloomsbury boarding- 
 house. In Paris he goes to third- or fourth-rate hotels in 
 the quarter most affected by his compatriots — not far, 
 indeed, from the Rue Richer which had such painful 
 memories for him. Mme. Berthe Delaunay, who inter- 
 viewed him in 1908, writes as follows : — ^ 
 
 " I was not a little astonished when, calling upon him 
 with an introduction from Charles Malato, I found him on 
 the sixth floor of a far from elegant house on the Boule- 
 vard St. Martin, poorly installed in a little apartment of 
 three tiny rooms. The door was opened to me by a 
 young lady of great beauty, who, speaking with a strong 
 Spanish accent, invited me to enter, and ushered me into 
 a study where I found the great Spanish educator seated 
 in the midst of piles of books and papers. He had to 
 clear a heap of pamphlets from the chair which he offered 
 me. 
 
 All this, of course, leaves it literally true that he 
 devoted to his work " what could be spared from the 
 private consumption of his mistress and himself." The 
 mischief is that a literal truth may be so stated as to 
 become a highly injurious moral falsehood. 
 
 The most conclusive testimony to the almost ascetic 
 simplicity of Ferrer's mode of life is afforded by his 
 so-called "villa" of Mas Germinal, at Mongat, nine miles 
 
 1 U Italia (Paris), October 13, 1910.
 
 MAS GERMINAL (GENERAL VIEW). 
 
 COURTYARD AND CISTERN, MAS GERMINAL, 
 
 iTo/acep. 93-
 
 MAS GERMINAL 93 
 
 from Barcelona. It was in July, 1910, nine months after 
 Ferrer's death, that I visited his brother Jose, who was 
 occupying the house, and cultivating the land, as agent 
 for the Government, Ferrer's property having been 
 confiscated. Misled by the term "villa," I looked out 
 for a comfortable bourgeois residence, of the type so 
 common on the outskirts of wealthy cities such as 
 Barcelona. But as I walked along the coast road from 
 Mongat station, I saw nothing at all answering to the 
 Mas Germinal of my fancy. An old woman directed me 
 to turn up a rough side road ; and there, in a little hollow 
 not more than a hundred yards from the sea, I came upon 
 an old farmhouse so exceedingly primitive of aspect that 
 I could scarcely believe it to be the "villa" of which I 
 was in search. But it was no other; and Jose Ferrer, 
 summoned from the garden where he had been working, 
 presently greeted me with a cordial hospitality in which 
 it was not difficult to trace the influence of his ten years 
 in Australia. 
 
 Through a dilapidated gateway, one entered a small 
 paved courtyard. Close to the gateway was one of the 
 large built-up washing-troughs, perhaps twelve feet by four 
 in extent, which are common adjuncts to peasant houses 
 in Spain. The milky blue of the water showed that the 
 cistern had done its work for the day ; and, indeed, the 
 family washing dangled from a line stretched across 
 the courtyard, under which one had to duck in order to 
 reach the house. Between the cistern and the house a 
 high wooden gate opened into the garden. As for the 
 " villa " itself, it would mightily astonish those people who 
 imagine Ferrer living in luxury on the spoils of his 
 hypocrisy. Built in 1777, it is a square white-washed 
 blcck of two storeys. In the lower storey there is only
 
 94 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 one window, giving light to the kitchen at the back. In 
 front, on the ground level, there is no opening save a 
 wide arched doorway ; while in the upper storey there are 
 two narrow windows, one of them heavily barred. The 
 arched entrance leads into the living-room of the house, 
 which receives light and air through this opening alone. 
 To the best of my belief, there is no door in this doorway, 
 over which, however, a rough curtain can be drawn. A 
 second doorless doorway leads from the living-room into 
 the kitchen beyond, while a third opens to the right into 
 a large store-room and lumber-room, with no window, 
 containing, when I saw it, a wine-press, some barrels, a 
 zinc bath, and some heaps of garden produce. Some 
 twenty or thirty sacks (I think of barley) were piled 
 against the living-room wall, between the entrance and 
 the kitchen. A table, a wooden bench, a few rush- 
 bottomed chairs, and a grandfather's clock, completed 
 the furniture of the room, save for one object — a cottage 
 piano, of French manufacture, with the initials " S. V." 
 carved upon it. At the back, a flight of steps led to the 
 upper floor ; and the wall above this stairway was pierced 
 by the originally cruciform ornament which (as before 
 mentioned) Ferrer had despoiled of its vertical arms, 
 altering the cross into a bar. On the wall hung three 
 coloured advertisements, one of a Catalan illustrated paper, 
 another of a Castilian encyclopaedia, and the third a 
 framed poster of "The Bay Excursion Company, Ltd.," 
 announcing a daily trip of " the Ozone Excursion 
 Steamer " from Melbourne to Queenscliff and Sorrento. 
 The room, in short, would in England have been thought 
 more fitted for a coach-house than for a human habitation. 
 In that Mediterranean climate it was habitable enough ; 
 but even there it suggested the stoic rather than the
 
 JOSP: FERRER. 
 
 \To face p. 93.
 
 POLICE PILLAGE 05 
 
 sybarite. If ever man led the simple life, it was Ferrer at 
 Mas Germinal. 
 
 And on every hand there were traces of the havoc 
 wrought by the police in their search for incriminating 
 documents. On the very threshold of the house, I 
 stumbled and almost fell upon an old box-lid, laid down 
 to cover a hole which they had dug in the brick floor. 
 I saw water-pipes cut, drains broken open, bricks picked 
 out of the walls. Upstairs — where all the arrangements 
 were as primitive as those on the ground floor — I could 
 not see Ferrer's ov/n room because it was still sealed 
 up by the authorities. So was a great packing-case full 
 of books, which cumbered one of the two bedrooms 
 actually in use. I shall not repeat — for it is not strictly 
 relevant — Don Jose's story of the wanton destruction 
 and pillage to which the house and its appurtenances 
 were subjected, but shall merely say that the conduct 
 of the police seems to have been as shameful as it was 
 silly. That the story was absolutely true I have not 
 the least doubt ; for much of it I had ocular evidence. 
 
 Without the smallest intellectual or social pretensions, 
 Jose Ferrer is a most sympathetic and even impressive 
 figure. He wore throughout my visit the flannel shirt 
 and trousers in which he had been working when I 
 arrived. The shirt-sleeves, rolled up to the elbow, showed 
 arms as brown as the soil he tilled ; and no less tanned 
 was the breast which the unbuttoned collar revealed. But 
 his very handsome head would anywhere have attracted 
 notice by its air of grave distinction ; and his manners, 
 while full of simple cordiality, were entirely dignified. 
 He spoke of his brother without the least affectation or 
 emphasis, but with deep feeling. " No two brothers," 
 he said, " live like he and mc." It was Francisco who
 
 96 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 bought the house and land, while Jose paid for the stock 
 and improvements. Now the stock is swept away (the 
 fowl-house, by-the-by, is sealed up !) and Jose works in 
 the garden for the Government at a small daily wage. 
 
 " Where," I asked, " was your brother's study ? Where 
 did he do his work > " Without a word Jos6 picked up a 
 round restaurant table, and, carrying it into the garden, 
 planted it under a Barcelona nut-tree growing against the 
 end of the house. Then he returned for a wicker chair 
 and a steamer chair which he placed beside the table. 
 " Here," he said, " my brother work. Francisco he sit 
 here ; Soledad " — pointing to the steamer chair — ** she sit 
 there." If not quite Arcadian — for the marble-topped 
 restaurant table was a little out of keeping — the picture 
 was at any rate idyllic. Was it retributive justice, or 
 vengeful and unscrupulous fanaticism, that had, only a 
 year ago, abruptly converted the idyll into a tragedy ?
 
 :3^ 
 
 < 
 
 x: 
 
 
 ::i -^ 
 
 A
 
 VII 
 
 BARCELONA 
 
 As the tragedy approaches, it is time to set the scene. 
 
 On a strip of gently-sloping seaboard, about four 
 miles wide, between the Mediterranean and the coast- 
 range of Catalonia, Barcelona and its suburbs occupy 
 one of the finest situations imaginable. Naples and 
 Genoa are more picturesque, inasmuch as they rise more 
 abruptly from the sea. But here nature seems to have 
 bevelled the coast expressly for the convenience of a 
 great city. Down by the harbour lies the old Barcelona, 
 with its gloomy, grand cathedral, and its narrow streets. 
 Its outline is, roughly speaking, oval, and it is bisected, 
 along the shorter axis, by the magnificent shady prome- 
 nade of the Ramblas, three-quarters of a mile long, and 
 certainly one of the most animated thoroughfares in the 
 world. Old Barcelona, however, is merely the nucleus 
 of the modern town, laid out on the rectangular American 
 plan, but saved from monotony by splendid diagonal 
 boulevards, and by the fact that, every here and there, 
 one comes upon the old streets of one of the many 
 villages — Sans, Gracia, San Martin de Provensals, etc. 
 — now embraced in the city limits. The planning of 
 the " ensanchcs " or extensions, as the new parts of the 
 city are called, is extraordinarily spacious and noble ; 
 and nearly every street has its double row of plane 
 
 H
 
 98 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 trees. It may be noted, too, that another relief to the 
 monotony of rectangular street-planning is afforded by 
 the practice of cutting off the angles of the four blocks 
 where two streets intersect, and thus converting the 
 intersection into a small square, known as a " chaflan." 
 
 At about three miles inland the gentle slope becomes 
 steeper, and we soon find ourselves among the gullies 
 of some low foot-hills, covered with gay and often 
 fantastic villas. Then, from the foot-hills, the escarp- 
 ments of Tibidabo and Vallvidrera suddenly and almost 
 precipitously rise to a height of over 1700 feet ; and 
 if we take the funicular railway up to Tibidabo, we find 
 in the hinterland nothing but a vast corrugation of 
 mountain ranges, with the majestic Montserrat towering 
 in the middle distance. Amid these ranges, however, 
 there lurk several busy and populous manufacturing 
 towns, such as Tarrasa and Sabadell, the birthplace of 
 Mateo Morral. 
 
 To the north, the low coast-line runs off with an east- 
 ward curve, the mountains drawing gradually nearer to it ; 
 and for some fifteen miles the beach is lined by an almost 
 unbroken string of long villages, flat and unpicturesque, 
 seldom extending more than a stone's-throw inland. 
 Among them are Mongat, Masnou, and Premia de Mar, 
 all scenes in the coming story. And to the southward — 
 what? To the southward nothing but Montjuich. Its 
 fort-crowned cliff, rising out of the sea to a height of 750 
 feet, closes the vista from almost every point. The poorer 
 streets of the old town of Barcelona crowd close up to its 
 flanks ; and from distant Premia, beyond the curving coast 
 and the smoke-veil of the city, it is still seen frowning on 
 the horizon. With its sinister associations,^ it dominates 
 
 ' There is no shadow of doubt that after the Liceo outrage of 1893, and the
 
 MONTJUICH 99 
 
 the whole region. As soon as the boy Ferrer looked 
 abroad upon the world, he must have seen Montjuich on 
 the horizon of his life. From the home of his later years, 
 he could not take a hundred steps without its confronting 
 him. It loomed daily and hourly before the eyes of the 
 terror-stricken villagers whose testimony did him to death. 
 In the city thus sloping to the morning sun, between 
 the mountains and the sea, there are more than half a 
 million industrious but excitable and turbulent people. 
 There is great wealth. On the Paseo de Gracia and other 
 magnificent avenues, the rich merchants and manufacturers 
 have built themselves houses that in point of expensive- 
 ness would do credit to Fifth Avenue, though the Neo- 
 Catalan architecture is too often hideous in its eccentricity. 
 In the lower quarters of the town, on the other hand, one 
 gathers — what I believe to be the fact — that there is little 
 or no very dire poverty. The Catalonian workman is 
 exceptionally well off. The climate of Barcelona is almost 
 perfect ; unemployment is rare ; food is cheap ; lodging 
 not extravagantly dear. The so-called Faralelo, a noble 
 boulevard, largely given up to workmen's cafes, theatres, 
 and variety-shows, affords at night the most brilliant and 
 animated spectacle of its kind I ever saw. For a few 
 halfpence, the workman can spend his evenings in a really 
 palatial cafe, debating, playing games, and imbibing highly- 
 coloured but not too poisonous refreshments. Drunkenness 
 is very rare ; so are " crimes of passion." Some of the low 
 streets between the Paralelo and the Rambla arc, indeed, 
 
 explosion in the Calle Cambios Nuevos of three years later, many prisoners 
 were subjected to horrible tortures in Montjuich, The details are revolting 
 beyond description. The least sickening of the torments, perhaps, wSs that of 
 forcing the prisoner by lashes to keep constantly moving for 30, 40, 50 hours 
 on end— in one case, it is said, for nine days. See Les Jnquisiteurs d'Espagne, 
 by F. Tarrida del Marmol (Paris, 1897), Los Victimarios, by Kamon Sempau 
 (Barcelona, 1900), and McCabe, The Martyrdom of Ferrer, p. 57 and onwards.
 
 100 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 among the most sinister slums in Europe. They belong, 
 however, to maritime rather than to industrial Barcelona. 
 There is no doubt a great deal of vice to be seen on the 
 Paralelo ; but there is also no lack of fairly innocent 
 entertainment. 
 
 Beneath this smiling and prosperous surface, however, 
 there lurks every form of faction and discontent. Of the 
 bomb-plague I do not speak. In its present phase, it is 
 literally a plague, a disease, which has somehow settled on 
 Barcelona. It is pretty certain that no political party is 
 responsible for it, though every party now and then lays it 
 to the charge of its opponents. The terrorists are in all 
 probability a tiny group — if a group they can be called — 
 of political Jack-the-Rippers. Certainly they are not to 
 be confounded with the Anarchists, who form a majority 
 of the working population, and who have again and again 
 disclaimed and repudiated terrorism. Then there are 
 Socialists, comparatively weak ; Republicans, strong 
 among the middle classes ; Catalan Home Rulers, Car- 
 lists, and other parties whose tenets it would take too 
 long to expound. The only party a little hard to dis- 
 cover is the party which is at all warmly attached to the 
 monarchy and the existing order of things. This is a 
 point which it is only just that we should clearly bear in 
 mind. In English-speaking countries, we have forgotten 
 what it means to have to deal with any considerable 
 political party whose avowed aim is revolution, the over- 
 throw of the whole frame of government. In Catalonia, 
 on the other hand, the existing order, instead of being 
 " broad-based upon the people's will," has only a minority 
 in its favour, and rests upon military force, aided by the 
 dissensions of the disaffected majority. One cannot but 
 wonder what forms our own political life would assume if
 
 THE CONGREGATIONS 101 
 
 the party or parties of progress were a party or parties 
 of open sedition. 
 
 And dotted everywhere — facing us at every turn — 
 throughout this city of modern industrialism, are monas- 
 teries, convents, reh'gious houses of one sort or another, 
 some humble and unpretending enough, but many of them 
 vast and splendid. Some are devoted to education, others 
 to works of charity ; but none, it would seem, has succeeded 
 in earning the respect, much less the love, of the working 
 classes, who accuse the " frailes " of humiliating and ex- 
 ploiting the children they profess to teach and train. 
 Exempt from taxation, some of the religious houses com- 
 pete in the production of certain commodities ; and though 
 there are conflicting accounts as to the extent of this 
 competition, there is no doubt that it bulks large in th e 
 popular view. 
 
 Testimonies to the abounding unpopularity of the 
 religious orders meet us on every hand. For instance, 
 "A Spanish Liberal" writes as follows to the Times of 
 August 8, 1910 : — 
 
 The congregations pay no territorial contribution. 
 The magnificent properties of the monks pay no rates 
 whatever, and in consequence of this the Spanish citizen 
 living in their neighbourhood has to pay an exorbitant 
 rent. Neither do these religious communities pay the 
 industrial tax or the personal tax. At the same time, 
 their inmates arc exempt from military service, and from 
 the redemption fee of £()0 in lieu of military service which 
 is exacted from other Spanish citizens. 
 
 The result of this is that in certain towns of special 
 industries the workers, especially the women, cannot live. 
 The elaborate working in linen, which formerly gave so 
 much employment to the wives and daughters of the 
 wage-earners, has passed entirely into the hands of the
 
 102 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 convents. The workwomen of Saragossa were dying of 
 hunger last year, while in the convents an elaborate 
 trousseau valued at many thousands of dollars was being 
 worked. Such facts as these explain the peculiar vindic- 
 tiveness of the women against the religious houses — a 
 vindictiveness seen in its full extent during the "tragic 
 week " of Barcelona last year. 
 
 The male worker suffers also by the competing indus- 
 tries of the monks. This is especially true in the matter 
 of teaching. Whilst a religious college pays no tax, a 
 secular school is compelled to pay its tax six months in 
 advance. A private teacher can scarcely find occupation. 
 
 To the same effect writes Mr. Rafael Shaw, in his very 
 well-informed book Spain from Within (Chapter V.) — 
 
 The economic question bulks largely among the 
 causes of the popular hostility to the Religious Orders, 
 and if only half the complaints, generally made are based 
 on fact, the people have reason on their side. 
 
 Formerly, say the women, it was easy to obtain a 
 day's wage by washing in well-to-do houses, and a laun- 
 dress could make a decent living. Now, in every town of 
 any importance there are one or more convents, called 
 "Domestic Colleges," where orphans or servants out of 
 place are received, and these girls repay the nuns for their 
 board and lodging by doing laundry-work for rich Catholic 
 families. If the girls were allowed to keep even a portion 
 of what they earn, the women say that they would not 
 feel the system to be so unjust. But they declare that 
 this is not the case. Whatever is paid goes to the nuns, 
 and as they, having no taxes or wages to pay, can under- 
 sell the laundresses, who are called upon to provide both 
 charges, the lay laundry trade is steadily declining, 
 although the quality of the work is on a par with that 
 done in the convents. 
 
 The nuns teach their protegees every class of needle- 
 work, lace-making, and a kind of embroidery, or net-work,
 
 ILLEGITIMATE COMPETITION 103 
 
 which is largely used for priests' vestments, altar-cloths, 
 etc. This competition ... is felt in every part of Spain. 
 . . . It is increasingly difficult to obtain employment of 
 this kind at any price, owing to the quantity done in the 
 convents and the reduced prices at which the nuns under- 
 take it. . . . 
 
 A baker told me : " The frailes always demand all the 
 bread we put by for the poor. We would prefer to give 
 it direct to the poor ourselves, for we do not feel sure how 
 much of it they get from the frailes, whose housekeepers 
 are great hands at making [sweet cakes and patisserie, the 
 foundation of which is generally finely grated stale bread] 
 for sale to good Catholic families. These good Catholic 
 families prefer to buy their pas teles cheap from the friars, 
 who say that they are sold for the good of the Church. 
 We do not care to give our stale bread to be used in 
 injuring the trade of our companions the confectioners ; 
 for the friars, having no taxes to pay, can naturally under- 
 sell ordinary tradesmen, and all the more when they get 
 the bread for their confectionery free. But if we said that 
 we wished to give our bread to our own acquaintances 
 among the poor, the Jesuits would ruin us. They would 
 tell all their clients that wc were bad men and enemies of 
 the Church, and we should lose all our trade. We know 
 this by experience." . . . 
 
 For years past [Mr. Shaw continues] I have noticed 
 that no member of the working classes salutes a priest or 
 friar in the streets. Day after day one summer I saw the 
 same priests taking their afternoon walk along the same 
 byway, where the same artizans, to the number of twenty 
 or thirty, watched the " long skirts " from the doors of 
 their workshops. I never saw an artizan greet a priest or 
 friar, or vice versa. The flowing robes of the ecclesiastics 
 swept against the patched garments of the workmen, but 
 no glance was exchanged. The priests kept their eyes 
 bent on the ground, one hand grasping the skirts and the 
 other pressed on the breast, a typical attitude, which is
 
 104 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 jeered at by the poor as "canting." The workmen kept 
 their eyes fixed on the work on which they were engaged. 
 It is impossible to imagine anything more hostile than the 
 silent defiance of the men, as they turned to watch the 
 " long skirts " out of sight. ..." I hate to see them," one 
 of the men said to me ; " they are the ruin of us and our 
 country." What made it the more significant was that 
 these same workmen had a pleasant word of greeting for 
 every lay person, man or woman, acquaintance or stranger, 
 who passed by them. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply testimonies to the same 
 effect ; but one more will probably suffice. It comes from 
 no less an authority than General Weyler, who, on assum- 
 ing office as Captain-General of Catalonia in November 
 1909, wrote as follows: — ^ 
 
 Religion merits all our respect, but one cannot hide the 
 fact that there are too many convents. These have given 
 rise to a very dangerous and serious economic problem, 
 as, in all branches of industry, they are great competitors 
 with small factory -owners and workmen. . . . This explains 
 the anger and hatred of the working classes, and it is 
 necessary to remedy the abuse. . . . Religion will gain 
 considerably if the rancour, complaint, and miseries caused 
 by the excessive number of religious orders be removed. 
 
 This seems pretty strong testimony to the reality of 
 the evil ; but there may no doubt be a good deal to be 
 said on the other side. It would be absurd to suppose 
 that the congregations cannot point to some real benefits 
 conferred by some of them on the community. It is not 
 my business to go into these questions. I am attempting 
 to exhibit the state of mind of the populace of Barcelona 
 not to hold the balance between the populace and the 
 orders. The question that here concerns us is simply 
 * Quoted by G. H. B. Ward, T/ie Tnith about Spain, p. lOO.
 
 HATRED OF CONVENTS 105 
 
 this : Was there in Barcelona a sufficient body of anti- 
 monastic feeling to render it probable that, in any violent 
 popular outbreak, the mob would tend of its own accord, 
 and without any special " canalization " of its energies, to 
 wreak its wrath on the religious houses? I think the 
 above extracts are sufficient to show that there is nothing 
 in the least surprising in the turn taken by the popular 
 frenzy. The hatred of the congregations, though not 
 confined to Barcelona or to Catalonia, was, and had been 
 for many years, particularly strong in that great industrial 
 community. To attribute the strength of the feeling to 
 the existence of Ferrer's school, or the schools under his 
 influence, is the merest nonsense. His work as an 
 educator lasted only five years (1901-1906), and his school 
 was so small that he cannot have had more than between 
 200 and 300 children through his hands in all.^ His 
 influence, rating it at the very highest, must have been the 
 merest drop in the bucket. No attempt was made to 
 show that any individual rioter had been a pupil of his. 
 The plain fact is that Ferrer himself and his schools, far 
 from being a cause of the anti-clericalism that sacked the 
 convents, must be ranked among the effects or products 
 of that passion, which had been strong in the Catalan 
 populace before the Escuela Moderna was dreamt of. We 
 shall see, when we come to look into the origin of the riots, 
 that there were special features in the case which embit- 
 tered popular feeling against the orders. But even apart 
 from any special and momentary grounds for anger, there 
 was always sufficient distrust and resentment in the 
 popular breast to render it highly probable that, in any 
 
 * The total numbers for the first four years were 70, 82, 114, 126— in all, 
 392. But as many children must reappear in more than one of these enumera- 
 tions, and some, no doubt, in all, it may pretty safely be said that the whole 
 number of his pupils did not exceed 300.
 
 106 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 outburst of lawlessness, the fraiks would be the first to 
 suffer. 
 
 Among the reasons why the people looked askance at 
 the congregations, there is one which has yet to be men- 
 tioned. The secrecy of the conventual life gives scope for 
 strange imaginings as to what passes behind the impene- 
 trable walls. "Tribunals, authorities, laws, processes, 
 all recoil dismayed from the gates of a monastic house, 
 which is independent of every secular power." So says 
 ♦' Fray Gerundio," author of a book named El Tormento 
 en los Cojiventos, which was prominently displayed on every 
 kiosk in Barcelona during the summer and autumn of last 
 year. The book is no mere catchpenny libel, but a 
 serious indictment, though not, I think, a very damaging 
 one. It seems, indeed, rather remarkable that a stronger 
 case cannot be produced, when we reflect that there are in 
 Spain some 4000 monastic houses,^ each a little autocracy 
 in which there is no efficient check upon fanaticism and 
 other dehumanizing, passions. But, again, it is no part of 
 my business to investigate the actual facts of convent life. 
 It is sufficient to point out that there undoubtedly exists 
 in Spain a very strong belief that the religious houses, and 
 especially the nunneries, are the scene of dire penitential 
 horrors. The morbid curiosity begotten of this belief was 
 certainly not the least among the motives of the Barcelona 
 rioters. 
 
 Behind and beneath all definite suspicions and resent- 
 ments, however, there doubtless lies the feeling that this 
 monastic host, with its hoarded wealth, is in active alliance 
 
 * There seem to be no trustworthy statistics as to the religious houses. 
 " Fray Gerundio," who professes to give the numbers for each province, 
 places the total in 1908 at 4430, of which 845 were in Catalonia. An 
 apparently careful enumeration undertaken in 1910 placed the number of 
 nunneries at 3007 and of monkeries at 794; total 3801. The total number 
 of nuns was given in 1910 as 41,526, while the total of monks was 12,801.
 
 OUTSIDE THE LAW 107 
 
 with capitalism, militarism, and all the enemies of social 
 justice, as it hovers before the exalted imagination of the 
 Catalan workman. He sees in the congregations an ideal 
 which he rejects with loathing, ensconsed behind high- 
 piled bastions of privilege. They are, as a matter of fact, 
 almost entirely outside the law ; is it wonderful that the 
 populace, in crises of revolt, should pronounce — and 
 execute — sentence of outlawry upon them ?
 
 VIII 
 
 FROM LONDON TO MAS GERMINAL 
 
 We have now to trace the two currents of events, one 
 private, the other public, which, flowing together at the 
 fated hour, swept Francisco Ferrer to his destruction. 
 
 On April 21, 1909, Ferrer and Soledad Villafranca 
 arrived in London. From his boarding-house. No. 10, 
 Montague Street, he at once wrote as follows to his friend 
 Tarrida del Marmol : — 
 
 24/4/1909. 
 Friend Fernando, 
 
 We are here for a time to rest. We have had 
 so much to do lately that we do not wish to see anybody 
 just yet. Naturally, that does not apply to you. Do not 
 make a special journey to see us. Merely drop in on us, 
 when you come to the city, at 9, or i, or 6 o'clock, and we 
 will have a chat. 
 
 Kind regards, etc., 
 
 F. Ferrer. 
 
 As a matter of fact, he lived very quietly, occupying 
 himself, under the guidance of Mr. William Heaford, in 
 looking for English books to be added to the library 
 of the Escuela Moderna. The books which specially 
 interested him were those issued by the Moral Education 
 League. He was under the observation of the police, 
 but the only thing that seems to be recorded against
 
 FERRER IN HYDE PARK 109 
 
 him is that he attended the Labour Day demonstration 
 in Hyde Park. On that point, Professor del Marmol 
 writes to me — 
 
 "Ferrer and Soledad Villafranca passed the whole of 
 that day, May i, in my company. We lunched together 
 at their boarding-house, and then we went to Hyde Park. 
 I remember that I made a speech at the International 
 Platform, while Ferrer and Soledad sat on the grass hard 
 by. Then I presented them to some friends, among 
 others to Madame Kropotkin and to Captain Petavel. 
 But neither Ferrer nor Soledad took any active part in 
 any meeting or demonstration. They attended only one 
 other meeting during their stay in London, and that was 
 at a club in Charlotte Street, where I delivered a lecture 
 on ' The Solar System.' " 
 
 A letter from Mile. Sasha Kropotkin to the Westminster 
 Gazette of October 21, 1909, gives us an interesting 
 glimpse of him at this time. Mile. Kropotkin writes — 
 
 "Sr. Ferrer was here at the time of the Hyde Park 
 Budget (?) Demonstration, and he and Sefiora Ferrer 
 [Soledad Villafranca] lunched at our house a few days 
 later. They had not then the vaguest notion of what was 
 to occur at Barcelona. Sr. Ferrer spoke of the general 
 situation in Spain, of his work, of the fearful Catholic 
 reaction which reigned in the country ; but neither he nor 
 his wife had any idea of returning to Spain at that time. 
 Senora Ferrer even offered to teach me Spanish, as they 
 intended to remain in London for some time. Their 
 plan was to go to some quiet English seaside place after 
 that. . . . Any one who has met Sr. Ferrer cannot fail to 
 have felt the peculiar charm of his gentle personah"ty and 
 courteous manners. His was certainly the mind of an 
 active thinker rather than of a militant propagandist."
 
 110 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 So weeks passed quietly away. On June 9 he wrote 
 from Montague Street to Charles Albert in Paris, saying 
 that his stay in London was indefinite, and indicating that 
 it would probably outlast the month. He then went 
 on : " As for speaking of the League [for Rational 
 Education] in the Ecole Renovee, that is a thing that 
 must absolutely be done. I insist that both are directed 
 to the same end ; otherwise I should not have founded 
 them. It is one thing to keep the two organizations quite 
 independent, and another thing to let the Review appear 
 to ignore the League. ... I want you yourself to write 
 the article on the League which must appear in the 
 Review. Perhaps you ought to speak in it of the coming 
 assembly of the League, which I now consider very 
 necessary, as I fancy we shall have to propose several 
 modifications in the statutes." ^ Thus we find him, on 
 June 9, intent, as ever, on his educational work, and 
 laying plans for a future which he evidently pictures as 
 quite normal and undisturbed. 
 
 Two days later, however, there came an unexpected 
 and melancholy disturbance. On June 11, he wrote from 
 Montague Street to the same correspondent — 
 
 Friday I1/6/1909. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 On account of serious illness in our home, we 
 are obliged to return at once to Spain. I should be sorry 
 to pass through Paris without seeing you. We shall 
 arrive to-morrow evening, and go to the Hotel de la 
 Terrasse, Passage Jouffroy, Boulevard Montmartre. If 
 you are free at nine, we shall be on the terrace of the 
 Cafe de Madrid, Boulevard Montmartre. We shall start 
 for Spain on Sunday or on Monday at latest. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 F. Ferrer. 
 
 ' Letter quoted in full in Un Martyr des Pritres^ p. 33.
 
 DEATH OF LA YET A 111 
 
 On the same day, he wrote to the same effect to 
 Tarrida del Marmol — 
 
 Friday, 11/6/1909. 
 
 Dear Fernando, 
 
 We hear from Mongat that my brother's wife 
 and my niece are seriously ill. We leave by the first 
 train to-morrow, and shall not be able to bid you all good- 
 bye. The supper must be postponed until the next time. 
 I will send you news from Mongat. Cordial greetings to 
 all from Soledad and yours, 
 
 F. Ferrer. 
 
 Of the authenticity of these letters there is not a shadow 
 of doubt ; and the reality of the reason alleged for his 
 return to Spain is only too sadly certain. Moreover, no 
 human foresight could at this date, or for a month later, 
 have divined the probability of any disturbance in Barce- 
 lona. Yet the first piece of " evidence " cited in the 
 Report of the Examining Commandant, read at his trial, 
 was that of the Chief of the Barcelona police, who found 
 it a " strange coincidence " that he should have re-appeared 
 in Spain " at the moment when the troubles were about 
 to break out." 
 
 Ferrer spent Sunday in Paris, and left for home on 
 the morning of Monday the 14th. On the 17th he wrote 
 from Mas Germinal to Charles Laisant, " Here we are 
 installed, finding our sister-in-law out of danger, but not 
 so our niece, who remains in a very critical condition." 
 Poor little Layeta (Eulalia), born to Jos^ Ferrer in far-off 
 Bendigo, died on the 19th, aged eight years. 
 
 For what followed we may turn to a letter from Ferrer 
 to William Heaford written from the Carcel Celular of 
 Barcelona less than a week before his trial — 
 
 . , . There I was quietly at Mongat, from the middle
 
 112 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of June, with my wife, tending our poor sister-in-law who 
 was very much broken by her own illness and the loss 
 of her daughter. I diverted my mind, and passed, I must 
 own, some delightful moments, in reading the six English 
 books I had brought with me from London. I think so 
 well of them that I have resolved to have them translated 
 into Spanish, and to publish them, of course after obtain- 
 ing authorization. All the six, I take it, are recommended 
 by the Instruction Morales Liguef I am not quite clear 
 as to its name. . . . Two in particular have charmed me : 
 
 Children s Magic Garden, by Alice ? and Magic 
 
 Garden's Childhood. They can be published in Spanish 
 with the single suppression of a tale about Santa Claus 
 which I do not consider good for children. Then the first 
 and second series of Gould's Morals Legons, which are also 
 very good, except where he speaks of Christ, very little, 
 which I should simply suppress. . . . Then come two 
 volumes, intended for teachers, of which I do not quite 
 recall the titles. The Teacher's Handbook of Moral's 
 Leqons ? One is by Mr. Walldegrave ? — admirable this 
 one, and resting on a large philosophic basis. To be 
 published without a single note. The other is by Mr. 
 Reid, too English in its character, but fitted for publica- 
 tion with a good many editorial notes. 
 
 (Where are they now, these dear books, annotated 
 by me, and ready for translation — where are they after 
 the searches and seizures at Mas Germinal ? I trust I 
 shall find them again some day.) ^ 
 
 From Mongat I went as a rule once a week to Barce- 
 lona, to see to my publishing-house, Cortes 596, which 
 gives me a good deal of trouble, absorbing almost all my 
 
 1 The books to which he refers are The Garden of Childhood and The 
 Magic Gardefi, both by Miss Alice M. Chesterton ; A Teacher's Handbook of 
 Moral Lessons, by A. J. Waldegrave ; A Manual of Moral Instruction, by 
 James Reid, M.A. All these are issued by the Moral Education League, 
 6, York Buildings, Adelphi, London, W.C. The Children's Book of Moral 
 Lessons, by F. J. Gould, is published by Watts and Co., 17, Johnson's Court, 
 Fleet Street.
 
 PUBLISHING PROJECTS 113 
 
 income, of which, however, I do not complain, for how 
 could I employ the money better than in publishing the 
 books I have published, and those I intend to publish 
 in the future, such as the six I have just mentioned ? Is 
 there any greater pleasure in life than that of procuring 
 for others the means of developing their intelligence in 
 the direction of the good and the beautiful, of peace and 
 solidarity ? Possessed by this idea, and determined to 
 keep up the Ptiblicaciones de la Esaiela Moderna, in spite 
 of all the worry and annoyance that enemies (and some- 
 times, alas ! friends as well) procure me, I had decided 
 upon the publication of an illustrated edition of P. 
 Kropotkin's last book La Grande Revolutiofi (1789-1793).^ 
 For business reasons, it was necessary that this publica- 
 tion should take place immediately after that of V Homme 
 et la Terre, by Reclus, which was to be completed in 
 August. 
 
 The remainder of this letter will be found in its due 
 place (Chapter XIV.). The above extract is interesting, 
 not only for its account of Ferrer's occupations, but for 
 the glimpse it gives into what may be called the puritanic, 
 not to say pedantic, rationalism of his habit of thought. 
 
 It may be said that Ferrer's own retrospect of his 
 occupations, written at a time when he knew that his 
 neck was in danger, cannot be accepted as evidence. 
 Even the corroboration of his friends is subject to dis- 
 count. But mark this ! On July 7, many days before 
 
 ' Mile. Kropotkin states in the IVestminster Gazctlc that one of the 
 accusations against Ferrer was that he had " sent to Barcelona 900 francs for 
 La Grande /ih/olution,^^ and that this was interpreted as meaning that he 
 financed the riots I I do not know where this accusation was made ; it is 
 not mentioned in the Process ; but the misunderstanding is not in itself 
 improbable. Thus an article on "Le Dynamisme Atomique" was mistaken 
 by the Spanish police for a treatise on dynamite ; and a translation of I'oe's 
 Raven was regarded as an anarchistic production because of the mention of 
 the •' bust of Pallas just above my chamber door " — Pallas being the name 
 of the man who threw a bomb at Marshal Martinez Campos in 1893.
 
 114 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 any human foresight could have anticipated the revolt, 
 Ferrer wrote from Mas Germinal to Alfred Naquet — 
 
 ... I might tell you, too, of the comic surveillance 
 to which I am subjected by the authorities at Barcelona, 
 who every day send a pareja de civiles (pair of gendarmes) 
 to take count of my comings and goings, and policemen 
 who attend me to the station and accompany me wher- 
 ever I go. But I attach no importance to this, accustomed 
 as I am to it ever since my Madrid trial. 
 
 The fact that he was under surveillance was confirmed 
 at his trial ; so that a false account of his occupations 
 could easily have been contradicted. As no such attempt 
 was made, there is not the slightest reason to doubt that 
 in his letter to Heaford, and several other letters to 
 precisely the same effect, he was telling the simple truth. 
 
 An article by Sr. Renato Rugieres in a London paper, 
 Freedom^ not only confirms on almost every point Ferrer's 
 own account of his occupations during the weeks before 
 the outbreak, but gives us a vivid glimpse of Ferrer and 
 his family pursuing their quiet way undisturbed by any 
 premonitions of disaster. I am permitted to extract the 
 substance of Sr. Rugieres' narrative. His picture of the 
 doomed household on one of the last days of peace 
 vouchsafed to it by destiny is, I think, very human and 
 touching. 
 
 '&• 
 
 The last long chat I had with him was in Mas Ger- 
 minal, near Mongat, on July 3, 1909, viz. some days before 
 the general strike protesting against the war. 
 
 I had received a letter inviting me to spend a day with 
 him. I well remember him. It seems as though I see 
 him now at the Mongat station waiting for me. It was 
 ten o'clock. He was wearing a simple linen suit and a
 
 AT HOME AT MONGAT 115 
 
 straw hat, like an ordinary farmer. He received me with 
 his accustomed amiability, and embraced me very affec- 
 tionately. On the road to Mas Germinal he spoke to me 
 about his stay at his brother's. 
 
 "You know," he said, "that my dear niece died, and 
 on account of her illness I am here. I intended to stay 
 in London some months more in order to improve my 
 knowledge of the English language, and search for some- 
 thing good and useful for our schools. In England there 
 are many thinkers, and although their writings are intended 
 for their own people, we can use them by making a few 
 explanations in the translations of them. When we reach 
 home, I will show you a book I have already read, and I 
 should like to publish it. Have the kindness to translate 
 it into Spanish if you consider it in accordance with our 
 aims. The passages marked with blue pencil, and others 
 with ink, you may take out ; they touch upon religious 
 matters, and our books are for laic teaching," 
 
 The good man who politely begged for my opinion 
 and my help was helping me by giving me that work of 
 translation ! 
 
 The " dangerous " book, which I had no time to finish 
 before I left Barcelona, was The Children's Book of Moral 
 Lessons, by Gould, printed by a publishing firm in Fleet 
 Street, London. English people ! should know the book, 
 so that they may be able to judge the " terrible evil " 
 the educationist Ferrer was doing in the land of Maria 
 Santi'sima. 
 
 On arriving at the farm, Mas Germinal, I met Mrs. 
 Ferrer, also wearing the plain country dress, and manag- 
 ing the house ; in the garden I encountered Ferrer's 
 brother bending over his beloved soil, gathering his straw- 
 berries to carry to Barcelona market early next morning ; 
 his wife was also busily employed. Everybody was pro- 
 ducing something, and I wondered if the martyr was 
 really rich. 
 
 The house was a modest one, built in the old-fashioned
 
 116 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Spanish style ; and the furniture was certainly neither 
 choice nor expensive. 
 
 The happiness of those people, who, instead of living 
 in the stupid manner of the riches cochons, preferred to be 
 useful to their fellows by enlightening their minds — I 
 marvel now that it could be destroyed, and in the name 
 of justice! 
 
 Before dinner we chatted incessantly about " our " 
 schools — as he called them — encouraging me to take 
 charge of a small one, to make my initiation, or d^but, 
 because I had never made special pedagogic studies. 
 
 "Don't worry about those trifles," he said to me 
 kindly ; " the aims of the modern teacher ought to be to 
 teach the child how to use his brains ; to form from every 
 child a being with his own will, able to know by his own 
 conscience what is wrong and what is right. We do not 
 intend to make lawyers or physicians ; we desire only to 
 give the first instructions, free — absolutely free — of reli- 
 gious and social prejudices. It is a fact," he continued, 
 "a thousand times proved, that the greatest educa- 
 tionists were not professional teachers. You are still 
 young, and maybe some day you will become one of 
 my best collaborators," he finished smilingly, putting his 
 hand affectionately on my shoulder. 
 
 ***** 
 
 At dinner-time on the table was a big dish containing 
 rice and chicken — chickens are cheap in the Spanish 
 country — and Ferrer said to me laughingly, " Let me help 
 you well, because there are no more dishes besides this 
 
 one." 
 
 The conversation during dinner was chiefly carried on 
 by his brother Jos6, about the farm, potatoes, onions, etc. 
 Then I understood quite well the origin of the saying of 
 their friends. Francisco's friends said, " He is a fanatic 
 about his schools." Jose's friends said, " He is a fanatic 
 about his ground and his potatoes." 
 
 *****
 
 THE "AGENT OF VIGILANCE ' 117 
 
 In the afternoon we went to the cultivated piece of 
 land, and again the conversation turned on " our " schools. 
 Ah ! this noble fanatic, always thinking of the welfare of 
 others. 
 
 "I have an idea," he said suddenly, taking me by the 
 arm, " merely a dream, even Soledad — Mrs. Ferrer — does 
 not know it. You know," he added, "that I intend to 
 extend my publishing business, and to establish in Barce- 
 lona another ' Modern School,' better than that which was 
 closed years ago, furnished with the most modern material, 
 and with a staff who have improved their knowledge in 
 Paris. Afterwards, and this is my dream, I should like to 
 build here a country house, where the teachers of our 
 schools could enjoy their last years. Do you think the 
 place is nice? Look at these beautiful views, the trees, 
 the sea, and over all plenty of sun. It is only a dream," 
 he said sadly ; " I do not know if it will be possible or not. 
 One finds so many difficulties in carrying out educational 
 work in a country where the priests are in power ! " 
 
 At five o'clock we entered the cottage to take tea, an 
 English tea, which reminded me of my first day in this 
 country last year. 
 
 The brother Jose and his wife were in Australia for 
 many years, and therefore they speak English like natives. 
 Mrs. Ferrer — Soledad — was trying to compete with me in 
 my broken pronunciation of English, and they were all 
 very much amused at our efforts. 
 
 When, about six o'clock, my regretted friend and I 
 reached Mongat station, he pointed out to me a man of 
 repulsive appearance on the platform, and in a low voice 
 and smiling, said to me, " That is ' my man ' " — this was 
 the name he gave to the secret policeman ordered by the 
 Government to follow him everywhere when in Spain. 
 " Do you not think it is a funny affair .-* Happily, this one 
 is very lazy, and he does not like to disturb himself to 
 follow me up to Mas Germinal. Only when I go to 
 Barcelona, he accompanies me."
 
 118 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 The train arrived ; we shook hands, and I entered a 
 second-class car of the Spanish "tortoise railway." The 
 train departed. Once more my feelings of admiration and 
 love for that noble man increased. In his private life and 
 in his public affairs he was the same. He practised his 
 ideals. No wonder he lost his life for them ! 
 
 This is the " terrible criminal " who, according to 
 Maura's Cabinet, was at that time arranging the burning 
 of the convents and the profanation of the graves ! 
 
 On every hand, then, we find concurrent testimony to 
 the perfectly normal course of Ferrer's life during the days 
 and weeks before the outbreak. His every action is 
 accounted for by evidence the greater part of which is 
 wholly above suspicion : the evidence of letters written at 
 a time when it is inconceivable that he can have foreseen 
 the coming of trouble. Documents written by himself 
 after his arrest, and by others after his execution, are in 
 themselves, no doubt, more open to suspicion ; but though 
 this is true in the abstract, it will scarcely weigh much with 
 us in the concrete, when we find that the prosecution does 
 not produce, or pretend to produce, one jot or tittle of 
 evidence that is in the least degree inconsistent with the 
 above account of his employments. He is known to have 
 been shadowed ; but he is not found in consultation with 
 any of the leaders of the revolt. Hundreds of domiciliary 
 visits were made, and thousands of documents were seized ; 
 yet no scrap of Ferrer's writing is produced that has any 
 bearing on the insurrection. There is, in short, absolutely 
 no evidence even purporting to show that in the days 
 preceding the outbreak this "author and chief of the 
 rebellion " raised a finger to bring it about.
 
 IX 
 
 THE MELILLA ADVENTURE 
 
 The stream of private events, then, had been, save for 
 the death of little Layeta, absolutely smooth. We must 
 now follow the converging and very agitated current of 
 public affairs. 
 
 Certain mines in the Riff region of Morocco, some 
 twenty miles from the Spanish settlement of Melilla, had 
 for over a year been worked intermittently, and "under 
 precarious circumstances," by an inextricably complicated 
 group of capitalists, mainly, but not exclusively, Spanish. 
 A railway was in course of construction from Melilla to 
 the mines ; and at eight in the morning on July 9, 1909 
 — nearly a month after Ferrer had left London for Barce- 
 lona — a body of Moors attacked the workmen engaged 
 on the line and killed three or four Spanish subjects. 
 The military governor of Melilla, General Marina, at once 
 sallied forth to punish the marauders — and found him- 
 self in a hornet's nest. A few far-sighted politicians and 
 military men professed to have foreseen some such de- 
 velopment ; but to the Spanish nation as a whole, the war 
 came like thunder from a clear sky. "At Barcelona in the 
 beginning of July," says the author oi La Semana Trdgica, 
 " no one could have imagined that before the month was 
 out the city would be the scene of a revolutionary move- 
 ment. . . . There were no premonitory symptoms. Not a
 
 120 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 cloud gave warning of the transirion from calm to tempest." 
 Yet the Chief of Police, as we have seen, did not hesitate 
 to suggest that it was a prevision of trouble that brought 
 Ferrer home from London, nearly a month earlier. 
 
 The very first news from Melilla made it evident that 
 reinforcements, and large reinforcements, were urgently 
 needed. Already on the loth, the day after the first shot 
 was fired. King Alfonso signed a decree authorizing the 
 Minister of War to call out the reservists, in such numbers 
 as he should deem necessary. Regiments were hastily 
 brought up to their full strength and hurried to the coast. 
 It was natural that Barcelona should be one of the chief 
 points of embarkation ; but had the Government under- 
 stood its temper they would at all costs have avoided 
 employing it for this purpose. 
 
 In most countries the working classes, on the outbreak 
 of a war, are apt, for a time at least, to yield to the con- 
 tagion of patriotic fervour, and shout themselves hoarse 
 with war-cries and war-songs. Why was the sentiment of 
 the Spanish working class so utterly different } The 
 reasons are clear, and may be grouped under three heads. 
 In the first place, the Anarchism which is dominant among 
 the Spanish operatives is essentially an internationalist and 
 pacificist doctrine. Its very name declares it anti-patriotic. 
 It regards the flag without emotion, and considers the 
 "national honour" a myth invented by the soldiers and 
 priests who conspire with the capitalists in that process of 
 exploitation which they call government. In this respect, 
 too, the views of the Socialists are practically identical with 
 those of the Anarchists. Both parties accept the principle 
 laid down at the Congress of Stuttgart : " Better insurrec- 
 tion than war." In the second place, this particular cam- 
 paign had all the appearance of a war of sheer aggression.
 
 A CAPITALIST CAMPAIGN 121 
 
 undertaken at the dictation of a group of millionaires, 
 closely allied with the Government, whose interests were 
 inexpressibly indifferent to the Spanish workman. It was 
 believed, too, rightly or wrongly, that many of the mining 
 shares were held by, or for, the Jesuits. In the third place 
 — and it was this that brouG:ht the women in their 
 thousands into the ranks of the protesters — the incidence 
 of military service was exasperatingly unjust. On the 
 one hand, the son of the bourgeois, who could afford to pay 
 sixty pounds for exemption, need not join the army at all ; 
 on the other hand, most of the reservists now being called 
 out were men who, after two years with the colours, had 
 been permitted to return to civil life and to marry. They 
 were now torn from their wives and families, to throw 
 away their lives — as seemed only too probable — in an 
 ill-omened war, undertaken for the enrichment of a few 
 financiers. That was how the campaign represented itself 
 to the popular mind, especially in Catalonia. 
 
 On July II (according to the Barcelona corre- 
 spondent of the Times) the first detachment of 1900 troops 
 set sail from that port. From the 14th to the iSth 
 inclusive, one or more transports sailed every day. The 
 town was alive with soldiers marching from station or 
 barracks to the harbour, most of them, it would seem, local 
 levies. On the 17th and i8th alone, more than 6000 men 
 were embarked. Only nine days had passed since the 
 first bad news had arrived from Africa, and the populace 
 had not yet had time fully to realize what this sudden 
 mobilization meant for them. During the week, therefore, 
 though many meetings of protest against the war were 
 held in various places, there were but few disorderly 
 incidents, and these of a trifling nature. But on the i8th, 
 which happened to be a Sunday, the embarkation of a
 
 122 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 local battalion was accompanied by scenes which showed 
 that the people were awakening from their stupor. I con- 
 dense the account of the incident given in Leopold 
 Bonafulla's book La Revolucibn de Julio. 
 
 The men called to the colours, says Sr. BonafuUa, made 
 no attempt to skulk or shirk ; but among their wives, 
 mothers, sisters, and friends there was great indignation 
 against the Government which had torn them from their 
 homes, and against the inequalities of the law. Many 
 were going to die in Africa, though it was six years since 
 they had entered on their military service, four years since 
 they had returned to civil life, and three years or more 
 since, with the authorization of the Captains-General, they 
 had married. In most of the houses of the reservists 
 there remained children without a father, parents without 
 the son who supported them, families, in short, given over 
 to misery and hunger. Meanwhile, in the houses not only 
 of the rich, but of all who had the means to escape the 
 conscription, young men of twenty remained undisturbed 
 and at their ease. 
 
 As the troops marched down the Ramblas, they were 
 accompanied by crowds of women and children, and the 
 order of march was soon broken. The soldiers mingled 
 with the crowd, and many were seen carrying children 
 while their wives carried their rifles. On the wharf there 
 was an immense concourse ; but there was no prepared 
 manifestation. The multitude had no thought but to bid 
 farewell to sons, husbands, and brothers. 
 
 But when it came to the actual parting, to the dis- 
 entangling of the soldiers from the crowd, there was a 
 scene of great disorder and vehement protest on the part 
 of the distracted women-folk. There were cries of: 
 Throw down your rifles ! Let the rich go ! All or
 
 "MUERA LA GUERRA!" 123 
 
 none ! Come home again ! " Many rifles, it is said, fell 
 into the water. The confusion was so great that several 
 desertions took place, soldiers slipping away with their 
 wives in steamers bound for foreign ports. 
 
 I have omitted some of the more dramatic details of 
 Sr. Bonafulla's narrative, because I do not find them 
 confirmed elsewhere. But on one point there is complete 
 concurrence of testimony : when some kind Catholic ladies 
 boarded the transports dressed in their Sunday finery, to 
 distribute scapularies and other appropriate trifles to the 
 soldiers, they were shocked to find their benefactions 
 received with contumely and thrown into the sea. 
 
 Similar scenes took place in many other parts of the 
 country. Two days later, on Tuesday the 20th, the 
 entrainment of a body of troops at the Southern Railway 
 Station in Madrid, led to a stormy scene, even more serious 
 than that which we have just witnessed in Barcelona. 
 " Muera la guerra ! " — " Down with the war ! " — was the 
 cry on every hand. Bad news from Melilla, obviously 
 " doctored " news, and silence which was interpreted to 
 mean the suppression of news, heightened the popular 
 exasperation. There come reports of " fierce fighting," of 
 a "general attack on the Spanish headquarters," of a 
 position defended by 2000 Spaniards and attacked by 
 6000 Moors. It is said that a Holy War has been 
 proclaimed, and that many Moorish tribes not yet engaged 
 are combining against the Spaniards. General Marina is 
 reported as saying that " the military operations will last 
 longer than was anticipated " and that 40,000 men will be 
 required. Meanwhile it is officially announced that the 
 " nervousness " of the public has no effect on the ministry, 
 " whose policy is to pour troops into Melilla until the 
 resistance of the tribes is broken." Appeals are made to
 
 124 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the Premier, Sr. Maura, to summon the Cortes ; and by 
 remaining obstinately deaf to them, he confirms the 
 impression that the youth and strength and welfare of 
 the people is being flagitiously sacrificed to the interests 
 of a gang of capitalists, with whom the Jesuits are in 
 secret partnership. Obviously inspired announcements 
 that " the omens are entirely favourable," are of little 
 avail against reports of battles between 15,000 Spaniards 
 and 16,000 Moors, which are at best indecisive, and are 
 followed by the announcement that " the Spanish troops 
 have abandoned their advanced positions." At last 
 matters come to such a pitch that on July 25 a Reuter's 
 telegram from Madrid states that the Minister of the 
 Interior, Sr. La Cierva, has ordered provincial Governors 
 to seize the editions of any newspapers publishing news 
 of the war, or of the departure of troops, other than that 
 contained in oflScial communications. The same order 
 applies to Madrid. 
 
 And along with high-handed censorship of the press, 
 there of course went the suppression of public meetings. 
 On Sunday the i8th — the day of the parting scenes at 
 Barcelona — the Socialists in Madrid had held a very large 
 meeting of protest against the war. But from that date 
 onwards, the Government began industriously to sit on 
 the safety-valve, and from all sides there came reports of 
 meetings forbidden or dispersed by the police. 
 
 In Barcelona, on Friday the 23rd, there was to have 
 been a general assembly of delegates of the Solidaridad 
 Obrera, an organization of which we shall hear much in 
 the sequel. It is a federation of working-men's societies 
 of all shades of opinion, the Catalan counterpart of the 
 French Confederation Generale du Travail. The Civil 
 Governor, Don Angel Ossorio, decided to prohibit the
 
 THE STRIKE COMMITTEE 125 
 
 meeting ; and it was this prohibition which determined the 
 outbreak. The idea of a general strike as a protest against 
 the war, had, indeed, been mooted in La Internacional of 
 the previous day, Thursday the 22nd ; but it is doubtful 
 whether it would have taken shape had the meeting been 
 permitted. A Strike Committee of three was formed, 
 representing Sindicalists (Trade Unionists), Socialists, and 
 Anarchists. The Solidaridad Obrera, as such, was not 
 represented ; nor was the Republican party. The Re- 
 publican leaders were on very bad terms with the Soli- 
 daridad Obrera, and for this reason, among others, they 
 held back ; but the rank and file of the Republican party 
 heartily co-operated in the movement. As for the date 
 of action, the choice lay between Monday, July 26, only 
 three days ahead, and the following Monday, August 2. 
 Some were in favour of the later date, which would 
 have given time for communication with distant parts of 
 Spain, so that the strike might have been, not merely 
 Catalan, but national. This council was overborne, partly, 
 perhaps, by Catalanist feeling, but mainly, it would seem, 
 owing to the Anarchist impatience of organization and 
 concerted action. 
 
 The three members of the Strike Committee are per- 
 fectly well known. I have had long talks with one of 
 them. They scout the idea that it would ever have 
 occurred to them to take Ferrer into their confidence. On 
 the Saturday and Sunday there was a great deal of coming 
 and going, and much communication by letter, between 
 workmen and workmen's societies in the various parts of 
 Barcelona and ,in the surrounding townships. It is not 
 denied that on these days Ferrer (watched, remember, by 
 the police) stayed quietly at Mas Germinal. There is no 
 evidence of any one going to sec him ; no evidence of his
 
 126 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 having written a letter to any one who was in any way 
 connected with the movement ; no evidence that he had 
 the smallest knowledge of what was brewing. 
 
 The method of action adopted by the Strike Committee 
 was that which is known as " the snowball." Each of the 
 three Committee-men had a lieutenant; each lieutenant was 
 to communicate with four delegates ; each delegate with four 
 others, and so on. By this simple but effective means the 
 call to a general strike for Monday the 26th spread through 
 the manufacturing towns of Catalonia. It was nominally 
 to be a pacific protest, lasting twenty-four hours only, 
 against the Moroccan adventure. There were doubtless 
 many who hoped and believed that it would not end there ; 
 but of actual organization for anything further no one has 
 discovered a trace. "In Barcelona," says Don Angel 
 Ossorio, the Civil Governor before mentioned, " no one 
 prepares a revolution, for the simple reason that it is always 
 prepared. ... Of conspiracy, of plan, of concerted action, 
 of casting of parts, of recruitment, of payment, of distribu- 
 tion of arms, of issuing of orders, in preparation for the 
 events of the 26th, I have not heard a single word."
 
 X 
 
 THE RED WEEK 
 
 I SHALL now give a rapid sketch of the course of events 
 in Barcelona, leaving Ferrer, for the moment, entirely out 
 of the question. It is amazingly easy to tell the story of 
 " the Revolution of July" without a single reference to the 
 " author and chief" of it. 
 
 In the early hours of Monday the 26th some workshops 
 and factories resumed work as usual ; but as soon as the 
 news spread that the strike was actually taking effect, 
 work was everywhere abandoned. In some cases the 
 employers themselves ordered their workmen out, fearing 
 to have their windows broken. Bands of women went 
 from shop to shop and from office to office, demanding that 
 business should cease ; and they seem to have met with 
 no refusals. Throughout the disturbances women took a 
 leading part. It was in great measure a woman's revolt ; 
 and the assertion that only, or chiefly, the worst class of 
 women were concerned, is by no means borne out by the 
 evidence. 
 
 But — unfortunately, as it proved — there was one large 
 body of workers which refused to stand in with the rest. 
 Throughout the morning the electric cars ran as usual, 
 and the servants of the company declined to quit their 
 posts. Had they done so quietly, the day might have 
 passed in peace, and work might have been resumed on
 
 128 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the morrow. It was in stopping the tramway service that 
 the first acts of violence took place. Cars were over- 
 turned and burnt ; rails were torn up ; and the police and 
 gendarmes, in trying to protect the car service, came into 
 frequent conflict with the crowd. There was a good deal 
 of shooting on both sides, and blood began to flow in 
 several parts of the city. By three in the afternoon — some 
 accounts say by midday — the street-car service had entirely 
 ceased. Cabs, too, had been driven from the streets, and 
 two at least of the railways connecting Barcelona with the 
 outside world were put out of action. It was not till next 
 day that the isolation of the city, whether by rail or wire, 
 was rendered almost complete. 
 
 How, in the meantime, were the authorities employing 
 themselves ? They were undoubtedly in rather a tight 
 place. The military garrison had been depleted by the 
 war, but there remained eight hundred regular troops in 
 Barcelona. Of policemen there were eight or nine hundred, 
 and about one thousand gendarmes, or " Guardias Civiles," 
 a fine body of men known as the Benein^'ita, and very 
 loyal to constituted authority. These forces were certainly 
 none too many to hold in check a rebellious populace of 
 half a million, in a city covering some forty square miles 
 of ground. A considerable number had to be immobilized 
 for the protection of arsenals, military stores, etc. ; and 
 the soldiers, as a whole, were not greatly to be relied upon, 
 as the people insisted on cheering them wherever they 
 appeared, and treating them as the victims of govern- 
 mental oppression. It is said — but I do not think the 
 evidence is very clear — that in more than one instance 
 soldiers disobeyed the order to fire upon the people. 
 
 Under the circumstances, the best policy would 
 probably have been one of conciliation. The disturbance
 
 THE STATE OF SIEGE 129 
 
 might have been treated as a more or less legitimate 
 movement of protest, all measures being directed toward 
 securing the peaceful resumption of work next morning. 
 If this policy ever occurred to any one, it was negatived 
 in advance by a telegram received on Sunday the 25th 
 from the Minister of the Interior, Sr. La Cierva, urging 
 that anything in the nature of a strike must not be treated 
 like an ordinary economic manifestation, but repressed 
 with vigour, as a rebellion. 
 
 The Civil Governor, Don Angel Ossorio, has been 
 much ridiculed for not knowing that a strike was in pre- 
 paration ; but he has shown conclusively that he did know 
 it. He was apparently a weak man in a situation which 
 a strong man could scarcely have dominated with the 
 forces at his disposition, and on the principles inculcated 
 from headquarters at Madrid. 
 
 At midday the Junta (a small body of officials) 
 assembled, and, outvoting the Civil Governor, determined 
 to declare the state of siege. Thereupon the Governor 
 resigned in a pet — according to some accounts, he was 
 practically dismissed by an insulting telegram from Sr. 
 La Cierva — and absolute authority devolved upon the 
 Captain-General, Don Luis de Santiago y Manescau. 
 This officer signed a proclamation of the state of siege — 
 " estado dc guerra " — which at four o'clock was placarded 
 on all the walls. The opinion of the Junta had been that 
 the proclamation would at once terrorize the people into 
 quietude ; but it had no such effect. Throughout the 
 afternoon and evening there were constant skirmishes 
 between the forces of order and the people. The pro- 
 clamation declared that all "groups " formed in the streets 
 would be broken up by force ; and in carrying out this policy 
 the authorities successfully embittered the popular irritation. 
 
 K
 
 130 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 When night fell on Monday, however, no very great 
 harm had been done. It seems pretty clear that a little 
 tact and conciliation might still have secured the resump- 
 tion of work on the Tuesday morning ; but, as a matter of 
 fact, the authorities were hopelessly out of touch with the 
 people. In the central parts of Barcelona, the morning of 
 Tuesday the 27th passed quietly enough ; women went 
 about their marketing as usual, and, but for the absence of 
 all wheel traffic, the non-appearance of the newspapers, and 
 the constant patrolling of the streets, the city wore almost 
 its normal aspect. From some of the outlying districts, 
 however, firing could be heard. In Pueblo Nuevo, quite 
 early in the morning, a school or refuge belonging to the 
 Marist order, was attacked and burnt, the director of it 
 being killed. This was the first burning, and probably the 
 first death ; but several people were killed in a skirmish 
 between the mob and the soldiers who presently came on 
 the scene. After this isolated act of lawlessness, however, 
 there followed a pause of five or six hours. It was not 
 till the afternoon that the strike definitely and suddenly 
 flamed up into an insurrection. 
 
 The movement had by this time quite got out of the 
 hands of the Strike Committee. They had not, indeed, 
 ordered the resumption of work, because to have done so 
 would have been to desert other towns of Catalonia, where 
 events had already assumed a more decidedly revolutionary 
 character than they had in Barcelona. Moreover, in the 
 absence of telegraphic news, wild rumours and wild hopes 
 were abroad as to the success of the revolution in other 
 parts of Spain ; so that they determined to await develop- 
 ments. But it was no order of the chiefs that led to the 
 ultimate outbreak. It was partly the impatience of the 
 reservists, who preferred fighting in Barcelona to fighting
 
 MELODRAMATIC THEORIES 131 
 
 in Africa. It was partly the fact that the official Radical- 
 Republican leaders held aloof in dismay, and gave their 
 partizans no lead at all. It was partly a rumour which got 
 abroad that ten Catalonian soldiers who had taken part in 
 the scenes of Sunday the i8th had been led out and shot 
 on their arrival at Melilla. But mainly, I suspect, the 
 sudden effervescence of Tuesday afternoon was the in- 
 evitable result of prolonged nervous tension, lacking the 
 safety-valve of work. " Satan finds some mischief still for 
 idle mobs to do." 
 
 Some people seriously believe that the revolt was 
 fomented by Carlist agents, clerical and lay, in the hope 
 that it would spread over Spain, and that the Pretender, 
 Don Jaime de Bourbon, might "sail into power on the 
 wave of revolution." There is, it would seem, some 
 evidence for the belief that, in the event of a Carlist rising, 
 some of the religious orders would have been found armed,^ 
 and willing to use their arms in the cause of Ultramontane 
 reaction. But to believe that the Jesuits, or any other 
 order, actually lighted the torch of the incendiaries, is a 
 feat of credulity far beyond me. I cite the theory merely 
 as one more proof of the profound distrust with which the 
 congregations are regarded. There is, in truth, not the 
 slightest need to fly to any such melodramatic hypothesis. 
 The facts of the case are briefly and convincingly stated by 
 Don Angel Ossorio, who, however unlucky in his measures 
 of repression, was on the spot and in the best possible 
 position to know what he was talking about. He writes : 
 " In the melancholy events of July, there are two elements 
 to be distinguished : the general strike, a thing prepared 
 and k?iown, and the anarchistic-revolutionary movement, 
 
 ' It is certain that several attacks upon the Jesuit College in Barcelona 
 were repulsed by armed students of the institution,
 
 132 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of a political character, a thing which burst forth {siirgib) 
 without preparation,^' The italics are Don Angel's. 
 
 Be this as it may, in the early afternoon of Tuesday, 
 the revolt, which had been simmering for thirty-six hours, 
 finally boiled over. Sr. Brissa, the compiler of the most 
 impartial and trustworthy history of the Red Week, thus 
 describes the actual outbreak — 
 
 " At half-past one, the writer of these lines crossed the 
 city from the Rambla to the Entrada de Gracia without 
 observing in the streets any other abnormality than those 
 above noted [the absence of street-cars, the military patrols, 
 etc.]. But when he returned to the centre of the city two 
 hours later, the aspect of affairs had entirely changed. 
 Barcelona was in full revolution. Hundreds (!) of barri- 
 cades had risen as if by magic. ... In the poorer quarters, 
 particularly in the Paralelo, enormous multitudes had 
 gathered. They completely filled the spacious Ronda de 
 San Antonio. 
 
 " Soon there rose a column of smoke, towering into the 
 firmament ; and a few minutes later, another. It was the 
 church and convent of the Jeronimas, and the grandiose 
 establishment of the Escolapios, church, school, academy 
 and laboratory, that had been given to the flames. 
 
 " Nor was it long before new columns of smoke arose. 
 When night fell on Tuesday, in city and suburbs together, 
 something like thirty churches and convents were blazing. 
 
 " Incendiarism continued its work during the whole 
 night and a portion of the following day, destroying, 
 wholly or in part, some fifty ecclesiastical buildings. The 
 famous convent-burning of 1835 was but a trifle compared 
 with this." 
 
 From two o'clock on Tuesday, for something like sixty 
 hours, anarchy reigned in Barcelona. The street fighting
 
 QUIET RESTORED 133 
 
 was incessant, so long as daylight lasted, except for a 
 sort of truce in the early mornings. The fact that no 
 revolt had been prepared was apparent in the very 
 inadequate arming of the insurgents. They looted some 
 gun-stores, and carried off the arms from some pawn- 
 shops ; but these sources of supply were very soon 
 exhausted. It was no doubt by reason ,of this insuffi- 
 ciency of weapons and ammunition that the losses on 
 the Government side were almost ridiculously small. 
 
 On the night of the 27th, from the surrounding hills, 
 the spectacle of Barcelona dotted all over with conflagra- 
 tions must have been at once superb and terrible. But 
 there was no strategy in the fighting, no method in the 
 convent-burning. It was all desultory, planless, purpose- 
 less : an uncontrollable ebullition of rage and mischief. 
 The authorities were still in telegraphic communication 
 with Madrid by way of the Balearic Islands ; and one line 
 of railway had either not been cut or had been restored. ^ 
 Troops reached the city from distant parts of Spain, who 
 were more to be trusted than the local levies. Artillery 
 was brought into play against the barricades. On 
 Thursday evening the Captain-General placarded on the 
 walls a royal decree " suspending the constitutional 
 guarantees " in the provinces of Barcelona, Tarragona, and 
 Gerona ; but by that time the revolt had pretty well 
 exhausted itself Business began to be resumed on Friday, 
 though conflicts still occurred in the streets in certain 
 quarters. By Monday the city had regained its normal 
 aspect, and the " tragic week " was over. 
 
 The total death-roll was comparatively small. It is 
 
 ' Sr. Villaescusa, in his history of the " revolution " from the Catholic 
 point of view, states (p. 21) that the direct line to Madrid had remained intact. 
 If this be so, what arc we to think of the alleged masterly organization of the 
 revolt ?
 
 134 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 generally placed between sixty and seventy ; but the 
 Minister of the Interior, in the Cortes, stated it at one 
 hundred and four. Apparently marksmanship was not 
 the strong point of the combatants on either side. The 
 losses among the soldiers and police were not more than 
 four or five all told. The wounded on both sides were, of 
 course, very much more numerous. 
 
 It has been the policy of Catholic commentators to 
 write and speak as though some sinister mystery underlay 
 the fact that the protest against the Melilla adventure took 
 such a violently anti-clerical turn. I trust I have shown 
 that there is really no mystery in the matter. The 
 religious houses were chronically and intensely unpopular ; 
 the clergy were supposed (and rightly) to be hand in glove 
 with the militarists ; and they were suspected of being 
 financially interested in the Melilla operations. It remains 
 to be added that a most unwise attempt had been made 
 in some quarters to represent the war in the light of a 
 crusade of the Christian against the infidel — a piece of 
 hypocrisy that deceived no one and irritated many. At 
 a meeting of four thousand workmen held at Tarrasa, 
 a manufacturing town in the immediate neighbourhood 
 of Barcelona, a few days before the outbreak, a resolution 
 was passed protesting against " the sending to the war of 
 citizens productively employed and, as a rule, indifferent 
 to the triumph of ' the Cross ' over * the Crescent,' when it 
 would be easy to form regiments of priests and monks 
 who, besides being directly interested in the success of 
 the Catholic religion, have no family or home, and are 
 of no utility to the country." 
 
 In view of such a resolution as this, we need scarcely 
 look much further for the connecting link between anti- 
 militarist and anti-clerical manifestations. But it happens
 
 WHO LIT THE TORCH? 135 
 
 that we know precisely whence the immediate suggestion 
 of incendiarism proceeded. On Sunday the 25th, the 
 day before the strike and two days before the revolt, 
 Sr. Lerroux's newspaper, El Frogreso, the most influential 
 in Barcelona, contained an article, headed with the English 
 word 
 
 j REMEMBER ! 
 
 recalling the fact that that day was the anniversary of 
 a great outburst of convent-burning in 1835, and deploring 
 that, in these degenerate times, there was no likelihood 
 of its repetition ! No one who reads this article can have 
 the smallest doubt as to who lit the first torch. " On this 
 day sixty-four years ago," says the writer, "the convents, 
 which already at that time swarmed in the city, and 
 surrounded it as with a strong wall of religious despotism, 
 were assailed and burnt. The popular song reminds us 
 of those virile days." Here he quotes a stanza in the 
 Catalan speech, and then continues : " Our grandfathers 
 were no longer minded to endure the monkish dominion ; 
 and they broke it, reducing to cinders the edifices which 
 were the symbols of oppression. To-day times have 
 changed, and cowardice masks itself behind the words 
 tolerance, culture, moderation." Then, alluding to the 
 fact that the outbreak of 1835 had followed a bull-fight, 
 he exclaims, " Alas that the great programme of to-day's 
 corrida should not be followed by such an epilogue of 
 liberation ! " Ferrer, I may remark, was at this time on 
 bad terms with the Republicans and their organ, El 
 Progreso} Not the slightest attempt has been made to 
 connect him with [the (literally) incendiary article. Yet 
 
 * The proprietors of El Progreso had had a bitter quarrel with their printers, 
 who were backed by the Solidaridad Obrcra j and Ferrer had openly sided 
 with the Solidaridad against the paper.
 
 136 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 he is in his grave, while the responsible editor of El 
 Progreso, Don Emiliano Iglesias, is in the Cortes. 
 
 As to the constitution and behaviour of the convent- 
 burning mobs, there is an almost ludicrous conflict of 
 evidence, or rather of assertion. The clericals try to make 
 them out worse than fiends, the anti-clericals depict them 
 as almost angelic in their chivalry and humanity. On 
 August 4 the Correspofidencia of Madrid published a com- 
 munication from its Barcelona correspondent in which he 
 declared that, on the night of July 27, " mad drunk with 
 blood, wine, lust, dynamite, and petroleum, with no other 
 desire than to kill for killing's sake," the rebels destroyed 
 the convents and massacred their inmates. 
 
 Who can tell the number of dead, wounded, and burnt 
 who are buried beneath the ruins? . . . Spare me the 
 recital of the details of the martyrdom of the monks, of 
 the maltreatment of the nuns, of the brutal way in which 
 they were sacrificed. ... I can only say that many died 
 at the foot of the altar, stabbed by a thousand women ; 
 that others were torn to pieces, their limbs being carried 
 about on poles ; that not a few were tortured to death ; 
 and that all passed to another life with the crown of 
 martyrdom. 
 
 This is a fair specimen of history as it was written 
 in the days immediately succeeding the outbreak ; and, 
 though every one now admits that it is delirious nonsense, 
 the clerical party, while abandoning the details, still writes 
 as though the general picture were a true one. As a 
 matter of fact, the hecatomb of martyrs reduces itself, even 
 by Catholic computation, to four : two priests shot (one of 
 them in the act of firing on the mob), one priest suffocated 
 in the cellar of his burning church, and one nun brutally 
 killed. For the last outrage the evidence seems to be
 
 CONDUCT OF THE MOB 137 
 
 very insufficient ; ^ for the death of the three priests, and 
 the mutilation of the body of one of them, the evidence is 
 pretty strong. It is absurd, then, to pretend, as some 
 people do, that the mob was absolutely seraphic in its 
 ardour ; but it is certainly very remarkable that, in such a 
 wild outbreak, murder, and even fatal accident, should 
 have been so infrequent. There is abundance of evidence, 
 from the mouths of priests and nuns themselves, that the 
 general temper of the mob was not in the least homicidal,^ 
 and that they took pains to have the buildings cleared of 
 their inmates before setting fire to them. Even so, no 
 doubt it was sufficiently alarming and distressing for 
 hundreds of religious ladies to be forced to quit their 
 sanctuaries at a moment's notice, and see them delivered 
 to the flames. It is with no view of defending the conduct 
 of the rabble that I insist upon the essential difference 
 between burning an empty convent and burning it over 
 the heads of its inmates. 
 
 But, if the revolt was far from being a massacre, at 
 least, say some, it was a scene of unbridled rapine. On 
 this point, too, the opposing parties take up violently 
 
 * A proclamation published on August 9, 1909, in the Boletin Ofuial 
 Eclesi&stico by the titular Bishop of Eudoxia and Vicar Capitular of the 
 diocese of Barcelona, denounces in no measured terms the misdeeds of the 
 rioters, but speaks of the deatn of only one priest, and says nothing of any 
 outrage upon a nun. That he should not have heard of it, twelve days after 
 the event, seems incredible; and still more incredible that, knowing of it, he 
 should have kept his knowledge to himself. Moreover the Auditor, in his 
 "dictamen" on Ferrer's sentence, relates in detail (p. 312) a case in which a 
 nun was somewhat roughly handled by the mob, but evidently knows nothing 
 of any outrage and murder. The Prosecutor (p. 258) uses vague language, 
 which might be taken to mean that many such cases had occurred ; but this is 
 evidently a mere rhetorical flourish — he has no individual case in his mind. 
 
 * There were several instances, recorded by priests and nuns, in which the 
 rioters, on realizing the beneficent nature of a particular institution, passed it 
 by uninjured, and even took tiouble to protect it from other aggressors. Note 
 the cases of the Casa-Asilo de San Andres and the Hospital de niiios escrofu- 
 losos de San Juan de Dios, Brissa La Revolucidn de Julio, pp. 91 and 131.
 
 138 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 contradictory positions. It would be ridiculous to suppose 
 that in a great city like Barcelona, not noted at any time 
 as a home of all the virtues, the destruction of half a 
 hundred rich ecclesiastical buildings should be wholly 
 unaccompanied by robbery. I am not aware that any 
 serious crime of this nature has been legally brought home 
 to the rioters. We do not hear, for instance, of any one 
 attempting to sell or pawn valuable objects from the loot 
 of the monasteries, and convicted of the offence. The 
 robberies definitely alleged are of a trifling nature — a 
 great barrel of olive oil carefully tapped and emptied, 
 fruit-trees despoiled, chickens carried off and sold for three 
 halfpence apiece. It is highly probable that many such 
 depredations, and some, perhaps, of a more serious nature, 
 were committed by the dregs of the populace, the camp- 
 followers of the revolt. But there is clear evidence that 
 robbery was not the motive of the main body of the 
 incendiaries. They were bent on destruction, not on theft. 
 They made bonfires, not only of objects of sanctity, but 
 of objects of value. No bank was attacked ; no store, 
 other than gun-stores ; not one of the many splendid 
 houses of the commercial magnates of Barcelona. The 
 word "sack" is no more justly applicable to the events 
 than the word " massacre." 
 
 But while the mob, as a whole, was neither murderous 
 nor rapacious, it was blind and superstitious in its rage 
 against all things associated with religion. Its deeds show 
 no trace of any rational leadership. It did not, for in- 
 stance, single out for destruction those institutions which 
 competed unfairly in confectionery, laundry work, or other 
 industries. The great majority of the buildings destroyed 
 lay under no such suspicion. Some were inoffensive 
 houses of retreat ; not a few were charitable institutions
 
 DESECRATION OF TOMBS 139 
 
 for the benefit of the working classes themselves. One 
 (I am credibly assured) was a creche or day-nursery for 
 infants, which is now sadly missed. But, while this proves 
 the lack of reason in the crowd, it also proves the failure 
 of these charitable institutions to establish themselves in 
 popular esteem. Priests and nuns engaged in education 
 complain bitterly that the parents of some of their pupils, 
 and even the pupils themselves, were prominent among 
 the rioters. " The pity of it ! " cries the Mother Superior 
 of the Franciscanas de la Concepcion. " The first stones 
 thrown against our house came from the hands of three 
 girls who had been our pupils ! " This is by no means 
 an isolated instance ; and such facts show that, however 
 excellent its intentions, conventual education was not always 
 very fortunate in its results. 
 
 Now that the charge of massacre proves to be un- 
 founded, however, the main allegation against the mob 
 is that they desecrated tombs, and paraded the streets 
 with the embalmed bodies of religious ladies. The fact 
 is undoubted. In more than one convent, the niches of 
 the crypts were broken open and bodies dragged to light, 
 to the total number, it is said, of about thirty-five. But 
 it is no less certain that the motive of this profanation 
 was a desire to ascertain whether there was any sign of 
 the nuns having been tortured, or even buried alive. It 
 was found, as a matter of fact, that many of the bodies 
 had their hands and feet bound together ; and, though 
 this is susceptible of a quite innocent explanation, it was 
 not unnaturally taken at first as confirming the most 
 sinister rumours. To the Anglo-Saxon mind, it would 
 seem that when a community walls itself in from the world, 
 and admits no intervention of the law, no public inspection 
 of its practices, whether in life or death, it should not
 
 UO FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 complain if suspicions arise as to the nature of these 
 practices. The alleged design of the rioters was to take 
 the bodies to the Ayimtamiento, or town hall, that their 
 condition might be publicly verified. Few, if any, of them 
 seem to have reached that destination ; but, with sharp 
 fighting going on in the barricaded streets, this was 
 scarcely surprising. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that the mob, in its summary 
 researches, discovered no good evidence of torture or other 
 malpractices in the religious houses. A so-called " roast- 
 ing-bed " in the Magdalen Convent — a bed of sheet iron 
 screwed down to the floor, under which it was said that 
 gas-jets could be lighted — was examined by Mr. Henry 
 Nevinson of the London Daily News, who satisfied him- 
 self that the gas apparatus was imaginary, and that, in all 
 probability, the bed was intended for insane patients, who 
 might have used loose iron slats to do an injury to them- 
 selves or others. Similarly, a " coining apparatus " found 
 in one of the monasteries was probably a machine for 
 striking schoolboys' medals. It was, of course, said that 
 materials for the making of bombs had been discovered ; 
 but I do not know that any serious attempt has been 
 made to substantiate this charge. 
 
 There is more evidence for the assertion that some of 
 the hombres de los terrados — mysterious persons who de- 
 voted themselves to " sniping " from the house-tops — were, 
 in fact, clerics who desired to enrage the troops against the 
 townspeople. Many accounts are given of the exploits of 
 these elusive sharpshooters, to the fact of whose existence 
 all parties bear witness. Here is Mr. Rafael Shaw's 
 version of the matter — 
 
 Notwithstanding that the fighting was over, shooting 
 from the roofs of the houses went on for two days more :
 
 THE PARAPET MEN 141 
 
 the shots came from invisible persons concealed behind 
 the parapets and other sheltered positions. And, what 
 was more remarkable, whether the shooting was in work- 
 ing-class districts, or, as was frequently the case, from 
 houses in those quarters of the city where rich men live, 
 the noise of the report and the bullets which were found 
 were always the same. The "man on the roof" invariably 
 used a Browning pistol, a weapon not easily procured by 
 a poor artisan. Thirty, forty, fifty such shots would be 
 fired in succession, the troops would hurry up to the roof 
 from which the bullets came, find no one there, and see 
 nothing suspicious, yet hear the rattle of the shots again 
 as they returned to their duty in the street below. A 
 civilian who ran up the stairs from the ground floor in 
 one of the " haunted " houses told me that although 
 several shots were fired as he ran, no one was to be seen 
 above, except a young priest professedly on the same 
 errand as his own. It was said that among the many 
 people arrested there was at least one priest. But nothing 
 more was heard of him, and whether he was released as 
 innocent, or allowed to disappear, was not revealed to 
 the public. 
 
 The truth of the matter will probably never be known ; 
 but even if it be the fact that one or two mischievous 
 fanatics were caught at this game, it would be unfair to 
 make the Catholic Church responsible for them. The 
 clerical no less than the anti-clerical host would naturally 
 have its fringe of malefactors. 
 
 The history of the Red Week is not strictly speaking 
 relevant to our inquiry. There is scarcely the shadow 
 of a pretence that Ferrer took any active part in it. We 
 shall find, indeed, one witness who thought he saw him 
 " captaining a group " at a stated time ; but the group was 
 not doing anything in particular. At the very opening 
 of his speech before the Military Court, the Prosecutor
 
 142 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 explicitly renounced all idea of bringing home to him any 
 individual act of rebellion. The details of the revolt, 
 then, have nothing to do with the question of his guilt 
 or innocence. It seemed well, however, to sketch the 
 course of events, not only because they are of some 
 interest in themselves, but also because it is important 
 that they should be seen in something like their true 
 proportions. We shall see later how lurid and rhetorical 
 exaggerations of the horrors of the revolt were used to 
 inflame the public mind, and the minds of his judges, 
 against Ferrer, in calm disregard of the desirability of 
 proving, in the first place, that he was in any way respon- 
 sible for them. As though the magnitude of the crime 
 of which a man is accused were in itself a reason for 
 believing him guilty of it !
 
 XI 
 
 FERRER DAY BY DAY 
 
 It is now time to return to Ferrer, whom we left living 
 peaceably at Mas Germinal, fully occupied with his 
 editorial tasks and schemes, and smiling at the spies who 
 were set to watch his movements. 
 
 On July 22 — just four days after the Sunday that 
 witnessed the first scene of protest against the war, and 
 four days before the Monday of the general strike — he 
 wrote a letter to Miguel Moreno, formerly a teacher in 
 the Escuela Moderna, who desired to discuss with him 
 the possible foundation of a farm-school. Here is the 
 letter in full (I have seen the original) — 
 
 Mongat, 22/7, 1909. 
 
 Friend Moreno, 
 
 I have so many things to arrange and put in 
 order here at Mongat that I intend to go very little to 
 Barcelona until I have finished. 
 
 In order to see me, the best plan would be for you 
 to come here on some holiday afternoon. But, if that 
 does not suit you, I would come to Barcelona on Sunday 
 morning, by a train that arrives at nine. In that case 
 let me know beforehand and meet me at the station. 
 
 I repeat that I am your affectionate 
 
 Ferrer. 
 
 We have recently lost a niece eight years old, to our 
 no small sorrow, as you may suppose.
 
 144 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Here we find "the author and chief of the rebellion," 
 four days before its outbreak, not even mentioning public 
 affairs, and expressing a wish to avoid coming to Barce- 
 lona, Moreno, however, in his reply, suggested a meeting 
 at the station, not for Sunday, but for Monday morning ; 
 and to this Ferrer agreed. As we have seen, he certainly 
 did not visit Barcelona in the interval ; for, had he done 
 so, the police spies would have reported the fact, and the 
 prosecution would not have failed to make much of it. 
 But perhaps he was all the time plotting the revolt by 
 correspondence ? No one who has any experience of the 
 Spanish post-office will believe this possible ; and, as above 
 noted, no single letter of Ferrer's has been produced 
 inciting to, or in any way bearing upon, the disturbances. 
 The prosecution, in short, though it admitted that Ferrer 
 was under close surveillance, did not even attempt to 
 bring home to him a single act of preparation or organi- 
 zation during the critical days before the outbreak. What 
 would a jury have thought of this omission ? 
 
 Well, on the morning of the fateful 26th, Ferrer betook 
 himself to Barcelona, and Moreno met him, as arranged, 
 at the Estacion de Francia. Here it was that the two 
 streams, of private and of public events, definitely flowed 
 together. Moreno was, in fact, one of those most actively 
 concerned in the organization of the strike, which, be it 
 remembered, was by this time in active progress. He 
 naturally told Ferrer what was afoot ; and he strongly 
 asserts that this was the first Ferrer had heard of it. 
 
 " Why did he say ? " I asked. 
 
 "He said," Moreno replied, "that if it was a serious 
 movement that was going to lead to anything, it had all 
 his sympathy ; but if it was to be a mere flash in the pan, 
 he regretted it."
 
 IN BARCELONA 145 
 
 On parting from Moreno, Ferrer, according to his own 
 account (confirmed by his employees and by independent 
 witnesses), proceeded to his publishing office in the Calle 
 Cortes. He had not been long there when a band of 
 women appeared, demanding that the office should be 
 closed. He at once agreed, and only a side door was left 
 open. Then he went out to procure samples of paper for 
 his projected edition of Kropotkin's Great Revolution^ 
 after having instructed his secretary, Cristobal Litran, to 
 arrange with an engraver to meet him at the office at four 
 in the afternoon, with reference to the illustrations for the 
 same work. He lunched alone at the Maison Doree, a 
 well-known restaurant in the Plaza de Cataluiia, At four 
 he kept the appointment with the engraver at his office, 
 and asked the office messenger, a youth named Meseguer, 
 to carry to the station for him a cardboard box " contain- 
 ing a dress for his wife." This the young man did, pre- 
 ceding Ferrer to the station ; but when Ferrer arrived, in 
 time for the six o'clock train, behold ! he found a notice 
 stating that the line was cut and no trains running. 
 Meseguer, seeing that he was much put about by this, 
 offered to walk to Mongat and tell his family that all was 
 well with him. He at first demurred, saying that it was 
 too far to walk ; but th^^ lad insisted, and Ferrer at last 
 accepted his offer. Then he went and dined at the Hotel 
 Internacional on the Ramblas, spent the evening with 
 friends at a cafe, and at last, soon after midnight, set forth 
 to walk home, arriving at Mas Germinal at about five in 
 the morning. 
 
 This account of Ferrer's day is mainly founded on his 
 own deposition. His statement as to interviews with the 
 paper-maker and engraver was confirmed by the evidence 
 of the parties in question, taken by the Examining 
 
 L
 
 146 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Commandant. The evidence of Litran and Meseguer was 
 not before the court, they having been deported, as we shall 
 presently see, with all Ferrer's family and staff; but they 
 made formal declarations which they sent from their place 
 of banishment to Ferrer's defender. I may mention that 
 in Ferrer's own deposition, as read to the court, there are 
 one or two inaccuracies, quite trifling, and of no signifi- 
 cance either for or against him, which we can only put 
 down to defective reporting on the part of the officials. 
 For example, the interview with the engraver is represented 
 as taking place in the morning instead of the afternoon.^ 
 
 But here it must be said that, although Ferrer told 
 nothing but the truth as to his employments on the 26th, 
 he did not tell the whole truth. For instance, he said 
 nothing of his meeting with Moreno ; and we shall see 
 later that there were several other incidents on which he 
 was silent The reader shall judge for himself as to 
 whether these incidents in any way told against him. 
 Assuming, in the meantime, that they did not, we may 
 ask what was the reason for his silence } The answer is 
 pretty obvious : he was extremely careful not to com- 
 promise any of his friends. His deposition was taken 
 while he was in solitary confinement, absolutely ignorant 
 as to who might or might not be in the hands of the 
 police, and knowing only that a bitter campaign of 
 vengeance was in full swing. Moreno, as a matter of fact, 
 had escaped ; but it would have been a clear disloyalty on 
 Ferrer's part to allude to his share in the disturbances. 
 Even people whom Ferrer knew to have taken no part in 
 
 ^ It happens that these particular errors do not matter ; but similar errors, 
 at other points in the process, might have the most disastrous efifect. One of 
 the witnesses declared to me : " What we said was no more like what we 
 were reported as saying than this is like this " — pointing to a bottle of cognac 
 and a piece of money which happened to be on the table before us.
 
 MASNOU AND PREMIA 147 
 
 the events might have been made to suffer for the mere 
 fact of his naming them. He did not even give the name 
 of the messenger who carried the dress-box to the station 
 for him. 
 
 At Mas Germinal — according to Ferrer's account and 
 that of his family — he remained throughout Tuesday the 
 27th. Whether this be true or not is a crucial point in 
 the case, which we shall have to discuss in due time. On 
 Wednesday the 28th, at about eleven in the morning, all 
 parties agree that he went (as was his custom every 
 Wednesday and Saturday) to a barber's shop in the neigh- 
 bouring village of Masnou, to be shaved. Thence he pro- 
 ceeded, a distance of some two miles, to the village of 
 Premia de Mar, where he remained about a quarter of an 
 hour ; and then he returned to Mas Germinal, having been 
 absent, in all, between two and three hours. There is no 
 dispute as to these bare facts ; but the question of what 
 he said to persons whom he met at Masnou and Premia is 
 another — or rather the other — crucial point in the case. 
 
 On Thursday the 29th one of the household at Mas 
 Germinal returned from Alella in great excitement, report- 
 ing that she had heard a young woman declare that she 
 had, with her own eyes, seen Ferrer at the head of a band 
 of incendiaries burning a convent at Premia — where, in 
 fact, no convent had been burnt. 
 
 " I was informed of this," said Soledad Villafranca in 
 an interview published in the Paris Journal, " and hastened 
 to question the woman, who repeated to me what she had 
 heard. I at once told Ferrer, who was quietly working 
 in his office ; but he, instead of sharing my alarm, smiled 
 at it. This story of his being seen in the act of burning a 
 convent seemed to amuse him greatly. 
 
 '"But it is nothing to laugh at ! ' I said to him. 'If
 
 148 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 once these rumours reach Barcelona, you'll see they won't 
 want any further excuse for arresting you.' 
 
 " ' It's ridiculous ! ' he replied. 
 
 " * Listen ! ' I begged him at last. * You see how all 
 this is worrying me. The situation at Barcelona is grow- 
 ing worse, and your enemies may quite well profit by it to 
 ruin you. Do as I ask you — go away for a time ! When 
 things are quiet again, you can come back.' 
 
 " Ferrer was very unwilling to take my advice. But 
 I insisted so strongly that I succeeded in persuading him 
 to absent himself for some days. . . . 
 
 " ' If you receive no news of me,' he said as we parted, 
 * it will mean that all is going well. I cannot tell you 
 where I am going, for I do not yet know.' 
 
 " And he left me — and I was never to see him again." 
 
 One must not, of course, assume that Mme. Villafranca 
 was quite accurately reported; but if she was, the con- 
 cluding phrases of her statement conveyed a somewhat 
 inexact impression of the facts. It was not then, and is 
 not now, safe to tell the whole truth as to the place and 
 manner of Ferrer's concealment. I do not myself know 
 it in detail ; but I know enough to feel sure that his final 
 parting from Mme. Villafranca did not take place on July 
 29. It will be noted that, though she certainly implies 
 that it did, she does not actually say so. Ferrer's own 
 narrative, in letters to Charles Malato^ and William 
 Heaford, substantially agrees with Mme. Villafranca's : 
 which means, no doubt, that, in loyalty to those who 
 actually stood by him, neither of them could tell the exact 
 truth. The matter is quite unimportant ; but for the 
 benefit of future historians, I note that, at this point, the 
 whole story has not yet been told. 
 
 * Un Martyr des Preires, p. 48.
 
 ]\JAS GERMINAL INVADED 149 
 
 The essential fact is that, for more than a fortnight, 
 Ferrer's disappearance was so complete that he was 
 generally believed to have escaped to France — a belief in 
 which the authorities fully shared. His friends even en- 
 couraged the illusion by printing imaginary interviews 
 with him in French and English papers. We may perhaps 
 see reason for thinking that the success with which the 
 belief in his escape was spread abroad proved, in the long 
 run, a misfortune to him. Early in August his publishing 
 office was visited and searched, and his secretary, Litran, 
 arrested, but set at liberty after a two hours' examination. 
 At five in the morning, on either the nth or 12th of the 
 month,^ a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil, with sixteen 
 of his men, laid siege to Mas Germinal, while three police- 
 officers, headed by one Salagaray, invaded the house, and 
 spent twelve hours in ransacking it and all its dependencies, 
 including the fowl-run, in search of incriminating docu- 
 ments. They found nothing of the slightest importance. 
 " Before Ferrer left," says Mme. Villafranca, " he and I 
 had been careful to make a great clearance of papers. 
 Not that there was anything that could justly be called 
 compromising ; but we knew how the police would try 
 to twist everything, not only to his disadvantage, but to 
 that of his correspondents." The search-party, however, 
 carried off a collection of three hundred letters from Ferrer 
 to his brother Jose — a " find " that must have proved dis- 
 appointing, as we hear no more about it. 
 
 * Ferrer himself says the nth; but I have seen a letter from Soledad 
 Villafranca, dated the 13th, in which she speaks of the search having occurred 
 •' yesterday."
 
 XII 
 
 THE EXILES OF TERUEL 
 
 On the i6th of August Ferrer ought to have transacted 
 certain financial business with a bank in Barcelona, on 
 pain of forfeiture of some valuable securities.^ On that 
 day Mme. Villafranca set forth from Mas Germinal to see 
 his agent in the city, and ascertain whether the business 
 could be completed without his signatur-^. She found 
 that it could not, and brought away with h • the docu- 
 ment to which his signature was required. She was 
 shadowed all the time by a police-officer, who, however, 
 was the most urbane of his tribe, excused himself for 
 obeying disagreeable orders, and insisted on paying her 
 tramway fare — a common act of courtesy in Spain. On 
 the way back from Mongat station to Mas Germinal, 
 Mme. Villafranca invited him to walk with her instead of 
 following her, and he agreed with alacrity. When Mas 
 Germinal was almost in sight, he parted from her with 
 many apologies, and returned to Mongat. 
 
 Just at this point the road passed through a tunnel, in 
 the shadow of which a man, unknown to Mme. Villafranca, 
 was lingering. As she passed him he thrust a paper into 
 her hand, saying, " Do not stop, but read this as you go." 
 
 ^ The account of the matter given by Sr. Crespo Azorin, the Civil 
 Governor of Barcelona, is that Ferrer wanted to pledge for 90,000 pesetas a 
 block of shares in the Fomento de Obras y Construcciones of the nominal 
 value cf 150,000 pesetas. See Brissa, Revolticidn de Julio, p. 218,
 
 THE MAN IN THE TUNNEL 151 
 
 Mastering her amazement, she did so, and found it to be 
 a note from Ferrer, written on a piece of brown paper, and 
 running thus — 
 
 Dear Soledad, 
 
 Do me the favour of giving the policy to the 
 person who hands you this. I will sign it and get it con- 
 veyed to the bank. Do not be distressed or uneasy. I 
 will soon return. I do not tell you where I am in order 
 to spare you embarrassments. 
 
 Sabes te quiere de veras tu Ferrer. 
 
 Mme. Villafranca retraced her steps, and the unknown 
 approached her. As they passed each other she handed 
 him the document, while he whispered, "Ask no ques- 
 tions. Don't stop, don't stop." The back of the policeman 
 could still be seen as he pursued his way down the long, 
 straight road to Mongat. 
 
 Three days later, as Jose Ferrer was, as usual, selling 
 his garden produce in the market-place at Barcelona, 
 another (or the same) unknown man came up to him, 
 handed him a packet, and disappeared, without giving him 
 time to ask any questions. The packet contained the 
 document, signed by his brother. 
 
 This story is related by a correspondent of El Radical 
 de Valencia, who, on other matters, is fully, if not quite 
 accurately, informed. He declares that he has held in his 
 hands the letter above quoted. That the story is substan- 
 tially true I do not doubt ; but I suspect a certain inter- 
 mixture of fiction. I have refrained from inquiring too 
 closely into details, because, as I have already remarked, 
 the whole truth about Ferrer's concealment must not as 
 yet be published. It has obviously no bearing upon the 
 question of his guilt or innocence.
 
 152 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 What is true beyond question is that, on August 19, 
 Jose Ferrer handed to the bank the document bearing his 
 brother's signature. Evidently the authorities had instant 
 notice of this fact, which proved that Ferrer was not far 
 off. Their next move was made no later than the follow- 
 ing day, and was a pretty sweeping one. 
 
 We have seen that on the third day of the riots, 
 July 28, a royal order had " suspended the constitutional 
 guarantees " in three Catalan provinces, thus placing 
 the liberty of the subject entirely at the mercy of the 
 bureaucracy. Therefore the new Governor of Barcelona 
 was well within his rights when he ordered the instant 
 deportation of Soledad Villafranca and her brother, Jose 
 Ferrer with his wife and child, and the whole staff of 
 Ferrer's publishing-house. A full account of this amazing 
 episode was given me by Anselmo Lorenzo, Ferrer's chief 
 translator, a very fine old man, whose story was constantly 
 interrupted by painful paroxysms of chronic asthma. At 
 the same time he handed me a written narrative, which 
 appeared in La Vie Onvrihe for February, 1910, permit- 
 ting me to make what use I required of it. I translate 
 and condense the essential passages — 
 
 On the 20th of August, three weeks after the Barce- 
 lona outbreak, I received an order to present myself at a 
 police-station, where I was required to answer a question. 
 
 Conducted by two policemen, I there found several 
 persons who had received the same summons : Batllori, 
 administrator of the publishing-house of the Escuela 
 Moderna ; Casasola, who had been one of the teachers in 
 the school ; Jose Ferrer, his wife Maria Fontcuberta, and 
 his daughter Alba, three years of age ; and Mme. Soledad 
 Villafranca. 
 
 No question was put to us. We were simply notified 
 that, by order of the Minister of the Interior, we were to
 
 SUMMARY BANISHMENT 153 
 
 leave by the four o'clock train that afternoon for Alcaniz. 
 No legal formality was gone through, except that to each 
 of us was handed an official paper running as follows : — 
 
 Government of the Province of Barcelona. 
 
 In virtue of the powers conferred on me by Article 9 
 of the Law of Public Order, now in force by reason of the 
 suspension of constitutional guarantees, I decree your 
 banishment {destierro) and that of your family to a dis- 
 tance of more than 245 and less than 250 kilometres from 
 the city of Barcelona. You are to be immediately con- 
 ducted, under the surveillance of the public forces, to the 
 limit of the radius of 245 kilometres. God preserve you 
 many years ! 
 
 Crespo Azorin. 
 
 Barcelona, August 19, 1909. 
 
 Without any preparation, without equipment or money, 
 without being able to say good-bye to our families, or to 
 let them know what had happened — and I in particular, 
 aff'ected with a distressing chronic infirmity — we were con- 
 ducted to the station between files of the Guardia Civil, 
 and despatched on our journey. 
 
 Next day we arrived at Alcaniz. We were lodged in a 
 modest inn, where the Alcalde came to inform us that we 
 had been placed under his authority, and to recommend to 
 us the greatest prudence. 
 
 In the evening four new exiles arrived — MM. Litrdn, 
 Villafranca, Robles, and Meseguer. The next day I was 
 joined by my wife, Francisca Concha, and my daughters 
 Mariana and Flora. 
 
 Every one of these exiles was in a situation of torturing 
 anxiety. Soledad left Ferrer in concealment, and with no 
 means of communicating with his friends. Jose Ferrer, his 
 wife and daughter, had had to close their house at Mongat, 
 shutting out their young son who was away at the moment
 
 154 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of their arrest/ and leaving no one to attend to the cows 
 and other animals ; Robles knew that his wife, with a child 
 of three months, had been exiled to Huesca, leaving two 
 young boys on the streets ; Villafranca was taken away 
 from his wife, who was in the ninth month of pregnancy, 
 and from a printing-office, recently started, and left without 
 any one to look after it. The others — not to prolong these 
 details — were in similar, or even worse, predicaments. 
 
 Many other exiles, deported to various places in the 
 provinces of Huesca, Teruel, Castellon, and Valencia, 
 suffered in the same way. 
 
 One would have thought that the Government proposed 
 to persecute to the point of annihilation the families of 
 those whom it had inscribed on its list of suspects. It 
 placed us at the mercy of hunger, destitution, inclemency 
 of climate, sickness, and, to crown all, fanaticism ; but the 
 result was just the contrary of what might have been 
 expected. National and international solidarity came 
 effectually to our aid ; and the natural goodness of the 
 Aragonese peasants, whose ignorance had perhaps been 
 expected to lead to some sort of barbarous lynching, was 
 converted into a tender pity, and even a first stirring of 
 revolutionary thought. 
 
 At Alcaniz an attempt to organize a manifestation of 
 hostility to the exiles v/as a complete failure ; on the other 
 hand, the liberal youth of the town gave us a serenade, in 
 which the popular muse sang, to melodies inspired by the 
 Aragonese j'W^r, verses of comfort, fraternity, and hope. 
 
 I shall always recall with emotion the day when, almost 
 fainting, and scarcely able to move another step, I entered 
 the market-place, where, observing my condition, a kind- 
 hearted market-woman led me to a seat, and offered me a 
 bowl of bouillon, a cup of milk, a glass of wine. I sat 
 down with my wife at my side ; around us gathered a great 
 circle of the inhabitants, questioning us as to the reasons 
 of our exile and the events of Barcelona. Our simple 
 
 ' He had gone to bathe, and the police refused to await his return. — W. A,
 
 INIOVED ON 155 
 
 answers, bearing the stamp of truth, awoke the sympathy 
 of our listeners : many women wept, many men clenched 
 their fists. 
 
 "We are not criminals," I said to them, "we are exiled 
 here because we were employed in the Escuela Moderna of 
 Barcelona, which has been closed because it gave to children 
 an education calculated to make of them free and instructed 
 men and women, who will no longer accept the delusion 
 and injustice of religious falsehood, capitalist exploitation, 
 or political tyranny." These ideas being above the intel- 
 lectual capacity of that audience, I tried to give the necessary 
 explanations, ending in this fashion : "We are persecuted 
 because we wish truth to shine resplendent in society, and 
 the idea of good to inspire all social acts." 
 
 When I rose and bade them good-bye, I was the object 
 of the most affectionate demonstrations from all present. 
 All our companions, too, were received with similar mani- 
 festations, and especially Soledad, my daughters, and the 
 little Alba. 
 
 Confronted by such a result, the magnates of the district, 
 the rich and influential people, decided to get us away from 
 Alcaniz ; and, after some hesitation as to our new place of 
 abode, they sent us to Teruel. 
 
 We had to make our way there, in charge of the inevi- 
 table Guardia Civil, not by the railway, which would have 
 taken us in six hours, but in wretched jolting carts. We 
 were forced to stop for the night at Montalvan, and the 
 whole journey took thirty-two hours. 
 
 Our stay at Teruel may be divided into two periods : 
 the first, from our arrival until the date when the constitu- 
 tional guarantees were re-established, except for the 
 provinces of Barcelona and Gerona ; the second, from that 
 date until the constitution was restored throughout all 
 Spain. 
 
 An idea of our situation during the former period may 
 be gathered from the following protest which we addressed 
 to a certain number of newspapers : —
 
 156 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 "The undersigned, inhabitants of Barcelona, exiled to 
 Alcaiiiz and then to Teruel, and reduced to an extremity 
 in which it is impossible to subsist, claim their right to 
 live — a right which cannot be suppressed by the suspension 
 of the constitutional guarantees or by the Law of Public 
 Order. 
 
 " We live in a house which is watched day and night 
 by policemen and Guardias Civiles ; we are not allowed 
 to go out alone ; . . . every tradesman who comes to us, 
 and even the postman, must be accompanied by a police 
 officer. In the street, opposite our house, a booth has 
 been erected for the accommodation of our jailors. We 
 can neither pay nor receive visits. Orders have been 
 given that we must not bow to any one in the street, nor 
 must any one bow to us. Our door is closed at seven in 
 the evening, and from that time, as though the drawbridge 
 of a fortress had been raised, no one may pass it. 
 
 " In this situation, we can neither work nor seek for 
 work : we can earn absolutely nothing. Up to the present 
 we have lived on certain supplies sent us by our families, 
 at the cost of privation and wretchedness, and on some 
 gifts from our friends. We have before our eyes the 
 spectre of famine and abandonment. 
 
 " Our condition as exiles proclaims our innocence. 
 There is no accusation against us. The prisoner is 
 supplied with lodging and food, and is permitted to 
 communicate with his friends ; but for us there will soon 
 be neither lodging, nor bread, nor the greeting of a friend, 
 nor even the ordinary sympathy of humanity. . . . 
 
 " We make our protest to public opinion, through its 
 organ, the press, in the confidence that it will fulfil its duty. 
 
 "Teruel, September, 1909. 
 
 "Jose Casasola, Cristobal Litran, Alfredo Meseguer, 
 Anselmo Lorenzo, Francisca Concha, Mariana Lorenzo, 
 Flora Lorenzo, Jose Villafranca, Mariano Batllori, Jos6 
 Robles." 
 
 The signatures of Jose Ferrer, Maria Fontcuberta, and
 
 A TIME OF ANGUISH 157 
 
 Soledad Villafranca are wanting, because they were at that 
 moment in prison, where they passed eight days, without 
 any reason being given either for their arrest or for their 
 release. 
 
 Our correspondence was scandalously tampered with ; 
 even money sent to us in registered letters was abstracted. 
 We had recourse to the kindness of a friend who posted 
 our letters for us at Valencia or at Saragossa, and were 
 thus able to re-establish some relations with the inter- 
 national solidarity. 
 
 After the partial restoration of the constitutional 
 guarantees, the surveillance of the Guardia Civil was 
 suppressed, but not that of the police. The booth of our 
 jailors was demolished, in consequence of a protest which 
 we published in the local press ; and we were permitted 
 to speak to some of the inhabitants and to receive some 
 
 visits. . . . 
 
 At the time of Ferrer's trial, we made every possible 
 effort to place our testimony before the court : we wrote 
 letters to the judge, to the Defender, to the press, to 
 influential personages, and made appeals to international 
 solidarity : all in vain. The judicial crime, perfidiously 
 planned, was accomplished, Ferrer, in dying, achieved a 
 glorious place in history, and our colony of exiles remained 
 plunged in desolation. 
 
 Our anguish, our sufferings, our pains of every sort, 
 formed a terrible ordeal, which we were enabled to endure 
 with dignity because we were sustained by an ideal, and 
 felt ourselves bound together like a veritable family. The 
 memory of these days of fraternity in persecution, and of 
 grief for the tragic fate of our heroic friend, now presents 
 itself to me clothed in a poetic melancholy. ... It was 
 sad and it was beautiful. 
 
 At last, with the fall of the Conservatives, and the 
 formation of the Liberal ministry, we began to look 
 forward to the end of our exile.' By arrangement with 
 
 • It lasted, in all, 87 days.— W. A.
 
 158 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the Committee of the Republican Club, we convoked the 
 people of Teruel to a meeting, in order to make ourselves 
 known to them, and expound our sentiments, our thoughts, 
 and our ideal. 
 
 This meeting made a profound sensation at Teruel. 
 The populace, living under the sway of a peaceable 
 routine, lulled to sleep in their heavy quietude, had not 
 the least suspicion of the revolt in which the world is 
 rising up against dogma, authority, and property, im- 
 mobilized in the stagnant waters of privilege. 
 
 We had distributed the parts in advance, so that each 
 of the exiles could expound his own tendencies. ... In 
 my turn, after declaring myself an anarchist, I showed, in 
 property, a perpetual usurpation. There is a universal 
 property which, formed by the gifts of nature, and the 
 observation, study, and work of the discoverers, thinkers, 
 and labourers of the whole world, cannot be the exclusive 
 property of any one, but belongs to all by natural right, 
 although the laws say the contrary. These laws, daughters 
 of the Roman Law, divide humanity into masters and 
 servants, that is to say into persons and things — an anti- 
 human and irrational division, which persists in our days 
 in republics no less than in monarchies, and will persist 
 until the workers, by means of a general revolutionary 
 strike, break up states, suppress frontiers, and establish 
 acracy, or in other words the absence of government. 
 
 We contrived to put these ideas in a form which placed 
 them within the mental range of our audience ; and the 
 eflfect produced was surprising. 
 
 We had our revenge : the ideas which those in power 
 had sought to annihilate in Barcelona, had been transported 
 into Lower Aragon, there to take root. Our persecutors 
 had helped on our propaganda. 
 
 This document speaks for itself. The facts set forth 
 are fully corroborated by two others of the little company 
 of exiles who are personally known to me, Jose Ferrer and
 
 PROPAGANDA IN EXILE 159 
 
 Soledad Villafranca. As for the opinions expressed, I 
 have thought it worth while to quote them for the sake of 
 the added light they throw upon the doctrines which pre- 
 vailed in the Escuela Moderna. It is not my part to 
 defend or extenuate these doctrines, or to discuss the due 
 limits of social self-defence against a propaganda of dis- 
 integration. What I have to point out is that it was — 
 nominally — not for his share in disseminating these ideas 
 that Ferrer was shot, but for his active participation, as 
 organizer and director, in the Barcelona riots. If he was, 
 in fact, innocent of that crime, it is no defence for the 
 action of the Spanish Government to declare that he was 
 guilty of something else. 
 
 Am I wrong in thinking that what stands out from 
 Anselmo Lorenzo's narrative is not so much the barbarism 
 of the Government action, as its extraordinary unintelli- 
 gence ? The authorities seem to seize every opportunity of 
 putting themselves in the wrong. They make martyrs by 
 the most high-handed exercise of tyranny, and then allow 
 the martyrs to advertise their martyrdom in the public press ! 
 They will not suffer the exiles to exchange a word or a 
 bow with the local population ; and lo ! before we know 
 where we are, the exiles are holding a public meeting and 
 preaching anarchism ! True, there had in the meantime 
 been a change of government ; but the new government 
 was certainly no more friendly to anarchism than the old, 
 and it is absurd to suppose that the local authorities could 
 not, if they would, have put a stop to the " reunion." The 
 whole episode is characteristic and luminous. It helps us 
 not a little to understand the darker drama which was 
 meanwhile being enacted in Barcelona. There was not, 
 as I read the case, any clever villainy behind this affair 
 of the deportation, but only an instinctive, blundering
 
 100 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 barbarism, quite incapable of looking ahead and devising 
 a rationally wicked policy. The immediate motive of the 
 "banishment" was apparently to drive Ferrer from his 
 concealment by cutting him off from communication with 
 his friends ; and afterwards it no doubt seemed extremely 
 convenient to have every one who could give evidence in 
 his favour safely removed to a distance of not less than 
 245 kilometres. But what a shallow view ! As a matter 
 of fact, nothing that the exiles had to say could have saved 
 Ferrer, before such a court as the Council of War. Beyond 
 speaking to his presence at Mas Germinal on one occasion 
 when he was alleged to have been in Barcelona, they really 
 had very little to tell ; and their evidence could always 
 have been set aside as manifestly interested and untrust- 
 worthy. In refusing them the right to be heard, the 
 authorities were gratuitously, and to no purpose, placing a 
 weapon in the hands of those who, as they must have 
 known, were certain to impugn the justice of their pro- 
 ceedings. They wantonly overrode the most elementary 
 principles of fair play, when they had nothing to gain and 
 a great deal to lose by so doing. But this is not astute- 
 ness, not Macchiavellianism. It is only a sort of blindly 
 malevolent blundering. We shall soon come to a still 
 more flagrant instance of the same artlessness in cogging 
 the dice — the same simple-minded ignoring of the most 
 elementary principles, I will not say of justice, but of 
 prudence — in the rewards distributed to Ferrer's captors. 
 
 Having thus happily disposed of the occupants of Mas 
 Germinal, the authorities made several descents upon the 
 house, in further search for incriminating documents. On 
 one occasion, about August 27, ten policemen and gen- 
 darmes took possession of the farm-house for three days and 
 two nights, broke open the floors and the walls, cut the
 
 MAS GERMINAL RIFLED 161 
 
 drain-pipes, emptied the cisterns, and left the place a 
 wreck. As already remarked, the traces of this diligencia 
 (that is the expressive Spanish term) were visible on every 
 hand when I visited Mas Germinal ten months later. It 
 is quite evident that, under such conditions, the require- 
 ment of the law that search shall always be conducted in 
 the presence of representatives of the accused, or of re- 
 sponsible and impartial witnesses, could not possibly be 
 fulfilled. The only occupant of the house was Mme. 
 Villafranca's mother ; and it can scarcely be conceived that 
 she kept sleepless watch on her ten visitors for sixty hours. 
 There is not the slightest reason to presume the genuine- 
 ness of any document purporting to have been found on 
 this occasion. 
 
 M
 
 XIII 
 
 THE LEGEND GROWS 
 
 We must now return to Barcelona, and trace the growth 
 of the legend connecting Ferrer with the revolt. This 
 task is greatly facilitated by the richly-documented 
 chapter entitled "The Snowball" in Dr. Simarro's monu- 
 mental work. 
 
 The rumour which sent Ferrer into hiding — that he had 
 been seen leading an attack on a convent at Premia — 
 does not appear to have got into the newspapers. But 
 it was not long before local gossip began to fasten on his 
 name. The Conservative Epoca of Madrid published on 
 August 31 a series of extracts from various letters received 
 from Barcelona, one of the paragraphs running as follows : 
 "It is believed that the sadly celebrated {tristemente celebre) 
 Francisco Ferrer had passed a month in Barcelona with 
 Soledad Villafranca, and had brought with him much 
 money. It is added that money circulated in abundance 
 in the Casa del Pueblo,^ and junkettings took place on 
 the strength of it." Appearing in Madrid on Tuesday 
 the 3rd, this must have been written in Barcelona not 
 later than Sunday the ist, before the echoes of the revolt 
 had quite died away. On Wednesday the 4th the same 
 paper published a letter from its Barcelona correspondent, 
 Don Pascual Zulueta, containing the following passage : 
 
 * A Lerrouxist-Republican cafe and place of recreation for workmen— a 
 sort of small People's Palace.
 
 THE SNOWBALL STARTED 163 
 
 " Some one arrived here with money — some suppose it to 
 have been the sadly celebrated Ferrer, who certainly was 
 in Barcelona — and (according to information which I 
 believe to be trustworthy) on one single day, very shortly 
 before the tumults, a cheque for 50,000 pesetas [;^200o] 
 was cashed at the local branch of the Credit Lyonnais, 
 the money being distributed that night at the Casa del 
 Pueblo." These two paragraphs evidently represent one 
 and the same rumour, proceeding from one and the same 
 source. So far as Ferrer is concerned, it professes to be 
 no more than pure conjecture. Its germ is probably to 
 be found in the report that money was unusually plentiful 
 at the Casa del Pueblo. As soon as that was believed, 
 it was a very short step to the conjecture that the 
 " millionaire anarchist " Ferrer had supplied the sinews 
 of war. Even the germ of the story is probably a myth. 
 It has never been proved that money was distributed at 
 the Casa del Pueblo or anywhere else ; and Don Angel 
 Ossorio, as we have seen (p. 126) expressly declared that 
 there was no sign of any " payment of insurgents." * But 
 if money was distributed at all, it certainly was not by 
 Ferrer. If he had drawn a large cheque just before the 
 revolt, the prosecution could easily have proved it ; but 
 it made no attempt to do anything of the kind. It 
 appeared at the trial that Ferrer's bank was not the 
 Credit Lyonnais but the Banco de Espana. Furthermore, 
 Ferrer had been for some time at feud with the Lerrouxists, 
 and was by no means in good odour at the Casa del Pueblo.^ 
 
 ' Sr. Garcia Cortes, secretary of the Spanish Socialist party, states that the 
 Solidaridad Obrera wanted to send delegates to Madrid to arrange with the 
 Socialibt directorate for a general strike throughout Spain, but could not do 
 so because there was no money to pay for their tickets. This does not look 
 as though Ferrer or any one else had subsidized the movement, 
 
 « See pp. 135 and 205.
 
 164 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Presently, however, the rumour began to "concrete 
 itself," as they say in Spain. The Barcelona correspondent 
 of a Madrid Ultramontane paper, El Siglo FuUiro, con- 
 tributed to its issue of August 9 a number of paragraphs 
 headed " Data for History " ; and this was one of them : 
 " During the week, Ferrer, the director of the Escuela 
 Moderna, was seen several times in the streets, and once 
 I saw him captaining a group in front of the Liceo 
 [Theatre] on the Ramblas." This correspondent was a 
 certain Colldefons,^ whose evidence became the corner- 
 stone of the case against Ferrer. We shall have to 
 examine it in due time ; for the present it is enough to 
 say that this clerical journalist did not know Ferrer, 
 " except from photographs," but "acquired the conviction 
 that it must be he from hearing passers-by say so." 
 
 On the very day on which Sr. Colldefons's "data" 
 appeared in Madrid, there arrived in Barcelona no less a 
 personage than Don Javier Ugarte, Prosecutor of the 
 Supreme Court, and Auditor-General of the Army, com- 
 missioned by Sr. Maura's Government, as he himself 
 expressed it, "to investigate the history and philosophy 
 of this criminal explosion ; to appreciate the full gravity 
 of the evil ; and to inspire the certainty that it will be 
 remedied." Sr. Ugarte is a noted clerical, and holds, 
 among other offices, that of General Secretary of the 
 Catholic Workmen's Associations. His first act was to 
 announce through the press " that he would be pleased to 
 receive whatever information might be offered him " as 
 to the events of the Red Week. In other words, he made 
 himself a general receptacle for all the gossip of the 
 city. The first thing we hear is that "the Executive 
 
 * The name is sometimes spelt " Colldeforns " or " CoUdefrons " ; but 
 I believe " CoUdefons " is the correct form.
 
 A NOBLE GRANDEE 165 
 
 Commission of the Diocesan Junta, composed of 72 Catholic 
 Associations, has placed its information at his service " ; 
 and the next is that he has had a consultation with the 
 directorate of the Committee of Social Defence, a body- 
 notoriously composed of violent reactionaries, and strongly 
 tinged with Carlism. 
 
 We shall presently return to Sr. Ugarte ; for the 
 moment, the Committee of Social Defence takes up the 
 running. After its interview with the Prosecutor, it 
 delegates four of its members to proceed to Madrid and 
 impress upon the Government its views as to the necessity 
 for drastic action. The quartette sets out on the 14th, 
 and on the i8th the Catholic paper El Universo publishes 
 an interview with one of them, the Pontifical Count of 
 Santa Maria de Pomes. This " noble grandee," as he is 
 described, lays the chief responsibility of the outbreak at 
 the door of Sr. Lerroux, whom he declares to be possessed 
 by the devil. But on being asked whether the Lerrouxists 
 are solely responsible, he replies: "By no means. It 
 was not for nothing that Ferrer, the most ill-omened 
 {fiinestisimo) Ferrer, passed near Barcelona during the 
 week previous to the first days of the impious revolution. 
 When he opens his mouth, Freemasonry and international 
 anarchism open their hand and their purse. The books 
 of the Escuela Modcrna could not but produce their 
 deleterious fruits, and have produced them." Here we 
 have evidently the official view of the Committee of Social 
 Defence ; and on what is it based } The Pontifical Count 
 himself informs us, when he appears as a witness in the 
 trial of Emiliano Iglcsias and others accused of being 
 " instigators, organizers, and directors " of the revolt, that 
 "he can give no information beyond what popular rumour 
 asserted." So that we have here simply a variant of the
 
 166 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 legend reported by Sr. Zulueta, the worth of which we 
 have already estimated. 
 
 Sr. Ugarte, as we have seen, arrived in Barcelona on 
 the 9th, and proceeded to take counsel with two of the 
 chief Catholic organizations of the place. Whom else he 
 may have consulted we do not know ; but he summoned a 
 meeting of the "judicial authorities" of the district and 
 "imposed on them his opinion" that the events of July 
 constituted " a veritable military rebellion," and that cases 
 arising out of them must therefore be tried by military 
 law. The result of these consultations and discussions 
 was very soon manifest ; for on the 17th, only eight days 
 after Sr. Ugarte's arrival, the following proclamation was 
 issued by "Don Vicente Lliviana^ y Fernandez, Com- 
 mandant, Examining Magistrate of the Zone of recruit- 
 ment and reserve of Barcelona, number 27 " : — 
 
 Has absented himself from the district of Mongat, in 
 this province, where he was residing at his property Mas 
 Germinal, Francisco Ferrer Guardia, 50 years of age, 
 founder of the Escuela Moderna which used to be carried 
 on in this city, and whose other personal circumstances 
 are unknov/n, accused in relation to the cause which, by 
 order of the judicial authority of the region, I am at 
 present preparing against the instigators, organizers, and 
 directors of the breaches of public order which took place 
 in this capital between the 25th and 31st of last July. 
 
 In virtue of the jurisdiction conceded to me by the 
 Code of Military Justice, I hereby cite, call and summon 
 the said Ferrer Guardia to present himself within twenty 
 days counting from this date, before this court, situated in 
 the Parque de Artilleria, that his answer to the charges 
 
 ' The name is sometimes given as Llivina. I follow the Process. The 
 expression rendered as "Examining Magistrate" is "Juez instructor" or 
 Juge d" Instruction,
 
 UGARTE'S INTERVIEWS 167 
 
 may be heard ; on pain of being declared rebel if he does 
 not appear within the stated term, and incurring whatever 
 pains and penalties the law provides. 
 
 Ferrer asserted that when he saw this summons in the 
 newspapers, he thought of obeying it, but was persuaded 
 not to do so. It will be noted that this was before the 
 banishment of his family to Teruel. 
 
 Having finished his historical and philosophical re- 
 searches in Barcelona, Don Javier Ugarte returned to 
 Madrid, and hastened to pay his respects to the King. 
 On leaving the palace, he was beset by interviewers, 
 demanding his impressions of things in Barcelona. 
 Almost identical interviews appeared in several of the 
 papers. In the Epoca (Conservative) of August 28, 
 the point on which Sr. Ugarte chiefly insists is that the 
 ordinary or civil law has nothing to say in this matter, 
 which must inevitably be handled by the military tribunals. 
 Then he adds : " One of the initiators, and a director of 
 groups, was Ferrer, who in the days of the movement was 
 in Barcelona, and afterwards at Mongat, where he has a 
 property, and from the latter point he irradiated the move- 
 ment, disappearing soon afterwards." In the Iniparcial, 
 the Prosecutor is represented as stating that more than 
 1000 prosecutions are pending in Barcelona, and in the 
 rest of the province at least as many more. Then the 
 reporter proceeds : " Sr. Ugarte holds the proof that 
 the organizer and soul of the sedition was Ferrer. Many 
 persons saw him captaining seditious groups, not only in 
 Barcelona first, but afterwards in other places, such as 
 Mataro." This reporter also uses the phrase, evidently 
 Ugarte's own, as to Ferrer "irradiating" the movement 
 through the district. In another paper, the Liberal, a new 
 detail is added : " The principal fomcntcr of the movement
 
 168 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 was Ferrer, During the critical period he captained the 
 groups in Barcelona; afterwards he repaired to Mongat, 
 where he has a property, and thence irradiated the move- 
 ment to various surrounding villages. He has at present 
 disappeared, having taking refuge abroad." 
 
 The reader must at once be struck by the fact that 
 the main point in Sr. Ugarte's mind is evidently the 
 Colldefons statement that Ferrer was seen " captaining a 
 group " on the Ramblas ; but this single allegation of a 
 single incident has been multiplied, and he is now repre- 
 sented as " directing groups," " captaining the groups," 
 and seen to do so by " many persons," not only in 
 Barcelona but at Mataro, where he never was at all. 
 Further, we must note that Sr. Ugarte has clearly been 
 informed of some at least of the evidence as to Ferrer's 
 doings at Masnou and Premia, which we shall find the 
 prosecution representing as most damnatory. On its 
 value nothing need be said at present ; but I must draw 
 the reader's attention to one apparently trifling point. 
 The statement in El Liberal that Ferrer has taken refuge 
 abroad, may have been added as a matter of common 
 knowledge, by the reporter ; but at all events Sr. Ugarte 
 evidently said nothing to the contrary. He was careful not 
 to let out, what he must have known for a full week, that 
 Ferrer was now believed to be in hiding near Barcelona. 
 It was clearly the policy of the authorities to keep their 
 information dark, and encourage the belief that he had 
 escaped. We shall find reason to think (p. 219) that this 
 policy had important consequences which may or may not 
 have been foreseen and desired. 
 
 That the prosecution of Ferrer was initiated by Sr. 
 Ugarte, after his consultations with the Diocesan Junta 
 and the Committee of Social Defence, can scarcely be
 
 THE SNOWBALL GROWS 169 
 
 doubted. It is sometimes said that the Prosecutor of the 
 Supreme Court was cited as a witness ; but this is not 
 literally true. It was not till Ferrer had been tried and 
 sentenced that the Auditor-General of the 4th Region, in 
 his report to the Captain-General recommending the 
 ratification of the sentence, averred that Ferrer's leader- 
 ship of the rebellion had been proved by the testimony of 
 fifteen witnesses, " and by the declaration of the most 
 excellent Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, which reflects 
 not only his personal opinion, always most valid {siempre 
 valiosisima), but that of numerous representatives of the 
 most important elements in Barcelona, who came forward 
 to expound their impressions before that high functionary, 
 who, representing the Government, remained for a month 
 [in reality seventeen days] in Barcelona, studying the 
 revolutionary movement in Catalonia." This candid 
 statement sums up the facts very accurately. It was the 
 " personal opinion, siempre valiosisijna," of Sr. Ugarte, 
 and the " impressions of important elements " in Barcelona, 
 that hurried Ferrer to his doom. Who the important 
 elements were, we now know pretty well. 
 
 The interviews with Ugarte appeared in the Madrid 
 papers of August 28. In his letter to Mr, Heaford 
 from the Carcel Celuiar, Ferrer says : " I suffered much 
 on reading in the papers the accusations brought against 
 mc, without being able to reply or daring to present 
 myself. At last I could stand it no longer when, about 
 the 29th or 30th of August, I read that Ugarte, the 
 Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, had declared, as a 
 consequence of his inquiries in Barcelona, that I, Ferrer, 
 was the director of the revolutionary movement. Upon 
 that I made up my mind to present myself to the magis- 
 trate who had summoned me, and I quitted my hiding
 
 170 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 place." This he did on the night of August 31, intend- 
 ing to walk about seven miles to a station on the inland 
 railway line to Barcelona. On the coast line he was well 
 known, on the inland line unknown ; so that, by choosing 
 the latter route, he thought he had a better chance of 
 reaching Barcelona unrecognized, and presenting himself, 
 of his own free will, to Don Vicente Lliviana. 
 
 Can we accept Ferrer's own account of these incidents, 
 and believe that he intended to give himself up? That 
 must depend entirely on our view of his character. In 
 favour of his statement we have the fact that he certainly 
 expressed this intention to the friends who had harboured 
 him, and whom he had no motive in deceiving. We may 
 also remember that when he was "wanted" after the 
 Morral outrage, he voluntarily presented himself to the 
 police. Against this we have to put the undeniable fact 
 that the inland line " on which he was not known " would 
 have carried him to France as readily as to Barcelona. 
 But, knowing that the hue and cry was out after him, 
 would he be likely to take the risk of attempting to cross 
 the frontier ? And that, moreover, with absolutely no 
 baggage, a circumstance extremely apt to attract atten- 
 tion ? On the whole, the weight of probability seems to 
 be in favour of his statement ; but the matter is not 
 susceptible of proof.
 
 FERRER'S FJIRTHPLACE. 
 
 THE SCENE OF FERRER'S ARREST. 
 
 (Close to his Birthplace.) 
 
 {.Tofacc p. \-]i.
 
 XIV 
 
 CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT 
 
 It must have been getting on towards midnight on 
 August 31 when Ferrer, attired in a h'ght summer suit 
 and a straw hat, set out from — wherever he was — to walk 
 to the nearest station on the inland line. His baggage 
 consisted of a hand camera and an umbrella. He cannot 
 have gone more than two miles when, in passing through 
 his native village of Alella, he was accosted by the so-eno, 
 or night-watchman. He proceeded on his way, telling 
 the man that he did not require his company ; but he 
 could not shake him off. Presently, at a point just 
 outside the village, and close to Ferrer's birthplace, they 
 came upon four of the somaten of the district. The 
 somaten Ferrer himself describes as " a body of citizens 
 armed to defend their property against thieves ; but at 
 need they place themselves at the service of reactionary 
 governments." Perhaps they may most shortly be 
 described as a village vigilance-committee. These men 
 stopped Ferrer, and, not at first recognizing him, demanded 
 his papers. He produced a document which seems to 
 have had some relation to an Esperanto Congress soon 
 to be held in Barcelona; at any rate he made some 
 mention of this Congress. They replied that the " papers " 
 they required were some sort of passport or identification- 
 sheet ; and this he could not produce. It is generally 
 reported that he then begged them to let him go on his
 
 172 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 way, as he was engaged in an amorous adventure and 
 was pursued by an irate husband. It is, of course, 
 possible that he said something of the kind ; but I very 
 much doubt it, and will give my reasons. 
 
 Ferrer's own statement in his deposition is that he said 
 he could not tell the men where he came from " because it 
 was a delicate matter " {por ser un asunto delicadd) — 
 meaning, obviously, that it was a point of honour not to 
 give a full account of himself, and implying an appeal to 
 them not to put constraint on a man in a difficult position. 
 The remark was a very natural one ; and I think there is 
 good reason to believe that from these words, interpreted 
 in vulgar minds, the legend of the amorous adventure has 
 grown. We can actually watch its growth. In the first 
 report of the capture that appeared in the newspapers (see, 
 for instance, El Imparcial, September 2, 1909), the "official 
 version " of the incident runs thus : " A sereno asked him 
 where he was going, and Ferrer replied : * An affair of 
 petticoats ' {Cuestion de faldas).^' The step from asunto 
 delicado to cuestion de faldas is, to some minds, very short 
 and easy ; and, in later accounts, the cuestion de faldas 
 takes on much more detailed, and mutually inconsistent, 
 shapes. One narrative states that he "begged them to 
 let him go, saying that it was imperatively necessary that 
 he should reach Barcelona, because if he did not the 
 honour of a lady residing in Alella would be compro- 
 mised." The most developed form is given to the legend 
 by Don Mariano Bernadas (of whom we shall presently 
 hear more), who stated in his deposition that Ferrer 
 " lowering his voice, said that he had had an amorous 
 rendezvous with a married woman, and that, the husband 
 having learnt of it, he must get out of the way." The 
 point is trifling, but all these later versions seem to me
 
 THE ARREST 173 
 
 clearly to be perversions of Ferrer's simple appeal to his 
 captors not to press him for explanations. It is worth 
 noting that, when Ferrer made his statement, he almost 
 certainly had no knowledge of the form which had been 
 given to the incident by Bernadas and others. 
 
 All accounts agree in showing that a considerable time 
 elapsed before Ferrer was recognized. Apparently he was 
 not a familiar figure in his native village ; and he is said, 
 moreover, to have shaved off the moustache and chin- 
 beard which he usually wore.^ Nevertheless, if the 
 villagers had been on the look-out for Ferrer, hoping and 
 expecting to capture him, the idea that this must be he 
 would certainly have occurred to them at once. We have 
 here, then, another proof that the authorities had kept 
 carefully secret the fact, known to them twelve days 
 earlier, that he had not escaped to France. 
 
 At last the before-mentioned Bernadas looked him in 
 the face and said in Catalan, " Que tanta comedia ! Tu 
 ets el Quico de Cal Boter"— "Why all this pretence! 
 You are the Quico [diminutive of Francisco] of the Casa 
 Boter " — the name of Ferrer's birthplace. 
 
 ' There is, however, something far from clear in the story of his having 
 tried to disguise himself by shaving. In Brissa's Revoliuion de Julio^ on 
 p. 264, there appears a photograph of a clean-shaven man, purporting to be 
 that of Ferrer "taken the day after his imprisonment." But it is, to me, 
 quite impossible to recognize his features ; and, moreover, the man, whoever 
 he may be, has abundant hair, whereas Ferrer was nearly bald. The hair has 
 rather the appearance of a wig ; but it is nowhere stated that Ferrer resorted 
 to this means of disguise. On the other hand, Lesueur and Normandy in 
 Ferrer, rilomme et son (Euvre (facing p. 33), publish an evidently genuine 
 snapshot photograph of " Ferrer's arrival at the Model Prison" in which we 
 see him, handcuffed, jumping off the prison van ; and, though his head is 
 somewhat bent, we can clearly discern his usual moustache and beard. As 
 Ferrer never left the prison until he was conveyed to Montjuich, this snapshot 
 must date from September i. In the photograph of the trial, the moustache 
 and beard are unmistakable ; but it is explained that they had grown again in 
 the five weeks' interval.
 
 174 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Of the events which followed we have Ferrer's own 
 story in letters to his friends. Perhaps the best and fullest 
 account is that which he sent to Mr. Heaford. I have 
 already made more than one quotation from this invaluable 
 letter ; and I now let him take up the tale of what followed 
 his recognition. 
 
 '&' 
 
 Of the four men, two were very hostile, especially one 
 who had played with me as a boy, named Bernadas, and 
 nicknamed Miralta. He tied my arms very tightly, and 
 threatened several times to kill me, pointing his carbine at 
 me, and saying that he had heard it said everywhere, and 
 had read in the papers, that I was the wickedest man in 
 the world. It was now one in the morning, and they took 
 me to the Town Hall, accompanied by others of the 
 somaten who joined us, all known to me, as being of the 
 same village. We remained at the Town Hall until seven, 
 and during that time we discussed politics, religion, and 
 sociology, for among them was a young man of fair 
 education. I felt at my ease after five tongue-tied weeks, 
 during which I dared not talk out loud, or cough, or some- 
 times even breathe, for fear of being discovered. At one 
 time I felt thirsty, and asked for some cold water to drink. 
 They brought me a splendid dripping water-jar, a pleasure 
 to see. I asked Bernadas to untie me in order that I 
 might drink. He refused. I pointed out to him that I 
 was not armed, and that there were more than a dozen of 
 them with their carbines. He still refused, offering to 
 hold the jar to my lips. That I, in my turn, refused, and 
 he made them carry off the jar without my being able to 
 touch it ! Then I resumed the conversation, commenting 
 on this inquisitorial incident, and explaining to them that 
 when men were once imbued with the ideas propagated by 
 the Escuela Moderna, there would be never a Bernadas in 
 the world, pas ineme pour medecine. 
 
 Arrived at Barcelona about half-past eight, I was taken
 
 THE FOURTEEN FRANC SUIT 175 
 
 to the presence of the Governor/ Crespo Azorin, who 
 received me politely, and confined himself to asking me 
 where I had been concealed. I replied that he must 
 excuse me if my sense of obligation to the family which 
 had treated me so well prevented me from betraying them. 
 He replied that though he understood my delicacy, he 
 could not excuse the family for its failure of respect for 
 the law. I rejoined that in my humble opinion this 
 family had not failed in respect for the law, as it was sure 
 of my innocence. Then he made me a little speech in a 
 very lofty style, maintaining that the reading of the works 
 published by the Escuela Moderna might well be one of 
 the principle sources of the troubles. Therefore I was 
 guilty ! 
 
 After his brief interview with the Governor, he was 
 passed on to the central police station, and there stripped 
 and subjected to the Bertillon system of measurements, 
 etc. This done, not a single stitch of his clothing was 
 returned to him, but he was rigged out from head to foot 
 in " reach-me-down " garments ridiculously too small for 
 him, with what he calls an " apache " cap. The under- 
 lings among his jailors were themselves surprised at this 
 unexampled proceeding. He remonstrated against it in 
 vain, and made public protest at his trial. Can we believe 
 that the authorities deliberately sought to prejudice him 
 by making him look grotesque ? It is almost incredible ; 
 and yet, what else can have been their motive ? It was 
 not economy, for the manoeuvre cost the Treasury (by 
 Ferrer's own estimate) at least fourteen francs. He went 
 tohis death in his four teen-franc suit. 
 
 Arrived at the Carcel Celular, he was not only " incom- 
 
 • He has before stated that he asked his captors to take him to the examin- 
 ing commandant (Don Vicente Lliviana), but that they inbisted on conveying 
 him to the Civil Governor.
 
 176 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 municated " (that is to say, placed in secret confinement), 
 but he was assigned a cell — he, an untried man — of the 
 class devoted to riguroso castigo, or rigorous punishment. 
 This is his description of it, in the same letter to Heaford — 
 
 They put me in a repugnant cell, fetid, cold, damp, 
 without air or light, in the underground region of the 
 prison, where so rotten an atmosphere prevails that in 
 descending to it you can't help turning your head away. 
 In this cell (8 feet by 1 3) there is a plank bed, a palliasse, 
 a counterpane, and a sheet — all filthy, disgusting. A pan 
 for refuse and a jar of drinking-water. Impossible to 
 sleep on account of the cold and the little animals of all 
 sorts which swarmed, and which, on the first night, attacked 
 me at every point. I took the precaution afterwards of 
 leaving crumbs of bread in the four corners, so that the 
 beetles left me in peace ; not so the other beasts. For 
 food, soup twice a day, always the same, made with chick- 
 peas {garbansos) in the morning, and with haricots in the 
 evening, served in such darkness that it was very difficult 
 to pick out the lumps of rancid bacon which almost made 
 me sick. It needed a good stomach like mine to resist 
 this, and a strong will not to be cast down. I asked for 
 a basin and water so as to be able to wash at least my 
 hands and face. My request was granted after six days. 
 I asked for soap, but as the police had kept all my money 
 I could not get any, until I protested so much that at last 
 the Governor of the prison, Don Benito Nieves, a charming 
 person, gave me a piece of his own, and then made me a 
 present of a cake. To combat the cold and the tedium of 
 not being able to read, or talk, or see any one, I paced up 
 and down my cell, like a wild animal, until I perspired. 
 When I saw that my incommunication was not soon to end. 
 I asked, on September 11, for a change of linen (I had been 
 in prison since the ist), for I could not endure to live in 
 such filth, upon me and around me. They gave me clean 
 linen on the 23rd !
 
 "AUSTERE SEVERITY" 177 
 
 My incommunication was suspended on October i/ 
 and the magistrate said that I might make what use 
 I pleased of the money which had been found in my 
 possession. I at once asked for letter-paper and for news- 
 papers, and I wrote out a telegram for Soledad, the cost of 
 which the Administrator undertook to advance until the 
 money was received from the magistrate. Yesterday the 
 telegram was returned to me — it had been sent, by a mis- 
 take on the part of the Director, to Huesca — and I was 
 told that I could not have it retransmitted to Teruel 
 (where the magistrate tells me that my family now is) 
 because he (the magistrate) has not deposited any money 
 for me. Thus I cannot have any newspapers either, can 
 learn nothing of what is going on. Yesterday was an 
 accursed day ! Not to be able to send so much as a single 
 word to Soledad and to my friends ! I won't tell you of 
 the new discomforts of my new abode, in which, though it 
 is true I have a little sun and sufficient light, I have also 
 so many little companions that I have begun a war 
 of extermination in which I doubt whether I shall be 
 victorious. 
 
 He then goes on to speak briefly of the different 
 examinations he has undergone — a matter with which we 
 shall have to deal at length in the following chapter. The 
 letter ends — 
 
 The rest another time, my dear friends. I am tired 
 now, and my little friends of the cell arc beginning to take 
 unfair advantage of the peace in which I have left them 
 for so long. They are even coming to see what I am 
 doing on this paper. ... I forgot to tell you ;that they 
 refused to give me back a tooth-brush which I had with 
 me, two pocket handkerchiefs, or, in fact, anything belong- 
 ing to me. 
 
 Ferrer, said El Universo, had been handed over to the 
 
 • The letter is dated October 3. 
 
 N
 
 178 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 austera severidad of the military tribunals. Was it part of 
 that austere severity to prevent him from brushing his 
 teeth ? 
 
 This letter is important in more ways than one. It 
 not only shows the quiet heroism of the man, and the 
 spirit of rancour in which he was treated : it also gives us 
 a glimpse of a Spanish prison which is not without signifi- 
 cance when we find that the most important — almost the 
 only important — witnesses for the prosecution were arrested 
 for complicity in the disturbances, and were released on 
 giving their evidence. To put a man in such a cell as this 
 is almost equivalent to the application of peine forte et 
 dure ; and what is the worth of evidence so extracted ?
 
 XV 
 
 PROCEDURE AND PRELIMINARIES 
 
 Ferrer being captured, how was he to be tried ? On that 
 everything depended. 
 
 A leading Catholic paper, El Universo, in an article 
 published immediately before the capture, manifested 
 grave apprehensions lest he should once more, as in the 
 Madrid trial of 1907, slip through the fingers of a civil 
 tribunal. These civil tribunals, it remarked, were in the 
 habit of "insisting on clear, precise, and decisive proofs 
 of guilt " ; and it pointed out the superior convenience of 
 military and naval Courts of Honour, which " do not 
 require to subject themselves to concrete proofs, but are 
 satisfied with a moral conviction, formed in the conscience 
 of those who compose them." 
 
 The alarm of El Universo was groundless. It had 
 apparently forgotten the Ley de Jurisdicciones — Law of 
 Jurisdictions — passed in 1905 by Moret's Liberal minis- 
 try, with the aid and countenance of the Conservatives. 
 Under this remarkable act, every offence which concerns 
 the Army, the Fatherland, or the Flag, is to be tried 
 by a military court and under military law ! That 
 is to say, one of the parties in the case is to sit on 
 the Bench and try the other party. If I am rightly 
 informed, the law was specially designed to enable the 
 army to chastise promptly and effectually the audacity
 
 180 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of certain journalists who had attacked it. But it was 
 very easy to make the riots a "military rebellion" and 
 to bring everything connected with them under the Law 
 of Jurisdictions. Nor can it be said that this was a 
 straining of the law. As the whole trouble had grown 
 out of the system of conscription and the calling out of 
 the reservists, it certainly was a matter "concerning the 
 Army." There was no illegality, then, in handing Ferrer 
 over to military justice. It was not even a measure of 
 exception due to the State of Siege. That had been 
 discontinued on August 17. 
 
 What is the procedure of a Spanish Military Tribunal ? 
 The rules which govern it are set forth (not quite fully or 
 frankly, however) at the end of the official version of the 
 P'errer trial.^ 
 
 The " Juicio Ordinario " is called " ordinary " in 
 contradistinction to the "Juicio Sumarfsimo," or drum- 
 head court-martial, which disposes of you with the least 
 possible ceremony. The " Ordinary Process " falls into 
 three parts, the " Sumario," " Plenario," and "Vista 
 Publica." For the first two terms I do not think there 
 is any English equivalent. The " Sumario " is practically 
 what the French call the instmciion — the private exami- 
 nation of the prisoner and of witnesses by the juge 
 d' instruction, or examining magistrate — of course, in this 
 case, a soldier. The first rule of the " Sumario " has 
 certainly much to recommend it — 
 
 Before proceedings can be directed against a person, 
 there must appear some charges against him (Article 421). 
 
 The only other rule that calls for special notice is this : 
 " Domiciliary searches must be conducted in the presence 
 of those interested, or of a member of the family, or of two 
 
 ' See Appendix, p. 322.
 
 THE PLENARIO 181 
 
 witnesses (Article 511)." We have seen how this rule was 
 observed at Mas Germinal, 
 
 When we come to the second stage of the process, the 
 first rule that meets us is as follows : " The Plenario is 
 public (Article 540)," If this means anything, it means 
 that there is a public session of some sort ; and we find that 
 at the Plenario of the case against Emiliano Iglesias and 
 others (of which more anon) an audience must have been 
 present, for a statement attributed to one of the witnesses 
 called forth " Great laughter among the public." ^ But in 
 the case of Ferrer I cannot find that any public session 
 was ever held, before the final "Vista Publica." The 
 second rule is: "The accused himself names his defender 
 (Article 453)"; but it is not stated that he is required to 
 choose his defender from a list of officers which is handed 
 to him. Note, too, that during the Sumario, while the 
 evidence is being taken, he has no defender or adviser 
 of any sort. In the Plenario he may demand, and the 
 Examining Commandant may, at his discretion, permit, 
 a "ratification of witnesses," which I take to imply a 
 re-examination ; but there seems to have been nothing 
 of the sort in Ferrer's case. The Defender, it would 
 appear, never saw a single witness, much less had 
 any opportunity for cross-examination. P'errcr himself, 
 during the period of the Sumario, was " confronted " with 
 four of the witnesses — four out of fifty or sixty — but the 
 proceedings were confined to affirmation on their part and 
 denial on his. Of anything like cross-examination there is 
 no trace. Ferrer had very likely no skill in that peculiar 
 art ; and had he possessed skill there is nothing to show 
 that he would have been allowed to exercise it.'^ 
 
 * Simarro, El Proceso Ferrer, vol. i. p. 312. 
 
 ^ Yet Mr. Belloc {Dublin Review, April, 1 9 10) affirms that Ferrer had
 
 182 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 We come now to the " Vista Publica," the public trial. 
 The court is a " Council of War," composed of a colonel 
 (the President) and six captains. Defenders of the Council 
 of War make a great point of the fact that these officers 
 are "designated in an automatic manner," which means, 
 no doubt, that they serve in some sort of rotation. 
 This may be a safeguard against any " packing " of the 
 Court, but it also shows that no special intelligence or 
 fitness for judicial duties is demanded of its members. The 
 Council is assisted by an Assessor — an officer who is 
 supposed to possess some special familiarity with military 
 law. 
 
 At the opening of the " Vista Publica," the first pro- 
 ceeding is to read the report, or " dossier," of the Examining 
 Commandant {juge d' instruction) ; then comes 
 
 The examination by the Fiscal, Assessor, Defenders, 
 President and members of the Council, of witnesses and 
 experts, and the recognition of objects and documents ; the 
 accusation and the defence are read . . . and lastly the 
 accused speaks, to set forth whatever he may consider 
 opportune. 
 
 So runs the order of procedure, as officially stated ; and 
 in practice there was only one detail omitted — the exami- 
 nation of witnesses. With this trifling exception, all went 
 according to rule. The " dossier " of evidence was read ; 
 the Fiscal (Prosecutor) read his commentary on the evi- 
 dence, and demanded the conviction of the accused ; the 
 
 "ample opportunity of cross-examining, and it was precisely in cross-examina- 
 tion that he broke down and injured his case." Even if we admit (which is 
 difficult) that the English term " cross-examination " can fairly be applied to 
 the proceedings at these confrontations, the opportunity of cross-examining 
 four witnesses out of fifty is something less than "ample." I willingly grant, 
 however, that very few of these witnesses had anything to say that was worth 
 cross-examining upon.
 
 FIRST EXAMINATION. 183 
 
 Defender read his reply, which he had been allowed only 
 twenty-four hours (the time prescribed by law) to pre- 
 pare ^ ; and finally the accused said a few words. Then 
 (strictly according to rule) the Court met in secret session, 
 and the Assessor read his report, which was in fact 
 another speech for the prosecution, uncontrolled by the 
 presence of the accused or his Defender. Then the Court 
 (still in secret) passed its sentence, which was forwarded 
 for approval to the Captain-General of Catalonia, ac- 
 companied by the report of an officer named the Auditor- 
 General — a third indictment in which all sorts of fresh 
 matter is introduced. It is these three indictments (trans- 
 lated in the Appendix) that the Government publishes 
 under the title of Ordinary Process . . . against Francisco 
 Ferrer. The speech for the defence is tactfully omitted. 
 
 Having noted the structure of the machine in which 
 Ferrer was caught, let us now try to follow its workings. 
 Up to the opening of the actual trial (" Vista Pdblica "), 
 the letters of Ferrer himself are our chief authority ; but 
 no attempt has been made to contradict his statements. 
 
 In the evening of the day of his arrest (September i) 
 he underwent his first examination, at the hands of Com- 
 mandant Vicente Lliviana. This officer, says Ferrer in 
 his letter to Heaford, " seemed to me a very honourable 
 and unprejudiced man, desirous of knowing the truth and 
 nothing but the truth. I never saw him again." Lliviana, 
 as we have seen, was the commandant told off to get up 
 the case against the " instigators, organizers, and directors " 
 
 ' This must mean thai the actual manuscript of the Prosecutor was handed 
 to the Defender only twenty-four hours before the trial. We find from Ferrer's 
 letter to Heaford of October 3 that on tliat date (nearly a week before the 
 trial) he and the Defender went over together the "dossier" of the Examining 
 Commandant. Whether the Defender was allowed free access to it in the 
 interval does not appear.
 
 184 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of the riot. It was he who had, by advertisement, sum- 
 moned Ferrer to appear before him. Up to this point the 
 prosecution of Ferrer had been conjoined with four other 
 prosecutions — against Emiliano Iglesias, Luis Zurdo, 
 Trinidad Alted, and Juana Ardiaca — under the care of 
 Lliviana. But now Ferrer's case was disjoined from the 
 group, and handed over to another examining com- 
 mandant, Valerio Raso by name. What was the reason 
 of this transference ? A comparison of dates may help us 
 to divine it. The four cases left under Lliviana's charge 
 were not brought to trial until March, 1910, when passion 
 had fairly worked itself out. Three of the accused were 
 then acquitted, and the fourth sentenced to imprisonment 
 for life. Ferrer, on the other hand, was brought to trial 
 within 39 days of his arrest, and executed four days later. 
 Yet, with all this expedition, he was scarcely out of the 
 way before the date fixed for the re-assembling of the 
 Cortes. He was shot on October 13 ; the Chambers 
 met on October 15. If there be no significance in this 
 juxtaposition of dates, Sr. Maura's Government was the 
 victim of a singularly unfortunate coincidence. 
 
 Ferrer's first meeting with Valerio Raso took place on 
 Monday, September 6, when the commandant had him 
 microscopically scrutinized from head to foot by two 
 doctors, to see whether they could find any scar, scratch, 
 or burn on his person. " If I had had the slightest accident 
 in my own home," he says, writing to Charles Malato, 
 " nothing would have availed ; they would have shot me 
 without delay." I was at first disposed to think that 
 Ferrer was mistaken as to the hopes and intentions of the 
 prosecution at this juncture ; but on putting two and two 
 together, and looking closely into dates, I think the 
 probability is that he was right, and that if any wound or
 
 A NARKOW ESCAPE 185 
 
 burn had been found upon him, he would have been sub- 
 mitted, not to the " Juicio Ordinario," but to the " Juicio 
 Suman'simo," and despatched without further ceremony. 
 It is quite certain that the Government at first expected 
 to be quit of him very promptly. The Epoca of Sunday, 
 September 5, and other Madrid papers, announced that 
 "about the middle of the week" the Council of War 
 would assemble to try Ferrer. At the same time tele- 
 grams to foreign papers (all under censorship, which let 
 pass only official news) stated that the prosecution held 
 " conclusive proofs " against Ferrer, which would shortly 
 be submitted to a court of summary jurisdiction. Turn- 
 ing, now, to Ferrer's second letter from prison to William 
 Heaford (dated October 5), we find the following para- 
 graph— 
 
 I forgot to tell you that in the "dossier" there is a 
 grave denunciation. It proceeds from a personage who 
 saw me fall, wounded, at the head of a group of insurgents 
 busy burning a convent. They brought him to the prison, 
 and he declared that he recognized me among a row of 
 prisoners.^ But he had given the name and address of 
 another person who also purported to have seen me, and 
 this reference the police found to be false. Besides, there 
 is a declaration by two doctors, affirming that I have no 
 trace upon me of any wound either old or new. 
 
 The evidence of this "personage" has entirely dis- 
 appeared from the records. It has softly and suddenly 
 vanished away. We do not even know his name. Is it 
 unfair to conclude that when, on the 5th, the Government 
 foretold the " most summary " end of the case (or at all 
 
 ' This incident, by the way, shows the vahie of identification in a " circle 
 of prisoners," of which we shall hear more in the sequel.
 
 186 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 events permitted it to be foretold in papers and telegrams 
 which were all under censorship), they were building upon 
 the "conclusive proof" afforded by this man's testimony, 
 which, had it been confirmed by the presence of a scar on 
 the prisoner's body, would have enabled them to treat him 
 as a rebel taken red-handed, and to dispense with all 
 further evidence ? Unfortunately, when Ferrer's body was 
 scrutinized on the 6th, no cicatrice appeared upon it ; and 
 the alleged second witness was not forthcoming. Perhaps, 
 if only the scar had been found, Providence would have 
 produced the witness. As matters stood, the papers in a 
 day or two announced that Ferrer's trial would not take 
 place so soon as was expected, and that it would be 
 " ordinary," not " most summary." 
 
 On the 9th, three days after the medical examination, 
 Valerio Raso administered his first interrogatory ; and 
 on the 19th his second and last. The date of the "con- 
 frontations" we do not know. On October i, Raso 
 reappeared, to announce to Ferrer that his " dossier " was 
 completed, that his " incommunication " was relaxed, and 
 that he would be tried "one of these days." Ferrer 
 protested that he had still many declarations to make ; 
 the commandant replied that nothing more could be 
 admitted, " military law not being like civil law." He 
 also presented a list of officers from among whom Ferrer 
 must choose his Defender. Knowing none of them, he 
 selected Captain Francisco Galceran Ferrer,^ on account 
 of the chance resemblance of names. Captain Galceran 
 has confessed that he accepted the charge very unwillingly, 
 being strongly prepossessed against Ferrer on account 
 
 * Ferrer noticed, not only that two of Galceran's names were the same 
 as his own, but that all the initials were the same : in the one case, F. F. G., 
 ia the other case, F. G. F.
 
 DISCLOSURE OF DOCUMENTS 187 
 
 of his anti-militarism ; but an hour's talk with the prisoner 
 made him his undaunted champion. 
 
 Meanwhile Soledad Villafranca was eating her heart 
 out at Teruel, in total ignorance of what was passing at 
 Barcelona. She and her comrades of exile naturally 
 expected, day after day, to be called upon for their 
 evidence. This expectation was encouraged (unofficially, 
 of course, and very likely in good faith) by their jailors. 
 A member of the Palace police from Madrid, who had 
 been specially told off to keep watch over Mme. Villa- 
 franca, bade her wait patiently and the summons would 
 come in due time. She and her comrades were not 
 reassured on finding that some anarchist documents, said 
 to have been discovered among Ferrer's papers, were 
 going the round of the press, with the natural result of 
 still further prejudicing the public mind against him. 
 This is, indeed, one of the darkest features of the whole 
 affair. The " Sumario," or collection of evidence, is by 
 rule and custom absolutely private ; yet here were two 
 documents, on the face of them most compromising, 
 allowed to leak out,* and passing from newspaper to 
 newspaper. In one of the documents, moreover, as com- 
 municated to the press, a word of some importance was 
 misquoted. When the document was cited by the Assessor 
 {Process, p. 288), it appeared that one of the paragraphs 
 ended with the phrase "Viva la anarqui'a ! " But in the 
 version sent to the newspapers the word "dinamita" was 
 substituted for "anarqui'a." These slips of the pen are 
 a little unfortunate when a human life is at stake. 
 
 Another straw which showed how the wind was 
 
 * "Allowed to leak out " is probably an inexact phrase, "Deliberately 
 circulated " would state the case more accurately. A similar perfidy was 
 employed or attempted before the Madrid trial of 1907. See p. 78.
 
 188 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 blowing was the announcement on September 25 of 
 the rewards accorded by the Government to the men 
 who had arrested Ferrer. I translate from El Imparcial 
 of that date — 
 
 The Arrest of Ferrer— Rewards. 
 
 The Government has allotted the following rewards : — 
 
 The Alcalde of Alella has been made a Commander 
 of the Order of Isabella the Catholic. 
 
 To the two individuals of the somaten who declared in 
 advance that they did not want any pecuniary recom- 
 pense, but would accept the complete uniform and equip- 
 ment of their corps, including a Mauser with a plate 
 commemorating the date of the arrest of the Director of 
 the Escuela Moderna of Barcelona, all this will be pre- 
 sented by the Minister of War, and moreover the title 
 of Knight of Isabella the Catholic is awarded them. 
 
 And to the sereno who actually efifected the arrest, and 
 to other agents who helped him, are conceded medals of 
 Isabella the Catholic, and 3000 pesetas [;^i2o] in cash. 
 
 The Ministry of the Interior will pay the whole 
 expenses of insignia, and the fees due on receipt of these 
 decorations. 
 
 Am I wrong in considering this a quite amazing 
 incident? Seven or eight villagers have arrested one 
 solitary man, who made no resistance, being armed with 
 nothing more formidable than a hand camera ; and while 
 that man is awaiting his trial, the Government goes out 
 of its way to distribute lavish rewards among the heroic 
 captors, and to bestow on them the benediction of Isabella 
 the Catholic ! Could any better means be imagined of 
 announcing a confident foreknowledge of the prisoner's 
 doom? 
 
 Weary at last of waiting for a call that never came,
 
 EVIDENCE REJECTED 189 
 
 the exiles of Teruel, on September 28, addressed a letter 
 to the Examining Commandant, expressing their surprise 
 at not having been summoned, and demanding to be 
 heard. The letter was signed by Soledad Villafranca, 
 Jos^ Ferrer, Alfredo Meseguer, Cristobal Litran, and 
 Mariano Batllori. On September 30, Don Valerio Raso 
 replied that on the previous day the case had been 
 "elevated to plenario," and that consequently no more 
 evidence could be taken. " I am much surprised," he 
 added, " that, if you had anything to say, you should not 
 have done so before, in the 28 days which had elapsed 
 before you wrote." As no one seems to know in what 
 consists the mysterious operation of " elevating " a case 
 " to plenario," it is impossible to disprove Don Valerio's 
 assertion. It may be said, however, that the " elevation " 
 was not made known to Ferrer himself until October i, 
 and that, even after that, Mme. Villafranca's mother was 
 called upon to give evidence. The rules of the " plenario," 
 it is true, do not permit the appearance of fresh witnesses 
 except in the case of " common offences " as distinguished 
 from " military offences " ; but they do not explain why, 
 in dealing with military offences, the Court should deny 
 itself a means of getting at the truth, which it is free to 
 employ in other cases. At any rate, as the evidence 
 of Ferrer's friends was rejected on this paltry plea of 
 time, it was a little unkind of the Prosecutor to make 
 it a point against him that there were no witnesses to 
 speak in his favour {Process p. 276).
 
 XVI 
 
 THE TRIAL IN OUTLINE 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, October 9, the Council 
 of War assembled at the Model Prison of Barcelona for 
 the trial of Francisco Ferrer. The streets around the 
 prison, and the courtyard of the prison itself, swarmed 
 with police and Guardias Civiles. The public was 
 admitted only by ticket, and care was no doubt taken 
 that tickets should be distributed only to " right-thinking " 
 persons. There were many soldiers among the audience. 
 It would appear from photographs of the scene that no 
 ladies were present. 
 
 The Examining Commandant, Don Valerio Raso 
 Negrini, sat to the right of the long table provided for 
 the Colonel and six Captains who formed the Court. He 
 had before him a huge portfolio containing the records 
 of the "sumario," running to 600 sheets, and a smaller 
 portfolio containing an abstract of these documents. 
 Beside him, at another small table, sat the Prosecutor, 
 Don Jesus Man'n Rafales. On the left of the judges sat 
 the Defender, Captain Francisco Galcerdn Ferrer ; and 
 the prisoner, on being led in by a file of soldiers, was 
 assigned a seat beside his Defender. He bowed to the 
 Court and to the public, and said a few words of excuse 
 for appearing in the ridiculous ready-made suit before 
 described; but when he tried to protest against the
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 Pi 
 J <U 
 
 ^ in 
 
 
 H
 
 THE TRIAL 191 
 
 conduct of the police in depriving him of his clothes, the 
 President cut him short. It is recorded that his chin- 
 beard and moustache, which he had shaved before his 
 arrest, had now grown again ; but, as before stated, I 
 am by no means convinced that he ever had shaved 
 completely. His cheeks he always shaved. 
 
 At this point I cannot do better than reproduce the 
 outline of the trial telegraphed to the Times by its 
 Barcelona correspondent. This is the only account in 
 which it clearly appears that no witnesses were heard. 
 In the accounts sent out ,by the various news-agencies, 
 this point was — whether by accident or design — left 
 obscure. In the first paragraph of the telegram I 
 correct three misprints, which were pointed out to me 
 by the correspondent himself. 
 
 Barcelona, October 9. 
 
 The trial of Sr. Ferrer began at 8 o'clock in the council 
 chamber of the new prison, and lasted five hours. The 
 Court consisted of a lieutenant-colonel as president, and 
 six captains. Sr. Ferrer sat unfettered ^ by the side of 
 Sr. Francisco Galceran, his counsel. About 20 reporters 
 and 250 of the general public were present. 
 
 The examining magistrate read the prods z'erdal giving 
 the details of Sr. Ferrer's arrest and examination, the list 
 of incriminating articles found in his possession, and the 
 declarations of witnesses for both sides. This occupied 
 two and a half hours, and was followed by the public with 
 great interest. 
 
 The prosecutor summarized the evidence in the proch 
 verbal^ stating that 15 witnesses proved that Sr. Ferrer 
 initiated the disturbances in Premid, that others proved 
 that he tried the same thing in Masnou, and that he was 
 
 ' This appeared in the Timet as " in fetters," a misprint which has unfur- 
 tunately been widely reproduced.
 
 192 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 seen at the head of armed groups in Barcelona, and con- 
 cluded a well-reasoned and temperate speech by demand- 
 ing in the name of the King, while all in Court stood, that 
 Sr. Ferrer should be sentenced to death for the crime of 
 rebellion, or, if the extreme penalty were not inflicted, to 
 penal servitude for life with sequestration of his property 
 to indemnify the losses occasioned by burning, pillage, and 
 other destruction during the rebellion. 
 
 Sr. Ferrer's counsel, a captain of Engineers, made an 
 eloquent speech, expressing the view that Sr. Ferrer was 
 the victim of political animosity, and endeavouring to 
 prove the weakness of evidence against him. He regretted 
 that old charges had been raked up which bore no refer- 
 ence to the present case. The speech was distinguished 
 by clearness and great independence. 
 
 Sr. Ferrer remained perfectly calm during the entire 
 proceedings, showing by frequent movements of the head 
 that he followed everything. Asked by the President if 
 he had anything to say, he stated that if he were judged 
 only by recent events he would be acquitted. It was 
 unfair to be influenced by occurrences of last century. He 
 concluded by saying that his only occupation of recent 
 years had been in matters of education, instruction, and 
 culture. 
 
 The President said that the council would consider 
 their verdict in private. The Court was then cleared. 
 
 The sentence will not be published until approved of 
 by the Captain-General and the Supreme Court of Madrid, 
 possibly in the course of the week.^ The entire proceed- 
 ings were characterized by order and solemnity on the 
 part of the Court and intense but subdued interest on the 
 part of the public. 
 
 We do not possess anything like a full report of the 
 
 * As a matter of fact Ferrer was shot on the morning of thf fourth day 
 after his trial. We may judge from this remark of the correspondent — aa 
 almost life-long resident in Spain — how unexpected and unusual was the haste 
 displayed.
 
 "DRUNK WITH BLOOD" 193 
 
 contents of the Examining Commandant's portfolio, or 
 even of the abstract which he read to the Court. But 
 there can be no doubt that everything that could possibly 
 tell against the prisoner was recapitulated and underlined 
 in the " Fiscal accusation," which has been published in 
 full {Process, pp. 257-285). 
 
 The Prosecutor, Don Jesus Marin Rafales, opened with a 
 rhetorical description of the riots and outrages, quite in the 
 style of that quoted from the Correspondencia (p. 136), and 
 almost as exaggerated. Before saying a word to connect 
 Ferrer with these events, he appealed to the professional 
 and personal resentment of the judges, " all or almost all " 
 of whom, he said, had taken part in the repression, and 
 had been exposed to its dangers. He spoke of "the fire 
 to which you were subjected from barricades and house- 
 tops." He denounced the rioters as " drunk with blood," 
 forgetting that nine-tenths of the blood shed was that of 
 the populace, shot down by the police and the soldiers. In 
 short, he neglected no means of awakening the passions 
 of the soldier-judges, if perchance they had fallen asleep. 
 At the same time, he explicitly declared — 
 
 In this case we are not investigating the burning of a 
 particular convent, nor the explosion at this or that given 
 point, nor the cutting of this or that telegraph wire, nor 
 the construction of this or that barricade, nor this or that 
 overt act of war. No ! we are following up the revolu- 
 tionary movement in its inmost entrails ; we are investi- 
 gating the causes that gave it life, and seeking the agency 
 which prepared, impelled, and sustained it. 
 
 In less ornate terms, the Prosecutor confessed that 
 they could not! bring home to the prisoner a single act of 
 violence. 
 
 He then devoted a few minutes to arguing that the 
 
 O
 
 194 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 events of July constituted a "military rebellion" as by 
 law defined ; and, that being satisfactorily established, he 
 went on to an analysis of the evidence. It is this analysis 
 which we must now analyze. 
 
 The evidence falls under four distinct heads — 
 
 1. Unsupported opinion and hearsay. 
 
 2. Statements which may or may not be true, but 
 which prove nothing. 
 
 3. More or less relevant accusations, the truth or false- 
 hood of which is worth examining. 
 
 4. Documentary evidence — two revolutionary papers 
 purporting to have been found at Mas Germinal.
 
 XVII 
 
 THE EVIDENCE— OPINION AND HEARSAY 
 
 Before showing how much of the evidence consisted of 
 irresponsible opinion and hearsay, I may as well clear up 
 a verbal misunderstanding. 
 
 Captain Galceran, in his speech for the defence, com- 
 plained that anonymous testimony had been admitted — a 
 suggestion which was indignantly repudiated by the 
 Assessor (p. 291). When two sane men make such dia- 
 metrically opposite statements about a body of evidence 
 which has just been read to the Court they are addressing, 
 it is clear that they must be using words in different 
 senses. As a matter of fact, the Assessor was right in 
 the letter,* the Defender in the spirit. It is true that the 
 name of each witness was given, but it is also true that a 
 great number of the witnesses reported nothing of their 
 own actual knowledge, but only things which they had 
 heard from unnamed other people. If that be not, to all 
 intents and purposes, anonymous evidence, there is no 
 meaning in the words. Mr. Hilairc Bclloc," going back on 
 the Assessor, says, " The Court permitted a portion of the 
 testimony to be anonymous." This is practically, though 
 not literally, true. The Court did not consciously and of 
 
 ' It would appear (Simarro, vol. i. p. 416) that some anonymous denunci- 
 ations weie actually included in the records; but tlicy were not quoted by the 
 Prosecutor. 
 
 - Dublin RnicMt January, 1910.
 
 196 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 set purpose " permit " anonymity ; only it had never 
 occurred to the gallant officers that any evidence — for the 
 prosecution — should or could be excluded. 
 
 In order to show the quality of the greater part of the 
 evidence, I cannot do better than analyze a single para- 
 graph of the speech for the prosecution. As translated in 
 the Appendix (p. 260), it is broken up into several para- 
 graphs ; but in the original it runs solidly and stolidly on. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Leoncio Ponte of the Guardia 
 Civil points to Ferrer as taking active part in the move- 
 ment of Masnou and Premid. It is not pretended that 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Ponte saw him doing so, or speaks 
 otherwise than from hearsay. Though the Prosecutor 
 does not say so, we know from other sources that the 
 Lieutenant-Colonel based his evidence " on reserved con- 
 fidences." The delicacy with which the Court respected 
 these reserves shows that Cervantes did not smile all 
 Spain's chivalry away. In less considerate countries the 
 Lieutenant-Colonel would have been told to produce his 
 informants or hold his tongue. He was the same officer, 
 by the way, who, in the Madrid trial of 1907, denounced 
 Ferrer as " the director of the vi^hoie," adding, '* Ask any 
 business man in Barcelona, and you will see that he will 
 answer : Ferrer." The sum total of his two deliverances 
 is that he did not like Ferrer, and imagined him capable 
 of anything. 
 
 Jimenez Moya, "a witness above suspicion, since, on 
 account of the exaltation of his ideas, he is at present 
 banished to Majorca, makes the charge more concrete, 
 saying that, in his opinion, the rebellion started from the 
 Solidaridad Obrera . . . and pointing to Ferrer and his 
 companions of the Antimilitarist League as its directors." 
 The Prosecutor does not add, what we learn from Captain
 
 UNVERIFIED RUMOURS 197 
 
 Galceran's speech, that the declaration of this witness 
 ends with the avowal that "he knows nothing positive, 
 since he was absent from Barcelona from the 15th of July 
 onwards." The riots, it will be remembered, began on 
 the 26th, and the first marked symptom of unrest did not 
 occur until the i8th. 
 
 Verdaguer Callis " affirms that, according to intelligence 
 •which he has no means of verifying, but which he believes to 
 be exact" the events were " impelled and guided by Ferrer 
 Guardia." 
 
 Emiliano Iglesias believes that the Solidaridad Obrera 
 spent more money than it possessed. [Ferrer had, about 
 a year previously, lent the Solidaridad Obrera some ;^35, 
 which it required to meet the expenses of moving into 
 new premises. He is also said, on one occasion, to have 
 paid the expenses of a delegate of the Solidaridad to a 
 congress at Marseilles. Beyond this no one has attempted 
 to prove any financial relation between Ferrer and the 
 society.] ^ 
 
 ' We now possess the full report of the testimony of Sr. Iglesias ; and it 
 affords a good instance of the way in which evidence was treated by the pro- 
 secution. Asked whether it was true that a commission of the Solidaridad 
 Obrera, speaking in the name of Ferrer, interviewed the Lerrouxists on the 
 night of the 26th, he replied that he kneio absolutely nothing about it. Asked 
 whether it was true that Ferrer had requested him to sign a manifesto directed 
 to the Government, he replied that it was not tme^ and that he had not seen 
 Ferrer for nine 7nonths. Asked whether he knew of any participation by 
 Ferrer in the preparation or execution of the revolt, he replied that he was 
 absolutely ignorant of any such participation. Asked whether he knew of any 
 connection between the revolt and operations on the Bourse, he replied that 
 he knew of none. Asked whether he knew of a clandestine meeting at the 
 Solidaridad Obrera, he replied that he had no knowledge of it. Asked what he 
 knew as to financial relations between Ferrer and the Solidaridad, he replied 
 that he was absolutely ignorant on the point, adding that the Solidaridad had for 
 more than a year been ferociously attacking him (Iglesias), attd he believed that 
 in that campaign of hostility it had been spending more tnoncy than it possessed. 
 This was the whole of his evidence. No wonder Iglesias was amazed to find 
 himself figuring as a witness for the prosecution on the strength of one phrase, 
 torn from its context and perverted in its application.
 
 198 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Baldomcro Bonet, arrested on a charge of convent- 
 burning, believes that the Solidaridad Obrera was at the 
 bottom of the events, and, as it does not abound in funds, 
 participates in the general idea that it was subventioned by 
 Ferrer. On a second examination, " lie confirms his belief, 
 since he cannot understand that any other element could 
 have caused the events." 
 
 "The same current against the Solidaridad Obrera 
 and Ferrer is maintained in the declaration of Modesto 
 Lara." 
 
 Garcia Magallon relates a conversation with a journalist 
 named Pierre,^ who told him that he had lieard it said that 
 the events were promoted by the Solidaridad Obrera 
 under the direction of Ferrer. 
 
 Puig Ventura " believes that Ferrer was at the bottom 
 of it all." 
 
 Casas Llibre formed the opinion that Ferrer was the 
 " directing element." 
 
 Alvarez Espinosa " abounds in the same opinion," and 
 believes that Ferrer was " the true instigator and inspirer 
 of the events." 
 
 The last three witnesses we shall encounter again, and 
 shall have to consider the value of their evidence on 
 matters which actually came within their knowledge. 
 Here they are only, like all the rest, expressing opinions 
 and beliefs for which they do not even allege the smallest 
 solid foundation. Thus we have ten witnesses, one of 
 whom, Iglesias, said nothing about Ferrer, two " pointed 
 to " him, three " believed " that he was at the bottom of 
 the revolt, two "formed an opinion" to the same effect, 
 
 • I have seen a'letter from this Pierre, protesting that he never said any- 
 thing of the sort ; but this protest scarcely increases the manifest worthless- 
 ness of the evidence.
 
 THE VAGUE VILLAGERS 199 
 
 one related a report "which he had no means of verifying," 
 and one repeated what some one else told him that he had 
 heard some one else say. Meanwhile, there were in the 
 jails of Barcelona more than a thousand prisoners accused 
 of participation in the riots, and in the rest of Catalonia 
 at least a thousand more, not one of whom could be found 
 to have received orders from Ferrer, or arms, or money, or 
 to have had any direct or indirect knowledge of him as 
 organizer or chief of the revolt. 
 
 A group of five witnesses cited by the Prosecutor in 
 the same paragraph deserves somewhat different treatment. 
 They are villagers of Premia — Don Juan This and Don 
 Jaime That, Three of them declare generally that " after " 
 the visit of Ferrer to Premia on Wednesday the 2Sth events 
 in that locality " assumed a grave character " ; a fourth 
 asserts that the change took place ''immediately on his 
 arrival," while the fifth fixes it at "an hour after his 
 departure." Now we shall see anon that Ferrer spent 
 a very short time in Premid, that a most important witness, 
 Puig Ventura (called Llarch), was in his company all the 
 time, and that, except for what he is alleged to have said 
 to Puig, Casas, etc., he clearly held no communication 
 with a soul in the village. Thus, while the evidence for 
 any considerable change in the course of events is of the 
 vaguest, one of the prosecution's own witnesses proves that 
 there was no connection between Ferrer's visit and what- 
 ever change there may have been. 
 
 This point is worth dwelling on for a moment, not 
 only for its own sake, but as an instance of the extra- 
 ordinary pcrfunctorincss of the whole proceedings. It is 
 the literal and irrefragable truth that the prosecution 
 absolutely contradicted itself in its attempt to establish 
 any connection between F"crrer's visit to Premia and the
 
 200 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 turn taken by events after his departure. As we shall 
 presently see, every one to whom he spoke utterly 
 denies having been in any way influenced by him ; and 
 their evidence is accepted by the prosecution without the 
 slightest reserve. How is it possible, then, that anything 
 that happened afterwards should have been due to this 
 visit ? It is manifestly impossible, if Llarch, the Al- 
 calde, etc., are to be believed ; yet there is no sign that 
 anybody put this simple point to the Court. The truth 
 is that Captain Galceran, even if he had had time to study 
 his brief, had no time to state his case. It appears to have 
 been an understood thing that the " Vista Publica " must 
 be got through between breakfast and lunch. At any 
 rate, whether by arrangement or not, the sitting lasted 
 just five hours, from eight to one. Of that time two hours 
 and a half, says the Times correspondent, were occupied 
 by the reading of the " Sumario." Then the Prosecutor 
 delivered his indictment, which, even read at lightning 
 speed, cannot possibly have taken less than an hour and 
 a half ; so that a single hour is the very utmost that we 
 can suppose the Defender to have occupied. There was 
 simply not time for analysis or searching argument; 
 which renders it the less surprising that those parts of the 
 Defender's address which have been reported are more 
 rhetorical than logical, more contentious than convincing. 
 
 But we are by no means at the end of hearsay evidence 
 and the expression of mere opinion. It is stated that a 
 man named Sola was frequently seen during the days of 
 the disturbance at the Fraternidad Republicana of Premia, 
 and one Juan Alsina is "morally certain " that he received 
 instructions directly from Ferrer. There is no evidence 
 whatever as to his having done or attempted anything 
 illegal ; but, on the ground of one witness's^ " moral
 
 INVISIBLE "AGENTS ' 201 
 
 certainty" that he was an emissary of Ferrer, this is 
 gravely set forth as an incriminating circumstance. Again, 
 one Puig Pons speaks of the appearance at Premia of a 
 party of thirty men whom he "believes" to have been 
 recruited by Ferrer. He does not know this personally ; 
 but when the bystanders asked one another who these 
 men were, the answer was, '* They are the quarrymen 
 whom Ferrer is said to have sent." Moreover, a good 
 deal of vague village gossip is reported as to cyclists and 
 persons driving a tartana, or one-horse cart, who were 
 supposed to be agents of Ferrer ; but no one is produced 
 who actually saw these " agents " ; much less any one who 
 saw them do or heard them say anything illegal ; least of 
 all any evidence to connect them with Ferrer. 
 
 But the finest example, perhaps, of this class of 
 evidence is afforded by a witness named Pedro Pagds, 
 who " reports that he read in Z^ Almudaina, a newspaper 
 of Palma [Majorca]," a story about some workmen having 
 patrolled the coast road, saying that they did so under the 
 orders of Sr. Ferrer. A newspaper paragraph is not usually 
 considered the best of evidence ; but Don Pedro Pages 
 did not even produce the paragraph — he only remembered 
 to have read it. 
 
 A point of transition between pure hearsay and 
 evidence of some apparent validity is afforded by the 
 incident of the town hall at Masnou. Salvador Millet 
 relates, "from information received {segim referencias)^* 
 that on the 27th or 28th groups of rebels presented 
 themselves at the said town hall, and from the balcony 
 " harangued the multitude," saying that they did so in the 
 name of P'errer, " who could not be present, as he was 
 detained in Barcelona on the business of the revolution." 
 This is the usual vague hearsay ; but in this case there is
 
 202 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 actually one witness, Esteban Puigdemon, who declares 
 that from the door of his house, hard by the town hall, he 
 heard one man make a speech and say that he came to 
 represent Ferrer. Well may the Prosecutor introduce 
 Don Esteban in italics as a testigo presencial^ or witness 
 who was on the spot. Such witnesses are rarities in this 
 part of his brief. 
 
 Esteban, indeed, is more than a rarity ; he is unique. 
 We shall come presently to witnesses who purport to 
 relate what Ferrer actually said to them at Masnou and 
 Premia ; but there is nothing in their evidence that shows 
 him acting as organizer or director of the occurrences in 
 that region, which, by the way, were quite unimportant. 
 The attempt to exhibit him in that light — "irradiating 
 rebellion," as the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court put it, 
 from his headquarters at Mas Germinal — rests absolutely 
 and entirely on the hearsay evidence we have just ex- 
 amined. Of the host of agents with whom popular rumour 
 credited him — cyclists, quarrymen, miscellaneous work- 
 men, indefinite " rebels," etc. — not one is produced. There 
 is no direct testimony to his having issued a single order 
 or paid any one a single peseta. There is only one testigo 
 presencial, who heard some unknown person "harangue a 
 multitude," and say that he acted on behalf of Ferrer. 
 What has become of the " multitude " ? If the incident 
 really occurred, surely a few more of that crowd might 
 have been found to testify to it. And, even if it did 
 occur, can Ferrer be held responsible for what an un- 
 identified " rebel " may have said } This whole part of 
 the case merely proves — what we learn in other ways as 
 well — that the ignorant peasants of the district had been 
 indoctrinated with wild ideas as to the maleficent power 
 of their heretic neighbour at Mas Germinal.
 
 "A MERE SUSPICION " 203 
 
 Perhaps we may place under the heading of hearsay 
 evidence an accusation which is not even by hearsay 
 brought home to Ferrer, but is confessedly a pure con- 
 jecture on the part of the Prosecutor. In order to account 
 for the fact that so accomplished and sinister a hypocrite 
 as Ferrer should have ventured so far out into the open as 
 to allow of any evidence at all being brought against him, 
 the Prosecutor puts forward "a mere suspicion, nothing 
 more than a suspicion " — ima mera sospecha, nada vids qiie 
 sospecha — that his avarice may have got the better of his 
 cowardice, and that he may have organized and directed 
 the rebellion in order to make money by an operation on 
 the Bourse ! Is it not an almost incredible proof of black 
 malice that such an insinuation should have been gravely 
 put forward by the Prosecutor and gravely listened to by 
 the Court ? If Ferrer, or any one connected with him, had 
 had any interest in a fall in securities, it ought to have 
 been perfectly easy to prove the fact ; but there was no 
 pretence of doing anything of the kind. We have seen in 
 the examination of Iglesias that a feeler put forth in this 
 direction proved unavailing ; and doubtless other leading 
 questions to other witnesses yielded no better result. Yet 
 the Prosecutor " finds it difficult to escape from the idea " 
 that Ferrer was not even actuated by mistaken enthusiasm, 
 but that he let havoc loose in Barcelona from no higher 
 motive than a base love of gain. If any answer were 
 required to such a monstrous accusation, it would be found 
 in an official statement by the Royal College of Stock- 
 brokers that no unusual transaction in public funds 
 occurred in Barcelona during the months of July and 
 August, and that " the oscillations of values followed the 
 regulating indications of the Bourses of Madrid and 
 Paris."
 
 XVIII 
 
 THE EVIDENCE— STATEMENTS WHICH PROVE NOTHING 
 
 We have now to return to Barcelona, and to Ferrer's 
 doings on the 26th — the day of the strike. We have 
 already noted that, in his own account of that day, he 
 omitted a good deal, probably in fear of compromising his 
 friends. Let us now see whether there was anything 
 criminal — anything displaying him in ■ the character of 
 " author and chief of the revolt " — in the incidents that he 
 omitted. 
 
 There is no attempt to show the " author and chief" in 
 any way concerned v/ith the events of the day until three 
 o'clock in the afternoon. At that hour — between his 
 luncheon and his appointment with the engraver — he went 
 to the Casa del Pueblo, a workman's restaurant and re- 
 creation-place, in search of his secretary, Litran. In the 
 cafe he saw an old Republican, Lorenzo Ardid, whose 
 evidence in thus reported by the Prosecutor — 
 
 Ferrer entered and saluted him, saying that he would 
 like to speak to him privately. Ardid replied, " When 
 you please " ; and Ferrer then asked him, " What do you 
 think of the events of the day ? " The witness answered, 
 " It is all over : it is only a sort of protest, which cannot 
 go any further." Then Ferrer repeated, " You think it 
 cannot go any further .'' " — upon which he answered with 
 energy, and Ferrer became silent. Ardid then turned his
 
 THE CHAT WITH ARDID 205 
 
 back to him and said to one of the members, " Tell that 
 gentleman that he had better go away quickly by the side 
 door" — which Ferrer at once did. 
 
 Ardid has since declared^ that this is a perverted 
 version of his evidence ; but, taking it at its face value, 
 what is there in it ? A passing remark on the situation. 
 The prosecution apparently seeks to suggest that in 
 Ferrer's exit there was some sort of conscious guilt ; but 
 Ardid declares that he explained this in his evidence. 
 The fact was that Ferrer had fallen out with the Radical- 
 Republican party, which has its headquarters at the Casa 
 del Pueblo, and Ardid heard, or thought he heard, a 
 menacing hum in the crowded cafe which showed that his 
 presence there was resented ; wherefore " to avoid un- 
 pleasantness " he " indicated " to Ferrer that he should 
 leave by the side door, leading into the Calle de Casanovas. 
 As we have abundant proof of the momentary feud between 
 Ferrer and the Lerrouxists, this explanation of the matter 
 is entirely credible. 
 
 From a rational point of view, the sole importance of 
 the incident arises from the fact that Ferrer appears to 
 have denied having been at the Casa del Pueblo or seen 
 Ardid, and only to have retracted his denial on being 
 confronted with the witness. I have satisfied myself, from 
 the position and character of the Casa del Pueblo, that 
 Ferrer can scarcely have forgotten the fact of his having 
 been there. Here, then, is a single case in which he seems 
 to have made a positively untrue statement.^ And why ? 
 In all probability, because he feared to compromise this 
 
 ' In a leaflet published in Barcelona, Simarro, vol. i. p. 354. 
 
 ^ The following rule of the Suniaiio may i)e worth citing in this con- 
 nection : " The accused makes his declaration without being placed under 
 oath."
 
 206 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 very Ardid, who, as a matter of fact, was arrested in con- 
 nection with the riots. The commandant probably ques- 
 tioned him about the Casa del Pueblo without letting him 
 know that Ardid was to figure as a witness against him ; 
 and Ferrer was probably on his guard not to make any 
 admission that could possibly be used against the old 
 Republican campaigner. 
 
 Oddly enough, the Prosecutor accepts, without attempt- 
 ing to cast doubt upon it, the statement that Ferrer 
 intended to return to Mongat by the six o'clock train — an 
 intention which cannot but seem surprising in the head of 
 the revolt, especially as it implies that the organizer-in- 
 chief did not know that the railway line was to be cut. 
 When Ferrer left the station, he was seen by " the agent 
 of vigilance, Don Angel Fernandez Bermejo, intrusted 
 •with the duty of shadowing him" mingling with seditious 
 groups on the Plaza de Antonio Lopez, again near the 
 Atarazanas barracks, and yet again on the Rambla. When 
 one of the groups was dispersed by a charge of the police, 
 he lost sight of Ferrer, but then saw him again going into 
 the Hotel Internacional, where, as a matter of fact, he 
 dined. The sole importance of this evidence is to show 
 that Ferrer was shadowed. He could scarcely move about 
 the streets without getting into "groups," and he would 
 naturally exchange a few observations with this man and 
 that. Of anything pointing to leadership the spy has no 
 word to say. 
 
 It was very likely at the same time, though they place 
 it a little earlier, that two soldiers saw a man in a blue 
 suit and a straw hat in a group of people on the Plaza de 
 Antonio Lopez. When they requested him to move on, 
 he pointed to a poster on the wall proclaiming the state 
 of siege, and said, " May one not read that ? " This seems
 
 THE MISSING REVOLVER-MEN 207 
 
 an innocent and even laudable desire ; yet the Prosecutor 
 singles out the incident as being of " notable intrinsic 
 importance," and is triumphant when the soldiers identify 
 Ferrer " three times " * in a group of prisoners. Very 
 probably the man was Ferrer, who was certainly in that 
 part of the town about that time ; but where is the 
 " intrinsic importance " of the fact ? Shortly afterwards, 
 the Prosecutor tries to give it extrinsic importance by 
 citing the evidence of two officers (a Colonel and Captain) 
 who, on the 28th, arrested some persons armed with new 
 Smith revolvers, who said the pistols had been given to 
 them by a man they did not know, wearing a blue suit 
 and a straw hat. How many men in Barcelona wore blue 
 suits and straw hats ? And what had become of the 
 arrested revolver-men ? If one or two of them had 
 identified Ferrer as the distributor of the weapons, their 
 evidence would have been worth all the rest put together. 
 The Defender did not fail to enquire what had become 
 of these men, and the Assessor ridiculed the question, on 
 the ground that, as the importance of the " blue suit and 
 straw hat " was not recognized until the two troopers were 
 examined towards the end of September, the Colonel 
 and Captain could not have been expected to pay much 
 attention to the remark of the revolver-men two months 
 earlier. But this did not meet the point. The odd thing 
 is that, when rebels or suspected rebels were being arrested 
 wholesale, two men found in the possession of arms, con- 
 fessedly accepted by them for revolutionary purposes, 
 should either have been allowed to go free, or should have 
 been irrecoverably lost among the thousand prisoners. 
 
 ' In this and another case of idcnlification, the "three times " are specially 
 insisted un. But surely any one who can identify a man once can du so three 
 times.
 
 208 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 The Assessor's argument renders it no whit the less true 
 that the failure to produce these men, or at least one of 
 them, deprives the incident of all significance. 
 
 Now appears on the scene a curious and rather impor- 
 tant figure. As Ferrer was sitting, about half past nine 
 o'clock, in the cafe under the Hotel Internacional, where 
 he had dined, he saw passing a youth named Francisco 
 Domenech, assistant in a barber's shop at Masnou, and 
 secretary of the Republican Committee of that village. 
 Ferrer called him in, and, learning that he proposed to 
 walk home that night, suggested that they might go 
 together. From the cafe, says Domenech, they went to 
 the office of the Lerrouxist (Republican) paper El 
 Progreso, to learn "what the comrades were going to 
 do" — an odd inquiry for the "author and chief" to make. 
 Thence they went to a cafd, where Ferrer met some of his 
 friends, and nothing particular happened ; and presently 
 they returned to the office of El Progreso. Ferrer went 
 in alone, and on coming out he remarked, according to 
 Domenech, that neither Iglesias nor others had been 
 willing to sign a document which he had brought with 
 him, an address to the Government demanding the cessa- 
 tion of embarkations for Melilla, and threatening, in case 
 of refusal, to make a revolution, the signatories placing 
 themselves at the head of the people. Iglesias had said 
 that the strikers had better return to work, and had asked 
 what forces he counted upon for the course proposed. 
 
 Now, Iglesias denies that he saw Ferrer that night. It 
 is true, however, that some such document had been drawn 
 up by Moreno ; and it is true that, had the project gone 
 forward, Ferrer would have signed it. But it is not true 
 that the design was his, that he carried the document 
 around, or that he took any leading part in the negotia-
 
 THE BARBER OF MASNOU 209 
 
 tion. In so far as Domenech's testimony points in that 
 direction, it is false. Domenech may have misunderstood, 
 or his evidence may have received a little twist in the 
 reporting. We shall see before we have done with 
 Domenech that there was no possibility of testing or 
 rectifying his statements. 
 
 From the^office of El Progreso, Ferrer and Domenech 
 set forth to walk home. Their way lay through the Calle 
 de la Princesa, and in that street they met Moreno. 
 Ferrer told him that there were representatives of the 
 Solidaridad Obrera at the office of El Progreso, trying if 
 they could come to an understanding with the Radicals, 
 and suggested that Moreno should go and see what 
 was happening. He replied : " They [presumably the 
 Radicals] are already compromised " ; and added, accord- 
 ing to Domenech, " Woe to whoever fails us, for we will 
 do with him as they do with traitors in Russia ! " 
 
 Then Ferrer and the little barber walked on together, 
 parting at Mongat between four and five in the morning. 
 We shall meet our friend Domenech again a little later. 
 
 In all these incidents of the 26th, is there a single one 
 that shows Ferrer taking a directing part in the distur- 
 bances ? I submit that the evidence, even accepting it at 
 its face value, is wholly inconsistent with such a view. He 
 is an interested onlooker, no more ; and after six o'clock 
 he is an onlooker only because the trains are not running, 
 and he prefers (as he said to Litran) to take his eleven-mile 
 walk in the cool of the early morning. We find him willing 
 to join in sending a threatening address to the Government ; 
 and if that willingness be a punishable offence, he deserved 
 whatever punishment the law assigns to it. But between 
 that and being author and chief of the rebellion there is all 
 the difference in the world. Had he had any guilty 
 
 P
 
 210 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 consciousness, he would scarcely have been at pains to 
 attach a witness to his every footstep. Domenech asserts, 
 no doubt with truth, that he and Ferrer were the merest 
 acquaintances. Why should Ferrer, had he been organizing 
 and directing the rebellion, have put his life in the hands of 
 a casual barber's assistant ?
 
 XIX 
 
 THE EVIDENCE — RELEVANT ACCUSATIONS 
 
 It is almost a relief to come upon two accusations to which 
 a certain weight would doubtless have been attached in a 
 competent court of law. One is the unsupported assertion 
 of a single man ; the other rests on the testimony of several 
 witnesses. 
 
 In tracing the growth of the legend of Ferrer's culpability, 
 we saw (p. 164) that his first definite accuser was a certain 
 Colldeforns, Colldefrons, or Colldefons. This person's 
 evidence acquires some importance from the fact of its 
 being unique. He, and he alone, professes to have seen 
 Ferrer actively taking part in the disturbances — doing 
 nothing in particular, indeed, but apparently in command 
 of a group of insurgents. Quite naturally, then, the Prose- 
 cutor, Assessor, and Auditor all lay special stress upon 
 this deposition. It is the corner-stone of their case, so we 
 must look rather closely into its solidity. 
 
 Don Francisco de Paula Colldefons, a journalist on the 
 staff" of various clerical papers, asserted in one of them, El 
 Sigh FiUuro, as early as August 9, that he saw Ferrer " at 
 the head of a group {capitaneando wi grupo) in front of the 
 Liceo Theatre on the Rambla." When he appeared before 
 the Examining Commandant, however, his statement be- 
 came considerably less positive. This is 'how the Prose- 
 cutor reports it —
 
 212 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 The said gentleman affirms that on Tuesday, the 27th, 
 between seven-thirty and eight-thirty in the evening, he 
 saw a group, in the Rambla, in front of the Liceo, captained 
 (mark that well) captained by a person who seemed to him 
 to be Francisco Ferrer Guardia, whom he knew only from 
 a photograph ; but he acquired the conviction that it must 
 be he from hearing the passers-by say so. The group 
 passed down the Calle del Hospital. Furthermore, . . . the 
 witness identified Ferrer three times in a circle of prisoners 
 as the man he had seen in that situation. 
 
 Clearly, this evidence is worth looking into. 
 
 What weight can we attach to the identification ? The 
 witness who knew Ferrer from a photograph would, of 
 course, refresh his memory of the photograph before 
 proceeding to the identification, so that it is scarcely 
 surprising that he should recognize his man. Moreover, we 
 have seen that the authorities had been careful to dress 
 Ferrer in a ridiculous garb, which would make him stand 
 out from any group of ordinary prisoners, and insure 
 attention being drawn to him. The identification, then 
 amounts to nothing. It will be remembered that Ferrer 
 was identified by at least one witness (p. 185) whose 
 evidence the prosecution subsequently dropped. ^ 
 
 Now as to the actual incident : It took place " between 
 seven-thirty and eight-thirty in the evening " ; yet it does 
 not seem to have occurred to any one to inquire by what 
 light Colldefons recognized a man whom he knew only 
 from photographs. I have satisfied myself that at seven- 
 thirty on July 27 it would be barely possible to see a man's 
 features by the evening light at the spot indicated ; at 
 seven-forty-five or later it would be quite impossible. But 
 what about electric light ? I have been unable to find any 
 conclusive evidence as to whether the electric lamps were
 
 "CAPTAINING A GROUP" 213 
 
 or were not lighted on the Rambla that evening. The 
 probability is that they were not. In any case, the light 
 must either have been very dim, or else artificial and 
 deceptive. The fact that this point was wholly neglected 
 shows the danger of relying upon witnesses who cannot be 
 cross-examined. Furthermore, no one has enquired what 
 Sr. Colldefons meant when he said that the man in 
 question was " captaining " the group. What were the 
 signs and tokens of his captaincy ? On this point, too, a 
 little cross-examination would not have been amiss. 
 
 What, now, was the probability of Ferrer's being in 
 Barcelona on the evening of the 27th? The authorities 
 had carefully refused to admit the evidence of Ferrer's 
 family, who positively assert that he never quitted Mas 
 Germinal that day. But, even with this testimony ruled 
 out, what do we know ? We know that he reached home 
 on foot about five on the Tuesday morning ; and we know 
 that all public means of communication, by which he could 
 have returned to Barcelona that day, were interrupted. 
 Can we conceive that, at two or three on the Tuesday 
 afternoon, he started in the blazing heat to walk eleven 
 dusty miles into Barcelona, in order to " captain a group " ? 
 Or, if he took some private conveyance, can we conceive 
 that, in that thickly peopled region of gossiping villagers, 
 no evidence of the fact should be forthcoming ? He must 
 not only have gone to Barcelona, but he must have 
 returned before ten the next morning, when he went, as 
 usual, to be shaved at Masnou. Is it conceivable that 
 there should be absolutely no evidence as to his means 
 of transit either way ? that not a living soul should have 
 seen him outside of Mas Germinal, save Don Francisco de 
 Paula Colldefons ? Where was " the agent of vigilance, 
 Don Angel Fernandez Bermejo, intrusted with the duty
 
 214 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 of shadowing him " ? He was not a man unknown in 
 Barcelona, nor one whose comings and goings were apt 
 to be unmarked. If he was "captaining a group," he 
 must have made himself at least moderately conspicuous ; 
 yet, out of the thousands who were in the streets that 
 night, the one discoverable person who recognized him 
 was a Catholic journalist who did not know him ! 
 
 And this Catholic journalist who did not know him 
 is the one witness who even purports to present him in 
 the light of a chief or director, not of the revolt, but of 
 a particular g)'upo de revoltosos. 
 
 It is not necessary to assume that CoUdefons was 
 lying, or that he mistook somebody else for Ferrer. 
 More probably, I think, he was mistaken as to the date. 
 If he had referred the incident to the 26th instead of 
 the 27th, we could have believed him without difficulty. 
 In going from the Hotel Internacional to the office of 
 El Progreso, Ferrer would naturally cross the Rambla, 
 practically in front of the Liceo, and proceed down the 
 Calle del Hospital. As for the " captaining " of a group, 
 it must be remembered that the Rambla of Barcelona is, 
 in the most normal times, an exceedingly populous and 
 animated thoroughfare, and that on that evening of 
 excitement it was doubtless crowded with " groups " 
 proceeding in every direction. Ferrer may simply have 
 chanced to be walking at or near the head of a 
 group, with which in fact he may have had no connection. 
 The evidence of his "captaincy" is, as we have noted, 
 nil. 
 
 Vastly more serious is the evidence of the village 
 Republicans of Masnou and Premia de Mar. If we can 
 believe it, we must hold Ferrer guilty of an indiscretion 
 which was doubtless liable to some punishment, though
 
 THE VILLAGE REPUBLICANS 215 
 
 it was immeasurably different from the crime of being 
 "author and chief of the revolt." But can we believe 
 the evidence ? 
 
 This is how it runs : On Wednesday the 28th, Ferrer, 
 as was his custom of a Wednesday morning/ presented 
 himself at the barber's shop at Masnou, where Domenech 
 was employed. According to Domenech, he sent for one 
 Juan Puig Ventura, nicknamed Llarch, or "tall," the 
 President of the Republican Committee. On Llarch's 
 arrival, Ferrer proposed to him that he should go to the 
 Ayuntamiento, or town hall, and there proclaim the 
 Republic. So far, Domenech ; but Llarch himself goes 
 further and says that Ferrer urged him "to begin by 
 inciting people to sally forth and burn churches and 
 convents." Llarch replied that he did not see how that 
 would advance the Republican cause ; to which Ferrer 
 answered that he cared nothing about the Republic, 
 but was simply bent on revolution. He then proposed 
 that Llarch should accompany him to Premia, which that 
 gentleman, though shocked at his suggestions, agreed to 
 do. At Premia they met the Alcalde, or Mayor, to whom 
 P'errcr made similar proposals. Then, on their way back 
 to Masnou, they met a group of young men coming from 
 Barcelona, who told them what was going on,^ whereupon 
 
 ' The prosecuting officers represented that on tliis occasion he had himself 
 clean-shaven for purposes of disguise. The evidence suggests notliing of the 
 sort. As he wore only a moustache and a sort of imperial, his cheeks were 
 always shaved ; and it was his custom to submit himself, every Wednesday 
 and Saturday morning, to the ministrations of Sr. Domenech or one of his 
 colleagues. If he ever shaved in order to disguise himself, it must have been 
 after he went into hiding. 
 
 * If the evidence of Colldefons were true, this would be no news to Ferrer, 
 who must himself have returned quite recently from Barcelona. Again, if the 
 evidence of both Colldefons and Llarch were true, it would be strange that 
 Ferrer should have said nothing to Llarch as to his having taken J^art in the 
 scenes of the " tragic night," in Barcelona,
 
 216 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Ferrer said, " Good ! Good ! Courage ! It must all be 
 destroyed ! " 
 
 The Alcalde himself, Don Domingo Casas, and the 
 acting secretary of the Ayuntamiento, Alvarez, are quoted 
 as emphatically confirming the statement that Ferrer 
 proposed the proclamation of the Republic, and the 
 Deputy Alcalde, Mustards, seems to have told the same 
 story. Finally, Francisco Calvet, waiter at the Fra- 
 ternidad Republicana of Premia, relates that at half- 
 past twelve on the day in question Llarch appeared at 
 the cafe with another person whom he (Calvet) did not 
 know — 
 
 " Presently arrived Casas, Mustares, and Alvarez ; and 
 then the unknown said : ' I am Ferrer Guardia.' The 
 witness adds that this produced a startling effect on those 
 present, and especially on himself, on account of all the 
 evil he had heard of that person ; and that then Ferrer 
 added, addressing the Alcalde, * I have come to say to 
 you that you must proclaim the Republic in Premia.' 
 The Alcalde replied, ' Sr. Ferrer, I do not accept 
 these words ' ; upon which the accused answered, * How 
 should you not accept them, since the Republic is pro- 
 claimed in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and other 
 capitals ? ' " 
 
 These allegations, I confess, seem to me by far the 
 strongest part of the whole case for the prosecution. On 
 examination, we find reason to discount them heavily ; 
 but I am inclined to think that there must be a residue 
 of truth in them. 
 
 What is Ferrer's own account of the matter? We 
 have it in the long letter to Charles Malato, written on 
 October i. He says that the barber's shop at Masnou 
 rapidly filled with people who wanted to question him about
 
 'S. 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
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 ^ -a 
 
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 -< o 
 
 — o 
 
 •— • -4-* 
 
 a; oj 
 
 u; 'J 
 
 tj c 
 
 -a 

 
 TO PREMIA WITH LLARCH 217 
 
 the events at Barcelona ; for the report had got abroad 
 that he was connected with them. He told them that he 
 was as anxious as they for news, since he wanted to attend 
 to his publishing affairs as soon as business was resumed. 
 Just then a small steamboat came along the coast from 
 Barcelona, and seemed to be going to put in at Premid ; 
 whereupon he proposed to Llarch, who had just been 
 telling how he had quieted a riotous crowd, that they 
 should walk on to Premid and learn what news the 
 steamer brought. But she did not, after all, put in at 
 Premia; so they very soon returned, Llarch to Masnou, 
 Ferrer to Mongat. During the five or ten minutes they 
 spent in Premia, they were surrounded by people asking 
 for news — "as we, in turn, asked them." "It appears," 
 Ferrer continues, " that the Republican Mayor of Premid 
 was among the group ; and he now declares that I pro- 
 posed to him to proclaim the Republic, and to burn the 
 convent and the church ; which is as false as Llarch's 
 assertion to the same effect. The judge confronted me 
 with these two canailles^ who stuck to their assertions in 
 spite of my protests, reminding them that we exchanged 
 only the phrases that every one was exchanging in those 
 days : What is going on ? What is the news from here, 
 from there ? What are people saying ? " 
 
 At the confrontations, Llarch is reported as having 
 said " that he was sure Ferrer would abound in explana- 
 tions and denials, but that he nevertheless maintained 
 what he had stated " ; while the Alcalde said, " One who 
 denies the truth, as you do, is capable of denying the light 
 of the sun." 
 
 We have, then, six witnesses — Domenech, Llarch, the 
 Alcalde, Mustards, Alvarez, and Calvct — who all aver that 
 Ferrer urged the proclamation of the Republic, two of
 
 218 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 them adding that he also incited to convent-burning. 
 This is unquestionably pretty strong evidence. But there 
 are one or two remarks to be made as to the credit of the 
 witnesses. 
 
 Domenech, to begin with, having given his evidence, 
 was got out of the country with all despatch. His own 
 account is that "friends" gave him money, and that he 
 started for South America on the i6th of August. iThe 
 "friends" are stated to have been the Barcelona Com- 
 mittee of Social Defence, an ultra-Catholic organization, 
 which bought him off his military service and gave 
 him £60 with which to clear out. This assertion was 
 made, in somewhat veiled terms, by Captain Galcerdn, 
 in his speech for Ferrer's defence, and I have not seen 
 it denied. At all events, I have it from Sr. Domenech's 
 own lips that "friends" made it possible for him to 
 absent himself for three or four months — until, in fact, 
 Ferrer was satisfactorily dead. His evidence, then, though 
 costly, can scarcely be called valuable. 
 
 Of the other five, three at least — Llarch, the Alcalde 
 and Alvarez (I am not quite sure about Mustares) — were 
 arrested on the charge of taking part in the disturbances, 
 and were liberated, without trial, after giving their evidence. 
 This is, on the face of it, not quite reassuring. There are 
 several indications that, in an irresolute, half-hearted way, 
 the good folks of Premia had coquetted with the idea of 
 revolution. It is impossible, even if it were worth while, 
 to get at the exact truth. "That was a fine time," a 
 shrewd village matron said to me, " for any one who had 
 a grudge against a neighbour." There is talk of arms 
 having been distributed by the Alcalde "for the preserva- 
 tion of order" — a laudable object, but liable to miscon- 
 struction. It seems certain that an attack upon the fine
 
 nc 
 
 ''>->tn 
 
 
 THE APPROACH TO PREMIA. 
 (With the Convent which was /h>/ burnt.) 
 
 m- 
 
 THE AYUNTAMIENTO OF PREMIA. 
 (With the balcony from which the Rcpubhc was ;/<?/ proclaimed.) 
 
 \^To /ace p. 219.
 
 TERRORIZED WITNESSES 219 
 
 new monastery ^ of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine, on 
 the outskirts of the village, was at one time contemplated ; 
 but I was positively assured that it never came off, and 
 that some confused talk, quoted by the Prosecutor, about 
 dynamite having been used in the assault, was absolute 
 nonsense. The only riotous proceeding which really took 
 place, so far as I could ascertain, was the destruction of 
 some railway property. The upshot seems to be that the 
 villagers, excited by wild rumours of revolutionary successes 
 in Barcelona and elsewhere, hovered for some time on the 
 brink of an outbreak ; and there is not the slightest reason 
 to doubt that the Alcalde and other Republicans hovered 
 as near the verge as anybody. In some unaccountable 
 way, it came to be believed, towards the end of August, 
 that Ferrer was hidden in the Alcalde's house. In short, 
 a very strong current of suspicion set against that magis- 
 trate and his associates. They cannot have been very 
 guilty in act, for no great harm had been done ; but 
 whether their intention and effort were equally innocent 
 it is hard to say. When one realizes the whole position, — 
 the panic that prevailed ; the denunciations flying around ; 
 the jails (and such jails !) full of prisoners ; and always on 
 the horizon the grim silhouette of Montjuich, with its 
 tradition of torture, — one is not inclined to wonder over- 
 much if these poor villagers (a butcher, a blacksmith, etc.) 
 were tempted to give to their evidence just the little twist 
 that the authorities so ardently desired. We may remem- 
 ber, too, that at the time when the first investigations were 
 made (it must have been early in August, since Domcncch 
 departed on the i6th) it was universally believed that 
 Ferrer was safely out of the country ; and even when, on 
 
 ' It was this building upon wliich Ferrer was said to have headed an 
 attack— the rumour which sent him into hiding.
 
 220 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the 19th, the authorities learned that he was not far off, 
 they were astute enough to keep the knowledge strictly to 
 themselves. What more simple and harmless, then, than 
 to shift on to Ferrer's shoulders any little indiscretions 
 into which one might have been betrayed ? 
 
 On the other hand, I am inclined to regard the waiter, 
 Calvet, as an honest witness. He was not (I believe) 
 arrested, and he had nothing to fear except, perhaps, 
 loss of favour with the Committee of the Fraternidad 
 Republicana. It will be noted that he says nothing 
 about convent-burning. Moreover, I confess to feeling 
 that Ferrer, in the letter above quoted, protests a little 
 too much. It is hard to believe that he and Llarch 
 walked from Masnou to Premia and back again (about 
 five miles in all) without exchanging some definite views 
 on the situation. Ferrer's version of all that passed during 
 these two hours is altogether too colourless and non- 
 committal. The probability is, I think, that there was a 
 good deal of general discussion as to the prospects of the 
 revolt. Barcelona was entirely cut off from the rest of 
 the world, and wild rumours were afloat as to the success 
 of the movement in other cities. The question whether, 
 and when, it would be safe to proclaim the Republic, 
 would almost certainly be canvassed among these Re- 
 publicans ; and it is possible that Calvet, going to and 
 fro about his business, may have heard phrases which, 
 somewhat modified by after suggestion, assumed in his 
 mind the form in which he stated them. Nor can one 
 regard it as quite improbable that, looking at the columns 
 of smoke rising over Barcelona, Ferrer may have expressed 
 a malign glee. In this there is nothing inconsistent with 
 his declaration to the Examining Commandant that "he 
 was opposed to what happened in the week of disturb-
 
 SIX JUST MEN 221 
 
 ances." I do not wish to see any wrong done to my 
 dearest foe, and I would not raise a finger to injure him ; 
 but if, by chance, he gets into trouble — well, I do not 
 pretend to be inconsolable. 
 
 The story of the villagers, then, may very likely be 
 founded on fact, though wildly distorted by their panic- 
 stricken eagerness to save their own skins. Supposing it, 
 however, to be literally true, can we find in it any proof 
 that Ferrer was the author and chief of the revolt ? On 
 the contrary, it shows him, on the day when the revolt 
 reached its height, strolling through insignificant villages, 
 thirteen to fifteen miles from Barcelona, and making 
 pitifully ineffectual attempts to lure certain law-abiding 
 citizens aside from the paths of virture in which their feet 
 are fixed. It is quite extraordinary how badly he chooses 
 his men, and how he is rebuffed at every turn by their 
 unflinching loyalty to Church and State. Strange that 
 these pillars of the commonwealth should actually have 
 been imprisoned for sedition ! Their story, if we accept 
 every syllable of it, would show Ferrer liable to what- 
 ever punishment the law assigns to an utterly abortive 
 attempt to stir up a local sedition ; but even the Spanish 
 Military Code does not make this a capital offence.
 
 XX 
 
 THE EVIDENCE— DOCUMENTARY 
 
 We have now to consider the documentary evidence, on 
 which the prosecution laid the greatest stress. It consisted 
 of one manuscript which Ferrer admitted to be genuine, 
 and three type-written circulars, forming practically one 
 document, of which he denied all knowledge. 
 
 If the genuine document is all genuine, it shows that 
 at the date of its composition — 1892 — Ferrer was a violent 
 revolutionist, prepared to go all lengths in order to over- 
 throw the existing polity. I do not say that it is not all 
 genuine; but there are some mysterious circumstances 
 about it which, I own, baffle my comprehension. I did 
 my best, when in Spain, to obtain access to the original, 
 but did not succeed. 
 
 In 1892, Ferrer attended a Congress of Freethinkers 
 in Madrid ; and it was at this time that he drafted a 
 paper, never printed or otherwise issued, which figures in 
 the indictment as a "manuscript proclamation." What 
 the Prosecutor says of it is that, in view of a contemplated 
 rising, it proposed the organization of a band of 300 revolu- 
 tionaries, and that persons willing to join this band were 
 invited to address to Ferrer— Poste Restante, Rue de 
 Lafayette, Paris— information in the following form : — 
 
 I have one, two, three, or more friends, names and 
 addresses given, with or without means of defence (arms) ;
 
 THE 1892 DOCUMENT 223 
 
 able to travel (that is to say, able to pay the fare to 
 Madrid) ; willing to travel (that is to say, willing but lack- 
 ing the means) ; with provisions for one, two, etc. (that is 
 to say dynamite). 
 
 Now, the question at once arises : are the words in 
 parentheses, and especially the last phrase, written by 
 Ferrer himself? or are they conjectural explanations 
 interpolated by the prosecution ? The Prosecutor, in 
 reading the passage to the Court, was silent on this 
 essential point ; but the Assessor in his " dictamen " 
 (delivered, be it remembered, in the absence of the accused 
 and his Defender) affirmed emphatically that the phrase 
 " that is to say dynamite," ^ was written in Ferrer's own 
 hand. It seems at first sight absurd that Ferrer should 
 have given (so to speak) at once the cipher and the key ; 
 but it must be admitted, on second thoughts, that this is 
 not in itself impossible, since his purpose was apparently 
 to instruct his correspondents how to communicate with 
 him in more or less veiled terms. The matter assumes a 
 different, and rather puzzling, complexion, however, when 
 we turn to a letter written by Ferrer on October i, 1909, 
 from the Model Prison, to his friend Charles Malato.^ In 
 it he tells how the Examining Commandant insisted on 
 laying great stress on this " brouillon," in spite of Ferrer's 
 
 ' The Assessor, 'by Ithc way, misquoted. The words in parentheses, 
 according to the Prosecutor, were " querra decir dinamita " ; the Assessor 
 makes them •' que querra decir dinamita." The grammatical nicety here 
 involved may seem very trifling ; but nothing ought to be held trifling where 
 a man's life is at stake. Without the que the parenthesis is equivalent to 
 " That is to say dynamite " — a phrase which might no doubt have been em.- 
 ployed by the writer of the document, but rather suggests an interpretation 
 inserted by some one else. With the que the phrase is equivalent to " Which 
 will mean dynamite " — an explanation having all the appearance of proceed- 
 ing from the writer of the document. 
 
 * Francisco Ferrer — Sa Vie — Son CEuvre, p, 55.
 
 224 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 protestation that he had dashed it off seventeen years 
 before, and had never thought of it again. The Comman- 
 dant, he continues, " stuck to his point, saying that he had 
 sat up several nights till three in the morning studying 
 the draft word by word, and trying to decipher its true 
 meaning." Now, if the document left Ferrer's hand as 
 the Prosecutor read it, and the Assessor vouched for it, 
 there would surely have been no need for this official to 
 cudgel his brains over it. The conclusion seems almost 
 irresistible that the words in parentheses were the result 
 of the Commandant's vigils ; for it will scarcely be argued 
 that Ferrer possessed the superhuman foresight and cun- 
 ning to make up this story, nine days before his trial, in 
 order to throw dust in the eyes of posterity. We can 
 believe the parentheses to be interpolations without 
 suspecting the Assessor of mendacity. It is quite possible 
 that, in the course of copying or type-writing, the distinc- 
 tion between original text and interpolations might be 
 overlooked ; so that both Prosecutor and Assessor might 
 sincerely, though erroneously, believe the explanations 
 in brackets to be Ferrer's. 
 
 This account of the matter seemed to me almost 
 convincing, until I read carefully the whole text of the 
 *' proclamation " as it was published in the Madrid news- 
 papers of September i6, in gross violation of the secrecy 
 of the "Sumario." If this text be accurate, it matters 
 very little whether it was Ferrer or another who put in 
 the words " querra decir dinamita " ; for he must have 
 had dynamite in his mind. Here are the two principal 
 paragraphs of the manifesto, which is addressed, by the way, 
 " A Los Congregados " — to the members of the Congress — 
 
 We are completely convinced that, on the day when,
 
 A SPANISH GUY FAWKES ? 225 
 
 at one and the same hour, the heads of the royal family 
 and of its ministers fall, or the buildings which shelter 
 them collapse, there will be such a panic that our friends 
 will, without much fighting, be able to seize the public 
 buildings and organize the revolutionary committees 
 (^juntas). 
 
 To you, the first adherents, will fall the glory of being 
 the initiators, and the first to die for the cause — a death 
 a thousand times more honourable than to live beneath 
 the shameful oppression of a gang of robbers, led by a 
 foreign woman, and supported by priests and exploiters. 
 Up, then, noble and valiant hearts, sons of the Cid. Do 
 not forget that in your veins flows Spanish blood. ^ Long 
 live the revolution ! Long live anarchy ! 
 
 If Ferrer really wrote these words, they show him to 
 have been at that time, in desire and intent, one of the 
 great criminals of history — a sort of Spanish Guy Fawkes. 
 A more sanguinary scheme has seldom been conceived 
 than that of wiping out at one blow the whole royal 
 family and government of a nation. It is as mad as it 
 is inhuman ; but, if it were in any way possible, it could 
 only be through the lavish employment of high explo- 
 sives, to which, indeed, the allusion to the collapse of 
 buildings very clearly points. Supposing, then, that the 
 paragraphs are authentic, one is bound to admit that 
 at this time — in his thirty-third year — Ferrer was an 
 anarchist in the most violent and anti-social sense of 
 the term. 
 
 What arc the reasons for doubting their authenticity ? 
 
 * The romantic nationalism of these jjlirascs is (iiamctrically opposed to 
 the no less extreme internationalism or anti-nationalism of Ferrer's later 
 years, and is, indeed, not very consonant with anarchist views in general. 
 If the paragraph is a forgery, it is a clumsy one ; but, as truth is sometimes 
 stranger than fiction, it may nevertheless be genuine. 
 
 Q
 
 226 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 They are not very strong, perhaps, but worth noting. 
 One is that the document, as it appeared in the press, 
 was certainly garbled in one important word. The phrase 
 at the end of the above extract, quoted by the Assessor 
 as " Viva la anarquia ! " — and he was scarcely likely to 
 soften the actual expression — appears in the newspapers 
 as " Viva la dinamita ! " — a suggestive variant. But what 
 is much more surprising is that neither Prosecutor, 
 Assessor, nor Auditor should say a single word of the 
 first paragraph I have quoted, and the ruthless scheme 
 of massacre set forth in it. They rake up everything 
 they can possibly find to Ferrer's discredit ; they retail 
 anonymous whisperings and invent conjectural slanders; 
 but they are absolutely silent as to an utterance which 
 shows him to have been, at one stage of his career, 
 potentially and in aspiration a colossal criminal. I cannot 
 conceive any adequate reason for this reticence. It is 
 not as though they admitted any statute of limitations ; 
 for they denounce with emphasis the very next paragraph 
 of the same document. Such audacious villainy as the 
 interpolation of the two paragraphs quoted is scarcely 
 conceivable ; but it may be worth while to point out that 
 the " proclamation " would read quite coherently without 
 them. The weight of probability is, on the whole, in 
 favour of the genuineness of the whole document. That 
 seems the less incredible theory of the two. But that 
 the three prosecuting officers should have entered into 
 a conspiracy of silence as to this, the most damaging 
 feature by far of their whole case, is certainly an amazing 
 circumstance. When we put alongside it Valerio Raso's 
 curious remark that he had sat up of nights trying to 
 fathom the meaning of the " proclamation " — as if the 
 meaning (in the published text) did not lie all too
 
 THE CHANGE OF HEART 227 
 
 glaringly on the surface — we cannot but feel that there 
 is here some mystery which ought to be cleared up. 
 
 Ferrer strongly protested that he was being tried for 
 what he was said to have done in 1909, not for what he 
 might have thought, or written, or wished to do in 1892. 
 It cannot be said, however, that any genuine evidence as 
 to doctrines he had held at any period of his career was 
 really inadmissible ; but, having admitted this evidence, the 
 Court ought not to have excluded and ignored the abun- 
 dant evidence of the change which had in the meantime 
 come over his views. Some of this evidence was actually 
 included in the Examining Commandant's portfolio, and 
 much more would have been available if the authori- 
 ties had not declined to admit testimony from abroad. I 
 have already discussed sufficiently the reality of Ferrer's 
 transformation from a militant politician into an educa- 
 tional enthusiast ; but I have reserved some of the proofs 
 for this point, so as to emphasize once more his change of 
 heart. The quantity of the evidence is almost unlimited ; 
 but it is not all of equal validity. Any declaration made 
 after the Morral outrage, and especially during the time of 
 Ferrer's imprisonment in connection with that crime, is 
 clearly open to suspicion. On the other hand, declara- 
 tions made years before this crime could possibly have 
 been dreamt of: made to persons whom he had no interest 
 in deceiving : and followed up by a long course of action 
 entirely consonant with the sentiments expressed — such 
 declarations must be accepted as sincere, unless we are 
 to regard Ferrer as a miracle of far-seeing and sedulous 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 The earliest and most categorical avowal of his con- 
 version was actually, as I have said, included in the port- 
 folio of the prosecution, though the attention of the Court
 
 228 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 was not called to it. It is quoted by the Auditor-General 
 in the " dictamen " wherein he recommended the Captain- 
 General of Catalonia to confirm the sentence of the Military 
 Tribunal. The Auditor attaches no date to it ; but as it 
 is an advertisement or circular forecasting the establishment 
 of the Escuela Moderna, it must clearly belong to 1901. 
 It runs thus i — 
 
 A revolutionary republican who has lived in Paris since 
 1885, and has been disillusionized by his contact with the 
 Progressists and other Spanish Republicans, by his obser- 
 vations of the French Radical and Socialist parties [etc., 
 etc.] has arrived at the conviction that the only path 
 which leads to the redemption of those who suffer, and to 
 a truly social state, is the instruction of the working 
 class. . . . Persuaded of this, he has exchanged his former 
 revolutionary ardour for a passion for popular education, 
 and, thanks to his constant propaganda, has succeeded in 
 finding some resources for the foundation of an emanci- 
 patory school. . . . The person in question, Francisco 
 Ferrer Guardia, intends to establish his school in Barce- 
 lona, because he believes that the Catalan capital is the 
 best centre for the propagation and development of these 
 ideas. 
 
 What could be more explicit than this ? It may be 
 taken as a sign of good faith on the Auditor's part, but 
 scarcely of intelligence, that he should actually quote such 
 a passage in a pronouncement urging the ratification of 
 the sentence of death. 
 
 It might conceivably be argued that this semi-public 
 announcement — it was addressed to authors of school- 
 books — was deliberately insincere. But why should Ferrer 
 take the trouble of playing the hypocrite to his friend 
 Mile. Henriette Meyer, to whom, in 1902-— four years
 
 LETTER TO MI.I.K. HF.XRIF.TTF. MEVKK. 
 
 
 •Oi^..^ ,1„^ ^I^.UL^iin^ Ar^-^ '2*.'^U_ C«/w^«_ ..I , 
 
 
 yf . . . • . ^ ' - 
 
 [Inset
 
 
 
 '^^ 
 
 o^" A>~ 
 
 yJt,M^ O&S. •'^,*.*< 
 
 //. 228, Z2<>]
 
 THE XEED FOR EDUCATION 229 
 
 before the IMorral attempt, and seven before the Barcelona 
 outbreak — he addressed the following letter.^ He had 
 invited Mile. Meyer to undertake the management of the 
 Escuela Moderna ; she declined on the ground that her 
 position as the head of a committee for the abolition of 
 capital punishment prevented her from leaving Paris ; 
 whereupon he wrote to her expressing his regret, and 
 adding — 
 
 In order to change the conditions of humanity, there 
 is nothing, to my mind, more urgent than the establish- 
 ment of a system of education, as we understand the word, 
 the effect .of which would be to accelerate the march of 
 progress and greatly to facilitate the realization of every 
 generous idea. That is why it seems to me that to work 
 at present for the abolition of the death penalty, or for a 
 general strike,'^ without knowing how we are to bring up 
 our children, is to begin at the wrong end and to waste 
 our time. 
 
 This letter, it is true, was not before the Court which 
 found its writer guilty of organizing and leading a general 
 strike. The Court, or rather the Government, had decided 
 to give no ear to the voice of foreign " philosophers," as 
 the Assessor contemptuously called them. 
 
 I shall quote only three of the many declarations to the 
 same effect made after the Morral outrage. One is from a 
 letter of May 25, 1907, written from the Model Prison at 
 Madrid to Dr. Odon de Buen, Professor of Natural History 
 in the University of Barcelona — 
 
 You know very well how I have been disabused of 
 
 ' A facsimile of this letter is here reproduced, by permission, from 
 Ferrer: rjlumme el son CEuvre, by Normandy & Lcsueur (Paris, A. 
 Mericant). 
 
 * The italics are mine.
 
 230 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 politics, and at present, with these new divergencies and 
 strange orientations, I become more and more rooted in 
 the conviction that by rationalist teaching and equalitarian 
 education, much, very much more can be effected than by 
 electoral contests.^ 
 
 The second is from a letter dated Paris, November 5, 
 1907, and addressed to his friend O. Dinale. Ferrer 
 regrets not having been in Barcelona during a recent visit 
 of Professor Dinale's, though he could have shown him 
 only the empty rooms of the Escuela Moderna, closed in 
 defiance of law. He then proceeds — 
 
 The attitude of the Government proves that we are 
 right in seeking for human emancipation by means of 
 education, and of that alone. If we had not been convinced 
 of it long ago, the rage with which we are persecuted, and 
 the interest which the reactionaries manifest in discrediting 
 our system of teaching, would sufficiently encourage us to 
 pursue the path we have traced for ourselves.^ 
 
 Finally, in the before-mentioned autobiographic sketch, 
 contributed to the Almanack- Anniiaire de la Libre-Pensee 
 for 1908, he expresses himself "convinced that without 
 adequate education to prepare the way, every movement of 
 liberation must remain inoperative." 
 
 If the reader will turn to the "dictamen" of the 
 Auditor, he will find that, on the point of Ferrer's con- 
 version from political to educational interests (as, indeed, 
 on several other points), the prosecuting officers did not 
 even take the trouble to adopt a definite theory and stick 
 to it. In the main, the theory either expressed or implied 
 is that Ferrer was simply a hypocrite who affected an 
 enthusiasm for education in order to cloak his schemes of 
 
 * Process, p. 309. 
 
 * Facsimile in Ferrer : rHomme et son CEuvre, p. 33.
 
 AN INSENSATE THEORY 231 
 
 violence, and, if possible, to elude responsibility for them. 
 But the Auditor, at p. 304, totally abandons that theory. 
 He admits — as he cannot help admitting, in view of 
 documents which he himself produces — the genuineness 
 of Ferrer's educational ardour. How, then, does he recon- 
 cile this admission with the theory of his guilt ? By an 
 assumption so nonsensical that it is hard to believe it 
 sincere — by the assumption that Ferrer considered his 
 educational work completed in eight years of narrow and 
 hampered activity, one year of which he spent in prison ! 
 Can any one imagine a more insensate theory ? I have 
 shown that not more than three hundred pupils can 
 possibly have passed through Ferrer's hands ; but to this 
 it may be replied that his influence is not to be measured 
 by the actual muster-roll of the Escuela Moderna. His 
 influence was greatly overrated by the prosecution ; but 
 even if we accept their estimate of it, is it not evident that 
 he had scarcely scratched the surface of the illiteracy and 
 backwardness which he deemed it necessary to overcome 
 before any solid political results could be hoped for ? In 
 Ferrer's mind, the work he had undertaken was not one 
 which he himself could possibly hope to complete. It 
 was a labour of generations. He was merely running the 
 first furrow of a field which those who came after would 
 have to plough. How clearly he realized this may be 
 seen in the document he addressed, on the last day of his 
 life, to Soledad Villafranca (p. 236). That, of course, 
 could not be known to the Auditor ; but any one who 
 accepted the sincerity of Ferrer's views on education was 
 bound in mere candour and common sense to believe that 
 he contemplated something vastly diflercnt from the 
 primary teaching of some two or three hundred, or even 
 two or three thousand, children. It is easier to conceive
 
 232 . FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Ferrer the rogue of the Prosecutor's speech than the fool 
 of the Auditor's pronouncement. The fact that no one 
 seems to have observed the glaring inconsistency between 
 these two views is another proof of the headlong super- 
 ficiality with which the whole case was conducted by the 
 military authorities, and reviewed by those with whom 
 the final decision lay. 
 
 The second piece of documentary evidence need not 
 detain us long, for it is almost certain that Ferrer had 
 nothing to do with it, and quite certain that it had nothing 
 to do with the Barcelona Revolt. It was an old-looking 
 type-written document in three parts, purporting to be an 
 anarchist proclamation and programme, though suspiciously 
 like the work of an agent provocateur. It was said to have 
 been found during the practically uncontrolled search at 
 Mas Germinal of August 27 to 29.^ Ferrer declared that 
 he had never set eyes on it before ; and when we consider 
 the circumstances of its alleged discovery, and the fact that, 
 at the Madrid trial, forged documents, or papers falsely 
 attributed to him, found their way into his " dossier," we 
 can have no difficulty in accepting his disavowal. Three 
 letters, as it happened, were put in with pen and ink — the 
 t in the word actos, and the ba in trabajando. The prose- 
 cution got two experts to examine these letters, and they 
 declared, " without being able to make any positive affirma- 
 tion," that they might have been written by Ferrer. This 
 absolutely non-committal statement was perverted, in the 
 Prosecutor's address, into an affirmation that the corrections 
 " must be " or " were surely " {deben ser) in Ferrer's hand. 
 
 • In his letter to Heaford of October 5, 1909, Ferrer says that the 
 Examining Commandant at first declared that these papers had been found 
 during the first search at Mas Germinal, in the presence of Mme. Villafranca 
 and his family, but that he afterwards admitted he was mistaken on this 
 point.
 
 A SPURIOUS DOCUMENT 233 
 
 To Ferrer's denial of all knowledge either of the documents 
 or the corrections, the Prosecutor opposed the triumphant 
 argument that since he had neglected, during the "Plenario," 
 to demand another examination of the letters, by experts 
 nominated by himself, he had thus implicitly confessed 
 their authenticity. To this there are several replies. First, 
 the " Plenario," if it ever occurred at all, seems to have 
 been so slurred over that it is doubtful whether Ferrer 
 realized what was going on. Second, there is nothing to 
 show (and it is highly improbable) that his right to claim a 
 further examination of the letters was ever pointed out to 
 him. Third, even if it was, he may very well have thought 
 it incredible that the Court should pay any attention to so 
 manifest an absurdity as an identification of three letters. 
 If he gave any thought to the matter, his practical sense 
 must have told him that it would be as impossible for an 
 honest expert to deny as to affirm that the letters were his. 
 Besides, he could not foresee that the Prosecutor would 
 misquote the report of the Government's own experts. 
 That report, in its authentic form, was of no evidential 
 value — why should Ferrer be at the trouble of attempting 
 to contradict it? 
 
 Whoever may have written the circulars, Dr. Simarro 
 has shown conclusively that they date from the first two 
 years of the century, and can have nothing to do with the 
 events of July, 1909. It is not denied that all three papers 
 proceed from the same source and are apparently of about 
 the same date. Therefore, when we find in them an explicit 
 attack upon a "so-called Union" which was demanding a 
 reduction of ;{^4,ooo,ooo in the budget, and when we know 
 that this Union was formed in 1900 and dissolved in 1902, 
 we can readily understand that the document, as Ferrer 
 put it, "avait I'air tr6s vieillottc." Moreover, when we find
 
 234 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 the writer saying, " Pay no attention to those who tell you 
 that this programme is the work of the Government, of 
 the police, or of the enemies of the proletariat," we cannot 
 but feel that this proletarian doth protest too much, and 
 has all the appearance of a police spy. 
 
 This interesting group of documents was published in 
 La Vangiiardia of Barcelona on September ii, "with a 
 view to protesting against the attitude of a certain portion 
 of the foreign press " in regard to Ferrer. Of course it at 
 once went the round of the papers, and still figures in the 
 forefront of all orthodox accounts of the case.
 
 XXI 
 
 VERDICT AND EXECUTION 
 
 The result is known to all the world. On Saturday the 
 9th the Council of War, having in a single morning heard 
 all the evidence and pleadings in the complex cause, 
 devoted the afternoon to hearing, in secret session, the 
 Assessor's indictment, and then, in secret, passed sentence 
 of death. The next step was for the Auditor to write his 
 report upon the sentence before sending it up to the 
 Captain-General ; and the Captain-General had to send 
 it, fortified with his approval, to the Government in Madrid. 
 Spain is sometimes thought to be a country of dilatory 
 habit ; but here the promptitude of all concerned was 
 nothing less than miraculous. The Auditor wrote this 
 *' dictamen " of 7500 words in a single day, Sunday the loth 
 — a very remarkable feat ; ^ and in two more days the 
 Captain-General and the Government had satisfied their 
 consciences of the justice of the sentence.'^ 
 
 ' In fact, quite incredible. I do not think we can resist the conclusion 
 that the Auditor anticipated the sentence, and had the greater part of his 
 "dictamen " prepared in advance. 
 
 - La Mafiana of January 25, 1910, published two letters said to ha%*e 
 passed between Sr. Maura and Sr. Morct, the leader of the Liberal opposi- 
 tion. As their authenticity does not seem to be established, I relegate 
 them to a foot-note. Uut, if forgeries, they are certainly very plausible, 
 Sr. Maura's letter runs thus : "The Council of War in Barcelona has passed 
 sentence of death upon Ferrer. The sentence was unanimous, and has been 
 approved by the Supreme Council of War and Marine, which finds no fault
 
 236 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 About three in the morning of Monday the i ith, Ferrer 
 was removed from the prison to Montjuich : a step which 
 showed that his fate was already sealed. On Tuesday 
 evening a cabinet council was held in Madrid, ending at 
 about half past eight ; and, almost at the same hour, 
 Ferrer was taken to the office of the governor of the 
 fortress, where the Examining Commandant, Valerio Raso, 
 read to him the sentence of death. He received it with 
 perfect calm, and signed the paper — like the receipt for a 
 registered letter — with a firm hand. 
 
 If ever man showed his ruling passion strong in death 
 it was Francisco Ferrer. Though he cannot have doubted 
 that his transference to Montjuich was ominous, he was no 
 sooner installed there then he set himself to write what 
 proved to be his last thoughts on his one absorbing 
 theme, in a paper headed — 
 
 Education : For Soledad. 
 It is dated October 1 1, and opens thus — 
 The man was right who, being asked at what age the 
 
 either with the legaHty of the procedure or the penalty imposed. Neverthe- 
 less, and particularly through our Ambassadors in Rome and Paris, the 
 Government is aware that the sentence will provoke much censure and give 
 rise to great protests. The Government also know that the Anarchists who 
 sympathize with Ferrer will promptly make tremendous reprisals. The Home 
 Secretary and myself have received an endless number of anonymous threats, 
 which are also confirmed by the police. If these threats only related to my 
 person I should take no notice of them, as I am ready to face every danger, 
 and even death, rather than fail to carry out the high duties and responsibili- 
 ties of my office. But these threats, as is confirmed by the confidential 
 information from the police, affect one who is superior to all. His Holiness 
 Pius X. has telegraphed to the King imploring mercy for the criminal. His 
 Majesty seems inclined to grant it. The Government is unanimous in its 
 opinion, but thinking of the King, I do not wish to face all the consequences 
 of the execution without taking your opinion." Sr. Moret is represented as 
 having answered : "I think you must not recommend the King to exercise 
 the Royal prerogative. The Government must order the sentence to be 
 carried out. To act otherwise would be a surrender of all the attributes of 
 virility."
 
 THE LAST DAY 237 
 
 education of a child should begin, replied " From the 
 moment of the birth of his grandfather." He did not 
 even exaggerate ; for we carry with us from our birth so 
 many atavistic faults and prejudices, that, if we want to 
 trace them to their origin, we should have to go much 
 further back than two generations. 
 
 This consideration ought not, however, to influence 
 education any further than in impressing upon us the 
 importance of a very great patience, seeing how gradual 
 is every modification in the moral state whether of masses 
 or of individuals. . . . Let us not forget, as we make a 
 beginning in modern education, that its results can only 
 be relative in the first generation, but that, as it is con- 
 tinued from generation to generation, a day will come 
 when parents and teachers find the soil well tilled from 
 the outset, as the children will have begun to be educated 
 from the birth of their grandparents. 
 
 [He goes on to insist on the fundamental importance of 
 two things : physical hygiene and the relations of children 
 with their comrades.] 
 
 The physical hygiene which we recommend is that 
 which is urged on us by the greatest hygienists and 
 sanctioned by experience. It ought to begin with daily 
 baths. Unfortunately . . . 
 
 Here, it would seem, he was interrupted on the nth ; 
 and next day he winds up — 
 
 " I cannot continue, they are taking my life. F. F." 
 Probably this was added after he had written the 
 following letter — his last — also addressed to Solcdad 
 Viliafranca. I omit a couple of paragraphs which arc 
 unimportant, and one or two phrases too intimate for cold 
 print —
 
 238 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 Fortress of Montjuich, 
 
 Barcelona. 12/ 10/ 1909. 
 
 My impressions of this new abode are excellent. The 
 Governor-General has been very amiable, and has installed 
 me in the best cell in the fortress. The officers and the 
 soldiers themselves are polite and full of attentions for me. 
 That is why I am much better off here than at the 
 Celular. 
 
 I have a clean and fresh room with so much sun and 
 air that, if only you were here, I should want nothing 
 more. 
 
 But, you may say, do you never think of the death 
 which the Prosecutor demanded for you, and which your 
 enemies desire ? Not at all, my wife, not at all. Who 
 could think of death in so much, and so brilliant, sunshine ? 
 Blessed be the sun that is the light of my chamber, and 
 you too, Sol, who light up my soul and my conscience, 
 for the love of the truth and the desire of good with which 
 it is filled ! No, I have no time to think of death ; I will 
 think only of life, of the life which we shall live anew when 
 I have obtained justice ; for one day justice will be done 
 me. I will think only of Mongat, of the books of the 
 Escuela, of the new scope that will be given to the cause 
 of rational education, and of the immense happiness that 
 will fill our life. 
 
 « * * * * 
 
 Do not suffer, my life, or let your companions in exile 
 suffer, in thinking me ill or unhappy. 
 
 Never was a prisoner defended as I was.^ For my 
 Defender pleaded not only my cause, but also that of our 
 dear Escuela Moderna and our educational work, with 
 such ardour and passion that I assure you, my Sol, that 
 I could die contented, sure that my work, which is my 
 
 * It is not true that Captain Galceran was arrested or suffered any pro- 
 fessional detriment by reason of his defence of Ferrer ; but there is good 
 reason to believe that his arrest was at one time contemplated.
 
 1 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 Pi 
 
 o 
 
 "a 
 w 
 
 w
 
 THE LAST NIGHT 239 
 
 life, will not die. And so long as my work lives, what 
 does my death matter ? 
 
 Tell me, did you read the defence published in Las 
 Noticias which I sent you ? Did it make you weep ? Did 
 they weep, the others, in reading it? For my part, 
 yesterday, when I saw my Defender, I told him how great 
 had been my emotion in read . . . Here, my beloved, the 
 arrival of the Commandant, Valerio Raso, interrupts me. 
 He comes to tell me that I am to be placed en Capilla^ 
 and ... In my letter of yesterday I already bade you 
 farewell. Te amo y anio a cuantos me aniaran. 
 
 F. Ferrer. 
 
 I shall attempt no comment on this letter. The 
 reader may believe if be can that it is the work of a 
 hypocrite wearing his mask even in his last words to the 
 woman he loved. 
 
 The sentence having been read to him, he was con- 
 ducted en Capilla, into a (apparently improvised) mortuary 
 chapel. Over the altar was an image of the Virgin sur- 
 rounded by tapers. He asked that it might be removed, 
 but the request could not be granted. All night he was 
 surrounded by priests of various orders, pressing upon him 
 their ministrations. These he declined firmly but without 
 asperity, and passed the greater part of the night walking 
 up and down the chapel and dictating to a notary a long 
 and highly detailed will. 
 
 He began by protesting his " total innocence " and 
 " affirming that ere long it would be publicly recognized." 
 Then he deprecated, at any time whatsoever, any religious 
 or political manifestations or observances over his remains. 
 " I desire," he said, " that my friends shall speak little of 
 me, or not at all ; since in eulogizing men we create a 
 sort of idol, which is a practice hurtful to the future of
 
 240 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 humanity," He appointed as his executors Crist6bal 
 Litran and William Heaford. To each of his three 
 daughters he bequeathed the sum of 6000 pesetas (;^24o) 
 to which they were entitled by the law ; but he enjoined 
 them to waive their claims to this money, as he regarded 
 his property as a trust conferred upon him by Mile. 
 Meunier for the propagation of his ideas. To Soledad 
 Villafranca he bequeathed 100 shares in the Fomento de 
 Obras y Construcciones, and the furniture and appurte- 
 nances of their rooms at Mas Germinal. His (heavily 
 mortgaged) house in Paris, his publishing-house and stock 
 in Barcelona, 600 shares in the Fomento de Obras y 
 Construcciones, and 432 shares in the Sociedad Catalana 
 de Credito, he bequeathed to his friend Lorenzo Portet 
 of Liverpool, in trust to carry on, in various ways, his 
 educational and propagandist work, specifying, among 
 other things, that translations should be published of the 
 English books issued by the Moral Education League, 
 with which (as we have seen) he was occupied during the 
 days before his arrest. Portet was further enjoined, if any 
 of Ferrer's family (including his son Riego) should fall 
 into want, to succour them out of the funds thus devised 
 to him. For the rest, his brother Jose was appointed 
 residuary legatee, and failing him, his wife Maria 
 Fontcuberta. 
 
 The dictation of this will occupied about seven hours. 
 It was nearly six in the morning before it was finished. 
 All the time, the clergy hovered round, offering, it is said, 
 not only spiritual but physical ministrations, in the shape 
 of wine, coffee, tobacco ; but even these Ferrer declined, 
 saying that he had supped well before entering the chapel. 
 At a very early hour, probably about seven. Captain 
 Galceran arrived at the fortress and remained with Ferrer
 
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 "AIM WELL, MY SONS!" 241 
 
 to the end. At half-past eight a squadron of cavalry 
 formed a square in the trench of the Santa Eulalia bastion ; 
 and at a quarter to nine Ferrer was summoned to the 
 closing scene. His worst enemies admit that he faced 
 death with serene courage. The morning was grey and 
 chill. He saluted " without affectation " those whom he 
 passed on the way to the place of execution. Arrived on 
 the spot, he asked to be allowed to stand, instead of 
 kneeling, and to have his eyes unbandaged. After some 
 consultation, the first part of his request was granted, but 
 the second was refused, on the ground that " traitors are 
 not permitted to see their executioners." On facing the 
 firing party, he cried, "Aim well, my sons ! It is not your 
 
 fault. I am innocent. Long live the Escuela " Three 
 
 bullets in the brain cut short the phrase. 
 
 The request of his family that his body might be 
 handed over to them was refused ; but by especial favour, 
 his mother and nephew were permitted to see his horribly 
 disfigured remains before they were consigned to the foso 
 comiin of the new cemetery, on the southward flank of 
 Montjuich. There they lie, in a bare red gravel-pit hewn 
 out of the hill-side, and crowded with graves, most of them 
 marked by a triangle, but a few by a cross. The triangle 
 denotes a freethinker, the cross a spiritualist. 
 
 When the Cortes met, two days later, the Ministry 
 could point, not only to a cliose jngtfe, but to difait accompli.
 
 XXII 
 
 THE CASE SUMMED UP 
 
 Excepting some of the villagers and one or two 
 subordinate poHcemen,^ I doubt whether any one con- 
 cerned in the affair acted in deliberate and conscious bad 
 faith. It is quite unnecessary to suppose so. We have 
 all the materials for a judicial crime, in a law carefully 
 designed to give the accused no chance, administered 
 by a band of puzzle-headed and prejudiced soldiers. 
 Lawyers' law is not always synonymous with justice, 
 but it is always preferable to soldiers' law. I have given 
 sufficient specimens of the sort of evidence gravely pro- 
 pounded to and accepted by the Council of War ; but if 
 the reader wishes fully to realize the solemn absurdity of 
 the whole proceedings, he must carefully study the 
 "dictamina" of the Prosecutor, Assessor, and Auditor, 
 translated, practically in full, in the Appendix. 
 
 I reject, then, the theory of any criminal conspiracy 
 against Ferrer. Malignant stupidity, coupled with the 
 absence of the most rudimentary sense of fair play, is 
 sufficient to account for all that occurred. But certainly 
 it has a good deal to account for : the arbitrary banish- 
 
 * Ferrer accused the police of having attempted to suborn his farm- 
 servant to give evidence against him. As a matter of fact, they tried to bribe 
 the man to betray his master's hiding-place — a legitimate proceeding, from 
 their point of view. On the other hand, I think there is little doubt that they 
 " found " the type- written document — v/here they had placed it.
 
 SINISTER CIRCUMSTANCES 243 
 
 ment of all Ferrer's friends ; the studied neglect to call 
 for their evidence ; the pettifogging refusal of that evidence 
 when offered ; the wantonly harsh treatment of the untried 
 prisoner ; the abstraction of his clothes and personal 
 property ; the publication (in papers under strict censor- 
 ship) of compromising documents which, whether genuine 
 or not, should never have left the secret portfolio of the 
 Examining Commandant ; the rewards ostentatiously 
 showered on the heroes who had arrested an unarmed 
 and unresisting man ; the violent haste with which, from 
 the moment the " incommunication " was relaxed and 
 the Defender chosen, the whole complex case was rushed 
 to its conclusion ; the eager acceptance of every second- 
 hand whisper to the detriment of the accused, and the 
 rejection of every favourable testimony to character ; the 
 neglect of even the scanty opportunities provided by the 
 law for the public examination of witnesses ; the spiriting 
 away of one important witness, and the release without 
 trial of others — all this would give the case a dark and 
 sinister complexion, even if the evidence were ten times 
 stronger than it is. But this is not villainy, not Jesuitism ; 
 it is plain, downright stupidity. Having an iniquitous 
 law ready-made to their hands, his enemies could have 
 shot Ferrer quite as comfortably if they had observed the 
 law in every detail, had treated him with scrupulous con- 
 sideration, and had left his captors unrewarded, at any 
 rate until after his conviction. 
 
 The haste alone was necessary, lest, when the Cortes 
 met, awkward questions should be asked. But the haste 
 was the greatest stupidity of all, for it meant the suicide of 
 the Ministry. The Cortes assembled on October 15. 
 Three days later the Liberal leader, Sr. Moret, delivered a 
 vehement attack on the Government of Sr. Maura ; and
 
 2U FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 though Maura and La Cierva, the Minister of the Interior, 
 made a fierce fight, three more days sufficed to drive them 
 from office. They resigned on October 21, just eight 
 days after the death of Ferrer. It is true that the Liberal 
 attack was based on their general mismanagement, the 
 alternate impotence and violence of their conduct, rather 
 than on the Ferrer case in particular. Sr. Moret, when 
 challenged to say whether he himself would have par- 
 doned Ferrer, made no answer ; and if the letter quoted 
 on p. 236 is genuine, we have no difficulty in understanding 
 his silence. But whatever may have been the attitude 
 of the official Liberals towards Ferrer, and whether that 
 attitude was straightforward or not, there is not the least 
 doubt that the execration of Europe, with which in those 
 days the air was ringing, was the main factor in Maura's 
 fall. The Government were forced to admit Moret's con- 
 tention that " their unpopularity at home and abroad was 
 a danger to the country." 
 
 I am not at all sure that, had Ferrer been fairly tried 
 under reasonable rules of evidence, he would have got off 
 scot-free. He was certainly not the " author and chief of 
 the rebellion"; that accusation was a monstrous absurdity; 
 but it is not quite clear that his irrepressible sympathy 
 with every form of revolt may not have betrayed him into 
 one or two indiscretions. What is perfectly clear is that 
 it was not the crumbs of good evidence against him that 
 led to his condemnation, but the mountain of bad evi- 
 dence, to most of which a rational court of law would have 
 refused to listen for a moment. The ultimate truth, when 
 we get to the roots of things, is that he fell a victim to a 
 simple equivocation — a play upon words. His accusers, 
 his judges, all the witnesses against him, from the villagers 
 of Premia up to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court
 
 A DEADLY EQUIVOCATION 245 
 
 (whose opinion, siempre valiosisima, was practically 
 accepted as evidence), were profoundly convinced that he 
 was morally responsible for the revolt — that he was, 
 through his opinions and teachings, the moral " author 
 and chief" of the "Revolution." But the law had unfor- 
 tunately omitted to make such "moral" authorship a 
 capital crime, so it was necessary to allege efficient and 
 actual authorship as well. Constantly and quite plainly, 
 we see the minds of witnesses and advocates shifting from 
 the one ground to the other, and back again. The most 
 flagrant instance, perhaps, occurs in the "dictamen" of 
 the Auditor {Process, p. 312); but the insidious fallacy is 
 traceable at many other points in the official documents, 
 to say nothing of the writings of conservative and clerical 
 apologists for the sentence. Many of these, indeed, prac- 
 tically abandon any other plea than that of " moral " 
 responsibility. 
 
 Is the plea just in itself? In law it cannot be good, 
 not even in Spanish law. But is it defensible on grounds, 
 so to speak, of equity ? I have already discussed this 
 point, and shown the absurdity of supposing that Ferrer's 
 educational work could possibly count for more than a 
 drop in the bucket of popular anti-clericalism. I do not 
 think that any one who sincerely examines the situation 
 can doubt that the revolutionary temper of Barcelona 
 would in all probability have been very much the same if 
 Ferrer had never been born, or had never established the 
 Escuela Moderna. Partly sincerely, and partly out of 
 malice, his enemies enormously exaggerated his influence 
 outside his own little school. We hear of his "endowing" 
 the other laic schools of Barcelona and Catalonia, which is 
 the merest nonsense. He had barely money enough for 
 his own particular enterprise. The "milhons" which he
 
 246 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 devoted to subsidizing other schools existed only in the 
 clerical imagination. At most he supplied some of them 
 with books on credit, and was not very strict in exacting 
 payment. That his energetic example gave a certain 
 impetus to the movement for Republican and rationalist 
 education is, of course, true ; but the movement existed 
 before he came on the scene, and would doubtless have 
 continued, more or less vigorously, even if Mile. Meunier 
 had left all her money to the Church which was so sadly 
 disappointed of it. The chances are, no doubt, that some 
 ex-pupils of the Escuela Moderna, or of similar institu- 
 tions, joined the rioters ; but I am not aware that the fact 
 has been proved in any single instance ; and it has cer- 
 tainly not been proved in sufficient instances to show that 
 the educational movement appreciably contributed to the 
 excesses of the mob. At all events, no atom of proof to 
 this effect was before the Council of War. The Auditor, 
 in his "dictamen," speaking of the disturbances in the 
 smaller towns of Catalonia, said that "the names of the 
 chiefs and principal instigators of seditious acts correspond 
 with those of teachers placed by Ferrer in particular 
 schools, or of chiefs of anarchist centres which depended 
 on the accused." A wilder assertion can seldom have 
 been made in any document put forward by a responsible 
 official as part of a serious legal process. No proof is 
 alleged, and assuredly no proof existed, (i) that the 
 teachers had been appointed by Ferrer, (2) that Ferrer 
 had anything to do with the anarchist centres, (3) that 
 the coincidence of names meant identity of persons. To 
 any one who knows how excessively common Spanish 
 surnames are apt to be, the last assumption must seem 
 almost impudently absurd. 
 
 The exact influence of the Escuela Moderna it is of
 
 PROPAGANDIST EDUCATION 247 
 
 course impossible to measure ; but even if I somewhat 
 underestimate the diffusive power of Ferrer's teaching, it 
 remains grotesquely disproportionate to single it out as 
 the mainspring of the revolt. 
 
 There is nothing to show that Ferrer had a genius 
 for education in any large and liberal sense of the term. 
 He conceived it simply as an instrument of propaganda, 
 a weapon of social and economic enfranchisement. Like 
 every one who is firmly possessed by a dogmatic creed, 
 he was eager to catch the young idea as it sprouted, and 
 train it according to his preconceptions. He knew that 
 "just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined"; and he 
 had no idea of letting the tree grow freely, to be blown 
 upon by all the winds of the spirit. A world in which 
 there should be no teaching but that of the Escuela 
 Moderna, would be a strange, stunted, lop-sided affair. 
 It would, in fact, be the world of an uneducated man, 
 fascinated by the grandiose generalizations of a particular 
 phase of scientific thought — a phase which is wavering 
 and changing before our very eyes. But though Ferrer 
 undoubtedly attributed to his educational principles a 
 world-wide validity, and would not in the least have 
 shrunk from taking office (had it been offered him) as 
 Minister of Education for the Republic of Mankind, it 
 is not fair to make his deficient sense of proportion a 
 reason for applying to his work the standard of universal 
 validity. The question is not whether all schools should 
 be Escuelas Modcrnas, but whether the Escuela Moderna 
 was a good school as compared with others of its grade 
 in Barcelona and in Spain. To this question there can 
 be but one answer from all who bch'cvc in, or care for, 
 education as a means of enlightenment. The light whicli 
 spread from the Callc dc Bailcn might be harsh and
 
 248 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 untempered, but it was light and not darkness. It lit up 
 only one side of things, and it threw unnecessarily harsh 
 shadows ; but it was clear and honest so far as it went, 
 and was therefore hated by the powers which flourish 
 only in and through the exclusion and negation of light. 
 Ferrer's thought was crude, and his methods, though they 
 sincerely aimed at modernity, seem to have achieved it 
 only with large reservations. The way to combat his 
 influence, such as it was, would have been to make the 
 official schools hygienic and efficient ; or if that was 
 impossible, then to start new schools which should com- 
 pete with his in modernity of method, while demonstrating 
 the virtues, instead of the vices, of monarchism, cleri- 
 calism, militarism, and capitalism. After all, there were 
 thousands of individuals in Barcelona — to say nothing 
 of the religious orders — who were far richer than Ferrer. 
 If he, with his one poor "immeuble" in the Rue des 
 Petites Ecuries, could set up such a panic in the hosts 
 of orthodoxy, what might not these hosts, with all their 
 resources, have done to counter his movement in fair 
 fight, on the educational territory which they claimed as 
 their own ! Quite amazing is the poverty of resource 
 which can combat such thought and such methods as 
 Ferrer's only with the gag and the garotte. 
 
 As to Ferrer's character, not much remains to be said. 
 I have done my best to place the reader in a position to 
 form his own judgment. Fragmentary though they be, 
 the utterances which I have quoted form a pretty complete 
 self-revelation. From first to last, we see in him an 
 ardent, uncompromising, incorruptible idealist. His ideals 
 are narrow, and his devotion to them is fanatical ; but it 
 is devoid, if not of egoism, at any rate of self-interest and 
 self-seeking. It is these vices, combined with cowardice,
 
 THE ARDENT IDEALIST 249 
 
 in the political associates of his early days, that alienate 
 him from political and revolutionary agitation. If the 
 1892 manifesto be all genuine, we see that he was at that 
 time prepared to lead a forlorn hope against oppression 
 and exploitation, and to baptize liberty in a torrent of 
 blood. Perhaps it was the scant response elicited by his 
 scheme of mad self-immolation that began, or hastened, his 
 disillusionment. His manifesto, indeed, was never issued ; 
 but that was probably because he discreetly felt the pulse 
 of the men he had in view, and found that it did not throb 
 with exultation at the thought of dying like " sons of the 
 Cid " in such a hare-brained attempt. At all events, like 
 most of the great idealists of the past century, he came to 
 feel that the first and fundamental revolution, without 
 which all others must be futile, was a revolution in the 
 spirit of man. As the particular section of mankind from 
 which he sprang, and which he was best fitted to influence, 
 happened to be either illiterate or educated solely in 
 obscurantism, he naturally bent his mind to amending that 
 primary condition. Being himself, moreover, ill-educated, 
 he found disproportionate comfort and assurance in a 
 particular set of scientific doctrines which he accepted as 
 the last word of sublunary wisdom. When these doctrines 
 should be brought home in their purity to the human 
 mind, he nothing doubted that the millennium would be 
 upon us ; consequently he set himself with whole-hearted 
 and unquestioning ardour to the promulgation of the faith 
 that was in him. Like all ardent proselytizcrs, he had 
 little sense of humour, though enough to smile, now and 
 then, at his own incompressibility. Very characteristic is 
 the picture he draws of himself sitting, bound with galling 
 cords, at the town house of Alclla, and calmly endeavour- 
 ing, all the night through, to sow the good seed among
 
 250 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 his captors of the soinatefi. It is curious how, in a Catholic 
 country, we find this Puritan of free thought acting very 
 much as did the Puritans of Protestantism at the Refor- 
 mation, and as some of them would like to do to-day — 
 covering his head in the presence of the Host, converting 
 a carven cross into a mere bar, deprecating the mute 
 presence of the Virgin during the last vigil of his life. 
 And while there is in these traits an ostentation of protest, 
 we cannot but see in some others a pedantic self-suppres- 
 sion. For instance, he will not sign his name upon the 
 menu of a dinner, because the treasuring of a signature 
 is a form of idolatry ; but he will write moral maxims 
 instead, such as " L'union fait la force." A similar trait 
 is the prohibition in his will of harmless and inevitable 
 hero-worship — it shows a passion for trimming human 
 nature down to the strict requirements of a somewhat 
 niggardly rationalism. But in all this he was absolutely 
 and limpidly sincere. It was the pedantic excess of a 
 very real quality — the complete impersonality of his 
 ardour. As he shrank from applying the money entrusted 
 him to ends of personal luxury, so also he shrank from 
 making his ideas and convictions subserve any personal 
 ambition or vanity. So far as his name formed a rallying- 
 point for his co-religionaries (as they may quite accurately 
 be called) he was willing that it should be used to that 
 end ; but he was wholly innocent of any pontifical preten- 
 sions. He was the most genuinely unambitious of men ; 
 and there is nothing baser or stupider in the pronounce- 
 ments of his accusers than their attempt to wrest his wish 
 to remain "in the shade" into a cowardly endeavour to 
 lurk unseen, while sending others forth to commit crime 
 and incur danger. To make Ferrer a coward was to 
 exceed the limits of permissible density.
 
 PASSIONS AND AFFECTIONS 251 
 
 On his relations with the three women who succes- 
 sively entered into his life, the reader must pass judgment 
 for himself. Perhaps his wiser course will be rather to 
 suspend judgment, unless he deems himself able to read 
 the secrets of a dead heart and of three living ones. Two 
 of the three women I know, slightly indeed, but suffi- 
 ciently to respect them, and to feel that their characters 
 shed no unfavourable ilight upon the character of the man 
 whose life they shared. The legend of Ferrer's parental 
 heartlessness, is, I hope, finally disposed of in the fore- 
 going pages, for all persons who are accessible to evidence. 
 This book would be considerably longer had I gathered 
 up all the proofs that he was a man of warm family 
 feeling. I shall never forget the simple earnestness with 
 which Jose Ferrer said " No two brothers live like he and 
 me." So far as anything is certain in this world of 
 accidents, it is certain that Ferrer would be alive to-day 
 had he not responded instantly, and at no slight personal 
 inconvenience, to a call ,of family affection. Nor was his 
 enthusiasm for humanity of that order which chills at 
 the contact with individual fellow-men, beyond the family 
 circle. His inveterate habit of conversational proselytism 
 could scarcely have been contracted without a certain power 
 of getting into human relations with strangers. Of the 
 personal attachment with which his friends regarded him, 
 I have had numerous and convincing proofs. One little 
 trait will show the kindliness of his disposition. His friend 
 William Heaford he had long known by correspondence, 
 but had never seen until his last visit to England in the 
 spring of 1909, when, after several other meetings, he 
 passed an evening at Mr. Hcaford's house. Five months 
 later, at the end of his last letter to Mr. Heaford from 
 the Carccl Ccliilar, written four days before his trial and
 
 252 FRANCISCO FERRER 
 
 eight days before the death that he knew to be hanging 
 over him by a thread, he wrote : " Merci bien, mon cher 
 ami, et excusez moi. Je pense a Madame, a Arthur, 
 et meme a Pickle. Oh ! nous nous verrons a Thornton 
 Heath et a Frascatti ^ aussi." Pickle is the Heafords' 
 dog. 
 
 At the same time, whatever we may find to admire in 
 Ferrer, it would be foolish to class him either with the 
 sages or with the saints. He was not a genius ; he was 
 not an original or penetrating thinker ; he was not a man 
 of great personal magnetism or conspicuous beauty of 
 character. What, then, makes him interesting? What 
 glorifies and exalts a personality in itself not very far 
 removed from the commonplace ? What but the fact 
 of his death .'' It is his enemies that have enabled 
 him to display the true greatness of his character, and 
 have thrust immortality upon him. First the Madrid 
 trial secured him a certain measure of fame ; but it was 
 still restricted to people who took a special interest in 
 rationalist and humanitarian education. Had he then 
 been left in peace to pursue his publishing schemes, and 
 even to re-open the Escuela Moderna, he might have gone 
 to the grave twenty years hence, leaving behind him, 
 among the Latin nations, a certain repute as an educator, 
 but certainly nothing like world-wide fame. His whole 
 life-work would have done less damage to Spanish Catholi- 
 cism than the mere mention of his name does to-day. 
 For by dragging him through a travesty of trial, to a 
 plainly unmerited doom, his enemies gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of showing to all the world his one supreme virtue 
 — a high and unflinching courage. His dogmatic rational- 
 ism was a somewhat arid creed, but in his death he touched 
 
 ^ The Frascati Restaurant.
 
 AVE ATQUE VALE 253 
 
 it with emotion. His executioners, from Sr. Maura down- 
 wards, conferred on him a patent of undying nobility. The 
 man who wrote his letters from prison, and who faced the 
 great enigma — to his mind no enigma, but night and 
 nothingness, — with such serene, unfaltering resolution, is 
 certainly not the least among the victims of obscuran- 
 tism, the martyrs of free thought.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE TRIAL
 
 NOTE 
 
 The following pages contain a literal translation of the official 
 documents of Ferrer's trial, as issued by, or with the consent of, the 
 Spanish Government. Large numbers of the pamphlet (printed by 
 the " Impresores de la Real Casa ") are said to have been gratuitously 
 distributed by the Ministry of the Interior. 
 
 The whole text is given, except a few paragraphs of purely legal 
 argument. Not a word of anything purporting to be evidence is 
 omitted. In the translation, elegance is everywhere subordinated to 
 literal accuracy. I have not been at pains to make the present 
 rendering verbally identical with quotations in the foregoing text, as 
 there seemed to be no harm in giving alternative versions of important 
 passages. 
 
 I have resisted the temptation to throw into relief the absurdities 
 of the case for the prosecution by the use of itaHcs and other typo- 
 graphical expedients. The italics in the text are those of the original. 
 But I have printed in capitals the words "author and chief 
 of the rebellion " wherever they are applied to Ferrer, in order to 
 make it abundantly clear that it was in this character, and no other, 
 that he was found guilty and executed.
 
 ORDINARY PROCESS 
 
 Conducted before the Military Tribunals 
 AT the Station of Barcelona 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 Francisco Ferrer Guardia 
 
 CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION BEFORE 
 THE COUNCIL OF WAR 
 
 Don Jesus Marin Rafales, Captain in the 57th Infantry 
 
 (Vergara Regiment), acting as Prosecutor in the proceedings 
 
 against Francisco Ferrer Guardia, before the ordinary Council 
 
 of War of the station, says — 
 
 Having been entrusted, for no merit of my own, with the duty 
 
 of representing the law at this juncture, I come before the Court 
 
 entirely unprejudiced, and with the 
 
 '' In stern Judicial frame of sole aim of Studying reality, of what- 
 
 „'"'" ,'• r r ever nature it may be, and such as it 
 
 From bias free of every 
 
 lil„j may appear from the records of the 
 
 This (rial must be tried." process. I shall remain, as every 
 
 member of the Council of War will 
 assuredly remain, uninfluenced by the gloomy retrospect of late 
 events, and by the popular voice, which, though sometimes styled 
 " Vox Dei," yet, having no other guide than instinct, however 
 sure that may be on many occasions, lacks a basis of reason upon 
 which to found itself. 
 
 The frightful spectacle of conflagration and pillage reigning in 
 
 S
 
 258 APPENDIX 
 
 this capital ; ,the cruellest sectarian passion felling the priest, 
 
 wounded to the death, at the foot of 
 '' The priest'' and "the altar, or wresting from the nun the 
 nun- seem to refer to an ^^^^^ ^f ^^^ j^ -^ ^^^ ^^j.^^^g ^f 
 
 tndefintte but large number. 
 
 In fact, three priests lost their t^e cloister ; the most shameful treason 
 lives f none of them "at the disintegrating the forces of that Army 
 foot of the altar'' ; and the whose duty is to defend the honour of 
 
 sole alleged outrage on a nun ,i , - j , • u ii- j 
 
 . ^ , ,, * . , „ the nation, and to punish the murder 
 }s probably mythical. See ^ 
 
 p, iyj_ of our countrymen on African soil ; 
 
 all this compelled us to adopt active 
 measures of repression, to repulse force by force in the streets with 
 all necessary energy ; for all this, had it not been exclusively the 
 work of a few criminals, would constitute a standing disgrace to 
 the nation at large and to this district in particular. But, quiet 
 once restored, the Courts once enjoined to fix responsibility and 
 to re-establish order and justice, no voice can be heard but that 
 of the Law's majestic serenity. 
 
 And now, in entering upon the execution of my duty, and 
 while I endeavour to fulfil it with all the conciseness and brevity 
 compatible with the character of the subject and the practice of 
 military procedure, I feel it necessary to make one preliminary 
 remark, arising out of the origin of the present proceedings. It 
 is this : since the case now in hand has branched off from that 
 upon which Commandant Don Vicente Lliviana is engaged, with 
 the object of ascertaining the causes of the revolutionary move- 
 ment, and of discovering its authors and instigators, we are not 
 
 now investigating the burning of a 
 Confession that mt a single particular convent, nor an explosion at 
 
 overt act of violence or ille- .1 • • . ^u «. ^u j «. i- 
 
 , , , , this point or that, nor the destruction 
 
 gality can be brought home to ^ ■ 
 
 Perrer. of One or another section of telegraph- 
 
 wire, nor the identity of those who 
 built such-and-such a barricade, or fired from it upon the troops. 
 No ; in this case, as in that from which it springs, we are probing 
 the revolutionary movement to its hidden entrails ; we unravel the 
 causes which gave it life ; we seek out the authors who prepared 
 it, set it in motion, and sustained it ; we gather into one great 
 synthesis all the particular facts which compose it, in order to 
 consider it as an organic and homogeneous whole.
 
 "MAJESTIC SERENITY" 259 
 
 The facts ! Why enumerate them? You have all been eye- 
 witnesses of the greater part of them, and assuredly of the most 
 serious, those, namely, which took place in this capital, whence 
 the movement spread like a train of gunpowder to the minor 
 towns of this province and that of Gerona. All, or nearly all, of 
 
 you must have taken a more or less 
 "7yi<? Laiv's majestic active part in their repression, from the 
 serenity- must not be dis- ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 26th of July last, 
 tttrbed by any ^^ gloomy retro- . ... . , 
 
 sped of late events" or appeal ^he ostensibly peaceful protest agamst 
 to vindictive passion. the embarkation of troops for Melilla 
 
 was initiated, until the time when, swept 
 by fire or riven by dynamite, the walls of churches and convents 
 crumbled to the ground, when the volleys aimed at you from 
 roof and barricade were quelled, and when the mournful silence 
 of subdued rebellion followed upon the groans of the victims, 
 upon the blasphemies amid which those savages, drunk with 
 blood, dragged bodies forth from their tombs, and upon the vile 
 slang with which repulsive prostitutes, before selling their endear- 
 ments, accompanied their hyena-like ravages. 
 
 How, when such facts as these have occurred before our eyes, 
 can there be any question of requiring proof of their existence ? 
 We can all, as I said before, give ocular evidence ; the ruins of 
 the shattered edifices remain to add their testimony ; the cry 
 of " Long live the Republic " yet rings in our ears ; still, on the 
 fronts of many buildings, the bullet-marks plainly score their 
 impassive accusation. 
 
 [Here follows a technical argument as to the legal definition 
 of the disturbances, with the object of showing that they rightly 
 fall under the head of " military rebellion."] 
 
 I have expounded and justified our qualification of the facts. 
 Let us proceed to do the same with regard to the accusation 
 
 which we are iformulating against the 
 The accusation formulated, prisoner, Francisco Ferrer Guardia, as 
 
 CHIEF OF THE MILITARY REBELLION. 
 
 The Court will excuse us if the copiousness of the evidence 
 brought together with praiseworthy zeal, activity and intelligence, 
 by the Examining Magistrate in the case, obliges us to claim its 
 attention for some little time.
 
 260 APPENDIX 
 
 To this end, we must in the first place define what is meant 
 by the word " chief." The " chief " is the man who is in com- 
 mand, who is the superior, the head ; 
 Definition of ^^ chief of a the man who assembles people, who 
 rebellion^ impels and directs the rest; the man 
 
 who lifts up his voice, who points out 
 the aim of the rebellion, who procures, apportions and distributes 
 the means that lead to its attainment. If this is the character of 
 the " chief of a rebellion," is the definition applicable to the share 
 which Francisco Ferrer Guardia took in the events of July, on 
 the showing of the evidence set forth in the records ? Assuredly 
 yes, and we shall proceed to prove it. 
 
 The charge already begins to shape itself in this sense with 
 the deposition of the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Guardia Civil, 
 
 Don Leoncio Ponte, who, as appears 
 Fifteen Witnesses. at foUo 26 (back), indicates Ferrer as 
 
 (1) Colonel Ponte "indi- ^^j^j^^ ^^ ^^^j^g ^ -^^ ^^^ movements 
 eates" and ^^ considers. See , ,, , ,-, ., 1 , . 
 iii> 78 iq6 ^^ Masnou and Premia, and ordermg 
 
 his partizans to repair to Barcelona to 
 defend their brothers. This military commander considers that 
 the Fraternidad Republicana of Premii seemed to be the head- 
 quarters of the incendiaries and seditionaries. 
 
 The charge acquires greater precision (folio 30, back) in the 
 statement of the journalist, Don Manuel Jimenez Moya, an un- 
 exceptionable witness, inasmuch as he 
 
 (2) Jimenez Moya gives his has been banished to Majorca on 
 
 «'^/m/^«" and ^^ indicates." ^ccount of the exaltation of his ideas. 
 Ue was not in Barcelona ^^ . . , . . . , 
 
 during the riots. See p. 1^6. He says that m his opmion, the re- 
 
 bellion originated with the Solidaridad 
 Obrera, where a secret meeting had been held, and whence 
 delegates subsequently set off for various districts ; and he indi- 
 cates Ferrer, and his associates of the Antimilitarist League, as 
 the directors. 
 
 Councillor Don Narciso Verdaguer 
 
 (3) Verdaguer Callisfrom ^^^y^^ ,^^y^^ . continues in the Same 
 information received, " con- \ ^ 1 ^ ^ 
 tinues in the same strain." Strain, affirming that, according to infor- 
 mation, which he has no means of 
 
 checking, but believes to be accurate, the events arose through
 
 THE FIFTEEN WITNESSES 261 
 
 the initiative and guidance of more or less anarchist elements, 
 
 impelled and directed by Ferrer Guardia and a young teacher 
 
 of languages named Fabre. 
 
 Even greater precision is given to the charge in the evidence 
 
 of Don Juan Alsina Estival, Councillor 
 of Premid, who in his first declaration 
 (foUo 77) establishes the serious turn 
 taken by events in that locality after 
 Ferrer's arrival at the village and his 
 conference with the Alcalde ; and in the 
 evidence of this witness's neighbours, 
 Don Juan Comas Alsina, who, at folio 
 161, affirms that rioting began one hour 
 after Ferrer's departure ; Don Valentin 
 Alonso, Lieutenant of the Carabineers 
 (folio 162, back), who points out that 
 from the moment of the prisoner's 
 arrival events assumed a different 
 aspect from that which they had 
 previously worn; and Don Adolfo 
 Cesa Moragas and Don Pablo Reig 
 Cesa, who maintain (folios 214 and 
 216, back) that after the conference 
 with Ferrer the revolutionaries changed 
 their attitude. 
 Evidence of the same tendency as regards the Solidaridad 
 
 Obrera is given by Don Emiliano Iglesias, Councillor of 
 
 Barcelona, though in very vague terms, 
 since he only says that he believes the 
 Solidaridad spent more money than it 
 possessed ; but to make up for this, the 
 
 information is confirmed by a witness of more than ordinary 
 
 weight, namely Baldomero Bonet, the 
 (10) BaUomero Bonet** be. defendant in the prosecution instituted 
 
 lines," for the burning of the Conceptionist 
 
 Convent, against whom, it appears, 
 
 serious charges arc pending. He says, in his examination in the 
 
 aforesaid case, certified at folio 370 of the present proceedings, 
 
 Various villagers (4, 5, 6, 
 7, 8) ''establish''' the serious 
 turn taken by events at PremiA^ 
 
 •' after Ferrei^s arrival" 
 
 •' one hour after Ferret's de- 
 parture" 
 
 "from the moment of his 
 arrival" 
 
 *' after the conference." Note 
 that Ferrer conferred with no 
 *' revolutiottaries " save the 
 prosecution's own witnesses. 
 Seep. 199. 
 
 (9) Iglesias ** vaguely be' 
 lieves." Seep. 197.
 
 262 APPENDIX 
 
 that he believes the occurrences took their rise in the Solidaridad 
 Obrera, and that, as the Solidaridad does not abound in resources, 
 
 he shares in the general idea that the 
 " shares in a general idea,'^ person who furnished them was the 
 
 noted anarchist Ferrer. That exami- 
 nation he ratified at folio 371 of these proceedings, adding "he 
 
 confirmed his opinion, because he could 
 and ** confirms his opinion.** not conceive that any other element 
 
 could have been the cause of the events." 
 The same current of accusation against the Solidaridad Obrera, 
 
 and against Ferrer as its director, is 
 "Curref of accusation sustained in the deposition of Don 
 sustained" by (li) Modesto ,, , ^ -^. ^ . ^ , 
 
 j^^j.^^ Modesto Lara, First Lieutenant of the 
 
 Guardia Civil (folio 210), and in that 
 of Don Alfredo Garcia Magallon, First 
 
 (12) C<.r./a MagaUSn Lieutenant (retired) in the Artillery, 
 *'■ heard that Pierre had .. ' "" 
 
 heard ..." Seep. 198, ^^<^, describing his meeting and con- 
 versation with the journalist Pierre, of 
 El Frogresff, says (folio 480), that that gentleman asserted on his 
 part, as something he had heard said, " that the occurrences of 
 July were of an anarchist character, and initiated by the Solid- 
 aridad Obrera, under the direction and absolute control of Ferrer." 
 
 And if this were not enough, Juan Puig 
 
 "If this were not enough^* Ventura, sumamed Llarch, tells us on 
 KM) Puig, surnamed Llarch, ^,. . . • ^ , -j , 
 
 "believes." ^"^^ particular point — besides other 
 
 matters of great interest which we 
 shall examine later — in his first two declarations (folios 24 and 
 76, back), that "he believes the instigator of the whole to have 
 been Ferrer," since the excesses committed are consistent with 
 that person's subversive ideas, and with the bonds which attach 
 him to members of the Solidaridad Obrera, whose anarchist 
 leanings are pronounced. 
 
 Don Domingo Casas Llibre, Alcalde [of Premii], who held a 
 
 conference with Ferrer, as we shall see 
 
 (14) The Alcalde *^ formed later, and who was prosecuted for the 
 
 an opinion," events in that village, indicates in his 
 
 declarations (folios 138 and 305) that 
 he formed the opinion that Francisco Ferrer Guardia was the
 
 "STILL CLEARER PROOF" 263 
 
 "directing element" of all the outrages committed in that 
 
 neighbourhood; in which opinion also 
 in which (15) his assistant abounds Don Jose Alvarez Espinosa, 
 secretary " also abounds:' Assistant Secretary to the Ayuntamiento 
 
 of Premia, who likewise had an interview 
 with Ferrer, and was, like the previous witness, prosecuted for 
 these events (folios 139 and 313). He affirms that he believes 
 Ferrer to be ''the real instigator and inspirer of the events 
 of July." 
 
 Already, therefore, we have evidential proof by 15 witnesses 
 indicating Ferrer as director of the occurrences. Some base the 
 charge in part upon his relations with the Solidaridad Obrera, 
 and the share taken by that society in the events, alleging their 
 
 community of ideas, and even certain 
 As to the pecuniary aid, pecuniary aid ; others display the 
 see pp. 162, 197. prisoner personally in the said charac- 
 
 ter, basing their statements on the 
 events at Premid and the acts of violence there committed, which 
 had not occurred before his arrival in the village^ and his con- 
 ference with the Alcalde Sr. Casas, the Deputy Alcalde Sr. 
 
 Mustare's, and the Assistant Secretary 
 Seep. 198. to the Ayuntamiento Sr. Alvarez Espi- 
 
 nosa, but which began definitely a little 
 while after he left — according to Don Jaime Comas Alsina, 
 already quoted, something like an hour after Ferrer's departure. 
 But I have still a clearer proof. The Most Honourable 
 
 Prosecutor of the Supreme Court says 
 
 Don Javier Ugarte. See that the events at Barcelona began with 
 
 ^' ' ^' an ostensibly peaceful protest against 
 
 the war and the embarkation of troops. 
 
 This is true, but it is expedient to set 
 
 forth the facts in detail. During the 
 
 No attempt made to show morning of July 26, it is certain that 
 
 a sin He act of Preparation or .. .. \ 1 • 
 
 , J ,. // ^„ ,,, a protest began, bccommg more accen- 
 
 l coder ship before the 2()th, ' ° ' ^ 
 
 though he is admitted to have tuated m the evening; but it is to be 
 been shadowed by the police. noted that this protest was never spon- 
 taneous, either on the part of the pop'.i- 
 lace at large, or on that of the working-class body in particular.
 
 264> APPENDIX 
 
 The proof of this is clear, inasmuch as the workmen did not 
 
 abandon their work, but were com- 
 Setp. 127. pelled to suspend it, by the attitude of 
 
 the groups who went around among 
 the workshops and factories. The same applies to the tramway 
 staff, who, as you will remember, on former occasions have 
 assisted in strikes, but in this case did not leave their duty for 
 one moment, so long as it was possible to perform it, showing 
 genuine zeal in defending, sometimes at their personal risk, the 
 cars which the crowds were attempting to seize, and giving way 
 only in the face of a compulsion which they lacked the means to 
 dominate. 
 
 On the same evening, as already pointed out, events gathered 
 greater impetus, and, just as at Premid the witnesses point to the 
 change which corresponded with Ferrer's presence, so here we 
 may remark a similar phenomenon if we follow him step by step 
 
 from the time when, on the evening of 
 
 T/ie intention of the July 26, he left the railway station, the 
 
 '' author and chief '^ to leave ^^ain service being interrupted, and re- 
 
 ihe movement to look after • i , , -r,, . • t / 
 
 itself and return to Mongat, P^.^^^d to the Plaza Antonio Lopez m 
 
 is accepted without comment. this capital, until the 29th, when we 
 
 find him to have taken refuge in some 
 house and quarter unknown, where, he says, he lay concealed 
 until the day of his arrest. 
 
 In effect, Don Angel Fernandez Bermejo, the agent of vigi- 
 lance who was told off to shadow Ferrer, tells us in his declaration 
 
 at folio 481 that he saw him approach 
 The Police Spy testifies that the groups of insurgents who, on Mon- 
 Ferrerwalkedfrom the station ^ j^j ^g ^^ ^^^^j ^ o'clock in the 
 to the Hotel Inter nacional, . . , ^, 
 
 and spoke to one or two people evenmg,^ were m the Plaza Antonio 
 on the way. Lopez, in this capital ; that on one 
 
 occasion when the groups were dis- 
 persed by a file of cavalrymen who were on the spot, Ferrer was 
 in one of them ; that after the dispersion he proceeded towards 
 the Puerta de la Paz, until he arrived in front of Atarazanas 
 [barracks] where also he stood talking with the persons who 
 composed one of the groups ; that he then went on up the 
 Ramblas where, in a charge of the police force, the witness lost
 
 DOMENECH 265 
 
 sight of him, but presently came upon him again in the same 
 Rambla, by which he made his way to the International Hotel, 
 the managing-clerk of which bore witness that Ferrer supped 
 there, and said he did not know whether he should return for the 
 night. 
 
 The witness Francisco Domenech, barber of Masnou, dove- 
 tails his declaration, so to speak, with the last : he says (foHos 2 1 
 
 and 23) that he came upon Ferrer at 
 The Barber of Masnou half-past nine on the same evening 
 
 relates the events of Monday ,f , /- \ • r ' j «.u ^.i. 
 
 •' -^ (Tuly 26) m a cafe underneath the 
 
 evening. \j j i 
 
 International Hotel, that Ferrer invited 
 him to enter, and that he accepted ; that from there they pro- 
 ceeded to the office of El Frogreso, to see, as Ferrer put it, 
 *' what the comrades were agreeing to do " ; then to the Cafd 
 Aribau; at this point, however, witness corrects himself in 
 his second declaration, and says it was not at this cafe, but 
 at another, at the corner of the Calle 'Aribau and the Calle 
 de la Universidad, that they met Calderon, Ponte, Tubau, 
 and Sr. Litrdn and his wifej that Ferrer spoke with them, but 
 that witness did not catch what they were talking about; that 
 Ferrer afterwards proposed that witness should repair to the 
 Calle Nueva de San Francisco, to the Solidaridad, to find out 
 whether any of Ferrer's associates were there ; that witness 
 refused, and that Litrdn volunteered to do it; that Ferrer and 
 Domenech then returned to the office of El Frogreso, and that, 
 on coming out, Ferrer told him that he had not found the person 
 
 he was seeking, adding that Iglesias and 
 
 The address to the Govern- some Others had not consented to sign 
 
 ment. Seep. 208. a document he had with him, which was 
 
 to be sent to the Government, demand- 
 ing the discontinuance of embarkations for Melilla " since, in the 
 opposite event, they would make a revolution, the signatories 
 
 putting themselves at the head of the 
 
 Ferrer did not see Iglesias. people " ; and that Iglesias had said to 
 
 Seep. 197. him that it would be best to resume 
 
 work, and had asked him on what 
 forces he relied for what was proposed ; that thence they intended 
 to return to their homes; but that in the Calle dc la Princesa
 
 266 APPENDIX 
 
 two persons stopped them, of whom one was named Moreno ; that 
 
 to him Ferrer said that at the office of 
 Meeting with Moreno. El Progreso there were some represen- 
 
 tatives of the Solidaridad trying to come 
 to an understanding with the radicals, who had up to that time 
 decHned ; that he enjoined Moreno to return there to see if they 
 were coming to an understanding, upon which Moreno repUed 
 that " they were already compromised," and, Domenech proceeds, 
 Moreno added, " And woe to him who shall fail us, for we will 
 do with him as they do with traitors in Russia ! " 
 
 Great as is the importance of these declarations, which bear 
 witness to Ferrer's direction of the events of July 26, throwing 
 
 into relief his leadership and his 
 
 His" leadership- is shown i^^^^i^^on of the movement, their im- 
 
 by hts wanting to know what . •■ , , , 
 
 other people are deciding to Portance IS augmented by the declara- 
 
 do. tions of Don Lorenzo Ardid, and 
 
 troopers Claudio Sanchez Yugo and 
 Miguel Calvo, of the Dragoons of Santiago. 
 
 Ardid tells us in the certified copy of the declaration he made 
 in the proceedings taken against him, appearing at folio 348, and 
 
 ratified at folio 395A, that on Monday, 
 
 The incident of the Casa July 26, he was taking coffee at the 
 
 dil Pueblo. Casa del Pueblo, when Ferrer came in, 
 
 gave him good-day, and said he wished 
 to speak to him in private. " When you please," replied Ardid ; 
 
 whereupon Ferrer asked him, " What 
 Question and answer. do you think about the events of to- 
 
 day ? " Witness replied, " It is all 
 over, because it is a sort of protest which cannot go any further." 
 Then Ferrer asked him again : " Do you think it cannot go any 
 further?" Witness repUed with energy, and Ferrer remained 
 silent. Then Ardid turned his back upon him and approached 
 
 one of the members, to whom he said, 
 
 For Ardid's own account " Tell that gentleman " (pointing to 
 
 the incident, see p. 20s. Ferrer) "to go away quickly by the 
 
 side door." Ferrer obeyed. The same 
 witness adds that Litr^n was sitting at the table with him, and 
 that he suspects that Ferrer was one of the organizers of the
 
 THE TROOPERS 267 
 
 events. This declaration is obviously important, not only in 
 
 itself, but because Ardid persisted in it with extraordinary energy 
 
 at his confrontation with the prisoner, which appears on folio 414. 
 
 Ferrer, who had in his deposition denied that he had been at 
 
 the Casa del Pueblo, was forced to 
 ^jDn Ferrer's denial, see p. ^j^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^-^^^ ^^^^ j^^ ^^^ ^^^ 
 
 absolutely deny having been at that 
 place, and that, as he wished to see Sr. Litran, he naturally went 
 there to look for him ; at the same time, he had to admit that 
 he recollected seeing Sr. Ardid on July 26. 
 
 Troopers Claudio Sanchez and Miguel Calvo, for their part, 
 corroborate the evidence of the agent of vigilance, Don Angel 
 
 Fernandez Bermejo, as to what occurred 
 
 Two troopers testify that jj^ j^g pj^^^ Antonio Lopez. They 
 
 Ferrer desired to read the ,- ,. „ j o \ ^u .. .. u ^ 
 
 Captain-GeneraPs proclan,a- '^V (^^^'""^ 484 and 485) that at about 
 
 fion. half-past five on the day aforesaid, the 
 
 26th, they came on patrol duty together 
 in that square, and were struck by the presence in the groups of 
 an individual dressed in a different way from the others, who 
 
 seemed to be workmen, whereas this 
 
 TJU blue suit and straw individual was wearing a blue suit, and 
 
 hat. Seep. 207. a Straw hat with the brim turned down 
 
 over the forehead and up at the back ; 
 and as they were dispersing one group, this individual confronted 
 Claudio Sanchez, and, pointing to the proclamation affixed to the 
 wall, said to him "May one not read that?" The declarations 
 of the two troopers are of obvious importance, not only for their 
 intrinsic value, but also on account of the fact that both witnesses, 
 on three occasions, among a circle of prisoners, identified 
 Francisco Ferrer Guardia as the individual referred to in their 
 depositions, as appears from folios 488 and 489. 
 
 As regards the following day, July 27, although Ferrer had 
 
 returned to his house, Mas Germinal, 
 Tuesday the 2Vh. j^ ^^^ ^^^jy ^^^^^ ^f the morning. 
 
 This is a slip. Ferrer did arriving at Masnou in the company of 
 not goto Masnou, but parted prancisco Domencch, the witness above 
 
 front Domencch at MomnU. ,,,,-, , ■ 
 
 quoted — both of them havmg previ- 
 ously breakfasted at a caft' in Badalona — still Ferrer, it is known,
 
 268 APPENDIX 
 
 could not remain inactive; and in case the enthusiasm of his 
 followers should abate, he seems to have thought his directorship 
 and presence necessary in Barcelona. The proof of this is the 
 
 declaration of Don Francisco de Paula 
 The Catholic journalist Colldefons (folio 492). This gentle- 
 man affirms that on Tuesday the 27th, 
 between 7.30 and 8.30 in the evening, he saw a group in the 
 Ramblas, opposite the Liceo [Theatre], captained^ mark this well, 
 captained by a person who appeared to him to be Francisco 
 Ferrer Guardia; he knew him only from a photograph, but 
 
 acquired the certainty that this must 
 •who did not know Ferrer^ be he by hearing it said by those who 
 and is the solitary-witness who passed the spot; the group linlquestion 
 
 purports to have seen him proceeded along the Calle del Hospital. 
 exercising any sort of leader- ° . ^ 
 
 ship. Seep. 212. -^"^ when the Examining Magistrate 
 
 complied with the prescribed formality 
 
 (as appears at folio 493), witness three times identified Ferrer 
 
 among a circle of prisoners as the person he had seen on the 
 
 said day, and at the said place. 
 
 The 28th is a day of extraordinary activity for Ferrer; he 
 
 is ubiquitous, and such places as his 
 
 Wednesday, the 2%th. direct impulsion cannot reach are 
 
 Ferrer is ^Uibiquitous^' -in reached by that of his agents, who 
 precisely two places — the ad- , .... 
 
 foining villages of Masnou brazenly speak m his name to the 
 and Premia. multitude, to entice it into committing 
 
 those excesses which we all deplore. 
 
 „ . . , , , , But for that very reason, it is the day 
 
 He went to be shaved, as he . ^ 
 
 did every Wednesday and ^hich leaves the most frequent traces 
 Saturday. There is no sug- of his Steps, and produces the greatest 
 gestion in the evidence that he, number of witnesses who point to him ; 
 
 on this occasion, shaved so j v • _ i. r ^l ^ 
 
 ^ , ,. . , . and It IS perhaps for that reason, too, 
 
 as to alter m any way his r r i j 
 
 habitual appearance. that Ferrer begins his work by being 
 
 shaved at Masnou, in order to pass 
 more unremarked and thus elude the action of justice. 
 
 In the first place, Francisco Do- 
 The Barber again. menech, whom we have quoted several 
 
 times, tells us, on the folio above referred 
 to, that on the 28th Ferrer presented himself at the barber's
 
 LLARCH 269 
 
 shop at Masnou, where witness was employed, to be shaved. 
 Ferrer told him to go and fetch the president of the Republican 
 Committee, Juan Puig Ventura, called Llarch^ to see if there was 
 
 anything doing. He came, and Ferrer 
 Domemch speaks as though proposed that he should go to the 
 thts conversation took place in _, -r-rn i i- i-r. ii- 
 
 thebarher'sshop; Llarchsays ^own Hall and proclaim the Republic ; 
 they went to a deserted house Puig, like the Others, declined to do 
 in another street, seeming to this, thinking that Ferrer merely wished 
 imply that Domenech was to compromise them. Late in the even- 
 ing of that day, there were numerous 
 groups, in a somewhat turbulent mood, of strangers from the 
 neighbouring villages, who were, according to their own account, 
 awaiting Ferrer's arrival ; but he did not appear. Witness adds 
 that Ferrer disappeared from his house on the 29th, and that he 
 did not see him again. 
 
 Domenech's narrative is confirmed and amplified by Juan 
 Puig Ventura, called Z/anh, to whom, as we have just seen, the 
 
 former witness alludes : a man of upright 
 
 Llarch means "tall" in character, and, despite his opinions, an 
 
 Catalan. The man is a ,^ . ... , • , , , ,. 
 
 blacksmith. T/ure is reason efficient auxiliary to the Alcalde of 
 
 to suppose that the testimonial Masnou in the task of keeping order in 
 to his pacific character came that district, and opposing the inter- 
 from himself. See Un Mar- ference of external elements. He has 
 tyr des Pretres, /. 56. • ^ j • ^1 ,. ^ ^ vi 
 
 persisted in the same statement, with- 
 out any sort of wavering or retractation, in his four declarations 
 (folios 24, 76, back, 136 and 457) and maintained them with 
 the utmost resolution at his confrontation with the prisoner, as 
 appears from folio 458. 
 
 Very well, then : Llarch., after confirming that he was summoned 
 by Domenech on behalf of Ferrer, says in his declarations that 
 
 he went with the latter into an un- 
 Ile says ''with the latter;' inhabited house in the Calle de Puerto 
 
 not ^'^ with the latter and _. j ,t . i i 
 
 Domenech:' See note, abcrve. ^'^O' ^°^ '^at there the prisoner ex- 
 
 pounded to him the necessity of sup- 
 porting in that district the movement of Barcelona, that he, 
 Llarch, replied that he did not consider this by any means 
 desirable; that Ferrer insisted, saying that they must begin by 
 stirring people 7ip, in order thai some of them should set forth to
 
 270 APPENDIX 
 
 burn churches and convents : to witness's reply that he did not 
 understand how this course would pave the way to a Republic, 
 Ferrer rejoined that for his part ^ he cared little about a Republic : 
 
 the poijit was t/iaf there should be a 
 
 Ferrer {yi.^x\.^x, p. ifi) says revolution; that Ferrer suggested that 
 they xoent to Fremid in hope ^^-^^^gg ^j^^^^^ ^^-^j^ j^j^ ^^ p^^^^.^ 
 
 of getting nrMsfrom Barce- . ^, v. -uj* ..u 
 
 lona from a steamer that ^6 Mar, where he Wished to see the 
 
 seemed to be putting in there. Alcalde, Sr. Casas, and that to this 
 
 No attempt was made to verify witness saw no objection. Once there, 
 
 or contradict this assertion. ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ gentleman the 
 
 same proposition which he had formerly 
 
 Liarch obviously was in made to witness. On the way back to 
 
 Ferrer's company the whole Masnou, they met a band of young 
 
 time. eep. 199. ^^^^ coming from Barcelona, who 
 
 narrated what had happened at that 
 
 town. Ferrer,'after hearing the account, 
 
 Seepp, 215, 220. said, " Thafsgood! Courage! everything 
 
 must be destroyed I " Arrived at Masnou, 
 Ferrer again insisted on his proposi- 
 tions, the other again refusing, as he 
 Llareh " believes." had done throughout the walk ; and he 
 
 believes that, had itnotbeen for Ferrer, 
 the strike begun on the 26th would not have led to such sad results. 
 The interview, to which the last witness refers in his evidence, 
 took place between Ferrer, accompanied by witness, and Don 
 Domingo Casas LUbre, the Alcalde of Premia de Mar, on the 
 premises in that village occupied by the Fraternidad Republicana, 
 Don Antonio Mustares, the Deputy Alcalde, and Don Jose Alvarez 
 Espinosa, the Assistant Secretary of the Ayuntamiento, also being 
 present. It is certified by five eye-witnesses, namely : the four 
 above-mentioned, who, with Ferrer, took part in the interview, 
 
 and Calvet, the waiter who served 
 It would seem thai all them; by two others, Lorenzo Arnau 
 
 Arnau and Calve did was to ^^a t • ^ ri ^ ' u -j 
 
 ,, ,, ,.,^, , , and Jaune Calve, who accompanied 
 
 stroll a little way along the •' ' ^ 
 
 village street with Ferrer and ^larch and Ferrer to the scene of the 
 Liarch. interview; and by two others, Don 
 
 Jaime Comas and Don Pedro Cesa y 
 Cesa, who saw them go in, the declarants being themselves in the
 
 THE ALCALDE 
 
 271 
 
 Tlu 19 witnesses (/ make 
 tJum only 18) are in reality 
 only 5. Four of the rest only 
 saw Ferrer enter the Frater- 
 nidad Republicana {which he 
 never denied that he did) while 
 the remainder report only 
 hearsay. 
 
 These '^ accidental dis 
 creparuies are discreetly sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 Cafe de Baldomero. Add to these the witnesses Don Francisco 
 Cahu^, Don Juan Alsina, Don Vicente Puig Pons, Don Valentin 
 Alonso Poblet, Don Pablo Reig Cesa, Don Adolfo Cesa, Don 
 Jaime Font, and Don Jose Canes, who heard the fact reported 
 by the Alcalde at the meeting of the chief ratepayers of that 
 district, held on the 30th of July last ; and yet another witness, 
 
 Don Antonio Costa Page's, who learnt 
 it from Lorenzo Arnau, Ferrer's com- 
 panion. In all, 19 witnesses who 
 certify the fact. 
 
 Let us hear how Francisco Calvet 
 relates it in his declaration on folios 
 41 2j back, and 477, a narrative with 
 which, except for a few accidental 
 details, all the rest agree. He says 
 that on Wednesday the 28th at about 
 half-past twelve, when he was in a 
 room used as an annexe to the Fra- 
 ternidad Republicana, on the first floor 
 of the house, two persons entered, of whom one was Llarch^ and 
 the other was unknown to him ; the latter wore a light suit and a 
 straw hat. He asked witness if they might sit down for a few 
 minutes, and whether they could be served with an aerated drink 
 and a glass of beer ; to which witness replied in the affirmative. 
 A short time afterwards, Casas, Mustards, and Alvarez Espinosa 
 
 arrived, and then the unknown said, 
 " I avi Ferrer Guardia.'" The declarant 
 adds of his own knowledge that this 
 provoked a sort of astonishment among 
 the hearers, and particularly in himself, 
 owing to the amount of evil he had 
 Then Ferrer proceeded, addressing the 
 Alcalde, " I am come to tell you that the Republic must be pro- 
 claimed at Pretnid." To this the Alcalde replied, "Sr. Ferrer, I 
 do not accept these words," and the prisoner rejoined, " How 
 should you not accept them if the Republic is already proclaimed 
 at Nfadrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and other capitals? " 
 
 But this is not the sole importance of what Ferrer did at 
 
 J ascertained by inquiry 
 that Ferrer knew the Alcalde 
 beforehand ; where was the 
 need for this melodramatic 
 disclosure { 
 
 heard about that person.
 
 272 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Out of three different ver- 
 sions (see p. 199) the Prose- 
 cutor elects to stand by * ' barely 
 an hour after y 
 
 No trace of evidence to con- 
 nect Ferrer with this mart. 
 
 Alsina " declares his moral 
 certainty." 
 
 Premid. We have already mentioned the names of the witnesses 
 
 who speak to the violent aspect which 
 events at Premi^ assumed barely an 
 hour after Ferrer's departure from the 
 village; and we must now add that 
 the same waiter, Calvet, mentions the 
 fact that another individual, known as 
 Casola, during the days of the dis- 
 turbances, frequently went in and out 
 of ' certain rooms in the Fratemidad 
 Republicana, and as to this Casola, 
 whose real name was Sola, Don Juan 
 Alsina declares his moral certainty that 
 he received directly from Ferrer the 
 instructions for the revolution. The same gentleman maintains, 
 as also do the witnesses Puig Pons, Comas Alsina, Reig Cesa, 
 Cesa Moragas, and Font Alsina, that at the meeting of the chief 
 ratepayers on July 30, the Municipal Judge asked the Alcalde 
 
 if he was aware that on the night of 
 the attack on the Convent of the 
 Brethren of the Christian Doctrine one 
 of the assailants carried dynamite, and 
 when the Alcalde answered in the nega- 
 tive, the Judge pressed the point, 
 saying inquiries should be made to find 
 out who was the municipal employee 
 who carried the dynamite cartridges, 
 and that if the inquiries were fruitless, 
 he himself would say who it was. The 
 fact of the use of dynamite against the above-mentioned convent 
 is certified by the declaration (folio 476) of Jeronimo Cardona, 
 the night-watchman of the neighbourhood, who says that during 
 the attack on the convent he heard, besides the gunshots, two 
 very loud detonations, as though of dynamite or some other 
 explosive ; similarly, in another declaration (folio 406) he affirms 
 that his companion Jaime Cesa told him that Ferrer was at 
 Premii in order to place himself at the head of the revolutionary 
 movement. 
 
 / was assured on the spot 
 that this convent was threat- 
 ened but never actually at- 
 tacked, and that the dynamite 
 was entirely mythical. But 
 even if it existed, there is 
 nothing to connect Ferrer 
 with it. If Llarch had seen 
 him distributing dynamite 
 cartridges, he would have 
 mentioned the fact.
 
 ONE EYE-WITNESS 
 
 273 
 
 Hearsay again. 
 
 Not one of the orators, not 
 one of the crowd, produced. 
 
 Puigdemon being under- 
 lined as a testigo-presencial, 
 or eye-witness, it is clear that 
 Domenech (/. 269) did not 
 pretend to be an eye-wilness, 
 but merely spoke from hear- 
 say. See p. 202. 
 
 Moreover, the witness Don Salvador Millet (folio 364) says, 
 from information he had received, that some bands of insurgents 
 
 appeared at Masnou on July 27 or 28, 
 attacked the Town Hall, and harangued 
 the crowd from the balconies, inciting 
 them to join in the movement, one of 
 the speakers asserting that he spoke 
 in the name of Ferrer " who could tiot 
 himself take part in the affair, si?ice the 
 events 0/ the revolution (kmanded his presence at Barcelona." This 
 fact is established, apart from the statements of Llarch and 
 
 Domenech, with which we have already 
 dealt, by the declaration of an eye- 
 witness, Esteban Puigdemon, who asserts 
 (folio 473) that, from the door of his 
 house, which stands next to the Town 
 Hall, he watched the arrival at Masnou, 
 on the 28th, of the group of insurgents, 
 strangers to the village, and that one 
 of them harangued the crowd, saying that he came on behalf of 
 Ferrer, who was unable to be present. 
 
 All that has been set forth would certainly suffice to convince 
 any one of the character of chief of the rebellion which 
 
 belongs to Francisco Ferrer Guardia, 
 since we have seen him sometimes 
 leading it in person, as we indicated 
 by pointing to his presence in the 
 Rambla of Barcelona on the evening 
 of the 27th — at other times, fixing the 
 aim of the rebellion, and seeking forces 
 to effect it, as follows from his manifesto 
 to the Government, which, during the 
 night of the 26th, he presented to the 
 Committee of radicals assembled at 
 the office of El Progrcso, and also from 
 tbe efforts to attract others made during 
 that same night, by the Committee of 
 the Solidaridad, his work, as well as from his pertinacious 
 
 The one alleged instance of 
 personal leadership has mul- 
 tiplied into several. This 
 " sometimes " — " ^« unos 
 momentos " — is characteristi- 
 cally insidious. 
 
 It was not "his" mani- 
 festo. Seep. 208. 
 
 No shred of proof that t/u 
 Solidaridcul was " his work." 
 His connection with it was, 
 in fact, slight and casual.
 
 274 APPENDIX 
 
 discussions with Llarch, and from his conference with the Alcalde 
 of Premid de Mar- 
 But there is more yet, which I must not pass by in silence. 
 You will recollect that the two troopers Claudio Sanchez and 
 Miguel Calvo observed a person in a blue suit and straw hat, who 
 
 attracted their attention as they were 
 
 Probably the commonest of dispersing the groups in the Plaza 
 
 summer costumes, Antonio Lopez. You will recollect 
 
 that when he was subjected to the 
 process of identification, they pointed out Ferrer as the person 
 in question. Well, the Colonel, and Captain Don Ramon Puig, 
 of the Dragoons of Santiago, say in their declarations (folios 
 486 and 487) that on July 28, when they were with the 
 
 regiment in the tramway-sheds situated 
 JIow is it that not one of in the Calle de Borrell and the Ronda 
 these ''arrested" individuals ^^ San Pablo, arresting and searching 
 is produced to identify Ferrer ^^^^^.^ individuals who proved tO be 
 [three times) tn a circle of , ^ 
 
 prisoners? armed with new Smith revolvers, they 
 
 asked these persons whence these 
 weapons came; and they replied that they had received them 
 from a gentleman unknown to them, who, however, wore a blue 
 suit and a straw hat. Does so singular a coincidence suggest 
 nothing to you ? 
 
 Yet more : the witness Don Jose Canes points out to us an 
 individual known as Mamadits as having been frequently in and 
 
 out of the Fraternidad Republicana at 
 
 Again no trace of evidence Premid, during the days of the distur- 
 
 to connect '' Mamadits" with \^^^^q^ ^ho Cycled from Masnou and 
 
 Ferrer, or to show that he , • ,, t .• ^ 
 
 had anything to do with the returned m the same direction on leav- 
 
 disturbances. ing the Fraternidad. Don Vicente Puig 
 
 Pons indicates the existence of a band 
 
 of thirty men whom he believes to have 
 
 Puig Pom " believes" but been recruited by Ferrer, and who ap- 
 
 " has no personal knowledge." pgared at Premid, observing that, al- 
 
 He repeats the tattle of the , , , , . . , , 
 
 crowd. What had become of though he has no personal knowledge 
 
 the 30 quarrymen ? of the fact of the recruitment, yet this 
 
 must be the case, since, when people 
 asked each other whence those men came, the reply was given,
 
 IRRELEVANCES 275 
 
 "They are the quarrymen whom Ferrer is said to have sent." 
 
 Don Jaime Comas declares that on the 
 
 IVliat has this to do with evenings of July 26 and 27 he saw 
 
 Ferrer? several cyclists arrive who, the people 
 
 said, were the scouts of the insurgents ; 
 but he did not know what became of them in the village. Don 
 
 Pedro Page's reports that he has read in 
 
 The sole alleged instance of La Almudaina, 3. newspaper of Palma 
 
 Ferrer having paid money to j^ Majorca, that a contractor from San 
 
 rioters is reported on the . , / i -,-. i • -n 
 
 authority of a newspaper ^'^"^''^^ de Palomar, passmg on Tues- 
 
 paragraph, not even produced, day the 27 th along the coast road, was 
 but only remembered. Stopped at Masnou by a group among 
 
 whom he recognized some of his work- 
 men ; and when he expressed surprise at their behaviour, they 
 told him that they would do him no harm, but that they must 
 carry out the orders of Sr. Ferrer, who had been there in the 
 morning and had given them money. Don Bruno Humbert, 
 
 Chief Deputy to the Alcalde of Mongat 
 
 What has this to to with (Tiana), within whose municipal boun- 
 
 Ferrer? daries the prisoner's property known 
 
 as Mas Germinal was situated, says that 
 from the 27th to the 29th July, from the road in front of his 
 house, he saw in the distance groups of five or six persons who 
 seemed to be watching something, and who caused passing 
 carriages and bicycles to stop. And lastly, a workman named 
 
 Rosendo Gudas reports that while he 
 
 Manifestly a passing re- was engaged in repairing a door in 
 
 mark carelessly or maliciously Ferrer's house on the 27th or 29th, he 
 
 misreported. j^^g ^^^ remember which, Ferrer came 
 
 up to him and said, " Rosendo, what do 
 they think at Tiana? Now is the time to burn down everything." 
 Having thus investigated the evidential proof adduced to 
 establish the character of CHIEF of thk reijellion attaching to 
 the person of the prisoner — an investigation which must doubtless 
 have seemed to you heavy and tiring in consequence of the large 
 number of declarations which I have been obliged to analyze, 
 and of the inevitable repetitions which weary the attention of the 
 audience in cases of this kind — I pass to a rapid survey of the
 
 276 APPENDIX 
 
 confrontations carried out. But first I must call attention to a 
 detail which has struck me, as, I think, it will strike you : namely 
 that, although the number of witnesses who have given evidence 
 in the Sumario approaches, if it does not exceed, 70, and although 
 there are among them some, but not so many as might have 
 been expected, who maintain that they know nothing and have 
 
 seen nothing, yet no single instance is 
 Tki effrontery of this re f^^^^j ^f ^ne who has spoken a word 
 mark scarcely calls for com- . ... . , . , . , 
 
 ,nent. The Prosecutor well ^r given an mdication whlch might 
 knew that there were at least serve to exculpate the prisoner. 
 a score of people eager to give Coming now to the confrontations, 
 
 ^ndence in Ferrer's favour j^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 had they not been denied a 
 hearing. \Qo\i place gave a surpnsmg result, the 
 
 witnesses standing to their affirmations 
 with an absolute firmness such as we find in few cases. 
 
 The first confrontation, between Lorenzo Ardid and the 
 
 prisoner (folio 414), completely dis- 
 
 Confrontation with Ardid. Credits the assertion made by the latter 
 
 Seep. 205. in his second examination appearing 
 
 on folios 195 to 261 of this case. In 
 it he roundly denied that he had been at the Casa del Pueblo 
 since some time in June. But when Ardid steadily persisted that 
 he had been there on the 26th of July, and spoken with him as 
 set forth in his declaration, Ferrer had to admit that he did not 
 absolutely deny it, since he remembered to have seen the said 
 gentleman on that day, adding that, as he wished to see his friend 
 Litr^n, it was not surprising that he should go there to look for 
 him. And as for the other statements of his opponent, he does 
 
 not deny them either, but says he does 
 
 This exactly describes the "ot recollect them, which is not the 
 
 incidait: "« cotiversation same thing, and adds that he attaches 
 
 over a restajtrant table." ^q importance to a conversation over 
 
 a restaurant table. 
 In the second confrontation, between Juan Puig Ventura, 
 
 called Llarch^ and Ferrer (folio 458), 
 
 <r.fr{7f "'?rf f'^'i it appears that after seeing the attitude 
 
 Seep. 217. Llarck also satd ^ ^f , , , 1 • j 
 
 "he foresaw that Ferrer °' ^^^ latter, who brazenly denied 
 
 'would abiund in explanations everything, the former said, addressing
 
 CONFRONTATIONS 277 
 
 and denials''— a foresight the prisoner, that "neither his diplo- 
 which does not seem to have macy nor interest should make him 
 favourably impressed even the g^verve from the truth," and, in the face 
 
 of subsequent denials, he exclaims, " I 
 retract nothing ! " 
 
 In the third (folio 460) between Casas Llibre, the Alcalde of 
 
 Premia, and Ferrer, the former, in the 
 
 Confrontation with the face of the latter's denial of what he 
 
 Alcalde. had said in his interview at the Fraterni- 
 
 dad Republicana, bursts forth with this 
 phrase : " A man who denies the truth as you do, is capable of 
 denying the light of the sun " : adding to the statements previously 
 
 made in his declarations, that Ferrer 
 This seevu like a perversion ^Iso said to him ''that he too might 
 of a probable remark of , , , . j. j. ^ j7 j. i 
 
 r- } .1 ^1 L Tj 1.- r serve to captain a srroup, out that he was 
 Ferrers — that he held himself ^ o> / j 
 
 dei'oted to a higlurthing than reserved and marked out for other and 
 
 insurrection^ natnely educa- higher thiflgs." 
 
 '""*• Finally, in the fourth (folio 461), 
 
 with Alvarez Espinosa, Ferrer attempts 
 Confrontation with Espi- to minimize the importance of the inter- 
 
 nosa. view at Premia, by saying that it was 
 
 a conversation after which they parted 
 without any unpleasantness, and shaking 
 hands with each other; to which his 
 opponent rejoins that there was un- 
 For the reason why there pleasantness inasmuch as there was a 
 
 was no confrontation with ,,,i i-.j-j , ^..i 
 
 Domenech, seep. 218. V^O\.t%'i, though it did not prevent the 
 
 parties from taking leave of each other 
 in a courteous fashion. 
 
 And if the evidential proof thus points to Francisco Ferrer 
 Guardia as chief of the rebellion, documentary proof, in its 
 turn, confirms what has gone before. 
 
 He himself in his autobiography written in French and ad- 
 dressed to Monsieur Furnemont (folio 191), and in another 
 published by the Espaiia Nueva in its issue of June 16, 1906 
 (folios 372 and 373), presents himself to us as a persistent 
 agitator and rebel ; he makes a boast of it, and of his share in 
 all the movements which have occurred in Spain since 1885.
 
 278 APPENDIX 
 
 In the latter especially, he draws his own full-length portrait 
 
 in these words : " I cannot conceive 
 Note the careful omission of ,.^ • , . , , t 
 
 r . c-l > /• life without propaganda: wherever 1 
 
 reference to Ferrers assertion f f b > 
 
 that after a certain time ''il may be, in the street, in public places, 
 tie s'occupa plus gulre que in the tramway, in the train, with 
 d'organiser un systhne type ^yhomsoever I find myself, I cannot 
 (V ensetenetTunt rattonahste." , , „ 
 
 but try to make a convert. 
 
 These expressions might appear a little vague, inasmuch as 
 they do not define the nature of the propaganda in question; 
 
 but in the documents contained in 
 
 The '^Proclamation'' of folios 374-383 they become quite defi- 
 
 1892. See pp. 222-227. nite, for these documents prove that 
 
 Ferrer's propaganda is frankly anarchist. 
 
 See, if you have any doubt, his manuscript proclamation of 
 
 1892 addressed to the Congress of Freethinkers. In it he 
 
 invites those who share his ideas to 
 The Auditor (p. 303) de- send their names and addresses to 
 dared that in this '^ procla- M. Ferrer, Poste Restante, Rue de 
 matioff' he concealed himself -r r .^ 1 -n • .^1 1.1. 
 
 under thepseudonym of Zero; Lafayette, who Will give them the 
 how are we to reconcile these addresses of the governing Committee, 
 statements? further suggesting that they should 
 
 write three times a month, on the loth, 
 20th, and 30th, beginning with the 30th of the month then cur- 
 rent, and stating one or more of the following things : " I have 
 one, two, three, or more friends, names and addresses given, 
 with or without means of defence (arms), able to travel (that is to 
 say able to pay the fare to Madrid), willing to travel (that is to 
 say wiUing, but lacking the means), with provisions for one, 
 two, etc. (that is to say dynamite)." If, then, in 1892, he is 
 already telling his partizans to address themselves to him, and to 
 let him know what munitions of war they can command, does 
 not this disclose the organizer, the leader, the chief? But 
 there is more to come : in this document, as in those which suc- 
 ceed it on the fohos mentioned, he already speaks of the organi- 
 zation of a party of three hundred who shall follow him, and be 
 the first to advance to the battle on the appointed day, and he 
 says, " We will seek the auspicious moment, as, for instance, the 
 time of a strike, or eve of the first of May."
 
 THE TYPE-WRITTEN DOCUMENT 270 
 
 Do you not see a perfect agreement between this proposition 
 
 and what has happened here ? Does it surprise you that, as you 
 
 have seen, the Solidaridad Obrera 
 should be pointed out as the ally of 
 Ferrer, in the foregoing declarations of 
 several witnesses, when he himself 
 writes in this document : " We are in 
 touch with the labour party and with 
 other revolutionary forces " ? 
 
 This means that the prisoner Ferrer 
 has been, not for a day or for a year, 
 but for many years past, carrying on 
 a propaganda — preparing the soil, 
 recruiting forces, lying in wait for a 
 favourable opportunity, such as has 
 
 lately presented itself to him, to begin putting his plans in 
 
 operation. 
 
 That he saw this opportunity drawing near, and that he used 
 
 every effort to bring it about, as the saying goes, is proved by the 
 
 two type-written circulars (see folios 177 
 
 The type-written docw and 1 79), by the programme (folio 1 7 8), 
 ments. See p. m for proof ^^^ ^ ^^^ -^^g^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 if Ferrer had any- . . . _ , . . 
 
 Does the statement that he 
 was in touch with the labour 
 party in Madrid 17 years 
 before, prove that he was in 
 touch, for revolutionary pur- 
 poses, with the Solidaridad 
 Obrera in Barcelona? Can 
 it be in order to bring the 
 Madrid manuscript into 
 ** perfect agreement" with the 
 events of Barcelona that the 
 Prosecutor st4pprcsses all al- 
 lusion to the project of killing 
 the royal family and the 
 ministers ? 
 
 that, even if Ferrer had any 
 thing to do with them, they 
 were at least 7 years old. 
 
 circular and of the programme appended 
 
 to folios 180-183. The first circular, 
 
 speaking of the political and commercial 
 
 middle classes, says that the Clergy and the Army protect them 
 
 in their thefts and frauds ; then it goes on to say : " They exploit 
 
 us, they sacrifice, kill and dishonour us, 
 because we are not men, or do not 
 behave as such. They regard us as a 
 despicable flock of [scabby] sheep, and 
 they are in a measure right, seeing that 
 we endure it. Happily, the time is at hand for proving before 
 the world that we will no longer be exploited. The hour of 
 revolution draws near ; pass over the infamous middle classes 
 and their ridiculous programmes. Before bej^inning to build, we 
 must raze all ruins to the ground. If there is among the politicians 
 any man deserving of respect, any citizen who enjoys a just or an 
 
 Note that this is written by 
 tome one who is, or pretends 
 to be, himself a workman, 
 which Ferrer never was.
 
 280 APPENDIX 
 
 unjust popularity, you will see how he will strive to hold us back 
 at the critical moment, to extinguish the trains that are fired, on 
 the pretext of humanity and generous sentiments. But pay no 
 heed to them, pass over them, kill them if necessary. [Did they, 
 
 think you, call to mind the principles 
 
 The sentence in brackets, of generosity or of humanity when 
 
 and the word in brackets Portas was torturing in Montjuich, 
 
 above, were omitted by the ^^hen Polavieja was assassinating in 
 
 Prosecutor. The sentence ,/r -n u wr \ .■ u- 
 
 might have led the Court to Manilla, when Weyler was ventmg his 
 
 suspect the early date of the ^^ry on the defenceless victims of im- 
 
 document, molated Cuba?] Let the revolution 
 
 come, for it is no less inevitable than 
 bankruptcy j but do not leave it in the hands of a middle class as 
 odious as it is reactionary ; and do not rest until you have carried 
 to its ultimate conclusions a revolution which, without you, 
 would be at once shameful and barren." 
 
 In the second circular, after saying : " For us, we desire and 
 require to destroy everything, and we avow it with loyal candour," 
 he adds : *' Let us strive for their redemption and our own, 
 until we convince them that clericalism and militarism are the 
 two arms of capitalism, the executioner of mankind. Let us 
 make an end of the monster's arms, and it will be easier to strike 
 off its head. Workers, prepare, for the hour is at hand." And 
 
 this curious document ends as follows : 
 This sentence, together with " Herewith the recipe for the manufac- 
 thatquotedonp. 234, strongly ^^^^ ^f panclastite." 
 
 suggests the handiwork of an r\c \x, ic v o\ ^u 
 
 agent provocateur. ^f the programme (foho 178), the 
 
 veritable programme of all that the 
 
 The rebels effected, or at. j-gbels of last July effected, we shall 
 
 empe , no tng of le pjo- j say that it comprises, among other 
 
 gramme except the anti-cleri- - •' r ^ t3 
 
 cal portion of it, things: the abolition of all existing 
 
 laws; the expulsion or extermination 
 of all religious orders ; the demolition of churches ; the confisca- 
 tion of the Bank and of the railways. 
 
 It is to be carefully noticed that in 
 
 The experts and the\,\>,z, j^e second of the said circulars, type- 
 Seep. 232. 
 
 written throughout, there are two cor- 
 rections : the / in the word actos and the syllable ba of the word
 
 "A MERE SUSPICION" 281 
 
 trabajando ; and, when it was subjected to the prescribed verifica- 
 tion, the experts affirmed that the cor- 
 What the experts said was recti ons must have been made by 
 ^' might have been." Ferrer, On account of the similarity of 
 
 his handwriting in documents exhibited 
 to them. The prisoner denies in his examination that either the 
 documents or the corrections were his. But does it not strike 
 you as peculiar that, though he could have proposed in the 
 Plenario another examination by different experts nominated by 
 himself, he did not do so? Does not this appear to show, in 
 spite of his denial, an inplicit admission of the authenticity of 
 the corrections ? 
 
 It has seemed to the prosecution very surprising that a man 
 who shows himself as cautious as the prisoner does in a letter 
 addressed to Don Odon de Buen (folio 190): ''Some time ago 
 I made up my mind no longer to figure in any party : therefore 
 I entreat you to make no use of my name, which must remain 
 in obscurity ; though of course (and of this I shall speak to you 
 at the earliest opportunity) I am always ready to promote the 
 
 coming of the Republic " — it has seemed 
 Unless Ferrer had had the surprising, I repeat, that, anxious as he 
 gift of invisibility, he could ^^g ^^ j.gj^^jj^ j,^ obscurity, he should 
 not 'well have been uss tn , , , • , r « t i • 
 
 evidence than he was " during ^ave let himself be seen so much durmg 
 the events of July.'' the events of July, as we have shown to 
 
 have been the case, thus giving an oppor- 
 tunity for charges to be specified against him. What motive can 
 have constrained him to change his behaviour ? Can it be self- 
 interest ? It is a mere suspicion, nothing 
 As to this base and abso- ^o^c than a suspicion, of the person who 
 luiely groundless insinuation, now addresses you, but one which has 
 seep. 203. come to his imagination while studying 
 
 the declarations of Don Pablo Reig 
 
 , . ,, Cesa, Don Adolfo Cesa Moraga, and 
 
 Arnau was his] "com- 
 
 panion " in the sense that he ^o" J^ime Font Alsina, particularly 
 strolled a fdu yards along thosc of the first two, who assert that 
 the street with him. See during the days preceding the events, 
 ^' ' ' I>orcnzo Arnau, Ferrer's companion 
 
 when he went to the conference at Premid, advised them to
 
 282 APPENDIX 
 
 speculate on the Stock Exchange, because funds were going 
 to drop three or four points. It is true that Arnau said that if 
 he spoke about this it was because he had heard rumours 
 of it at Barcelona. But there is another deposition, that 
 
 of Don Alfredo Garcia Magallanes, in 
 
 This gentleman was which he says that Pierre mentioned 
 
 '' Afagalldn" on p. 262. to him on August lo that he had 
 
 heard that Ferrer had been speculating 
 on the Bourse. And as the official lists of quotations appended 
 to the papers show a fall during the days of the events, as com- 
 pared with the preceding days, it is difficult, if we put two and 
 two together, to escape from this idea.; 
 
 Having thus pointed to Ferrer's guilt as author of the crime 
 of rebellion, and with the character of chief, let us pass to the 
 qualifying circumstances. On this point we confirm what we 
 maintained in our provisional statement, namely, that all the cir- 
 cumstances laid down in the Code of Military Justice (section 173) 
 are to be found here. Indeed, the perversity of the prisoner 
 could not be greater ; whether in view of the objects he aimed at 
 in the rebellion, in which there was no question of a more or 
 less profound political change, but of a real social revolution, 
 anarchist in its trend, as appears unmistakably from the before- 
 mentioned documents (folios 177, 178 and 179); — or in view 
 of his persistent and inveterate propaganda, as appears from 
 the documents (folios 374 to 383) relating to the year 1892; — 
 or in view of the hypocrisy and baseness of soul revealed by 
 
 that letter to Don Oddn de Buen (folio 
 
 See p. 250. The gallant 19°). since the wish to remain in the 
 
 officers, even while maintain- shade, as he puts it, seems to proceed 
 
 ing that their case is over- jgsg fj-o^n a lack of ambition, of aspi- 
 
 ■wheliinngly strong, cannot ,- .. cr j u ..u 
 
 J.7 ■ J \- ration to office and honour, as the 
 
 qutie conceal their lurking sus- _ , _ ' 
 
 ■ticion—or their resentment— prisoner asserts in his deposition, than 
 of its weakness. from a desire to reserve to himself a 
 
 sure means of escape from the natural 
 consequences of his conduct. He goaded others to action, while 
 himself remaining concealed in that obscurity, which, as we have 
 seen, is so dear to him. 
 
 The import of the crime is immense. One has only to reflect
 
 QUESTION OF DAMAGES 283 
 
 that the rebelHon left this territory isolated from the rest of 
 
 ^ Spain, and from the rest of the world 
 
 The cost of the insurrection. — one has only to consider that the 
 
 capital remained, during the days of the 
 tragic week, almost without light or provisions — in order to 
 realize that the deed has reverberated through every depart- 
 ment of life, from industry and commerce to the hfe of private 
 domesticity. 
 
 The harm which the crime not only might have done, but 
 actually and really did, to the service and the interests of the 
 State as well as to private interests, ^is so huge that it may be 
 emphatically and truthfully said to be incalculable. The pubHc 
 services were paralyzed owing to the damage done to the lines of 
 communication by rail and telegraph, which rendered it impossible 
 to remedy with the requisite promptitude the state of chaos 
 created by the rebellion. Interests of State were doubly injured ; 
 firstly by the fact that it was necessary to divert to the repression 
 of the rebellion forces whose business was to avenge the honour 
 of the nation, outraged in the Riff: secondly by the great 
 pecuniary sacrifice entailed by the mobilization of these forces in 
 order to despatch them to this district. As to private interests, 
 
 ^, , , , . , there is no need to relate what they 
 
 The slaughtered priests of . •' 
 
 /. 258, are perhaps included suffered : louder than any voice of ours 
 under the term ^' murders" ; is the VOice of the lists of killed and 
 but what has become of the wounded, resulting either from the 
 outraged nuns ? pitched battle in the streets, or from the 
 
 murders committed under its cover, of the demolished buildings, 
 of the aged, the infirm, the children, who, torn from their retreats, 
 were left unprotected and unsheltered to their fate. 
 
 And when we say this, we cannot but recall the fact that 
 during the rebellion, at the same time as the armed struggle, acts 
 of incendiarism took place, acts of pillage, and injury to railways 
 and telegraph lines ; common crimes, all of them, but inseparable 
 from rebellion, because they are interwoven with it and directed 
 towards the same end, as has been laid down in similar cases by 
 the Supreme Council of the Army and Navy in numerous judg- 
 ments, particularly that of March 30, 1897. Certain it is that 
 each of these crimes must have had its actual perpetrators ; but
 
 284 APPENDIX 
 
 it is equally certain that for the present they are unknown to us, 
 
 since the innumerable prosecutions 
 
 Not one of these ''innumer- which have been instituted against 
 
 able" rebels has been in any j^g^^ individuals have not yet pro- 
 
 way brought into relation with i ^ ■ -, ^ 
 
 the '^author and chief of the needed to judgment. Consequently no 
 
 rebellion" Other course is open except to abide 
 
 by the purport of the second para- 
 graph of Section 242 of the Code of Military Justice, and to 
 declare the prisoner Ferrer Guardia, as principal chief of the 
 REBELLION, guilty as an accessory to those crimes, and doubly 
 answerable under criminal and civil law, and to assert the civil 
 liability for those crimes, involving the whole property of the 
 prisoner, even though it be physically impossible at the moment 
 to ascertain the precise sum at which we may fix the damage 
 caused by conflagration, pillage, and injury to lines of com- 
 munication. 
 
 Accordingly, characterizing the action as the completed 
 ofifence of military rebellion, defined in the third and fourth 
 paragraphs of Section 237 of the Code of Military Justice; and 
 having proved the prisoner to be the author of the same, with 
 the character of chief, and with the concurrence of all the 
 aggravating circumstances set forth in Section 173: I conclude 
 in the name of the King (whom God preserve) by demanding 
 against Francisco Ferrer Guardia, in accordance with the Code 
 of Military Justice, Section 238, clause i, the infliction of the 
 death penalty, with the alternative, in case the penalty is remitted, 
 of perpetual absolute incapacity; one half of the period of 
 remand undergone in consequence of these proceedings, being 
 credited to him in accordance with the Act of January 17, 1901 ; 
 and demanding that he should likewise be adjudged liable for 
 the damage and detriment caused by conflagrations, by pillage 
 and injury to the lines of communication, both railway and 
 telegraphic, occasioned during the rebellion ; all his goods, in 
 so far as the amount of the damage can be ascertained, being 
 applicable to the discharge of this civil liability. 
 
 The whole in accordance with Sections 173, 188, 219, 237 
 (paragraphs 3 and 4), 238 (clause i), and 242, of the Code 
 of Military Justice; 11, 13, 18, 53, and 1 21-12 6 of the
 
 "SUPERIOR WISDOM" 285 
 
 Ordinary Penal Code, and the above-quoted Act of January 17, 
 1901. 
 
 The Council, however, with superior wisdom, will decide 
 according to the dictates of justice. 
 
 Jesi5s Marin. 
 
 Barcelona, October 8, 1909,
 
 PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE ASSESSOR TO 
 
 THE COUNCIL 
 
 Don Enrique Gesta y Garcia, Deputy Auditor of War in the 
 second degree, acting as Assessor to the Ordinary Council of 
 War assembled to try and pass judgment in the cause conducted 
 against Francisco Ferrer Guardia, says — 
 
 In reality, my report is made only to show that I concur 
 absolutely in the description of the facts formulated by the 
 Prosecutor, as also in his attribution of responsibility to the 
 prisoner Francisco Ferrer Guardia, as author and chief of 
 the rebelUon, and in the statement of the penalty whose infliction 
 the Prosecutor demands. 
 
 Clear, definite and precise, the accusation has yet another 
 virtue of no mean order : it is the moderation which the Prose- 
 cutor showed in confining himself to 
 
 See p. 62. If it would ^^ strict fulfilment of his duty, and in 
 
 have been wrone of the Prose- , i • j ^ j„ „f >„^^^„ 
 
 , , , ^ ,, j:. , not seekmg data or grounds of respon- 
 cutor to drag in the hscuela ° ° 
 
 Moderna, why was it right sibility outside the actual records. If 
 for the Assessor to do so? he had not skilfully steered clear of 
 
 this rock, if he had not had inde- 
 pendence enough to escape the influ- 
 As though half of the evi- ^^^^ ^^ vj-^, opinion, he would 
 dence were not the inere record , , , , -t 1 .1 
 
 of public opinion. perhaps have rendered possible the 
 
 repetition of the prisoner's insinuations 
 in his autobiography in French addressed to M. Furnemont 
 (folio 191), according to which his prosecution in the Madrid 
 trial of the affair of the bombs thrown by Morral was due to the 
 hatred felt by some religious Order for his methods and for the 
 teaching of the Escuela Moderna. These insinuations were, 
 indeed, calumnious; but subsequently to the arrest and actual 
 prosecution of Ferrer, they were repeated by his partizans and
 
 MUTUAL ADMIRATION 287 
 
 friends, particularly abroad, and had the result that, amongst 
 ourselves, certain timorous spirits were brought to believe in 
 something like the possibility of a diplomatic intervention in 
 the matter, without stopping to reflect on the absurdity of such 
 a notion, which crumbles to nothing the moment we recollect 
 that our country is not a nation of limited legal powers, and 
 consequently not obliged to submit to foreign interference in 
 its internal affairs. 
 
 By this tact, by this discretion, the Prosecutor has disarmed 
 the inventors of fables and ridiculous legends. His accusation, 
 
 read as it was in public, deserves even 
 
 A somnL>kat unlucky pro- larger publicity, forasmuch as, the more 
 
 phecy. public it is, the more effectual the 
 
 vindication of the justice of Spain, and 
 particularly that of the Military Jurisdiction, against imputations 
 of this nature. The fact that in his so meritorious work he has 
 not once mentioned the Escuela Moderna, nor made the slightest 
 reference to its teachings or its propaganda, will prove the absolute 
 rectitude and impartiality of our Courts. If to-day the Military 
 Jurisdiction condemns the prisoner, it will be simply and exclu- 
 sively because it will have found justification for that course within 
 the limited circle of the records ; just as, if the Civil Jurisdiction 
 acquitted him yesterday, in the above-mentioned case, it was 
 because there did not appear in that case grounds for his con- 
 demnation. 
 
 The Prosecutor, and, before him, the detailed report of the 
 energetic Examining Magistrate who accomplished so praise- 
 worthy a labour in accumulating in the 
 There is something totuhing Sumario SO many and such cogent 
 in the mutual admiration of fg ^f ^he prisoner's guilt, have pcr- 
 
 these soldier-advocates. See ^ , • j- ^ j .^i , r ^u- 
 
 the Auditor on the Prosecutor ^^^^ly mdicatcd the nature of this case. 
 
 and Assessor. It bears, like the case conducted by the 
 
 Examining Commandant Lliviana, from 
 which it springs, a special impress of generality which dis- 
 tinguishes it from the hundreds of prosecutions instituted in 
 consequence of the events of July ; for while, in these last, 
 the investigation applies to individual concrete facts, considered 
 separately from one another, in the case in which this Council
 
 288 APPENDIX 
 
 of War is now to pass judgment, the revolution is investi- 
 gated as a whole, as a combination of a multitude of facts 
 so closely interconnected that, though, from its chief focus in 
 Barcelona, it radiated out to the country districts of this province 
 and that of Gerona, where subsidiary foci, derived from the first, 
 formed themselves, yet they never lost their connection with that 
 of the capital, either in their origin, their aim and methods, or in 
 their development. The segregation of the present cause from 
 that from which it springs was imposed on us by the greater 
 definiteness and importance of the charges which crystallized 
 themselves against the prisoner Ferrer, from the moment of his 
 arrest, giving him a prominence never attained or approached 
 by any of the other persons indicted along with him. This 
 
 demanded, if justice, and especially 
 It -was not the imminent military justice, was to fulfil its high 
 re-assembly of the Cortes, but (j^y Qf exemplariness, a procedure as 
 thf '■^ exemplariness" of mili- .-.. • i^ u •l\. ^ • j- i. 
 
 • .■ .f . ,1 J J- swift as might be, without prejudice to 
 tary justice, that called for o i r j 
 
 the headlong haste of the pro- that complete elucidation of the facts 
 cedure. which is the basis of the establishment 
 
 of responsibility. 
 
 The prosecution accurately described the facts when it defined 
 them as the crime of military rebellion. 
 
 [Here follows a technical discussion to show that the object of 
 the insurrection was not a political but a social revolution — a 
 distinction which seems to have been necessary in order to justify 
 the phrase " military rebellion."] 
 
 Look at the documents appended to folios 374-383, and you 
 
 will perceive that the manifesto addressed to the Congress of 
 
 _,,,„, . „ ^ Freethinkers in 1892, before Ferrer 
 The '' Froclamatwn" of , . , . . ^ , , j 
 
 1892. See pp. 222, 278. engaged in the organization of the body 
 
 ^ , . . of 300, contains the words : " Lone live 
 
 Quoted in the newspapers . , . , , . , . » i 
 
 as ^^ long live dynamite!" fhe revolution, long live anarchy ! and 
 
 in speaking of this body and defining 
 the information to be sent to him at Paris by those who should 
 
 rally to it, one of the facts on which he 
 footnote fi. 22^ ' demands to be informed is whether they 
 
 hsiWQ. provisions {which will fnean dyna- 
 mite), as appears in the actual handwriting of the prisoner. See
 
 THE VILLAGERS AGAIN 289 
 
 in like manner the proclamations (folios 177 and 179) cha- 
 
 The type-written docu- ^cterized in detail by the Prosecutor 
 
 ments. See pp. 232, 279. i" his indictment, and you will notice 
 
 that, without speaking of the form of 
 Government, he says that the Clergy and the Army protect the 
 robbery and fraud of the middle classes ; that before building we 
 
 must pull down ; that what they desire 
 
 The fact that Ferrer di:- and need is wholesale destruction. See 
 
 claimed all knowledge of these finally the programme (folio 178), and 
 
 documents is tactfdly ignored, the passage about the abolition of all 
 
 existing laws will enable you to form an 
 idea of the real object which was being pursued. 
 
 If you turn your attention to the prisoner's words as set forth 
 in the evidence of the witnesses, you will arrive at a like result. 
 
 To Llarch^ as you have seen in his 
 See pp. 215, 270. declaration, Ferrer says that the Re- 
 
 public is immaterial to him, that the 
 point was that there should be a revolution, and that a beginning 
 should be made by stirring people up to burn churches and 
 convents. To the young men coming from Barcelona whom 
 
 they met on their return from Premid, 
 See pp. 216, 270. he says : " That's good ! Courage ! 
 
 Everything must be destroyed ! " To 
 the Alcalde of the latter village, at the time when he was inciting 
 him to proclaim the Republic, he recalled, as if it was his constant 
 
 obsession, that churches and convents 
 See pp. 216, 271. were being burnt at Barcelona. And to 
 
 r, „ , , the workman Rosendo Gudas, while he 
 
 On the contrary^ it is surely 
 
 most surprising that the ^^^ working at tlie prisoner's house, he 
 " author and chief of the re- makes the remark : " Now is the time to 
 bellton" meets -uith absolutely burn everything ! " Thus it is not sur- 
 
 710 response from any one • • ^i ^ • i • 
 
 ■whom he tried to ^^ go J" into P"''"S that m seekmg support among 
 action. Here is a chief whose people of advanced views, never doubt- 
 
 orders or incitements no one ing that he WOuld find them ripe fot 
 
 [out of more than 2000 revolt, he encountered a refusal instead 
 
 prisoners) can be found to f ., lu • u r -.^ j l ^1 
 
 haveob ed adhesion he solicited, whether 
 
 because they knew his designs, and 
 feared to go beyond their own ideals, or because they did not
 
 290 APPENDIX 
 
 regard the opportunity as favourable. Certain it is, at any rate, 
 
 that, as appears from the evidence, 
 
 A gross perversion of Ar. Lorenzo Ardid ejected him from the 
 
 diiTs evidence, even as it Casa del Pueblo ; that Iglesias and his 
 
 appears on the records. friends who were with him on the night 
 
 of July 26 at the office of El Progreso 
 refused to sign the manifesto which Ferrer submitted to them, as 
 he himself told Llarch and Domenech ; and these two assert in 
 their depositions that Llarch himself, the President of the Re- 
 publican Committee of Masnou, opposed the suggestions, and 
 that the Alcalde Casas Llibre protested, at the Fraternidad 
 Republicana, against Ferrer's words. 
 
 In dealing with the responsibility of Francisco Ferrer as 
 AUTHOR AND CHIEF of the rebellion, the Prosecutor follows a 
 clear, precise method which allows us quickly to apprehend the 
 charges which lie against him. He groups in the first place those 
 
 which we may call general and less 
 
 An apology for anonymity. Concrete, though not therefore insignifi- 
 
 hearsay, and opinion. cant ; for, when we find a concurrence 
 
 in one and the same direction of the 
 evidence of so many witnesses, so different in social standing and 
 in antecedents that, being absolute strangers to one another, they 
 cannot have come to any preliminary agreement, the conclusion 
 is that a state of conscience exists, which, connecting cause and 
 effect, has given rise to a judgment, doubtless capable of being 
 rebutted by contrary proof, but which is well worth taking into 
 consideration, since it gathers, from the various grades of society, 
 data which do not come directly before the Court, whether on 
 account of a lack of public spirit, or of an excessive attachment 
 to private tranquillity which shrinks from the possible disturbance 
 of being obliged to appear once and again before the Judge, or, 
 
 worse still, on account of culpable 
 
 T^, ,,. . . cowardice in face of possible reprisals 
 
 Yet this same Assessor in- ^ , ^ 
 
 dignantly denies, on the next on the part of allies and relatives of the 
 page, that cTiy of the evidence prisoners — data, however, which may 
 is anonymous. without inconvenience be hinted to a 
 
 friend under the safeguard of secrecy. 
 Next, the Prosecutor follows the prisoner day by day, accom-
 
 ATTACKING THE DEFENDER 291 
 
 panying his account of each day with abundant proof of the 
 felonious acts which place him in the position of chief, leader, 
 organizer, and promoter of the events of July, in accordance with 
 the accurate definition of the word " chief," which had been 
 framed at the outset. And we are constrained to acknowledge 
 that such complete proof must carry conviction even to the mind 
 most strongly prejudiced in the prisoner's favour. All this is 
 additionally established, although that was unnecessary, by the 
 documentary evidence put in, the value of which is indisputable, 
 
 inasmuch as it has not been impugned 
 An amazing assertion. by the prisoner, who in his examination 
 
 confines himself to saying, so far as con- 
 cerns the documents in folios 374-383, that they are of very 
 remote date, and without importance in the present case ; and, 
 so far as concerns those in folios 177, 178, and 179, that they are 
 not his work, without, however, producing any evidence to rebut 
 the identification effected by experts on the corrections of the 
 programme (folio 178). Such evidence he had the opportunity 
 of putting in at the time of the reading of the indictment ; and 
 the fact that he did not do so is tantamount, as the Prosecutor 
 says, to an admission of authenticity. 
 
 The concurrence of all the aggravating circumstances indicated 
 in Section 173 of the Code of Military Justice must have been 
 painful for the Prosecutor to set forth, as it is for the undersigned. 
 But neither he nor I can avert our eyes from reality, or fail in 
 our duty by any arbitrary condonation. 
 
 [Here follow some paragraphs of purely technical discus- 
 sion.] 
 
 Turning now to the written address of the prisoner's Defender, 
 we find him beginning by saying that every possible anonymous 
 
 denunciation which could prejudice his 
 See/>/>. 195, 290. client has been included in the prose- 
 
 cution. This assertion is absolutely 
 inaccurate, and to convince oneself of this it is only necessary 
 to glance through the records of the case ; they do not contain 
 a single denunciation nor a single anonymous writing; the 
 declarations of the witnesses are neither the one nor ihe 
 other.
 
 292 APPENDIX 
 
 The Defender falls into another inaccuracy : I speak of his 
 
 assertion that all Ferrer's enemies had 
 
 .,, , • 7 „^ .^ given evidence against him. The least 
 
 All was certainly an ex- => = 
 
 aggeration—some had to be he could have done, if his assertion 
 left to sit in judgment on were not to be treated as wholly 
 ^^"^' gratuitous, would have been to indicate 
 
 one by one who these enemies were, 
 and even to have their testimony rejected by proving their 
 enmity. By taking neither course, he justifies us not only in 
 disregarding his assertion, but also in deprecating a method of 
 defence intended solely and exclusively to appeal to the gallery, 
 and unpermissible as a weapon of bad alloy. 
 
 And as for the fact that Soledad Villafranca and the other 
 
 signatories of the letter contained in the 
 On this argument, see pp. records, addressed to the Examining 
 i6o, 189. In any case, the Commandant, were not summoned to 
 exiles were not learned in gjve evidence, does this Honourable 
 military law, and could not ^^^^^ believe that, either for Ferrer 
 reasonably doubt that a Court . , . ... 
 
 desirous of learning the truth or for any one else. It was possible 
 would call for their ez'idence to override the law ? Had not these 
 at the proper time. persons a term of 28 days, before the 
 
 case reached the Plenario stage, which 
 they might have turned to better account ? 
 
 And as for the complaint that they had been deported in 
 order that they should not give evidence, this is another assertion 
 
 which ought to have been proved, by 
 
 The force of this argument showing that their deportation took 
 
 is not apparent. ^^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^ ^f^g^ ^^n^ preliminary 
 
 examination (Sumario) opened. But 
 
 even if this had been the case, it 
 
 If it could have been-why would Still not have proved that such 
 
 was it not ? was the intention of the authorities 
 
 who deported them, since, even in 
 their absence, their evidence could have been taken by commis- 
 sion. 
 
 As regards the foreign witnesses, the Defender himself lets us 
 see how rightly the judicial authorities acted in refusing this 
 evidence, for if the information these witnesses had to give us
 
 REACTIONARY ELEMENTS 293 
 
 As a great part of the 
 evidence concerned Ferrer's 
 opinio?is, why should not evi- 
 dence on the same point have 
 been accepted from abroad 1 
 Seep. 1^6 for the evidence of 
 an ^''unexceptionable " luitness 
 who " did not pretend to have 
 been here at the time of the 
 events'^ 
 
 referred to Ferrer's ideas, projects and conduct, their declarations, 
 
 even supposing them dispassionate and 
 exact, would have been quite useless, 
 seeing that they reside abroad, and do 
 not pretend to have been here at the 
 time of the events, and could conse- 
 quently throw no light upon those 
 events, the sole subject-matter of these 
 proceedings. 
 
 As to the remarks made by the 
 Defender about the reactionary ele- 
 ments and the conservative classes, they should have been 
 addressed to these classes themselves, not the Council of 
 
 War. But his assertion that they may 
 have had an influence on the case 
 cannot be allowed to pass uncontested ; 
 for in these proceedings no reference 
 at all has been made to the Escuela 
 Moderna or to its teaching, and the 
 Prosecutor does not once allude to it. 
 
 If the Defender thought that the 
 sentence passed in the case of Morral's 
 bomb ought to have been added to the 
 present record, why did he not demand it at the reading of the 
 indictment? However, even if this had been done, it would not 
 have prevented us from drawing the appropriate inferences from 
 the documents lodged in this case, as a result of the various 
 searches carried out at the prisoner's house, since the plea of the 
 chose jugee applies only to the particular crime on which judgment 
 has been passed, and has no bearing upon other crimes, to which 
 the judgment did not extend, and, in the present case, could not 
 possibly extend, seeing that the crime is of later date. That 
 judgment may prove that Ferrer took no part in Morral's attempt ; 
 but it gives no patent of legality to the documents, especially as 
 the Defender does not venture to assert that they were ever 
 submitted to the Court at Madrid. 
 
 It is not surjjrising that the Defender should complain of the 
 conduct of the radical party, since, that party having left his client 
 
 Seep. 165. 
 
 Except by the Assessor 
 himself and by the Prosecutor 
 of the Supreme Court, and 
 by whoever was responsible for 
 the flooding of the press with 
 garbled extracts f7'om Ferrer's 
 publications.
 
 294 APPENDIX 
 
 isolated, as is shown by the declarations of Domenech and 
 especially of Lla?rh, we need not wonder that it has incurred his 
 (Ferrer's) antipathy, both because it failed to second his plans, 
 and because, by that isolation, it enabled judicial action success- 
 fully to accomplish its task. 
 
 The Defender says that he holds at the disposal of the Court 
 documents proving his client's innocence ; but what is certain is 
 
 that he has not put them in, and that 
 
 Which may possibly have ^he Council of War (I am sure) would 
 
 lce}t the reason why he did not have admitted them. The Code 
 
 not put them in. q{ Military Justice fixes a time at which 
 
 the prisoner's representative may bring 
 forward what evidence he thinks relevant; that time is at the 
 reading of the indictment : then it was that the Defender should 
 have demanded the inclusion of those documents in the record ; 
 if he did not, it is because he had not much confidence in their 
 efficacy. 
 
 Again, the Defender asserts that we have refused to listen to 
 the opinions of philosophers, and that we have given ear to 
 
 suborned witnesses^ such as Esmolet and 
 Who these witnesses were I Ma^iqiiet, He does not say by whom 
 do7iot know. Doubtless their ^^gy ^gj-e suborned : and with the same 
 evidence dropped otit precisely • , i i , , , 
 
 because it was manifestly "S^^ ^e has to assume them subomed 
 corrupt. by whomsoever he pleases, we on our 
 
 side might assume them suborned by 
 the prisoner. But even here he is in error; review the case, 
 and you will see that neither of these two persons has given 
 evidence. 
 
 As to the value of the declarations of the witnesses, the 
 Defender brings forward no reasonable argument which can lessen 
 their cumulative force ; for what he says on this point, he does 
 not prove, and consequently it can be regarded as no more 
 than an idle ebullition, to be judged by the tone of his whole 
 address. 
 
 Regarding the main point at issue — was Ferrer the chief of 
 the rebellion ? — although I consider it sufficiently proved by the 
 Prosecutor, I am going to emphasize it anew in order to refute 
 the defence.
 
 -SEARCHING " AND -GOADING" 295 
 
 Observe, first of all, that the witness Don Francisco de Paula 
 CoUdefons (folio 492) tells you that he saw him captaining a 
 
 group in the Rambla in front of the 
 
 The Catholic journalist Liceo, on the 27th, and that the fact of 
 
 again. See pp. 2\i, 26Z. there being only one witness on this 
 
 point does not invalidate his testimony, 
 because the Courts are bound by no such rule in their apprecia- 
 tion of evidence. In fact, the veracity of the witness can be 
 deduced from his own words. He did not know Ferrer per- 
 sonally ; but when he saw that the people gathered in that place 
 
 indicated him as being Ferrer Guardia, 
 Colldefons does not allege jj caused him to look at him, and that 
 any ' ' tannble act of leader- , , .1,1, 
 
 ship;^ and he vjas never con- ^o such purpose that he subsequently 
 
 fronted witii Ferrer or in any identified him three times, in a circle 
 -way cross-examined as to the of prisoners, as appears on folio 493. 
 
 grounds for his assumption r^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^^^ ^^^^ ^ 
 of (the supposed) Ferrers ■' 
 
 "captaincy." tangible act of leadership {jefatura): 
 
 the captaining of a group, and appear- 
 ing as the commander, superior, or the head of the same, direct- 
 ing the others. 
 
 That he sought people out, and goaded others on, is proved 
 by the declarations of Domenech, Llarch^ Casas, and Alvarez 
 
 Espinosa. The first two show him 
 
 1/ he "sought out" and searching i)/// people prepared to follow 
 
 ^\qoaded- these virtuous citi- j^j^^ ^j^^^^g ^is visits tO the office of ^/ 
 
 zcnSf it was to no purpose . • t /■ , 
 
 ■whatever. Progreso durmg the night of the 26th : 
 
 searching out similar auxiliaries in the 
 person of Llarch himself and of the Alcalde Casas Llibre ; and 
 the last two, with many other witnesses, confirm the fact that he 
 sought Old and goaded on the Alcalde of Premid, urging him to 
 
 proclaim the Republic from his Town 
 
 The burning of the churches, jr \\ 
 etc., was practically over before 
 
 he is alleged to have uttered As to his pointing the aims of the 
 
 these sentiments. Not one rebellion, besides what appears from 
 
 genuine case cf incendiarism j^c documents in folios 1 77, I 78, and 
 even purports to have been , , , , , 
 
 traced to his incitement. ^79. observe that, to Llarch as to 
 
 Casas Llibre, he says that not only must 
 the Republic be proclaimed, but that churches and convents must
 
 296 APPENDIX 
 
 be burnt ; and if you compare these words with what happened 
 during the rebeUion, you will see that the Republic, indeed, 
 was not proclaimed, but that numerous convents and churches 
 were committed to fire and pillage. 
 
 That he furnished means for the rebellion, is proved to you, 
 not only by the appearance at Masnou and Premi^ of those bands 
 
 mentioned by several witnesses, but by 
 
 Even if true, what has this ^^e Occurrences in the former of those 
 
 to do -with ^'furnishing places, where a person harangued the 
 
 ^^"■"■s"'^ multitude in the name of Ferrer, and 
 
 by the declarations of the Colonel and 
 
 Captain-Adjutant of the Dragoons of Santiago. The Defender 
 
 ridicules this evidence, and attempts to invalidate the declarations 
 
 ™, „ . , , of these witnesses, because they did not 
 
 2 he officers are stated (p. ■' 
 
 274) aetually to have arrested arrest the persons whom they searched 
 
 these persons ; why then could and found in possession of revolvers, 
 
 they not he produced? The jn Order that they might identify Ferrer. 
 
 Prosecutor and the Assessor -d^^l- l-i -_^^ i- 
 
 ..r.ti, . V <<vv » But this, which at first seems much, is 
 
 use the same word, *'detener"; ' ' 
 
 but the one says that the offi- nothing, if you look into it a little. 
 
 ccrs did, and the other that Bear in mind that the Colonel and the 
 
 they did not, arrest the Captain were not aware of the import- 
 revolver-men. ... . ., , , 
 
 ance of this point until, at the barracks 
 
 of their regiment, they undertook the task of interrogating the 
 
 soldiers who had been on duty together at the Plaza Antonio 
 
 Lopez on the evening of July 26, and these soldiers spoke of a 
 
 gentleman in a blue suit and a straw hat. Now this inquiry took 
 
 place and these declarations were made on September 25 : how 
 
 then could the officers have hoped to find the individuals whom 
 
 they had searched on July 26 ? 
 
 For the reasons above set forth, and to sum up, the Assessor 
 
 concludes by counselling the Court — 
 
 1. To declare that the facts investigated in this case con- 
 stitute the completed crime of military rebellion defined in Section 
 237 (paragraphs 3 and 4) of the Code of Military Justice. 
 
 2. To hold guilty of this crime, in the character of author 
 AND CHIEF of the rebclUon, the prisoner Francisco Ferrer 
 Guardia, with all the aggravating circumstances set forth in 
 Section 173 of the said Code.
 
 EXPLICIT ASSESSOR 297 
 
 3. To inflict upon him, in accordance with Section 238 
 (Clause i) of the said code, the penalty of death. 
 
 [Here follows a repetition of the concluding paragraphs of the 
 Prosecutor's allocution.] 
 
 Enrique Gesta y Garcia 
 Barcelona, October 9, 1909.
 
 SENTENCE 
 
 In Barcelona, on October 9, 1909, the ordinary Council of 
 War of the station having assembled to try and pass judg- 
 ment in this cause ; the Examining Magistrate having reported 
 the result of his investigation; the accused being present; the 
 Prosecutor's presentment and the defence having been heard; 
 and in accord with the pronouncement of the Assessor; the 
 Council of War unanimously declares — 
 
 That the facts investigated in this case constitute the com- 
 pleted crime of military rebellion, defined in Section 237 
 (paragraphs 3 and 4) of the Code of Military Justice : 
 
 Considers the prisoner Francisco Ferrer Guardia responsible 
 for the same, in the character of author and chief of the 
 rebellion, with the aggravating circumstances set forth in 
 Section 173 of the said Code : 
 
 And, in virtue of the same, imposes on him, in accordance 
 with Section 238, clause i, the penalty of death, with the alter- 
 native, in case the penalty is remitted, of perpetual absolute 
 incapacity ; condemning him also to make compensation for all 
 the damage and detriment caused by the conflagrations, by 
 pillage, and by injury to the lines of communication, by rail and 
 telegraph, occasioned during the rebellion; all the goods of 
 Ferrer Guardia, until the amount of the damage can be ascertained, 
 being held applicable to the discharge of this civil liability ; and 
 declaring that, in the aforesaid case of remission of the death 
 penalty, one-half of the period of preventive imprisonment 
 undergone in consequence of these proceedings shall be credited 
 to him. 
 
 The whole in accordance with Sections 173, 188, 219, 237
 
 SENTENCE 299 
 
 (paragraphs 3 and 4), 238 (Clause i), and 242 of the Code of 
 Military Justice; ii, 13, 18 to 21, 53, 121 to 128 of the ordinary 
 Penal Code ; the concordant sections of both Codes, and the 
 Law of January 17, 1901. — Eduardo de Aguirre. — Pom- 
 peyo Martf. — Sebastian Carreras. — Marcelino Diaz. — Manuel de 
 Llanos. — Aniceto Garcia. — Julio Lopez.
 
 PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE AUDITOR- 
 GENERAL OF THE 4TH DISTRICT 
 
 Your Excellency, 
 
 [Here follows a paragraph reciting the terms of the sentence,] 
 
 The Auditor considers it indispensable to give, at the outset 
 of this pronouncement, a biography of the prisoner Ferrer Guard ia 
 as a revolutionary, deduced from the letters and documents which 
 make up the fifty files seized by the police during the second of 
 the searches carried out at Mas Germinal. 
 
 The earliest document among them is a letter dated June 22, 
 1880 (file 14), which refers to the mission then entrusted to 
 the prisoner by Don Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, at that time a 
 refugee at Geneva, of introducing into Spain the correspondence 
 which the latter maintained with his friends, and also the mani- 
 festoes, commissions, and packets which were confided to him, 
 and which Ferrer busied himself in forwarding to their destination. 
 Ferrer was then an employee of the Madrid, Saragossa, and 
 Alicante Railway Company, and, as ticket-inspector, made the 
 journey from the French frontier to Barcelona. 
 
 He was also entrusted with the management of certain matters 
 in the revolutionary movement which at that time was preparing 
 at Santa Coloma de Farn^s; and the prisoner worked with so 
 much intelligence, interest, and zeal for the republican cause 
 that Ruiz Zorrilla regarded him as one of his best, most faithful, 
 and most intelligent friends. He says to him in various letters 
 (files 14 and 26) that, with a few more men like him, they would 
 
 already be in Madrid, and the Republic 
 This bears out Ferrer's own ^^^jj^j j^ave triumphed. Ferrer went on 
 statement that his mieration ... -, -.r or. i 
 
 to Paris was voluntary. 1" ^his way until May 19, 1885, when 
 
 he resigned his employment and settled 
 in Paris. This decision was referable to the rising of Santa Coloma,
 
 " ZERO ' 301 
 
 in which he took some share, to conjugal difficulties which led 
 to his separation from his wife, who fired two shots at him (file 
 
 26, letters of May 27), and to a sup- 
 Seep, 5. posed robbery committed on the Gerona 
 
 line, the victim being a priest who was 
 the bearer of some money (file 40, sheet 167). 
 
 Under the patronage of Zorrilla and the colony of Spanish 
 refugees, he set up a wine-shop at Paris, and engaged in giving 
 lessons and in working energetically for the cause of revolution. 
 He maintained with various republican personages an active cor- 
 respondence, which makes up files 15, 16, i6a, i6b, i6c, i6d, 
 and 26. It is to be observed that the fieriest and most impatient 
 addressed themselves to Ferrer, with a view to influencing, 
 through him, the mind of Ruiz Zorrilla, in order that, without 
 embarking on any cabals, compromises, or amalgamations with 
 republicans of other shades, and without hoping for anything 
 from evolution, they might frankly and resolutely march on to 
 revolution. 
 
 It is to be remarked that from the month of March, 1883, the 
 bulk of the letters received by Ferrer were not addressed to him 
 in his own name, but in that of Zero, which is the pseudonym and 
 countersign he had assumed for the work of conspiracy. This 
 figure and name he retained until the death of Zorrilla, and so 
 
 he signed the famous manifesto of the 
 The suggestion that in this ^^.^j^h has been published in the 
 
 document he concealed his . 
 
 name is clearly false, if the newspapers. It IS a symbolic name, 
 
 Prosecutor'sversionofit, and and Constitutes in itself a very salient 
 the version published in the trait in Ferrer's personality as a con- 
 
 most advanced — he wants to march in 
 
 The prosecution here pur- f^Q^t of Number I ; but at the same 
 
 suet its established policy of . , . , , . 
 
 grossly exaggerating Ferrer's t>me he wishes his name not to appear; 
 
 influence, while making out he aspires to obliterate himself, to 
 
 that it was surreptitious and \sQxV. in the shade ; and for that reason, 
 
 ^^^^^raneau. Hut see next j^ ^^-^^^ ^f j^j^ j^^^j^^ 1^^^^ ^^^ ^f ^^^ 
 
 most revolutionary men in Spain, he 
 has never been chief. And when Don Odon de Buen, on the
 
 302 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 occasion of a celebrated meeting with a view to inducing all the 
 sections of the republican party to remain united under the leader- 
 ship of Salmeron, solicited Ferrer's permission for his signature 
 to appear upon the summons to this meeeting, the prisoner 
 
 refused (letter of April 8, 1903), claimed 
 his freedom of action to carry on his 
 work in obscurity, and expressed his 
 unalterable decision to appear at the 
 head of no political party. 
 
 Thus Ferrer continued his never- 
 
 This letter, of course, was 
 written long after Ferrer had 
 given up active political work. 
 Observe that the text is 7iot 
 quoted. It is most improbable 
 that either Ferrer or Dr. 
 Odon de Buen made any 
 reference to his appearing '•'■at 
 the head" of any political 
 party. 
 
 ending revolutionary labours at the 
 
 side of Ruiz Zorrilla, whose affection 
 
 he so far succeeded in conciHating as 
 
 to become his secretary ; and he took 
 
 a hand in the preparation of all the political disturbances of a 
 
 republican character which took place in Spain, from that of 
 
 Asencio Vega at Badajoz to that of Captain Casero in Madrid. 
 
 When the year 1892 came, Ferrer obtained the right to repre- 
 sent various republican, rationalist and socialist centres, in Spain 
 
 and abroad, and as delegate of these 
 organizations attended the Congress 
 of Free Thought held in Madrid. At 
 that Congress the personality of Ferrer 
 as standard-bearer of the Revolution 
 came into singular prominence, after 
 a violent speech on his part, which, 
 written in Spanish and in French, was 
 widely disseminated. 
 
 At this Congress, Ferrer made the 
 acquaintance of Lerroux, then editor in 
 charge of the section " Politics of the Day " in El Fats, and, 
 discerning in the young journalist a revolutionary temperament 
 similar to his own, he contracted with him a speedy and fraternal 
 friendship, which is depicted in Lerroux's letters composing 
 file No. 2 — a friendship and political understanding which has 
 lasted until a very recent date, for in Ferrer's last letter, of June 
 24, 1908, packet No. 12, written at Amelie-les-Bains, on the 
 occasion of a visit to that establishment made by Ferrer, Soledad, 
 
 What becomes of the pre- 
 tence that he always " aspired 
 to obliterate himself, to work 
 in the shade"? The truth 
 is that this pretence is founded 
 on the usual disregard of 
 chronology. After Ferrer had 
 abandoned politics, he fiatu- 
 rally did not want to figure 
 prominently on the political 
 platform.
 
 FERRER AND LERROUX 303 
 
 Malato and Margarita, Anselmo Lorenzo, and other foreign 
 anarchists whose names are not given (see Lorenzo's letter of 
 July 21, 1908, packet 12), Ferrer invited Lerroux, with 
 affectionate insistence, to send his wife and son to the French 
 watering-place, thinking that a stay in that place would be far 
 more agreeable to them than a visit to the house at Mongat, 
 which he had previously placed at the disposal of the Lerroux 
 family. To this ofifer Lerroux replied on June 29, thanking him 
 for the invitation, and saying that he was forwarding the letter to 
 his wife, leaving her the choice of accepting, and asking her to 
 address her reply to Ferrer direct (packet 12.) 
 
 Ferrer put Lerroux in communication with Ruiz Zorrilla, and 
 although both accepted the latter's authority, because he was then 
 the republican leader who was advancing towards revolution, 
 neither was satisfied with the direction imposed upon the party. 
 The proof of this lies in the fact that Ferrer considered as 
 colourless and weak the manifesto or proclamation of Ruiz 
 Zorrilla which the prisoner had signed in his capacity as Secretary 
 (folio 376), holding that, although very advanced, it confined 
 itself to political revolution, whereas the two friends aspired to 
 social revolution. Wherefore they drew up on their own account 
 the circular of folio 374, in which is inserted Lerroux's manifesto 
 " to Republicans of courage," energetically inciting to revolution 
 and to the formation of the group of 300 men ready to give their 
 
 lives for it; Ferrer appearing at the 
 See pp. 222, 278. head of the 300, but under the figure 
 
 of Zero, the name with which he signed 
 the circular proclamation. It was this group which, during the 
 interval between the year 1892 and the death of Ruiz Zorrilla, 
 fed the flame of conspiracy among the advanced sections of the 
 republican party, its members signing their letters with the 
 number which each had assumed ; the list of which was kept by 
 Ferrer, whose duty it was to supply the needful information to 
 the chief, when he was in doubt about the identity of the person 
 represented by No. 20 or No. 132 with which this or that letter 
 was signed. 
 
 On the death of Ruiz Zorrilla, when the revolutionaries had to 
 seek another leader, the prisoner addressed himself to Lerroux
 
 304 APPENDIX 
 
 proposing that he should accept the command which he offered 
 him with flattering expressions, in the letter appended to folios i88 
 and 189. But Lerroux, for the moment, declined the honour, in 
 the letter of foUos 390 and 391, although he fully agreed with 
 Ferrer that it was necessary to create revolutionaries, and to 
 convince the people of the possibility of living without Law, 
 without Government, without God, or anything at all. 
 
 Seeing that the years slipped away without the triumph of the 
 desired revolution, taking a lesson from the experience that the 
 insurrectionary movements of Santa Coloma, of Badajoz, of 
 Villacampa, of Casero, of Mangado (in all of which he apparently 
 had some share), were so many fiascos, and convinced that the 
 
 revolution of his dreams would never 
 
 Here the Auditor appears triumph by such measures, Ferrer com- 
 
 to accept without question the 1 ^ 1 1 ■, , ■ -,-, , 
 
 sincerity of Ferrer^s belief in P^^^^^^ changed his COUrse. He thence- 
 
 the necessity for education. forward believed that in Spain it was 
 
 useless to foment revolutions, since the 
 
 first and chief thing to do was to 
 
 To say nothing of the Create revolutionaries : to which end 
 
 fact that the mention of ''■a it was essential to educate the young, 
 
 general strike or the May extirpating from their brains the idea 
 
 Day restival occurs tn the r A :3 e 
 
 '^ Proclamation'^ of 1892, ^f God, of religion, of property, of 
 long anterior to Ferrer's the family, freeing them from every 
 
 change of heart, can the bond which could impede their move- 
 Auditor be sincere m his , 1 ^ 
 
 ridiculous assumption that "^^"^'' ^"^ ^^^^n once they were thus 
 Ferrer supposed that he could prepared, awaiting the first opportunity, 
 in 6 or 8 years create the such as a general Strike, the May Day 
 educated populace without fgg^i^^i ^^ ^ther fitting conjunc- 
 
 which he held revolution to , , , o j 
 
 be useless? *^^^ ^° launch them upon the streets 
 
 in order to demolish everything that 
 exists, and to bring about a social revolution (file 15). 
 
 The enterprise was arduous and laborious; but to it the 
 prisoner devoted all his indefatigable activity ; and, the foremost 
 need being money, he undertook the conquest of one of his lady 
 
 pupils, hoping that in time he would 
 
 So the Auditor always succeed in obtaining from her the funds 
 
 spdls Mile. Meunier's name, necessary to realize his ideal. That 
 
 pupil was Mile. Ernestine Meunie,
 
 THE MEUNIER EPISODE 
 
 305 
 
 We owe sincere thanks to 
 the Auditor for quoting this 
 letter. Without it there might 
 have been some difficulty in 
 rebutting the assertion that 
 Ferrer deceived his benefactress 
 as to the nature of his vietcs. 
 See p. 26. 
 
 Catholic, Apostolic, and all the rest as Ferrer says in his letter of 
 September 20, 1900 (packet No. 38) ; and over her Ferrer exercised 
 during six years a veritable fascination, directed towards her con- 
 version to anarchism. The numerous and interesting letters 
 which make up packet No. 39 reflect exactly the impression 
 which the prisoner's suggestions were producing upon her mind, 
 leading her to make the following confession in a letter dated 
 
 November 2, 1899. " I had," she says, 
 *' an admiring regard for the clergy : 
 it is dead ; I felt respect and admiration 
 for men and things connected with 
 Justice : it is dead ; I cherished esteem 
 and admiration for soldiers : it is dead ; 
 I had respect, in general, for everything 
 connected with authority and govern- 
 ment, and ... it is dead . . . ; but there is a Supreme Being, a 
 God, the God of my mother, the God she adored, who made her 
 happy, who accorded her a calm and gentle death. . . ." This 
 God Ferrer did not succeed in tearing from her soul ; neither did 
 he succeed in making Mile. Meunie' accept the employment of 
 bombs and explosives; she always answered her disinterested 
 
 teacher's arguments by saying that as 
 a wild lion or tiger is shut up in a cage 
 to prevent his doing harm, so it was 
 necessary to shut up militant anarchists 
 for the same reason. The conversion 
 of Mile. Meunie' to anarchism, then, 
 was not complete, but it was sufficient 
 to enable Ferrer to attain the end he 
 had set before himself; and on their 
 return from a journey, the prisoner, by 
 invoking ideas of philanthropy and of 
 succour to the helpless, extorted from 
 her a grant of an annual endowment of 
 10,000 francs for the maintenance of 
 an Asylum School. This was, by 
 Ferrer's agency, changed into the 
 Escuela Moderna, which carried out a work diametrically 
 
 X 
 
 It is a pity that the Auditor 
 docs not vouchsafe any quota- 
 tion from which it should 
 clearly appear that Ferrer 
 advocated '^^ the employment 
 of bombs and explosives. ^^ 
 Even supposing him at heart 
 a terrorist., it is wildly im- 
 probable that he should imperil 
 his chatices with Mile. Meu- 
 nier by confessing such views. 
 
 Here the Auditor does not 
 profess to be quoting from 
 letters . He is merely repeating 
 the groundless assertions of 
 Sipior Coppola. See p. 28.
 
 306 APPENDIX 
 
 opposed to the ends and aims of Ernestine Meunie', its unconscious 
 founder. 
 
 The necessary funds obtained, the studies of the School had 
 next to be subjected to a guidance adequate to the design of 
 forming young revolutionaries, or, to put it better, anarchists ; 
 and for that necessity Ferrer had already provided by opening 
 
 philosophico-mercantile relations with 
 
 For the true story of Cle- Mme. Ch. Jacquinet, a primary teacher, 
 vunce^not^^Ch^pjprdnet ^^^ ^j^^^^^^ ^ j ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
 see p. 35. The (.<') a hitle 1, 1 i,- u • • r 
 
 lower down is the Auditor^s (Egypt). a school which, m View of 
 own. the harm it did, was closed by the 
 
 intervention of the English authorities. 
 Mme. Jacquinet was an atheist, a materialist, scientifically (?) 
 convinced ; anti-religious, maintaining that religions, by divid- 
 ing mankind, constitute a real obstacle to its progress ; anti- 
 militarist, anarchist, such an one, in short, as to realize Ferrer's 
 dream of a person fitted to form by her teaching an archi- 
 revolutionary younger generation (letters of Mme. Jacquinet 
 packet No. 34c). Consequently, it was she whom Ferrer chose 
 as directress of his school. He summoned her to Paris, thus 
 snatching her from suicide. They busied themselves for some 
 days in buying the scientific material for teaching; and in the 
 first days of January, 1901, she established herself at Barcelona, 
 and began the installation of the Escuela Moderna^ in which 
 work she was seconded by a committee composed of Sres. 
 Brosa (afterwards Ferrer's son-in-law), Hurtado -Prat, Canivel, 
 Salas Anton, Jaime Peiro, and Odon de Buen (file No. 34c). 
 
 Thus did it happen that Mme. Jacquinet, 
 TJu authorities of liberal ^ooted out of the soil of Egypt as a 
 England in fto way inter- noxious and dangerous germ by the 
 fered with Mme. Jacquinet. authorities of liberal England, trans- 
 planted by Ferrer to Barcelona, struck 
 root, developed, and brought forth abundant and very bitter 
 fruits in our calumniated Spain. 
 
 Mme. Jacquinet having besought Ferrer to remove her from 
 the administrative department of the School, he addressed himself 
 to his friend and co-religionary, Josd Prats, asking him to take up 
 the preliminary work. And in order to prove completely that
 
 FOR THE DEFENCE 
 
 307 
 
 If only ^'aKarc/iisi" he 
 clearly distinguished from 
 '■^ terrorist ^^ it is not for a 
 niornent denied that this was 
 Ferrer's main object. 
 
 Ferrer's sole object in setting up his school was to create a 
 
 generation of anarchists and revolu- 
 tionaries, the Auditor will transcribe 
 some paragraphs from his letters to 
 Prats, the more so since in all of them 
 is found a constant repetition of the 
 idea that the most revolutionary work in 
 the world is the adequate education of 
 the working class. Ferrer says in the letter of September 29, 
 1900 : ". "Friend Prats, it is my intention to found in this town 
 an emancipatory school, whose business shall be to banish from 
 the brain that which divides men (religion), the false ideas of 
 property, of country and of family, etc., in order to achieve the 
 liberty and welfare which all desire and none attain completely." 
 In the letter of December 6, he adds : " We must so contrive 
 that all the acts of the School — its books, its practices, etc. — 
 shall be internally libertarian, but without making a show of 
 this externally^ because otherwise we should not be able to live." 
 And in the letter of the i8th of the same month he rounded off 
 this thought, saying : " But that which I intend doing is so much 
 outside all that has hitherto been done, that, if no acceptable 
 methods (of instruction) exist, we shall have to create them on 
 purpose, seeing that in the School no homage must be paid to 
 God, to the Country or to anything." 
 
 With this end in view — that of procuring texts and 
 
 methods of instruction — the prisoner 
 drew up a circular inviting to a com- 
 petition of authors, in which we read : 
 "A revolutionary republican who has 
 lived in Paris since 1885, and who, 
 since that date, owing to the disgust 
 and disillusionment suffered in his con- 
 tact with the progressists and other 
 Spanish republicans ; owing to his 
 observation of the French radical and 
 socialist parties ; having taken part in 
 an infinity of congresses of workers and 
 of social democrats ; having witnessed the disputes of the socialist 
 
 This paragraph^ and the 
 next one, are invaluable docu- 
 ments—for the defertce. Who 
 can possibly believe that a 
 man sincerely holding these 
 doctrines (and ike plea of 
 hypocrisy is here tacitly aban- 
 doned) would consider his 
 educational mission fulfilled 
 in eight years of persecuted 
 and hampered activity, and 
 ■would stake his life and life- 
 work on the success of a for- 
 tuitous local rawlt f
 
 308 APPENDIX 
 
 leaders ; and having read the Press which styles itself the defender 
 of the people's rights ; has arrived at the conviction that the only 
 path which can lead to the redemption of those who suffer and to 
 a real social state is the education of the working class. . . . Con- 
 vinced, then, of this, he has changed the ardour which formerly 
 possessed him in favour of political revolution into a passion 
 for the instruction of the people, and thanks to his persistent 
 propaganda, he has succeeded in finding certain resources for 
 the foundation of an emancipatory School. It is his desire — for 
 he is still a republican and revolutionary — that the emancipatory 
 School should justify its name truly and completely. . . . Francisco 
 Ferrer Guardia, the person in question, intends to establish the 
 School in Barcelona, because he considers the Catalan Capital 
 to be the best focus for propaganda and for the development of 
 these ideas." Whereupon he announces a competition, setting 
 forth the principles to be observed in the drawing up of different 
 texts under such conditions that history, geography, grammar, 
 
 and all the sciences, arts, and letters 
 
 For the phrase of which converge to the end of depriving 
 
 this IS probably a perversion^ -,,,,.- , ° 
 
 see pp. 87, 89. ^^ young of all beliefs and flattering 
 
 all their appetites (file No. 13). 
 And in order to dispel all doubt that in the education he 
 styles rational and scientific the sole ideal aspired to is that of 
 creating revolutionaries and anarchists, particular mention may 
 be made of the prisoner's reply to a letter of Don Oddn de 
 Buen, in which the latter complains of having barely escaped 
 being a victim of the outrage of Hostafranch, having been in 
 company with Salmeron, and says that this outrage had been 
 prepared by intimates of Ferrer, wherefore he finds himself 
 unable to visit him (Ferrer was at this time in the Model Prison 
 at Madrid) fearing to find there certain persons whom he does 
 not wish to meet. To this Ferrer replies in a ^letter of May 
 25, 1907: "As for not coming to see me, I regret that it 
 should be for the reason you mention, because I am certain you 
 would find nobody in my locutory whose presence could annoy 
 you : if it is Lerroux to whom you allude, I have not seen him 
 more than three or four times in a whole year, and not for more 
 than a quarter of an hour in all. It is very regrettable, Don
 
 FERRER'S INFLUENCE 
 
 309 
 
 Yes, this was his convic- 
 tion ; but he did not dream 
 that a people could be regene- 
 rated in the iivinkling of a?i 
 eye. lie frequently insisted 
 on the need for time and 
 patience. See in pariiatlar 
 the fragment written on tlie 
 last day of his life, p. 236. 
 
 Odon, that political passions should separate men who by their 
 aspirations, or at least by their propaganda, ought to find them- 
 selves always united. You already know how much I have been 
 disillusioned with politics ; and now, with these new divergencies, 
 and strange orientations, the conviction takes firmer root in me 
 
 that by rational instruction and equali- 
 tarian education we shall be able to go 
 further, much further, than by electoral 
 contests." He expresses himself in a 
 similar strain when he writes to Dr. 
 Garriga of Buenos Ayres, and repeats 
 a hundred times that the most intensely 
 and unfailingly revolutionary work is 
 education in the form by him estab- 
 lished. 
 When therefore, in 1906, the Escuela Moderna was closed, 
 Ferrer set to work to open a passage for his propaganda by intro- 
 ducing into the school of Casa del Pueblo, into the SoUdaridad 
 Obrera, and each and all of the numerous radical political centres 
 estabhshed at Barcelona and in Catalonia, his texts, his pamphlets, 
 his books ; in this way, quietly, without exciting suspicion, with- 
 out arousing protest, and under the pretext of obtaining for the 
 people a rational and scientific education, he has gone on bringing 
 
 under his influence, little by little, the 
 most active elements of the extreme 
 parties, to such a degree that in fact 
 they can attempt no political movement 
 in Catalonia without finding themselves 
 swept away by the wave of anarchism 
 which envelops them and hurries them 
 on to social revolution. 
 
 Soon certain sections of the re- 
 publican party became aware of this 
 evil, as is proved by the efforts they made last year to banish 
 Ferrer's books from their schools (letters of Colominas and 
 Bertelosi to Ferrer, packets 3 to 11). But events have shown 
 that it was already too late, since the evil was done. A detailed 
 examination of the accounts of the Escuela Moderna and of th ; 
 
 The usual wild exaggera- 
 tion of the influence of the 
 JEscuela Moderna and its 
 text-books. See p. 60. It 
 must be admitted that some of 
 Ferrer' s foreign admirers un- 
 wittingly helped to foster this 
 illusion. The next three para- 
 graphs all ring the changes 
 on the same theme.
 
 ;310 APPENDIX 
 
 publications directed by Ferrer — an examination to which the 
 
 Auditor has been unable, for lack of 
 
 . . y • y time, to apply himself — would brins; to 
 
 An amazing conjesston oj ^ ^ ^ ■* ° 
 
 the necessity — imposed, as light the very far-reaching work of anar- 
 Paz Ferrer put it, by "rea- chist propaganda accomplished during 
 sons of state ^' -for hurrying j^tg yg^rs ; but, taking in bulk certain 
 Ferrer into his grave. , r • ^ ^ ^ ■ ■, ■, ^ 
 
 data furnished by a simple perusal of 
 
 various documents, we may see, from a 
 print bearing the title Four Fra?idsco Ferrer, written in French 
 and English, which appears in packet No. 24, that in the year 
 1906, before the attempt upon their Majesties, Ferrer numbered, 
 in the province of Barcelona alone, 47 branches of the Escuela 
 Moderna, which number has since increased prodigiously, stretch- 
 ing not only over the rest of the Catalan provinces, but over those 
 of Valencia, Granada, Seville, and other districts. of Andalusia. 
 And his books, pamphlets, and reviews, no longer intended for 
 children, like the school texts, but for the adult section of the 
 working class, now find a wide market in Spain and America; 
 numerous translations are published of all the acratist and 
 anarchist works which appear abroad, editions of some of them 
 being rapidly exhausted, and immediately replaced by others, of 
 an improved quality. It is equally to be remarked that when one 
 or other of the political groups supplying themselves with his 
 works shows some slowness in paying for its orders, Ferrer does 
 not press them, doubtless counting it more revolutionary to reap 
 in its due time the fruit which his works may produce, than at 
 once to recover a few pesetas. 
 
 The correspondence under analysis brings to light, moreover, 
 the authority and domination which the prisoner Ferrer exercised 
 over the elements surrounding him, constituted not only of the 
 teachers of the numerous schools dependent on him, but of the 
 intellectuals who shared in his work, writing texts, and collabo- 
 rating in the reviews and bulletins which Ferrer published at 
 Barcelona, Brussels, and Rome. And on examination of the 
 letters addressed to the prisoner by Anselmo Lorenzo, Litran, 
 Colominas, Odon de Buen, Pi Arsuaga, Nakens, Est^vanez, Palasi, 
 and various others in Spain ; A. Naquet and Grave in France ; 
 E. Stander, Engerrand, and Eol. Duchemin at Brussels ; and Fabri
 
 HYPOCRISY RE-ASSERTED 311 
 
 at Rome, we may perceive that they all rendered to Ferrer the 
 respect due not only to the publisher who pays, and pays in 
 advance without haggling, the price of work done for him, but to 
 the intelligence which commands, and the chief who directs. 
 Perusal of this correspondence makes clear the leadership and 
 authority exercised by the prisoner. Ferrer also stood on terms 
 of intimate and fraternal friendship with the anarchists Malato 
 and Kropotkin, some of whose works were published at Barcelona, 
 translated by A, Lorenzo, at the same time as at Paris (letter of 
 Lorenzo, packet 12); and in the same way he maintained 
 relations with Tarrida, Malatesta, Reclus, and other foreign 
 anarchists. The prisoner Ferrer occupies a high place in the 
 freemasonry of the world, as is shown by the diplomas, medals, 
 and insignia seized at Mas Germinal, the very numerous masonic 
 letters making up the fifty files which the Auditor is unable to 
 decipher, and also the high and delicate missions which have 
 been confided to him within the sphere of the world's free- 
 masonry, as appears in detail in files 15-27, and various 
 others. 
 
 From all that has thus been set forth it results : ist, that the 
 prisoner Ferrer Guardia has devoted the energies and activities 
 of his whole life to the triumph of the revolution ; 2nd, that 
 despite the ardour and constancy with which he has worked for 
 the revolutionary cause, he always wished to remain in the shade, 
 
 hiding under the pseudonym of Zero 
 See pp. 222, 278, 301. during the period when he took part 
 
 in political conspiracies, and putting 
 on the mask of scientific and rational 
 
 education when, changing his course. 
 
 Here the suggestion of hy- ^^ j^j^^^j^- ^^^^ ^^ anarchist pro- 
 
 pocTtsy, abandoned for several ° * 
 
 pages, is quietly reinstated in pagan^a, and the engendering of the 
 
 the pleadings. social revolution ; 3rd, that he was the 
 
 true CHIEF of the anarchists, acratists, 
 libertarians of Spain. 
 
 With such antecedents, established by his own letters, it is 
 not surprising that — when, in the week of shame, bands of women 
 and youths set fire to churches and convents, desecrated tombs, 
 and dragged through the streets of Barcelona the corpses and
 
 312 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Is this, perhaps, the foun- 
 dation for the legend of the 
 nun ' ' outraged and brutally 
 murdered"? Evidently the 
 Auditor, like the Bishop cited 
 on p. 137, kno^vs nothing of 
 that legend in its completed 
 form. 
 
 mummies of the nuns ; when another band of women, in the 
 
 Campo de Galvany, stopped a nun 
 who had hidden in her clothes some 
 money and articles which she wished 
 to rescue from the rapacity of her 
 assailants, stripped her of her gar- 
 ments one by one till they left her in 
 her chemise, stole all she had with her, 
 and, after deliberating whether or not 
 to cast her into the flames that were consuming her convent, let 
 her go, amid insults and jests of the coarsest and most degraded 
 kind ; — when one of the rebels, taking in his arms the embalmed 
 corpse of another nun, danced with it and desecrated it in 
 brutish fashion ; when another rebel, finding amid the ruins of a 
 gutted convent a most beautiful image of the Virgin . . . sub- 
 jected it to the most perverse of profanations ; and when so many 
 
 other acts of sectarian savagery were 
 committed in Catalonia — it is not as- 
 tonishing that the outraged public con- 
 science should exclaim with one voice, 
 " This is the work of Ferrer ! " And 
 assuredly it was not mistaken, since 
 those who carried out this work were 
 bound to him in the relation of fruit 
 and seed, effect and cause, pupil and 
 master, chief who commands and soldier who obeys. 
 
 What has already been set forth, deduced from examination 
 of the documentary proof, would suffice, without the necessity of 
 opening the portfolio of the records, to induce in the mind an 
 
 intimate, reasoned, and incontrovert- 
 ible conviction that Francisco Ferrer 
 Guardia was the moral author and 
 CHIEF of the anarchist revolutionary 
 movement in Catalonia, realizing in it 
 the dreams of his whole existence, and 
 reaping the fruit of his 30 years of 
 incessant toil devoted to the triumph of 
 
 Assuredly it was the ** pub- 
 lic conscience" — or, in other 
 ivoi-ds, ignorant and violent 
 prejudice — that did Fe7-rer to 
 death, He7'e and i?i the next 
 paragraph the 'equivoque be- 
 tween " moral'? and actual 
 responsibility emerges very 
 clearly. 
 
 " Silly " seems to be the only 
 epithet for the cotitention that 
 in the haphazard Barcelona 
 riots Ferrer realized, or hoped 
 to realize, *^ the dreams of his 
 existence," reaped, or hoped to 
 reap, the fruits of 30 years' 
 toil. 
 
 the social revolution.
 
 THE SPY AND THE TROOPERS 313 
 
 Let us now see how the facts above reported fit in with the 
 
 events which took place in Catalonia during the last week of July. 
 
 This second part of his pronouncement will be easy, quick, 
 
 and simple for the Auditor, since a very detailed account of the 
 
 facts is given in the abstract of the Examining Magistrate (folio 
 
 496 onwards) ; the charges against the 
 More mutual adtniratiott. prisoner arising out of the record are 
 
 stated with all lucidity and accuracy by 
 the Prosecutor in his indictment, and by the Assessor in his 
 opinion ; while the legal description appropriate to these charges 
 is set forth with keen juridical discrimination. The undersigned 
 being at one with them in their appreciations, a new enumeration 
 of the facts would be tedious and barren. For these reasons, the 
 Auditor need do no more than recall the most salient features of 
 the prisoner's share in the events of Barcelona, Premia, and 
 Masnou. 
 
 Ferrer's presence is certified among the rebels of Barcelona, 
 where he is observed in the groups which at about six o'clock 
 
 in the evening collected in the Plaza 
 .S"«//. 206, 267. Antonio Lopez; when they were dis- 
 
 persed by a cavalry picket, the prisoner, 
 by his contemptuous replies, drew upon 
 He maJe only one reply, himself the notice of the soldiers of 
 wte er con emp uous or ^^^ picket, who identified him three 
 
 times among a circle of prisoners (foUos 
 488 and 489). He appears a short 
 He conversed with only one time afterwards at Atarazanas, convers- 
 ed" the groups. These things jj^g y^\^]^ j^e groups which were there, 
 are trtjles but they shou; the ^^ declared by the agent shadowing 
 general tendency to loose ex- -' ■ ■ ^ -n 
 
 aggeration. him, who lost sight of h)m m the Kam- 
 
 blas during a charge of the police, and 
 saw him again,' some time afterwards, enter the International 
 Hotel, where he supped. 
 
 He appears afterwards, accompanied by Francisco Domenech, 
 
 the barber of Masnou, paying two 
 See pp. 208, 265. visits to the office of El Fro^rcso, to 
 
 see what the comrades were agreeing to 
 do; but he comes away disappointed from these conferences,
 
 314 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 His plan {7vhich was noi 
 " /lis " iti any real sense) was 
 to suggest that the Govern- 
 ment should avert a revolu- 
 tion l>y stoppifig the embarka- 
 tion of reservists. He did not 
 *' sefid " Moreno " with a mes- 
 sage " — Domenec/C s evidence 
 contains no hint of such a 
 thing. 
 
 The movement began in 
 earnest some 15 hours later. 
 
 because Emiliano Iglesias and those with him had not shown 
 
 themselves disposed to assist his revo- 
 lutionary plans. A short time after- 
 wards, having met his co-religionary 
 Moreno, in the Calle de la Princesa, 
 he sent him with a third message to 
 the office of El Frogreso, where there 
 were some representatives of the Soli- 
 daridad Obrera, to see what decision 
 they had taken; and this time he 
 chained a better result, since the revo- 
 lutionary movement then began, and 
 since, as is shown in another case 
 actually pending before the Supreme 
 Council of the Army and Navy, the said Moreno, and Jose 
 Rodriguez Romero, the president of the Solidaridad Obrera, acted 
 as chiefs of a nucleus of rebels, who erected various barricades 
 between the Calles San Pablo, Beato Oriol, San Ramon, and 
 
 other neighbouring streets. It is proved 
 Ardid^s evidence, even if also that Ferrer appeared on the same 
 correctly reported, contained ^^y at the Casa del Pueblo, with the 
 no such suggestion : nor was ■, ■ ^ c ■> , ■ ■ r t *i--i 
 
 Ardid in a position to exert ^^^^^^ ^^ obtamuig from Lorenzo Ardid 
 any influence on the course of that the protest should not be limited 
 events. See pp. 20^, 266. to the Strike of the 26th; and it has 
 
 been similarly established that many of 
 the individuals on whom arms were 
 found confessed that they had received 
 them from a gentleman dressed in blue 
 with a straw hat, which description 
 coincides accurately with the description of the prisoner given by 
 the cavalry picket. 
 
 On the next day, the 27th, the witness Don Francisco de 
 P. Colldefons (who, to his honour be it said, has been the 
 
 only inhabitant of Barcelona who, shak- 
 Seepp. 164, 211, 268. ing off the disgraceful social cowardice 
 
 which here prevails, presented himself 
 to give evidence) reports that he saw Ferrer, about half-past 
 seven in the evening, captaining a group of rebels which passed 
 
 These " many" individuals 
 were '' certain" in the evi- 
 dence. See p. 274.
 
 MYTHICAL CONVENT-BURNING 315 
 
 along the Ramblas, in front of the Liceo, and then proceeded 
 down the Calle del Hospital. This witness subsequently identified 
 the accused in a circle of prisoners as being the person he had 
 seen in the Rambla at the head of the group before mentioned 
 (folio 493) ; and this incident concludes the facts which prove 
 the direct intervention of the prisoner in the events of Barce- 
 lona. 
 
 On July 28, Ferrer appears accompanied by Llarch at the 
 anarchist society known as the Fraternidad Republicana at 
 
 Premia; he causes the Alcalde, Sr. 
 Casas Llibre, the Deputy Alcalde, Sr. 
 Mustares, and the assistant, Espinosa, 
 to be summoned, and he holds with 
 them a conference which is reported in 
 detail in the speech for the prosecution, 
 proposing to them the proclamation of 
 the Republic and the burning of the 
 churches and convents. This proposi- 
 tion, though in appearance repudiated 
 by the Alcalde, leaks out and is trans- 
 lated into deeds, since, from the time 
 of this conference, the strike at Premia, 
 which had hitherto developed pacifi- 
 cally, takes a bad turn, and the acts of 
 violence, the attack upon, and burning 
 of, the convents begin. Ferrer gives 
 to an employee of the Municipality, 
 whom it has been impossible to identify, 
 several dynamite cartridges intended 
 for the destruction of the convents, of 
 which cartridges two exploded during 
 the burning of the Convent of the 
 Brothers of the Christian Doctrine ; and finally he gave direct 
 instructions to Sold, surnamed Casola^ as to the form the 
 revolution is to take, as appears in detail in the speech for the 
 prosecution. 
 
 Also at Masnou the revolutionary influence and action of 
 Ferrer made itself felt. After changing his appearance by 
 
 The club of virtuous and 
 incorruptible republicans has 
 suddenly blossomed into an 
 anaichist society. 
 
 For the " conference in de- 
 tail" see p. 271. 
 
 Can it be that the Auditor 
 doubts the virtue of the 
 Alcalde? 
 
 As a matter of fact, no con- 
 vents were burnt at Premia, 
 The huge convent of the 
 Christian Doctrine was abso- 
 lutely intact. It may be seen 
 in the illustration at p. 219. 
 
 The sole evidence in regard 
 to Casola is one witnesses 
 *' moral certainty." See pp. 
 200, 272.
 
 316 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The utter worthlessness of 
 the evidence for these occur- 
 retices at Masnou is shown at 
 p. 202, 
 
 shaving the beard he was in the habit of wearing, he summoned 
 
 Juan Puig, called Llarck, and proposed 
 
 As to the shaving, see pp. to him to go to the Town Hall and 
 
 2'5. 268. proclaim the Republic in Masnou; a 
 
 proposal which Llarch energetically 
 repudiated; in spite of which the prisoner insisted anew that 
 people ought to be stirred up to begin the burning of the convents. 
 Llarch having answered him that he did not understand how the 
 Republic was to ensue from the burning of convents, Ferrer 
 rejoined that for his part he did not care about the Republic, 
 but the point was that there should be a revolution. During the 
 
 evening and the night there was ob- 
 served at Masnou the presence of 
 groups of unknown persons, of seditious 
 behaviour, who awaited the arrival of 
 Ferrer ; but he did not come ; one of 
 the rebels spoke in his name, excusing 
 the prisoner by saying that he could not take part in what was 
 going on because the affairs of the revolution demanded his 
 presence in Barcelona. Finally, it is proved that from the 27th 
 
 to the 29th some bands of persons were 
 posted on the high road, for the purpose 
 of watching, who stopped tartanas, carts, 
 and bicycles, and in doing this carried 
 out, as they told a witness, the orders 
 of Ferrer, from whom they received 
 money. To these clear, precise and 
 well-defined charges Ferrer opposes 
 only his denial ; but not the round and 
 categorical denial of the man who has 
 rooted in his soul the absolute certainty 
 of his innocence, but the tepid and 
 hesitating denial of the man who denies 
 simply that he may not confess, of the 
 man who, pressed at the confrontations 
 by the witnesses against him, sees him- 
 self constrained to admit what he denied 
 he persists timidly in his statements, 
 
 The Auditor here rutts 
 together two alleged incidents, 
 one at Masnou, one at ]] Ion- 
 gat. The giving of money 
 rests on the evidence of a 
 newspaper paragraph which 
 a witness remembered to have 
 read. See pp. 201, 274, 275. 
 
 This is flagrantly untrue. 
 
 Only in one case did he 
 withdraw a previous denial — 
 his denial of having visited 
 the Casa del Pueblo. 
 
 before, and even when
 
 "SPIRITUAL PANCLASTINA " 317 
 
 emerges from all of them [the confrontations] discredited and 
 damaged. 
 
 If, as the defence asserts, Ferrer Guardia could have been 
 
 exonerated by the evidence of Soledad 
 See pp. 189, 292. Villafranca and his other disciples now 
 
 residing at Teruel, they have had time 
 
 to make their declarations during the 28 days occupied by the 
 
 Sumario ; and besides the prisoner could have cited them in his 
 
 interrogatories ; for, just as all the persons were examined whom 
 
 Ferrer had cited in his interrogatories^ so also a declaration would 
 
 have been demanded of those persons ; but as he never asked for 
 
 any declaration from them until the case was in the stage of the 
 
 Plenario, it has been impossible to grant his request owing to the 
 
 prohibition imposed by paragraph 5 of section 552 of our Code. 
 
 The same may be said of the declarations of the philosophers, 
 
 thinkers, and eminent persons who from London, Brussels, Paris, 
 
 Rome, could have added to the record their opinions of the 
 
 prisoner, proving that men who hold the ideas of Ferrer are 
 
 opposed to acts of violence of every sort. Supposing that these 
 
 declarations were actually in the record, and that in them it were 
 
 shown in brilliant periods that Ferrer is the redeemer of 
 
 Humanity, through rational and scientific education ; that to 
 
 diffuse that education among the working class he sacrifices his 
 
 welfare, his life, his energy, and his fortune; that he is an 
 
 altruist, a philosopher in advance of his century, and that he 
 
 possesses all the admirable qualities that can exalt human nature, 
 
 on which his Defender descants with enthusiasm ; — the fact 1 would 
 
 still remain that all these eulogistic assertions fall to the ground 
 
 in view of those which, with his own hand, Ferrer sets down in 
 
 in the letters making up the 50 files of correspondence, of which 
 
 some are transcribed in the first part 
 The same old argument ^f ^j^jg pronouncement ; for they show 
 that, because he had run «,,,,-. i- j ^ ^ ui 
 
 small school for s y^ars and Nearly that tcrrer does not trouble 
 
 published some 40 text-books, about the education of the people ex- 
 h£ thought his work of educa- eept in SO far as that education tends 
 tion completed and the popu- ^^ produce revolutionaries, and that he 
 
 lace ripe for revolution . " . 
 
 directs his efforts to steeping their 
 brains in the spiritual panclastina evolved by equalitarian and
 
 :318 APPENDIX 
 
 anarchist instruction, in the hope that its explosion will produce, 
 as in fact it has produced, greater and deeper devastation than 
 the other panclastina, the recipe for which accompanies the 
 Circular No. 2. Furthermore, if the Defender desires the inclusion 
 in the record of the impression and idea of the prisoner Ferrer 
 
 prevailing in foreign countries, on folio 
 
 There is nothing to show 468 will be found the report of the 
 
 that the French police did prench police of Paris, in which it is 
 
 anything more than echo the ... , , _, ... 
 
 opinion of the Spanish police, conclusively Stated that Ferrer "is 
 
 regarded there as a very dangerous 
 revolutionary and a propagandist of his ideas by all methods 
 within his reach." 
 
 The Auditor has yet to add, in reply to an observation of the 
 defence, that the numerous documents appertaining to this case 
 have never been subjected to examination, far less to judgment, 
 on the part of the Tribunal which tried the case arising out of 
 the attempt upon their Majesties, since the documents on the 
 record in that case remained in the archives relating thereto, in 
 the same way as the documents on the present record will be 
 filed. It is further to be remarked that very many of the letters 
 in this case are dated in the years 1907, 1908, 1909, and are, 
 consequently, later than the judgment on which the defence so 
 much insists. 
 
 It is obvious that the defence of the prisoner has exceeded 
 due bounds in the portion attached to folio 587 and those which 
 follow it; making absolutely gratuitous assertions; referring to 
 witnesses as suborned whose evidence does not even appear on 
 
 the record; relating stories which, 
 Seep. 294. having no relevance to the case, 
 
 deserve the name of romances; stig- 
 matizing as enemies of the accused and as false witnesses all 
 
 those who have made declaration in 
 
 This playing upon a pos- the proceedings, regardless of the fact 
 
 sibly careless use of the word ^^^^^ j^g thereby contradicts his own 
 
 *' all" is surely childish. ... 
 
 See i> 202 client, who accepts as true certain 
 
 assertions of these same witnesses ; and 
 committing, here and there, mischievous reticences. The Auditor 
 makes allowance for the very difficult position of the officer
 
 "MILITARY REBELLION " 319 
 
 bound in Law and in honour to defend a prisoner who has drawn 
 attention upon himself as Francisco Ferrer Guardia has done, 
 and who offers his advocate no other basis of exculpation than 
 his bare denials, a situation which undoubtedly cannot but pro- 
 duce in the Defender's mind a tension so extraordinary that it 
 may almost be regarded as partially exempting from judgment 
 
 what has been written under such 
 These two rows of asterisks conditions. 
 seem to indicate the omission ^ :tic * * 
 
 of some remarks upon Captain * * « * 
 
 Galcerdn which zvere felt to 
 be injudicious. It is useless, however, for the 
 
 Auditor to spend time in discussing 
 one by one the very exaggerated theories of the defence. The 
 Assessor having already devoted himself to their refutation with 
 great accuracy, address, and vigour, in the opinion which he has 
 delivered, the Auditor accepts, and, for the sake of brevity, takes 
 as read all the contents of that document. 
 
 After the reasoned, conscientious, and detailed analysis of our 
 penal laws made in the Prosecutor's indictment, and in the 
 Assessor's opinion, to show that the combination of wrongful acts 
 accomplished by the rebels, under the leadership {jefatura) and 
 on the initiative of the prisoner Ferrer, constitute the crime of 
 military rebellion set forth in paragraphs 3 and 4 of section 237 
 of our Code, it would be otiose and tedious to insist on this 
 characterization, which evidently appears ; for neither did Ferrer 
 limit himself to personally promoting the anarchist movement, 
 
 but by means of his subordinates of the 
 No proof either that Solida. Solidaridad Obrera acted in such a 
 rtdad Obrera were Ferrer's 1 • 1 .1 t 1 
 
 ^^ subordinates;^ or that he ^^y as to decide the radical party to 
 in any way influenced the hurl itself into the Strife ; nor did the 
 radical party. On the con- genuinely anarchist elements limit their 
 trary, there is ample disproof ^^^j^^ ^^ ^j^^ burning of COnventS and 
 of both assertions. , , j r .1 . • j • 
 
 Other deeds of the kind, since, as has 
 been said above, some of them acted as chiefs of the rebels 
 in one of the quarters of the town where the greatest resistance 
 was offered to the Army ; nor, finally, can the social revolution 
 fail to be covered by article 237, quoted above; since to destroy 
 all that exists, is to attack equally the Constitution, the King, the
 
 320 APPENDIX 
 
 Legislative Body, the Government, and the whole of Society. 
 Whence appears axiomatically that the facts set forth in this case 
 amount to the crime of military rebellion, in the course of which 
 many civil misdemeanours were committed. 
 
 The fact that Ferrer took part in this military rebellion in the 
 character, if not of its sole chief, at least of a very prominent 
 
 one, is shown first by the evidence of 
 For these 15 witnesses, see ^^e 15 witnesses, examined in detail 
 //. 196, 260. . , ^ , . ,. 
 
 in the Prosecutors mdictment, and 
 
 , ... ,, , ^ in the Assessor's opinion, rebutting the 
 
 Note the admission that Sr. ° 
 
 Ugarte's opinion, '^ siempre defence; and Secondly, by the declara- 
 valiosisima,^^ was treated as tion of his Excellency the Prosecutor 
 evidence. of the Supreme Court, which reflects 
 
 not only his personal opinion, in itself 
 
 In viro) 0/ this admission, o^ g^^at weight, but that of numerous 
 
 what comes of the Assessoj-'s representatives of the most important 
 
 indignant denial {p. 293) elements of Barcelona, who came for- 
 that the^^ reactionary elements , , j ,i • • • , 
 
 and conservative classes^' in- '^^^^ *« expound their impressions be- 
 Jluenced the case ? fore that high functionary, when, repre- 
 
 senting the Government, he spent a 
 month in Barcelona, studying the revolutionary movement of 
 Catalonia. 
 
 Further evidence of the said leadership (Jefatura) is afforded 
 by the actual events which took place during the rebellion, viewed 
 in relation to the antecedents and ambitions of the prisoner. It 
 is indeed a phenomenon worthy of observation that the places 
 where acts of a sectarian nature developed to the greatest extent 
 correspond exactly with the points at which Ferrer's propaganda 
 made the greatest progress ; and the Auditor has had occasion to 
 assure himself, by examination of the hundreds of prosecutions 
 
 instituted on account of the events of 
 
 This monstrous argument July, that in several of these places the 
 
 from a mere coincidence of names of the chiefs and principal insti- 
 
 names is dealt with on p. 246. gators of the Seditious acts correspond 
 
 with the names of those who appear as 
 teachers placed by Ferrer in certain Schools, or with the 
 names of the chiefs of one or another anarchist centre dependent 
 on the prisoner — facts which demonstrate in a very eloquent
 
 "THAT IS TO SAY. DEATH" 321 
 
 way the leadership {Jefatura) of Ferrer in the revolution of 
 July. 
 
 It having been proved, by all that is here set forth, that the 
 facts before the Court deserve to be characterized as military 
 rebellion, and that the prisoner intervened in them, playing the 
 part of CHIEF, it becomes clear that he has incurred the penalty 
 set forth in paragraph i of section 238 of the Code of Military 
 Justice, that is to say, death. 
 
 [Here follows an endorsement, with one slight modification, 
 of the formal verbiage by which the sentence is accompanied.] 
 
 For the reasons explained, the Auditor considers that the 
 sentence submitted to him is in strict accordance with the Law, 
 and with the effect of the proceedings, and that it is one of those 
 which, by Section 28 of our Code, paragraph 10, must be made 
 executory by the judicial Authority, whatever be the penalty 
 inflicted ; whence it ensues that your Excellency should be 
 pleased to confer on it that character, by granting it your superior 
 approval. 
 
 [Another purely formal paragraph.] 
 
 Your Excellency, however, will decide. 
 
 ExcMo. Sr. Ramon Pastor. 
 
 Barcelona, October lo, 1909.
 
 MILITARY PROCEDURE 
 
 The Military Code of Justice defines and provides for two 
 classes of procedure : The Ordinary (ordinario) (Sections 
 340-630) and the Most Summary {sumarisimo) (Sections'649-662). 
 Sections of the Military Code of Justice comprising the 
 Guarantees accorded to prisoners in ordinary trials. 
 
 SUMARIO. 
 
 In order that proceedings may be directed against any person, 
 some charges against him must appear (Sec. 421). 
 
 The prisoner shall give evidence without being sworn (sec. 458), 
 and each time he does so his former depositions shall be read over 
 to him if he demands it (sec. 459) ; the objects connected with the 
 crime shall be shown to him, in order that he may recognize 
 them (sec. 461); he shall have power to make declarations as 
 often as he wishes (sec. 465) and he shall attend at the per- 
 formance of necessary formalities, even when he is incom- 
 municated (sec. 479). He shall have power to take exception, 
 in writing or verbally, to the functionaries intervening at any 
 stage of the proceedings (sees. 362 and 365). 
 
 Witnesses have permission to dictate and to read their 
 declarations, in the same manner as the prisoner (sees. 431 and 
 455), they shall sign them (sec. 434), and no captious or leading 
 questions shall be put to them, and no deceptions or promises 
 shall be employed (sec. 435). 
 
 In the confrontations, a reading shall be given of points upon 
 which divergency is noticed (sec. 467). 
 
 Identifications shall be carried out in a circle composed of 
 not less than six individuals of similar appearance to the person
 
 RULES OF PROCEDURE 323 
 
 to be identified (sees. 422 and 424). Domiciliary searches must 
 be made in the presence of the persons concerned or of a 
 member of their household, or of two witnesses (sec. 511), and 
 the same provisions shall apply to searches of correspondence or 
 of documents (sec. 521). 
 
 The Sumario completed, it is subjected to examination by the 
 Captain-General and his Auditor (sees. 532 and 533). 
 
 Plenario. 
 
 The Plenario is public (sec. 540). The prisoner himself 
 names his Defender (sec. 543) and the charges formulated by 
 the Prosecutor are read to both ; the prisoner is asked whether 
 he wishes to enter a plea of incompetence of jurisdiction, of the 
 case having already been tried, of prescription, or of pardon ; to 
 demand an extension of the Sumario, a ratification of witnesses, 
 the calling of new witnesses in the case of common crimes, or 
 any other proceedings which he thinks he has a right to claim 
 (sec. 548). 
 
 These proofs may also be proposed by the Defender, who is 
 present when they are taken (sees. 552 and 559). 
 
 The Captain-General, after a report from the Auditor, declares 
 the Plenario closed, and orders any defects he may observe in it 
 to be remedied (sec. 560). 
 
 After approval of the Plenario and settlement of the accusation, 
 the papers in the case are handed to the Defender (sec. 563). 
 
 Vista Pl^blica (Public Hearing). 
 
 The Ordinary Council of War is composed of a President 
 (Colonel) and six Judges (Captains), chosen automatically ; an 
 Assessor (legally trained) is also present when the crime is 
 military, and when the penalty to which it is subject exceeds 
 correctional imprisonment (sees. 41 and 58). 
 
 The pri.soner is notified of the names of the persons who are 
 to form the Council of War, in case he should wish to challenge 
 any of them (sec. 568). 
 
 The hearing is public (sec. 575), and the prisoner attends it 
 (sec. 571;; it opens with the reading of the records (sees. 576 and
 
 324 APPENDIX 
 
 579); next comes the examination of witnesses (sec. 578) and 
 experts (sec. 579) by the Prosecutor, the Assessor, Defenders, 
 President, and Judges, and the identification of objects and 
 documents (sec. 580) ; then the reading of the speeches for the 
 prosecution and for the defence, which may be confirmed or 
 modified by word of mouth (sec. 581), and finally the prisoner is 
 entitled to speak, and to state whatever he considers expedient 
 (sec. 583). 
 
 The Council having met in a secret session, the Assessor pro- 
 duces his pronouncement in writing before the deliberation begins 
 (sec. 586) ; the Judges have the right to state personal opinions 
 (sec. 594), and in the sentence, which is determined by an absolute 
 majority, an even division of votes is reckoned in the prisoner's 
 favour (sec. 588). 
 
 Approbation of the Judgment. 
 
 The judgment of the Council is reviewed by the Captain- 
 General and his Auditor, and if one of them does not think it 
 just, the case is submitted to a further hearing (vista) before the 
 Supreme Council of the Army and Navy (sec. 597).
 
 INDEX 
 
 Acratism, 37, 158 
 
 Adventures of Nona, The, 39-49 
 
 Albert, Charles, 83 ; Ferrer's letters 
 
 to, no 
 Alcaiiiz, 153-5 
 Alella : 
 
 Ferrer's capture at, 17 1-4 
 School at, 3-4 
 Alfonso XIII., King, 236 v. 
 Almanack Annttaire de la Libre- 
 Pensie Internationale quoted, 4, 230 
 Almudaina, La, 201 
 Alsina, Comas, 261, 263, 272 
 Alsina, Juan, 200, 261, 272 
 Alted, Trinidad, 1S4 
 Alvarez, 19S, 216-lS, 263, 270-1, 
 
 277, 295 
 Anarchists : 
 Terrorists distinguished from, 37, 
 
 100 
 Working classes preponderatingly 
 of party of, 36, 100, 120 
 Ardiaca, Juana, 1S4 
 Ardid, Lorenzo, 204, 266-7, 276 
 Arlal, 76 
 Asiiio, L', 65 
 
 Atroio de Espafta, El, cited, 29 «. 
 A/.orin, Sr. Crespo, Civ. Gov. of 
 Barcelona, 175; cited, 150 //. ; 
 decree of, quoted, 153 
 
 B , Mmc., 24, 251 ; evidence of, 
 
 cited, 76 
 
 B , Riego, 24, 240 
 
 Barcelona : 
 
 Anti-Clerical demonstration at 
 
 (1906), 61 
 Bomb-plague in, lOO 
 Committee of Social Defence, see 
 
 that heading. 
 Escuela Moderna, see that heading. 
 Religious houses in, lOi ff. ; armed 
 
 students of, 131 and n. 
 Situation and environs of, 97-9 
 Strike, general {1909), 125-30 
 Barcelona riots (1909) : 
 Accounts of, conflicting, 136 ff. 
 Anti-clericalist violence in, 130, 
 132, 134, 13S; burning of con- 
 vents, etc., 132 
 Beginning of, 132 
 Carlist instigation of, theory as to, 
 
 131 
 
 Ferrer's instigation of, no evidence 
 
 for, 118, 125-6, 135, 199; 
 growth of legend as to his 
 connection with, 162 flf. ; his 
 concealment after, sec Ferrer- 
 Concealment ; bis trial in con- 
 nection with, see Ferrer— Trial 
 of (1909). 
 Incitement to, in El Progrcso, 
 
 135 
 Preliminary disorder, 122-3 
 
 Siege, slate of— proclaimed, 133 ; 
 discontinued, 180 
 
 Strike developing into, 1 25 ff. 
 BatUori, Mariano, 79, 152, 189 
 Belloc, Hilaire, quoted, 26 «.', 61, 
 
 90 and «., 181 n?, 195 and nr
 
 326 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bermejo, Don Angel Fernandez, 206, 
 
 213, 264 
 Bernadas, Mariano, 172-4 
 Boletin of the Escuela Moderna : 
 
 Character of, 52 
 
 Largardelle quoted from, 59 n. 
 
 "Renovation of the School "quoted 
 from, 84-8 
 
 Revival of (1908), 83 
 Bonafulla, Leopold, cited, 122 
 Bonet, Baldomero, 198, 261 
 Brissa, Sr., quoted, 132 ; cited, 
 
 137 11." 
 
 Calle Mayor outrage : 
 
 Ferrer's trial in connection with, 
 65-6 and n. , 73-80 
 
 Morral's perpetration of, 61-2, 69 
 Callis, Verdaguer, 197, 260 
 Calvet, Francisco, 216-17, 220, 
 
 271-2 
 Casas, Domingo, Alcalde of Premia, 
 
 198, 216-19, 262-3, 270, 277, 290, 
 
 295 
 Casasola, 152 
 Catalonia : 
 
 Condition of, 4 
 
 Martial law in (1909), 75 
 
 Melilla war, attitude towards, 
 1 20- 1 
 
 Political parties in, 100 
 
 Religious houses in, 106 «. 
 Cazalla, Sr., quoted, 31 
 Colldefons, Francisco de Paula, 
 
 evidence of, 164 and n,, 168, 211- 
 
 14, 215 «.-, 268, 295, 314 
 Committee of Social Defence, 27 «., 
 
 165, 218 
 Compendium of Universal History, 
 
 49-50 
 Concha, Francisca, 153 
 Coppola, Sr. Cesare, 25, 26 and n}, 
 
 2.%n? 
 Correspondencia quoted, 136 
 Cortes, Sr. Garcia, cited, 163 n}. 
 
 D 
 
 Daily Telegraph, The, quoted on 
 
 Morral affair, 69-71 ; cited, 77 
 
 and n, 
 " Data for History," 164 
 de Buen, Dr. Odon, 301, 308 ; 
 
 Ferrer's letter to, quoted, 229-30, 
 
 281, 282 
 de Santiago y Manescau, Don Luis, 
 
 129 
 del Marmol, Fernando Tarrida, 108- 
 
 9 ; Ferrer's letter to, III 
 Delaunay, Mme. Berthe, quoted, 92 
 Dinale, O., Ferrer's letter to, quoted, 
 
 230 
 Diocesan Junta, 165 
 Domenech, Francisco, evidence of, 
 
 208-10, 215, 217, 265, 267-9, 290, 
 
 295 ; disappearance of, 218 
 Dublin Feviezu quoted, 26 «.^, 61 «.*, 
 
 90 and n., 181 «.*, 195 and n? 
 
 Ecole Renovee, L\ 83, 1 10 
 Encyclopcedia of Higher Popular 
 
 Education, 89-90 
 Epoca quoted, 162, 167 j cited, 185 
 Escuela Moderna : 
 
 Account books of, question as to, 
 77 and n. 
 
 Boletin, see that heading. 
 
 Directress of, 34, 36 
 
 Essays of pupils at, selections from, 
 
 54-8 
 Ferrer's lasting zeal for, 238-9 
 Influence of, estimated, 245-8 
 Methods of, 53 
 
 Morral's connection with, 66-8 
 Numbers taught in, total of, 105 
 
 and 71. 
 Opening of, 28, 59-60 
 Principles of, 32-3 
 Publications of, 38 ff, ; Azorin's 
 
 view of, 17s 
 Tone of, 50-1
 
 INDEX 
 
 327 
 
 Espana Nueva quoted, 20-3, 38, 277 
 Espinosa, see Alvarez. 
 
 Ferrer, Capt., see Ferrer Guardia — 
 
 Trial 05(1909) — Defender, 
 Ferrer, Mme., 8-15, 17, 76-7 
 Ferrer, Jose, visit to, 93-6 ; deporta- 
 tion of, 152 ff. ; imprisonment and 
 release of, 156-7 ; attempts to give 
 evidence in Ferrer's trial, 189 ; 
 bequest to, 240 ; estimate of, 95 ; 
 mentioned, I16-17, 151 
 Ferrer, Layeta, 11 1 
 Ferrer, Miguel Salillas y, 27 
 Ferrer, Paz, quoted, 16 
 Ferrer, Mme. Trinidad, quoted, lo- 
 
 14 ; cited, 20 n. 
 Ferrer Guardia, Francisco : 
 Arrest of (1909), 172-4 ; rewards in 
 
 connection with, 188 
 Barcelona riots, see that heading. 
 Career of — early years, 3-5 ; mar- 
 riage, 5 ; removal to Paris, 5-6, 
 300 ; life there, 7, 10-12, 18, 301 ; 
 relations with Mile. Meunier, 
 19-27, 304-5 ; founds Escuela 
 Moderna, 28, 59-60, 305 ft". ; 
 surrenders to police, 75 ; im- 
 prisonment at Madrid, 63-5, 
 308 ; trial, 65-6 atid «., 73-80 ; 
 founds Ligue Internationale, 82- 
 3 ; projects Encyclopadia of . . . 
 Education, %^-^; in London, 29, 
 108-10 ; returns to Spain, in ; 
 movements during Barcelona 
 riots, 143 ff., 313 ff. ; disappear- 
 ance of, 149 ; affair of the signed 
 document, 1 50-1 ; attempts to 
 obey judicial summons, 169-73 ; 
 capture, 174 ; imprisonment, 
 175-8; trial, see tinder Ferrer 
 sub-heading Trial of (1909) ; 
 removal to Montjuich, 236 ; his 
 will, 240 ; his execution, 241 
 
 Ferrer Guardia, Francisco — cont. 
 Characteristics of : 
 
 Courage, 241, 252-3 
 
 Educational zeal, 88, 113, 236- 
 40, 247 
 
 Kindliness and geniality, 251 
 
 Proselytizing proclivities, 20, 
 32, 249, 251 
 
 Rationalism, 113 
 
 Self-devotion, 248 
 
 Simplicity and frugality of life, 
 92 ff. 
 
 Sincerity, 88, 250 
 Concealment of, after Barcelona 
 
 outbreak, 75, 148, 151 ; official 
 
 secrecy as to, 168, 220 
 Disguise of, question as to, 173 
 
 and n., 215 n} 
 Estimate of, 252 
 Execution of, i, 241 ; widespread 
 
 indignation at, i, 244 
 Family of, lo-il ; his relations 
 
 with them, 11 -17; his bequests 
 
 to thern, 240 
 Financial affairs of, 90-1 and 71. 
 Grave of, 241 
 Imprisonments of — at Madrid, 63- 
 
 5, 308 ; at Barcelona, 175-8 ; at 
 
 Montjuich, 236, 238 
 Morral's relations with, 66-8, 73- 
 
 4 ; Morral's letter regarding, 
 
 79 
 
 Nakens' relations with, 72-4 
 
 Parentage and birth of, 3 
 Political opinions of : 
 
 Anti-clericalism, 64-5 
 
 Anti-militarism, 32, 37 
 
 Anti-patriotism, 32 
 
 Change in, 18-19, 37-8. 227 ff., 
 
 249. 304 
 Kducation, on, 30, 32, 83 ff. 
 Radicalism and jirolelarianism, 
 
 64,89 
 Revolutionism, 33 
 Trial of, (1907) regarding Morral's 
 outrage, 65-6 and //., 73-80; 
 result of, 81-2
 
 828 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ferrer Guardia, Francisco — cotit. 
 Trial of, (1909) : 
 
 Assessor's dictamen — cited, 223 
 
 and n} ; translated, 286-97 
 Atmosphere of, 3 
 Auditor-General : 
 
 Dictamen (report) of — quoted, 
 5-6, 26, 169, 228, 230-2, 
 246; cited, 34, 35, 62 «., 
 89, 137 «.i, 245; length of, 
 235 and n} ; translation of, 
 300-21 
 Function of, 35 «. 
 Charge preferred, 2 
 Course of, 190 fF. 
 Defender : 
 
 Restrictions on, \Z\,\%'^and7i. 
 Selection of, 181, 186 mid n. 
 Speech of, 192, 195, 200, 207, 
 218 ; Ferrer's estimate of, 
 238 ; Assessor's reply to, 
 291-6 ; omission, of, from 
 official report of the trial, 
 
 183 
 otherwise mentioned, 187, 190, 
 240 
 Evidence : 
 
 Analysis of, 194, 260-77 
 Anonymity, question as to, 
 
 195 afid nn.-6, 290, 291 
 Documentary, 222 if., 277-81, 
 
 288-9 
 Hearsay and opinion, 195 ff., 
 
 260 ff. 
 Relevant accusations, 211 ff. 
 Statements which prove no- 
 thing, 204 ff. 
 Haste in conduct of, 184-6, 
 
 192 «., 232, 235, 243 
 Indictments at, 183; translations 
 
 of, 259 ff. 
 Irregularities in, 181-2, 187, 243 
 Military law, decision for, 166, 
 
 179-80 
 Official Report of, 257-321 ; 
 speech for the defence omitted 
 from, 183 
 
 Ferrer Guardia, Francisco — coni. 
 Trial of — continued. 
 
 Physical examination, 184-6 
 Procedure at, 181-3, 189 
 Prosecutor's speech — cited, 62 «., 
 91, 193 ; analyzed, 196 ff. ; 
 translated, 257-85 
 Publication of Sumario docu- 
 ments pending, 187 and w., 
 224, 234 
 Sentence, 235 and nr ; real 
 ground of, 245 ; translation 
 of, 298-9 
 Witnesses for the defence not 
 
 admitted, 157, 160, 189, 292 
 Witnesses for the prosecution : 
 "Conclusive proof" from, 
 
 disappearance of, 185-6 
 Confrontations, l8l a7td n.-, 
 
 205, 217, 276-7, 316-17 
 Examination of, irregularities 
 
 as to, 181-2 
 Imprisonment of, and release 
 
 after evidence, 178, 218 
 Inaccuracy in reporting of, 
 146 n. 
 Villa of, see Mas Germinal. 
 Will of, 240 
 Ferrer ; PJTomme ei son CEuvre cited, 
 
 173 n., 229 «.', 230 n. 
 Figaro quoted, 8-10 
 Fontcuberta, Maria, 152, 156-7, 240 
 France, Analole, 83 
 Francisco Ferrer — Sa Vie — Son Qiuvre 
 
 cited, 223 n.- 
 Freedo/n quoted, II4-18 
 
 Galceran Ferrer, Capt. Francisco, 
 see Ferrer — Trial of, (1909)— De- 
 fender. 
 
 Garcia, see Ferrer — Trial of, (1909) — 
 Assessor. 
 
 Gerundio, Fray, cited, 106 and n. 
 
 Gii Bias quoted, 16 
 
 Gille, Paul, 83
 
 INDEX 
 
 329 
 
 H 
 
 Haeckel, Ernest, 83 
 
 Heaford, William, S3, 108 ; Ferrer's 
 letter to, quoted, 82, 1 1 1, 169,1 74 iif., 
 183 atid n. ; Ferrer's second letter 
 to, quoted, 185 ; cited, 232 n. ; 
 appointed Ferrer's executor, 240 
 
 Heraldo de Madrid quoted, 29 
 
 Huesca, 154, 177 
 
 Iglcsias, Emiliano, 63 «.-, 66, 136, 
 
 265; trial of, 165, 181, 184; 
 
 evidence of, at Ferrer's trial (1909), 
 
 197 and fi., 208, 261-2 
 Imparcial, El, quoted, 27, 167, 172, 
 
 188 
 InquisiUurs d'£spagne,Les,c\\.Qd,<)<) n. 
 Intertiacional, La, cited, 125 
 Isabella II., Queen, 4 
 
 Jacquinet, Mme. Clemence, 34-6, 
 
 49-51. 306 
 y^«r«a/ quoted , 147 
 Judicio Ordinario, 180 ff., 189, 205 «.^, 
 
 322-4 
 
 K 
 
 Kropotkin, Prince, quoted, 37 
 Kropotkin, Mile. Sasha, quoted, 109, 
 H3 ti. 
 
 La Cicrva, Sr., 124, 129 
 Lagardclie, Hubert, quoted, 59 «, 
 Laisant, Charles, 83 ; Ferrer's letter 
 to, quoted, 1 1 1 
 
 Lara, Modesto, 198, 262 
 
 Law of Jurisdictions, 179 
 
 Lerroux, Alejandro, 79, 135, 302-4 
 
 Ligue Internationale pour I'Education 
 rationnelle de I'Enfance, 82-3 
 
 Litran, Cristobal, 145-6, I49) 189 ; 
 deportation of, 153 ; Ferrer's exe- 
 cutor, 240 ; quoted, 167-8 
 
 Llarch (Juan Puig Ventura), 198- 
 200, 215-18, 262, 269, 289-90, 
 295, 316 
 
 Llibre, see Casas. 
 
 Lliviana y Fernandez, Don Vicente, 
 proclamation of, quoted, 166 ; 
 Ferrer's estimate of, 183 
 
 London, Ferrer in, 92, 108-10 
 
 Lorenzo, Ansclmo, 39 ; quoted — on 
 opening of the Escuela Moderna, 
 59-60 ; on the deportations, 152 ff. 
 
 M 
 
 Madrid : 
 
 Ferrer's imprisonment at, 63-5, 
 30S 
 
 Morral's outrage in, see Calle Mayor 
 outrage. 
 
 Rioting in {1909), 123 
 Maeterlinck, Maurice, 82 //. 
 Magallon, Garcia, 198, 262 
 Malato, Charles, 92 ; Ferrer's letters 
 
 to, cited, 148, 216, 223 ; quoted, 
 
 184 
 Manana, La, quoted, 235 «.* 
 Marina, Gen., 119, 123 
 AfarCyr des Prctres, Un, cited, 4 «,, 
 
 5 «.', no ;/., 148 
 Martyrdom of Ferrer, The, cited, 
 
 S «•'. 99 "• 
 Mas Germinal : 
 
 Description of, 65, 92 ff. 
 
 Life at, 1 15-16 
 
 Police ransacking of, 95, 149, 160-1 
 Masnou, 147, 16S, 196 ; evidence 
 
 relating t<i, 201-2, 20S, 214 ff., 
 
 260, 267 ff., 296, 315
 
 330 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Maura, Sr., i6, 76, 124 ; letter of, 
 in La Manana quoted, 235 w.' ; 
 fall of, I, 243-4 
 Melilla affair, 119-20 
 Meseguer, Alfredo, 145, 189 
 Meunier, Mile. Ernestine, Ferrer's 
 relations with, 19-27, 304 ; will 
 of, 25-6, 28 «,' 
 Meyer, Mile. Henriette, Ferrer's 
 
 letter to, quoted, 229 
 Millet, Salvador, 201, 273 
 Montjuich : 
 
 Ferrer removed to, 236 ; his con- 
 finement in, 238 
 Tortures in, 98 w., 280 
 Moral Education League, 112 and 71. 
 Moreno, Miguel, 208, 209, 266, 314 ; 
 
 Ferrer's letter to, quoted, 143-5 
 Moret, Sr., 179, 243-4; letter of, in 
 
 La Manana quoted, 236 w., 244 
 Morral, Mateo, relations of, with 
 Ferrer, 66-8, 73-4 ; relations with 
 Nakens, 69-71 ; letter from, re- 
 garding Ferrer, 79 ; outrage of, 
 61-2, 69 ; death of, 71 
 Moya, Jimenez, 196-7, 260 
 Alundo, El, cited, 63 n." 
 Mustares, 216-17, 263, 270-1 
 
 N 
 
 Nakens, 21, 22 ; Ferrer's relations 
 with, 72-4 ; Morral's relations 
 with, 69-71 ; sentence on, and 
 release of, 71 
 
 Naquet, Alfred, Ferrer's letter to, 
 quoted, 114 
 
 Negrini, see Raso. 
 
 Nevinson, Henry, cited, 140 
 
 Ossorio, Don Angel, 1 24 ; quoted, 
 126, 129, 131 ; cited, 163 
 
 O 
 
 Ordinary Process . . . againsi Fran- 
 cisco Ferrer cited, 183 ; quoted, 
 258-321 
 
 Pages, Pedro, 201, 275 
 
 Pastor, Ramon, see Ferrer — Trial of, 
 
 (1909) — Auditor-Gen, 
 Pierre (journalist), 198 and n. 
 Pius X., Pope, 236 n. 
 Police : 
 
 Bad faith of, 242 and n. 
 Deportations as conducted by, 
 
 154 n. 
 Ferrer shadowed by, 114, I17, 125, 
 
 144, 206, 264 
 Mas Germinal ransacked by, 95, 
 149, 160-1 
 Pons, Puig, 201, 272, 274 
 Ponte, Lieut. -Col. Leoncio, evidence 
 of, at 1907 trial, 78, 196 ; evidence 
 at 1909 trial, 196, 260 
 Portet, Lorenzo, 240 
 Premia de Mar, 147, 168, 196 ; evi- 
 dence of villagers of, 199 ff., 214 ff., 
 260 ff., 270, 296, 315 
 Press : 
 
 Overtures to, (1907) for incrimina- 
 tion of Ferrer, 78 
 Publication in, of Sumario docu- 
 ments (1909), 187 and n., 224, 
 234 
 Prim, Gen., 4 
 
 Proceso Ferrer, El, cited, 1 81 «.' 
 Progreso, El, cited, 135 ; Ferrer's 
 
 visits to office of, 208-9 
 Puigdemon, Esteban, 202, 273 
 
 R 
 
 Radical de Valencia, El, cited, 151 
 Rafales, see Ferrer — Trial of, (1909) 
 
 — Prosecutor 
 Raso Negrini, Don Valerio, 184, 186, 
 
 189, 190, 223-4, 226
 
 INDEX 
 
 331 
 
 Revista Penitettciaria, cited, 63 «.' 
 
 Revolucion de yulio cittA, 122, 137 n." 
 
 Robles, M., 153-4 
 
 Roca, see Morral. 
 
 Rugieres, Sr. Renato, 1 14-18 
 
 Salilias, Don Rafael, cited, 63-5 
 Santa Coloma insurrection, 5, 300 
 Santa Maria de Pomes, Pontifical 
 
 Count of, quoted, 165 
 Semana Tragica, La, quoted, 119 
 Sergi, Giuseppe, 83 
 Shaw, Rafael, quoted, 102-4, 140-1 
 Siglo Futuro, El, quoted, 164, 211 
 Simarro, Dr., cited, 162, 181 «.', 
 
 205 «.• 
 Sola, 200 
 Solidaridad Obrera, 124, 163 «.', 
 
 196-8, 209, 260-3, 279, 309, 319 
 Spain : 
 
 Anarchists, see that heading. 
 Education in : 
 Condition of, 4, 28-31 
 Escuela Moderna, see that head- 
 ing. 
 Reforms in, attempted, 31-2 
 Schools, inadequacy of, 29-30 
 and nn. 
 Imprisonment in, nature of, 178 
 Law proceedings in, examples of, 
 
 66 «., 78 
 Military tribunals in, proceaure of, 
 
 180 ff., 189, 205 «.', 322-4 
 Religious houses : 
 Burning of, 132 
 Convents : 
 
 Industrial competition by, 
 
 101-3 
 Number of, 106 ti. 
 Number of, 106 n. 
 Religious orders : 
 
 Economic situation due to, 
 
 101-4 
 Education in relation to, 31 
 
 Spain — continued. 
 
 Religious Orders — continued. 
 Unpopularity and distrust of, 
 loi ff., 131, 134, 139 
 Socialist party in, 36, 120 
 Spain from Within cited, 29 n. ; 
 quoted, 102-4 
 
 Teruel, 155, 158 
 
 Times, The, cited, 121 ; quoted, 191 
 
 Torniento en los Conventos, El, cited, 
 
 106 
 Torturing of prisoners, 98 n. 
 
 U 
 
 Ugarte, Don Javier, 164-9, 263 
 Universe, El, quoted, 165, 179 ; cited, 
 177 
 
 Urales, Federico, 778 
 
 Van Eysinga, H. Roorda, 83 
 Vanguardia, La, cited, 234 
 Ventura, Juan Puig (Llarch), 198- 
 200, 215-18, 262, 269, 289-90, 
 
 29s. 316 
 Victiinarios, Lj)S, cited, 99 n. 
 Vie Ouvriere, La, quoted, 152 ft'. 
 Villafranca, Mme., 161, 189 
 Villafranca, Sr. (brother of Solcdad), 
 
 «S2-4 
 
 Villafranca, Mme. Soledad, Morral's 
 courtship of, 67-9 ; deportation of, 
 152 flf; imprisonment and release 
 of, 157 ; Ferrer's Iclcgram to, 177 ; 
 at Tcrucl, 187 ; attempts to give 
 evidence in Ferrer's trial, 189 ; 
 Ferrer's last letter to, 238-9 ; his 
 bequests to, 240 ; interview with, 
 quoted in Journal, 147-9 I other- 
 wise mentioned, 96, 108, 109, 1 17, 
 1 50- 1 
 
 Volncy's Ruins, 20
 
 332 
 
 INDEX 
 
 w 
 
 Ward, G. H. B., quoted, 31 
 WestininsUr Gazette cited, 109, 113 
 
 n. 
 Weyley, Gen., 280 ; quoted, 104 
 
 Zorilla, Ruiz, 5, 7, 19, 300 ff. 
 Zulueta, Don Pascual, quoted, 162-3, 
 
 166 
 Zurdo, Luis, 184 
 
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