THE BOURBONS had been put back on the throne
because there was nothing else to do, and, oddly
enough, Alfonso XII turned out to be a good king.
The Carlists gave trouble at first, the pretenders --
old Don Carlos, his son, and his grandson -- calling
themselves kings; but they were beaten back, and
a régime of what one may call comparative quiet
followed. Pereda says: "We are an ungovernable
people." The dominating statesman is Cánovas del
Castillo. He could not escape the gifts that nature
conferred on all Spanish statesmen of the period;
he wrote poetry, a novel, and was a "fácil, brillante
e imperioso orador." But he was also the best Spanish
statesman of the century and, between him and
Sagasta, politics at home went on fairly well. Cáno-
vas was a Conservative, Sagasta a Liberal, and the
two agreed that the dynasty should be supported
and that the government should advance, more or
less slowly, in accordance with ideas current in the
rest of Europe. Then they took turns as prime
minister, and seem to have been as much interested
in the public good as a due consideration for their
own fortunes warranted. The great evil at home was
what we call the boss system and they call caciquismo.
Local politics were controlled by the cacique, and the
government in power virtually depended on the sup-

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