766
MARTINEZ CAMPOS.
six years in that island. On his return to Spain, in 1870, he was sent, with the title of brigadier- general, to join the Army of the North, which was engaged in re- pelling the Carlist rebellion. After the abdication of King Amadeo he declined to give in his adhesion to the new order of things, and made no secret of his antipathy to the Republic. He was put on the retired list in 1873, and shortly afterwards was confined in a fortress as a conspirator. From his prison he addressed to General Zabala, Minister of War, the well-known letter in which he requested per- mission to go and fight, as a private, under the orders of General Concha, the Carlist forces in Navarre and the Basque provinces. This letter obtained for nim his liberty, and he was sent to the Army of the North in April, 1874, to command a divi- sion of the 3rd Corps. He took part in the engagements of Las Munecas and G^£unes, which led to the siege of Bilbao being raised, and he was the first to enter the liberated city on May 1, 1874. When Genend Concha reorganized the Liberal army, Martinez Campos was appointed general in command of the 3rd Corps. He fought, at the head of his troops, on the 25th, the 26th, and particularly on the 27th of June, the day on which the Commander - in - Chief, General Concha, was killed in the attack on Monte Mora, near Estella. General Martinez Campos, besieged at Zur- T^g^Jt on the same day, by the main body of the Carlists, opened a passage through the enemy's ranks, at the head of a column which niimbered barely 1,800 men, and went to rejoin, at MuriUo, the head-quarters, where he was able to organize the retreat of the army on TafaUa. Beturning to Madrid, he continued to conspire almost overtly in favour of Don Alfonso, whilst Marshal Serrano, chief of the executive power, was operating against the Carlists. In conjunc-
tion with General JoveUar he made the military pronunciamiefUo of Sagonto, which gave the throne of Spain to Alfonso XII. The new Gt>vernment sent him into Cata- lonia, as Captain-General and Com> mander-in-Chief of that military district. In less than a month he pacified the country, put down the Carlist bands, and took the com- mand of the Army of the North. He brought the civil war to a close by the defeat of Don Carlos at Pena de Plata, in March, 1876. The high dignity of Captain-General of the Army, which is equivalent to that of a Marshal of France, was the recompense for his signal ser- vices. A year afterwards he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the army in Cuba, which the rebels had held in check for seven y^tos. Under his leadership the Spaniards were uniformly victorious, but neither these triumphs nor the strategical Indents of the Com- mander-in-Chief would have suc- ceeded in bringing about the com- plete pacification of the island if the recognition of the political rights of the Cubans and new Liberal concessions had not satis- fied the demands of the insurgents. On his return to Spain, General Martinez Campos accepted the portfolio of war and tiie Presi- dency of the Council (March 7, 1879), and endeavoured to procure the fulfilment of the promises made to the Cubans ; but not obtaining the support of the Cortes, he re- signed, and was succeeded by Seilor CMiovas del CastiUo (Dec. 9, 1879). Early in 1881 the Conservative Government of Sedor Cdnovas del Castillo was overthrown, and a coalition between Sefior Sagasta and General Martinez Campos came into power, and retained it till Oct., 1883, when it resigned in conse- quence of being unable to obtain from the French Government a satisfactory apology for the insult offered to King Alfonso by the Paris mob on his visit to Paris.
