a charge before the arrests were made. The arrests were made, notoriously, from the lists of names of obnoxious persons supplied by the police, the clergy, and the Catholic ladies who visited among the poor. At night especially the civil guards went from house to house, arresting all the more active members of the advanced political or anti-clerical organisations, working-men's clubs, and every institution on that had been set up apart from the orthodox political bodies or the Church. Their schools and halls were closed. A special installation was made of powerful arc-lamps, to prevent escapes in the night; and, according to the Matin (the Daily Mail of Paris), September 28, all were arrested "who could not give a satisfactory account of their means of subsistence and their opinions." As in 1896, the outrage was made a sheer pretext for suppressing every institution and body that opposed the corruptions Of Church and State, and intimidating Barcelona from setting them up afresh. All the jails of Catalonia—for men and for women—were crowded to suffocation; and weary, haggard bands of men and women were dragged on foot over the provinces to more distant jails. Every message that has since appeared in a Spanish Journal or been telegraphed abroad has been rigorously censored. Europe, which knows not the ways of Spain, was cynically deluded by the Home Secretary, La Cierva.
Mendacity is essential and habitual to the pro-Catholic and pro-Spanish writers. As far as they are concerned, I know that my plainest words will be completely misrepresented. But I will make it plain, nevertheless, that I have no sympathy with the burning of convents, however corrupt, no leaning to the political Anarchist ideal, and no inclination to criticise Spain for punishing violence. What I say is that the violence has been made the pretext for imprisoning thousands for totally different and corrupt reasons. Many have been shot, many condemned to imprisonment for life or for twenty years without trial. What the value of a condemnation by "military council" is we shall now see in the indictment of Ferrer.
The founder of the Modern School was in Barcelona on the Monday, June 26, when the movement was at its height. It is quite true that he was "seen talking to leaders of the
