Note 14 — XXV
Reading edition
From December 1853 to November 1854 the colony possessed four captains-general (two effective and two provisional). In 1850 a new nominee, Oidor (member of the Supreme Court of Judicature) who with his family voyaged to Manila by the Cape, found, upon his arrival, his successor already in office, the latter having travelled by way of Suez. Such circumstances need not occasion surprise when it is remembered how such operations are repeated in Spain itself.
According to an essay in the Revue Nationale, April, 1867, Spain has had, from 1834 to 1862, i.e. since the accession of Isabella, 4 Constitutions, 28 Parliaments, 47 Chief Ministers, 529 Cabinet Ministers, and 68 Ministers of the Interior; of which last class of officials each, on an average, was in power only six months. For ten years past the Minister of Finance has not remained in office longer than two months; and since that time, particularly since 1868, the changes have followed one another with still greater rapidity.