Note 102 — Special Note.

Note 102. The advanced political ideas held and propagated by the separatists were not bad in themselves; no particular objection can be raised against them as political ideas. But when we consider by whom and for whom these “reforms” were asked, we begin to appreciate the necessity to which the indian was put of endeavoring to attain them by armed struggle. Taking away the revolutionary basis upon which the plans of the Liga were raised, nothing remains but the empty walls of a roofless building. These walls or ideas are contained in the plans of reforms drawn up by almost every jackanapes in the Liga who could write down his thoughts with any amount of clearness. These plans agreed upon certain points, chiefly representation in the Spanish parliament and the expulsion of the Religious Orders. These two points appear to have been the essence of the direct aims of the separatists (see p. 69).