CANALEJAS Y MENDEZ, JOSE Spanish politician, was born in Ferrol on July 31, 1854. He graduated (1871) at the university of Madrid, took his doctor's degree (1872), and became a lecturer on literature (1873). He entered his father's engineering works and studied railway problems, but continued his literary work, publishing a history of Latin litera ture in two volumes. He was elected deputy for Soria in 1881, became under-secretary for the prime minister's department under Posada Herrera (1883), minister of justice (1888), and of finance . He was president of the chamber in the Moret admin istration, and became prime minister and chief of the Liberal party in 1910. He was murdered in Madrid on November 12, 1912, while in office. Canalejas believed in the possibility of a monarchy open to a thoroughgoing democratic policy both in economic and in civil and political matters. A sincere Catholic, he was never theless a strong anti-clerical, and a champion of the rights of the State against the encroachments of the Church. By his death the Spanish Liberal party lost the only statesman capable of uniting it under one definite programme.