CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, kli'mi-vas del ka-stely4, ANTossto (1828-97). A Spanish states man, born in Malaga. June 5, 182S. He stud ied philosophy and law in Madrid, entered jour nalism, and soon became active in polities. In 1852 he represented his native city in the Cortcs as a Liberal, and two years later was appointed •harg6 d'a at Rome, where he aided in preparing the concordat between Spain and the Holy See. After being director-general of the administration from 1858 to 1861 and Under Secretary of State in the latter year, he be came, in 1864, Minister of the Interior in the Mon Ministry, and Minister of Finance and the Colonies in the O'Donnell Ministry the next year. He prepared at the time the law for the abolition of negro slavery. He was one of the last to de tend in the C'ortes the Liberal principles he espoused under the reactionary sway of Nar vaez and Gonzalez Bravo. and was banished shortly before the revolution of ISGS, in which he had no share. Returning to active life in as the leader of the moderate Conservatives, he opposed in the Constituent Corte; the project of a democratic constitution, and was one of the leaders of the movement which placed Alfonso X11. on the throne. Ile became president of the Council and chief of the provisional Cabinet De cember 31, 1874, and remained at the head of the Liberal-Conservative Ministry (the so-called Cab inet of Conciliation). He withdrew in Sep tember. 1875. before the attacks of the extreme Conservative party. He was recalled in Decem ber of the same year and charged with the direc tion of the first legislative elections under the new regulations. From this time he remained
Premier, until 1879, when Marshal Martinez Campos returned from Cuba and took his place, retaining the principal members of the Cab inet. Martinez Campos was in turn obliged to resign in December, being defeated upon cer tain free-trade measures, and Cfinovas returned to power. His Conservative Cabinet was over thrown in ISS1. He was again Premier in 1884 85, in 1890-92, and again in 1895-97, alternating in office with Sagasta, the leader of the Liberals. In time his ideas became decidedly Conservative, and to the Radical element in Spain Ciinovas ap peared in the light of a reactionary. He was assassinated by an anarchist on August 8, 1897. Ciinovas found time, even in the stir of Spanish political life, for considerable literary activity. In 1867 he was elected a member of the Academy of Madrid. Among his writings are a volume of poems (1887), Estudios del rrinado de Felipe IF. (188S) : rtes y letras (1S87 ) ; Problemas eon tempo•rineos, a collection of essays on economic and social questions (1884) ; Biografia de Cal deron (2 vols.. 1883) : and several minor pieces. He also edited the works of a number of con temporary dramatists (2 vols., 1881-86), and an important historical work, the Ilistoria general de Espana (10 vols., 1890-97). The most ex tended biography is by Pons y Humbert, Cdnocas del Castillo (Madrid, 1901).