Eduardo Benot

Eduardo Benot Rodríguez (26 November 1822 – 27 July 1907) was a Spanish lexicographer, academic, poet, educator and politician advocate of federal republicanism. Follower of Francisco Pi y Margall, he briefly served as Minister of Development during the First Spanish Republic.

Eduardo Benot
Ministry of Development
In office 11 – 28 June 1873
Preceded by	Eduardo Chao
Succeeded by	Ramón Pérez Costales
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office 29 March 1893 – 1 July 1895
Constituency	Madrid
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office 5 June 1873 – 8 January 1874
Constituency	Algeciras (Cádiz)
Senator
In office 1872–1873
Constituency	Province of Girona
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office 16 February 1869 – 2 January 1871
Constituency	Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
Personal details
Born	26 November 1822 Cádiz
Died	27 July 1907 Madrid
Nationality	Spanish
Political party	Federal Democratic Republican Party
Occupation	Politician, lexicographer, poet, educator, academic, editor, journalist, mathematician, playwright, academic

Biography

Early life

Born in Cádiz on 26 November 1822, his father had Italian origin.[1] He was a feeble child during infancy.[1] He took studies at the Colegio de San Pedro and later the Colegio de San Felipe Neri.[2]

Already writing as teenager for the newspaper El Defensor del Pueblo, he later wrote for La Alborada, as well he authored 3 theatre pieces.[3]

Working since 1840 for the municipal beneficence office,[4] he was hired as teacher at San Felipe Neri in 1848 (soon starting to publish grammar books),[5] and as lecturer on Geodesy and Astronomy at the Naval Observatory in San Fernando (1857).[6]

Sexenio Democrático

After the 1868 Glorious Revolution, Benot became a member of the Constituent Cortes formed upon the 1869 election in representation of the district of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz),[7] overcoming Juan Prim at the election,[3] although Prim was elected anyways as he was candidate in another district.

He was one of the supporters of a manifesto promoted by Francisco Pi y Margall on 10 May 1870 which reaffirmed on "pactist" federalism, in response to the so-called "Declaration of the Republican Press" (published on 7 May 1870), which attempted to resignify federalism as a simple administrative decentralization.[8] He was later elected Senator in representation of the province of Girona in the 1872–1873 period.[9]

Following the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic in February 1873, he earned again a seat at the Congress of Deputies in representation of the district of Algeciras (Cádiz) at the May 1873 election.[10] He was appointed as Minister of Development of the executive power presided by Pi y Margall in June 1873.[11]

His short ministerial tenure, barely 17 days, delivered the creation of the Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico (predecessor to both the National Geographical Institute and the National Statistics Institute), and the draft of the Ley de 24 de julio 1873, sobre el trabajo en los talleres y la instrucción en las escuelas de los niños obreros (published after his exit from government), the so-called "Benot Law" regulating child labour, entailing the first State intervention in labour relations ever in Spain.[12][13] The law failed to be effectively enforced, however.[12] He also forced ayuntamientos to pay for teachers' wage arrears.[14][13] He was replaced by Ramón Pérez Costales at the ministerial portfolio.[11]

He exiled after the 1874 coup of Pavía to Portugal, where he began to edit the bi-weekly La Europa, only to return to Madrid some time later, as Cánovas del Castillo achieved, via a requirement for expulsion to the Portuguese authorities, the forced return to Spain of Benot.[15][14]

Later life

Caricature of Benot by Moya (Madrid Cómico)

Already a correspondent member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1860,[16] he was later elected as numerary member, taking possession of the Chair Z on 14 April 1889, reading ¿Qué es hablar? a speech replied by Víctor Balaguer.[17] His contributions to Spanish grammar have received diverse and lavish praises, but they tend to agree in pointing out the "modernity" of his approaches, sometimes even considered to be a "direct precursor" of "modern linguistics".[18]

Benot would return to the Lower House, elected in representation of Madrid at the 1893 election.[19]

He replaced Pi y Margall at the helm of the Federal Democratic Republican Party when the latter died.[15] He could not however avoid the fracture of the party in May 1905.[20] Catalanist republicans would reject from then on the insertion within the main stem of the Spanish left-wing.[21]

Burial procession of Benot in Madrid

Ill and progressively blind since 1901, he died poor at Calle del Marqués de Villamagna 6, Madrid, on 27 July 1907.[22][23] The funeral procession that took place on the next day was attended by Picón, Fernández y González, Azcárate, Salmerón and Labra and by an attendance formed chiefly by republican sympathizers.[24] Benot was buried at the Civil Cemetery in the Necrópolis del Este, in the same tomb Pi y Margall had been initially buried prior to the transfer of its corpse to a specific mausoleum funded via popular subscription.[24]

References

Citations

1. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 171.
2. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 172.
3. "Eduardo Benot". El Globo. 28 July 1907.
4. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 173.
5. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 174.
6. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 176.
7. "Benot y Rodríguez. Eduardo. 27. Elecciones 15.1.1869". Congress of Deputies.
8. Vilches 2015, p. 258.
9. "Benot y Rodríguez, Eduardo". Senado de España.
10. "Benot y Rodríguez, Eduardo. 31. Elecciones 10.5.1873". Congress of Deputies.
11. "Sexenio Revolucionario (30.09.1868 / 31.12.1874)". Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
12. García González 2008, p. 251–270.
13. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 178.
14. Montagut, Eduardo (18 September 2018). "Eduardo Benot en el republicanismo social". El Obrero.
15. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 179.
16. "D. Eduardo Benot". La Ilustración Artística. XXVI (1336): 514. 5 August 1907.
17. "Eduardo Benot". Real Academia Española.
18. Martínez-Linares 2015, p. 278.
19. "Benot y Rodríguez, Eduardo. 38. Elecciones 5.3.1893". Congress of Deputies.
20. Ortigosa Martín 2018, p. 162.
21. Gabriel 2002, pp. 187–261.
22. Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 183.
23. "Muerte de Benot". El Imparcial. Madrid. XLL (14496). 28 July 1907. ISSN 2171-0244.
24. "El entierro de Benot". La Correspondencia de España (18065). 29 July 1907. ISSN 1137-1188.

Bibliography

• Gabriel, Pere (2002). "Anotaciones para una síntesis del nacionalismo catalán (ss. XIX y XX)". In Campuzano Carvajal, Francisco (ed.). Les nationalismes en Espagne. De l'État libéral à l'état des autonomies (1876–1978). Montpellier: Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée. pp. 187–261. doi:10.4000/books.pulm.761. ISBN 9782842695279.
• García González, Guillermo (2008). "Los inicios del reformismo social en España: la primera legislación social y la comisión de reformas sociales". Gaceta Laboral. 14 (2): 251–270. ISSN 1315-8597.
• Jiménez Gámez, Rafael (1984). "Eduardo Benot Rodríguez (1822–1907), su vida y obra" (PDF). Anales de la Universidad de Cádiz. Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz (1): 169–183. ISSN 0213-1595.
• Martínez-Linares, M. Antonia (2015). "El magisterio perdido de Eduardo Benot". Estudios de Lingüística del Español (36): 277–333. ISSN 1139-8736.
• Ortigosa Martín, José Luis (2018). La cuestión catalana II: Desde junio de 1713 hasta junio de 2018. Madrid: Visión Libros. ISBN 978-84-17405-61-8.
• Vilches, Jorge (2015). "Entre el parlamentarismo y la insurrección la minoría republicana en las Cortes Constituyentes de la Revolución (1869-1871)". Historia y Política: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales. Madrid: UCM; UNED; CEPC (34): 239–267. doi:10.18042/hp.34.09. ISSN 1575-0361.