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Eduardo Benot

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Eduardo Benot
Ministry of Development
In office
11 – 28 June 1873
Preceded byEduardo Chao [es]
Succeeded byRamón Pérez Costales [es]
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
29 March 1893 – 1 July 1895
ConstituencyMadrid
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
5 June 1873 – 8 January 1874
ConstituencyAlgeciras (Cádiz)
Senator
In office
1872–1873
ConstituencyProvince of Girona
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
16 February 1869 – 2 January 1871
ConstituencyJerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
Seat Z of the Real Academia Española
In office
14 April 1889 – 27 July 1907
Preceded byCándido Nocedal [es]
Succeeded byJosé Rodríguez Carracido [es]
Personal details
Born(1822-11-26)26 November 1822
Cádiz, Spain
Died27 July 1907(1907-07-27) (aged 84)
Madrid, Spain
Political partyFederal Democratic Republican Party
OccupationPolitician, lexicographer, poet, educator, academic, editor, journalist, mathematician, playwright, academic

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.

Biography

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Early life

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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

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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 anyway 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 [es] (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 [es] 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

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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 [es], Fernández y González [es], Azcárate, Salmerón and Labra and by an attendance formed chiefly by republican sympathizers.[24] Benot was buried at the Civil Cemetery [es] 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

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Citations
  1. ^ a b Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 171.
  2. ^ Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 172.
  3. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "Sexenio Revolucionario (30.09.1868 / 31.12.1874)". Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  12. ^ a b García González 2008, p. 251–270.
  13. ^ a b Jiménez Gámez 1984, p. 178.
  14. ^ a b Montagut, Eduardo (18 September 2018). "Eduardo Benot en el republicanismo social". El Obrero. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  15. ^ a b 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. XLL (14496). Madrid. 28 July 1907. ISSN 2171-0244.
  24. ^ a b "El entierro de Benot". La Correspondencia de España (18065). 29 July 1907. ISSN 1137-1188.
Bibliography
Government offices
Preceded by Ministry of Development
1873 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Member of the Royal Spanish Academy
(Chair Z)
1889–1907 		Succeeded by
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