Antonio Aparisi y Guijarro

Parliamentary orator, jurisconsult, Catholic controversialist, and Spanish litterateur, b. in Valencia, 28 Mar., 1815; d. in Madrid, 5 Nov., 1872. He was extremely gifted; of extensive knowledge, brilliant imagination, graceful and beautiful power of expression, and exquisite literary taste. As a man, he was modest, kind-hearted, and most charitable, a fervent Catholic and an ardent patriot. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, and defended many criminal cases, winning them in almost every instance. He published poems and articles in the monthly periodical, "El Licco Valenciano" (1841- 42), in "La Restauración," a Catholic review of Valencia (1843- 44), and was editor of the newspaper, "El pensamiento de Valencia" (1857-58). He contributed to "La Esperanza," "La Estrella," and particularly to "La Regeneracion" (Nov., 1862, to Nov., 1872), Catholic newspapers of Madrid, being editor of the last-named at different times, and collaborator in the publication of the review "La Concordia" (1863-64).

He was sent as representative from Valencia to the Cortes (1858-65), where, as leader of the royalists in the House of Representatives, he delivered many eloquent discourses against the disentailment laws in defence of Catholic union, in reprobation of despoiling the Pope of his temporal power, and on other vital questions touching the Church and Spain. In Paris, in 1869, he attempted to unite the royal families of Isabel II and Charles of Bourbon, and for dynastic reasons also went to Paris and London in 1869-70, and took part in the Carlist conference in Switzerland in April, 1870. He took the initiative in the formation in Paris of a Central Congress of the Carlist party. In 1860 he wrote the treatise "El Papa y Napoleón," and later four others: "Los tres Orléans" (1869), "El Rey de España" (1869), "La cuestión dinástica (1869), and "Restauración" (1872), leaving unpublished "El libro del pueblo." In February or March of 1870 he had an audience with Pius IX, who bestowed on him many marks of special favour. In 1871 he was elected senator from Guipuzcoa. He was also made a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, but did not live to take his seat. The works of Aparisi were published in Madrid during the years 1873 to 1877, in five volumes, containing his biography as well as poems, discourses, political and academic, articles and treatises, and many forensic writings and speeches.

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