The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS.

POST.—The Spanish elections, it appears, are
being conducted with an unprecedented tranquil-
lity. The Opposition are refraining from voting,
and are apparently relying on the effect which the
inevitable return of the leading members of the dif-
ferent sections will exert in carving out political
parties when the Cortes meet early in next month.
Meanwhile, the apprehension of a collision between
the Spanish and Moorish Courts has now passed
away. Spain is thus relieved from the necessity
which would otherwise have devolved upon her, of
herself undertaking operations which could not
have been conducted by her with success, except on
a considerable scale. She is consequently again un-
fettered in the pursuit of that policy of domestic
reforms which have from year to year been adding
so much to her wealth and to her position in Europe.
The Cortes must decide which party in the State
possesses the preponderance of public confidence.
The new parliamentary career will embrace new
projects of reform moreor less animating all parties;
and if these designs are to be shaped into definite
and practical results it is important that the Spanish
Government should be at peace in all its interna-
tional relations. This condition is now realised.
There seems thus to remain nothing to divert public
attention from the internal interests of the country..
Whatever may be the precise relation of the diffe-
rent parties in the Cortes to each other, there seems
to be no doubt that the great majority will be com-
manded by an administration representing a policy
of well-considered improvements ; and if the Mar-
quis of Miraflores and his colleagues should sustain
the professions which they have made, there is no
reason why, at any rate with certain modifications
in their Cabinet, they should not carry such a
course of policy successfully through the Chambers.
During the last ten years the progress of national
ideas has been the originator of the innumerable
improvements which have been introduced, in afar
greater degree than the strength or the resolution
of any particular Cabinet. So lately as ten years
ago Spain was still visibly impressed with the cha-
racter which civil war and military revolution in-
flict for a long time on every country that they
visit. There was comparatively little personal
wealth. There were then barely one hundred miles
of railway. There were few of the banks, and none
of the financial institutions, which now carry on so
much of the trade of the nation. Foreign commerce
was inconsiderable ; the defective means of transport
from the interior to the coast restricted trading enter-
prise which has since attained such a rapid
development ; and the credit of the Govern-
ment was suffering from the damnosa here-
ditas of civil war. Since that time, however,
an immense change has taken place. The
revenue of the Government has doubled ; the com-
merce of the country has nearly tripled. In 1850,
for example, the Spanish revenue was but about
£11,000,000. On the other hand, we now find that
the revenue for the year running from the Ist of
July, 1862, to the Ist of July, 1863, was not less than
£28,763,515. This result is made up from the pro-
duct of four main descriptions of taxes. Thus, direct
taxes, £7,843,000 ; indirect imposts, £7,552,000 ;
stamps, tobacco tax, and other imposts, £11,582,000;
yield of colonial revenue in excess of colonial expen-
diture, £1,785,000. These receipts are independent
of the " extraordinary revenue" derived from the an-
nual sale of public lands, which is applied to special
purposes, and has yielded, during the past financial
year, more than £5,000,000. The tonnage, again, of
shipping, which was less than 1,500,000 in 1850,
and 2,400,000 in 1859, is now more than 3,000,000.
Such has been the increase respectively of the
revenue and of the national wealth, In the mean-
time not less than 1,500 miles of railway have been
laid down and put into actual working. The capi-
tals of the different provinces are thus connected
with each other, and all the centres of agri-
cultural production with the principal ports
on the coast. Banks and societies of credit
have risen in great numbers to facilitate
interchange, both home and foreign. Meanwhile,
however, the stain of repudiated debt still hangs
upon the country. So long as Spain remained
poor, under the influence of her revolutionary
wars, this stigma might be inevitable ; but the
increase of its wealth and revenue has now raised
it to the rank of the most prosperous States of the
Continent. If the intention ascribed to the
present Government, of attempting to consolidate
the whole of the heterogeneous debt of the country,
be realised, it will do more to redeem Spain from
the memory of her unfortunate antecedents than
any other course of improvement. The present
consolidated debt of Spain is but about £134,000,000,
being but little more than that of Holland, which
has a population of only one-fifth of the number of
the Spaniards. Poverty, therefore, is no longer a
hindrance, and the order just made by the French
Government in regard to certain portions of this
debt hitherto current at Paris, which is characteris-
tic of the high principles of M.Fould, will tend per-
haps to roimpress on the Spanish Ministry the need
of the financial measures that are ascribed to them.
Spain, in truth, is a country so fertile by nature,
so happily removed from the complications of
European politics by its peninsular isolation, and
yet so allied with European commerce by the proxi-
mity of irs coasts with the leading maritime Powers,
as to be in a position to claim one of the first places
among the nations of the world. Misgovernment
first, and afterwards revolution, have prevented
these capacities from being hitherto developed; but
already there is a greater change from the Spain of
1850 than marks the contemporaneous progress of
any other State; and there is reason to think that
another few years will give to that country a great
place in the politics of Europe.
TIMES.—The last act of the drama which is to
terminate in the final release of the lonian Islands
from the British Protectorate has solemnly com-
menced by the assembling of the Legislature, and
the address delivered, in the name of her Majesty,
by the Lord High Commissioner. For ourselves,
we confess that we view these preparations for a
final separation with feelings of hearty and un-
mixed satisfaction. To us there is no alloy or draw-
back of any kind whatsoever. England has dis-
charged, for nearly fifty years, at the request of
Europe, a very thankless and disagreeable duty, and
she has every reason to rejoice that a period
has at last arrived when, without offending or
annoying anybody, but to the great satisfaction of
the lonian Islanders and of the Greek nation, she is
enabled to lay down a trust undertaken with no
selfish motive, and regarded with dislike and
jealousy by the very people for whose benefit it was
Intended to be exercised. We shall be free hence-
forth from those periodical exhibitions of discon-
tent so galling to the pride of a nation whose
boast it is to hold her foreign dominions by the
tenure of mutual goodwill rather than by the
strong hand of power ; we shall be free from a
heavy drain on our military resources, from the ex-
pense of remodelling immense fortifications which
modern science has rendered antiquated and useless,
and our diplomacy will be delivered from the endless
struggle incurred in protecting the interests of
lonian Islanders in every part of the Levant. IVe
can therefore view the steps of this transaction with-
out any needless repinings, and go through the cere-
mony of separation with that composure which we
recommend to the Northern States of America
whenever necessity or a return to a sounder judg-
ment shall at length induce them to take a similar
step. We are happy to believe that the natives of
the lonian Islands are quite prepared to meet us
halfway, ar.d that if we are ready to renounce
our Protectorate they are just as willing to
divest themselves of our protection. The part-
ing seems agreeable to both sides, and we may
hope that, as it is free from all feelings of re-
gret, it may be effected without leaving behind it
any legacy of or animosity. The Lord High
Commissioner, in his speech to the lonian Parlia-
ment, details several subjects which it will have to
consider before the separation can be effected. The
Assembly had not given its answer, but he did not
think it necessary to assume for a moment the atti-
tude of a person who doubted what that answer
would be. These conditions are five in number. In
the first place, a resolution will bo required, after the
cessation of the British Protectorate, and before the
establishment of the new Constitution, by which the
King of the Hellenes will be enabled to exercise the
functions now exercised by the Queen of Great
Britain with regard to the Sovereignty and Govern-
ment of the lonian Islands. This is, we presume,
necessary, though it seems strange that the
Lord High Commissioner should direct the lonian
Assembly by a formal message as to what they are
to do after the Protectorate has come to an end and
his office has ceased to exist. It has been the weak-
ness of many monarchs to seek to reign after their
death, but we should have thought that the Lord
High Commissioner might be content, after the ter-
mination of his office, to leave the lonians to them-
selves. The second proposition of the Lord High
Commissioner is that £lO,OOO a year should be re-
served as the first charge on the lonian revenue in
augmentation of the Civil List of King George. We
do not clearly understand by what authority- this is
proposed to be done—whether the lonians, NV bile they
still remain the subjects of one Sovereign, are to pro-
vide the Civil List of another, or whether this also
is to be deferred till the accession of King George to
the Throne. To the substance of the proposition
there ought to be no objection, but as it interferes
with the appropriation ore certain part of the reve-
nues which will henceforth be raised under the au-
thorityseekem t
o Parliament,bea
matter
of the
mayGrebeforehand appropriation
of
e o
ai d
el
i-
robably, give rise to disputes is utes as to
cacy, and may p
The third propositions ofp the Lord
its legality.
High Commissioner calls on the Assembly to recog-
nise ali contracts and engagements hitherto made
on behalf of the lonian Government, and all equi-

table claims of that Government. This is, of course,
right in principle. The difficulty is that the lonian
Government itself is about to pass away, together
with the Protectorate of which it is the creature,
and to be replaced by the general Parliament of
Greece, which would not be technically bound by
engagements entered into by a body itself on the
eve of dissolution. The fourth recommendation is
for the preservation and safeguard of British ceme-
teries within the Islands. The fifth is contained
in the following words :—" I shall have to inform
you of the terms on which her Majesty's Govern-
ment is prepared to come to a settlement of the debt
of £90,289 ss. 7d., due to Great Britain for arrears
of military contribution." We hope M. About, who
has stated that England has fortified these Islands
at their own expense, will take notice of this item,
which ought to satisfy him that, so far from having
been able to extract from the lonian Islands the
vast sums spent in fortifications, we have not been
able to obtain the annual payment due to us under
9efce which is now in arrear
de,OnOo. This demand, what-
ever,
ttohethtreeaanityoufonrt thoefir
shape it may assume, will probably be regarded
as exeeedingly indelicate and ill-timed. But as
there is no doubt of the ability of the Islands to pay,
and as little of the perfect justice of the demand,
we trust it will be promptly and handsomely met.
These are the matters which Sir Henry Storks had
submitted to the lonian Parliament. We do not,
as we have said, question the propriety of any of
them, though we entertain considerable doubt
whether, with the exception of the fifth, they are
subjects with which the lonian Parliament alone
can successfully deal. When the British Protecto-
rate is withdrawn, the lonian Islands will become
an independent State under the sovereignty of the
King of Greece. But they will not be part of
Greece, any more than Hanover has ever been part
of England. The union of the two countries must,
we should think, be, like the union of England with
Scotland or of Great Britain and Ireland, the sub-
ject of a Treaty of Union, ratified by the Legis-
latures of the States about to unite. If so, the body
which is to charge £lO,OOO a year on the lonian
revenue, in augmentation of the Civil List of King
George, and to undertake the responsibilities and
discharge the debts of the Government of the
lonian Islands, is not the lonian Legislature, but
the Legislature of the Kingdom of Greece. Are we
not, then, anticipating matters a little, and assum-
ing to settle by an arrangement between the pro-
tecting aid protected State that which can pro-
perly only be settled between the protected State
and the larger kingdom of which it is to form part ?
These things concern us very slightly ; but there is
a question of the deepest! interest to the lonian
Islands with which we presume they must them-
selves have carefully considered. The kingdom of
Greece is very heavily indebted. We will not be
so ill-bred as to state the amount. We have not, to
be sure, heard much lately of any intention to pay
the debt ; but it exists, Are the lonian Islands
prepared to take their share of this burden ;
and, if not, how do they propose to secure them-
selves against it ? It is very reasonable that the
Greek Parliament should be prepared to undertake
the liabilities of the lonians, tor we have kept them
out of debt, except to ourselves. Are they prepared
to reciprocate, and to undertake tbeir share of the
burden which weighs on Greek finance P We shall
be curious to see what answer we discussions of
the Assembly afford to this question.