The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Marshal Narvaez has given a new proof
that he is a capable and resolute Minister. Even
those most opposed to the principles with which his
name has been associated will not deny that at this
important crisis of the affairs of Spain he has the
wisdom to see what is the right policy, and the
strength of character to enforce it. The circum-
stances under which he took office were, indeed,
enough to make any man prudent ; yet we have
seen many a Minister set out with good intentions,
and yield after a time to the prejudices of a Court,
the supineness of his colleagues, and the intrigues
of those who are benefitted by the public profusion,
or else be carried away by the more generous,
though mistaken impulses of national honour and
military glory. Marshal Narvaez has chosen a
policy and adhered to it. He was brought into
office partly, it is said, through the desire of the
Court to effect a family arrangement which the late
Ministry was opposed to or was afraid to sanc-
tion ' • but the main reason was, beyond a doubt,
that Spain was moving inevitably and hopelessly to
financial ruin. It may well be imagined that it does
not take a little to frighten Spanish politicians in
this respect. People who by nature and habit are,
full of pride and punctillio and jealously susceptible
of their honour, and yet allow the nation's creditors
to revile them year after year with the utmost in-
difference, must have a very vague sense of the
sanctity of public obligations. The Spanish Govern-
ment would never have been alarmed at the prospect

of not being able to pay its debts. As long as Cas-
tilian profit and glory could have been extracted
from the purses of foreigners, no set of Ministers
would have thought of giving up a single
national luxury in the- shape of imposing arma-
ments and romantic expeditions,—much less of
resigning their offices. But there is a point
at which the most extravagant have their fit
of economy. The man who can contemplate
a ruined creditor with perfect calmness is rather
shaken at the prospect of having no money himself.
This is Spain's case. The nation has exhausted its
credit, and its most capable men know that it must
retrench. It is not a matter of choice but of neces-
sity. By desperate expedients, by paying nobody
whom it is possible to defraud, and by placing fresh
imposts on an overburdened population, the pleasures
of aggression on foreign nations might be tasted for
a few years longer. But this course requires a union
of audacity and ability which Spanish Ministers
fortunately do not possess. In short, the extra-
vagance of the last few years, that bad lesson which
Spain had learnt from its neighbour and model,
the French Empire, had run itself out, and Mar-
shal Narvaez when he came into office seems to
have been conscious that the nation's safety and the
maintenance of his own power lay in a complete
change. How stedfastly he holds to this new policy the
Bill for the definite abandonment of San Domingo
which is now submitted to the Cortes by his Go-
vernment clearly shows. It is no blame to the
Spanish people to say that this measure must bring
them very great mortification. Though it is forty
years since the Spanish dependencies in the New
World threw off the yoke of the mother country
the Spaniards have hardly made up their minds
to the separation. They forget that the govern-
ment which their fathers exercised in America
combined every species of injustice, political, social,
and commercial, and contradicted almost every
principle which modern enlightenment declares to be
for the advantage of nations. They look upon the
Republican communities who speak their tongue
with something of the same feeling with which
the Federals in North America regard the
Southerners—with a sort of incredulity as to their
being in earnest, and a belief that sooner
or later, they will repent of their headstrong
folly and return into a dutiful and advantageous
obedience to the Spanish Monarchy. At least that
was their fancy some short time since, and it was
strong enough to prompt the two expeditions to
Mexico and San Domingo, and to incite them to a
demeanour in dealing with the South American Re-
publics which even now threatens bloodshed. The
Mexican expedition was wisely terminated when it
became plain that the Mexicans, however willing to
receive an European Sovereign, would not consent
to be reannexed to Spain, either directly or by the
election of a Spanish Prince, and when it appeared
that the Emperor of the French also had other pro-
jects. But in the affair of San Domingo the Spa-
nish Government was really deceived by its vain
hopes, and it is not till after nearly three
years of cruel and costly warfare that the
nation is convinced that the enterprise is hopeless.
We cannot wonder that the Queen, with her
family and national pride, and her share in the re-
sponsibility for the acts of her reign, should have
shrunk from announcing the abandonment of San
Domingo at the opening of the Cortes ; for the
document which Marshal Narvaez, persevering in
his purpose, has presented to the Cortes, contain-
ing the reasons for the repeal of the decree of the
19th of May, 1861, is a national penance which, to
some minds, must be humiliating in the extreme.
But Queen Isabel and her subjects will, we think,
be consoled under any passing mortification by
learning the effect which this act has produced
in Europe. If we judge rightly, it will be pro-
nounced that nothing more honourable to the
Spanish Government and nation, nothing more
promising of good in the future has emanated from
Madrid for many years past. It may be rash to
build up hopes on an isolated occurrence, but still
there is reason to trust that this plain-spoken
confession of a national mistake may mark a turn-
ing point in Spanish history, and that from its ap-
pearance and the discussions upon it in the Spanish
Legislature may be reckoned a new period in which
the national affairs will be conducted with prudence
and conscientiousness, in which economy will per-
mit honesty, and a modest demeanour to foreign
communities, and particularly those of Spanish de-
scent, will encourage them to draw closer their re-
lations with the Spanish people. The Government,
of Marshal Narvaez declares, what we can well be-
lieve, that the policy of Spain four years ago was de-
termined by a real conviction that the Dominicans,