The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-16 00:00:00

to reunion with the Yankees. Surely it is England's
place to be the mediator and the protector of the
people who speak her tongue, and we only trust her
rulers will prove equal to the emergency. The
Southerners must have lost much of their animus
against us to make such a proposal, and it is pro-
bable that by this time they understand that English
sympathies are heartily with them, with the one
great exception of slavery.

Te wisdom of making a virtue of necessity has
just been demonstrated by Spain. The abandon-
ment of San Domingo, while, no doubt, very un-
palatable both to Crown and people, is undoubtedly
the most prudent, the most humane, and the most
reasonable course which her Ministry could pursue.
It is never a very pleasant task to confess a failure,
to give up an undertakink as hopeless, to admit
having made a conspicuous mistake, and having
made great and fruitless sacrifices before discovering
it. No nation would willingly accept this pro-
gramme, and the Minister who adopted it would
probably be sure to encounter a certain amount of
opposition and unpopularity. Yet, unwelcome as
the frank admission that the cause she has under-
taken is beyond her efforts may be to a country so
haughty and so self-contained as Spain, the
mortification is, in reality, rather nominal
than substantial. Every one knows, at least most
certainly every Spaniard knows, that the subjugation
of San Domingo has proved a task of no ordinary
difficulty ; that men and money are annually sacri-
ficed there, which Spain can very ill afford to lose ;
and that, far from the Spanish gaining ground, the
struggle is daily becoming more and more hopeless.
It is absurd to see a nation like Spain, which still
claims its place among European kingdoms, vainly
struggling to subdue a Western island, and the
spectacle offers no increase to the national dignity.
So far, then, Spain has nothing to lose by retiring
from a contest which she has no reasonable pretext
for maintaining, seeing that the redoubtable decree
of 1861, the origin of all the mischief, was based on
the supposition that the majority of the Domi-
nicans anxiously desired the re-annexation of
the island to the mother country. On prudential
grounds the wisdom of the decision just announced
to the Cortes is very apparent. Among continental
nations who most of them are in no very solvent
condition, Spain occupies an unhappy prominence
for financial embarrassments, and the haughty
Castilian land, the abode of honour and high spirit
as it claims to be by history and tradition, is cer-
tainly nationally, if not individually, the represen-
tative of a bad debtor ! Even bad debtors, how-
ever, find some limit to their imprudence, or by
whatever polite term their proceedings may be de-
nominated, and Spain has proceeded headlong on
the road to ruin for so many years that she must
perforce check her career with the precipice in sight.
The embarrassments of the Treasury are in fact the real
cause of the abandonment of San Domingo, and we
cannot but applaud the sagacity and resolution which
have enabled a not over scrupulous Minister to adopt
such a practical means of righting the overburdened
vessel of the State. San Domingo bids fair to be the
rock to which the final crash would be due ; and,
by withdrawing from a rash and hopeless contest,
the Ministry will gain strength and dignity while
really losing no prestige whatever. When the first
moment of mortification has passed, Spaniards gene-
rally will be proud to admit that there was really no
choice open, and that no Minister who consulted
the interests of his country could for a moment de-
, sire the continuance of the war. The bill presented
the. r
uto Cortex by NARVAEZ points out very
clearly that not only is the task of subjugating the
colony one of great difficulty, but that, supposing it
to be accomplished, no good end would be attained,
seeing that it would be necessary to hold the island
by military occupation ; and that, even supposing
that a portion of the people should favour the in-
vaders, the whole system of Government would have
to be established on a footing as much opposed to
the customs of the inhabitants as to the interests of
the colony. The motives which prompted the
undertaking in the first instance are, of course,
eulogised, and the whole course of the struggle re-
viewed in a favourable manner ; moreover, the
Ministry professes to have given prolonged and
careful consideration to the question on which their
minds have probably been made up for a consider-
able time, but the substance of the whole document is
contained in a few lines which assert, " That it was
a delusion to believe that the Dominican people, as
a whole, or in the great majority, desired, and,
above all, demanded their annexation to Spain ;"
and the consequent proposal to report the Royal
decree reannexing the territory of the Dominican
Republic. An important step has thus been taken
towards the relief of the national embarrassments,
and so far his countrymen have reason to rejoice
over the accession of Marshal NARVAEZ to the chief
political power.

Fortune certainly seems to favour the desires of
the Prussians for display and the delivery of ad-
dresses. The opening of the Chambers by the
KING in person, on the fourteenth, presented an
opportunity for again glorifying the wisdom that
has guided the councils of the State, and magnify-
ing the valour that has inspired the forces in the
field which has been so much in vogue lately. It is
wonderful to observe the ingenuity which charac-
terises the discourses of the KING and the despatches
of his Minister ; they are certainly, the one and the
other, models for study, and examples for copy to
any one who seeks to intimate a great deal by say-
ing a very little. Thus at the very commencement
of this address we find that the KING adverts
to an old grievance in so skilful a manner that
one might be fain to believe that he is
simply alluding to some important phase of
events that has occurred since last the Houses
were assembled. The bete noir, as the " organisa-
tion of the army," has hitherto proved to be in the
communications between the SOVEREIGN and the
Senate, is therefore very summarily disposed of after
this fashion, namely, the KING declares that its
present mechanism is perfect, and, indeed, that it
has conferred especial advantages upon the country ;
and finally, he sums up these remarks by giving it
as his opinion, that it is his duty to " maintain the
existing arrangements." This must be very satis-
factory intelligence to those who fondly imagined,
perchance, that some sensible alteration was to be
wrought in this respect, and that a new era would
dawn now that foreign affairs were based upon so
much more firm a footing. The inherent absolutism
of King WILLIAM peers out from behind the cloud
of statesmanship in which he has enveloped himself,
and the self-crowned heaven-ordained monarch an-
nounces his wishes and dictates his behests with all
the coolness and command that his power and posi-
tion can confer. He plainly intimates that he
"Poets both Houses of the Diet to assist him in
this desire on his part to maintain his army in statu
quo- It might suggest itself to a casual observer,
presuming to criticise the sayings or doings of
Royalty, that it -would be more consistent for Prus-
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