The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-22 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1869.

The decision of the Cortes, just announcing by tele-
gram from Madrid, that Monarchical institutions
shall henceforth still be maintained as the framework
of the Spanish Government, cannot but prove a
"heavy blow and great discouragement" to the De-
mocratic Conspiracy said to be, in severalof the States
of Europe, either in readiness or preparation. Philo-
sophic Republicans have—ever since the outbreak of
the Spanish Revolution drove Queen ISABELLA 11.
into exile over the Pyrenees—been looking hopefully
to Madrid as to a recognised rallying point. Imme-
diately after General PRIM had appeared side
by side with Marshal SERRANO, it was said,
and for some time with almost literal truth,
that there were scarcely half a dozen Republicans
anywhere discoverable in the Iberian peninsula. Po-
litical discussions, however, becoming more free and
open—so soon as the Wakened people began to recog-
nise what they were hardly prepared to realize in
earnest at the firstblush of thedawn of the revolution,
namely, that the last BOURBON stronghold in Europe,
bad really been swept away and utterly obliterated—
advocates of Republicanism began at length to creep
out into the sunshine, as it were, and to acknowledge
in the open day and in the face of all men that
they really had an existence. Several months
sped by, and in proportion as the EX-QUEEN'S
hopes as to her own restoration first of all, but after-
wards as to the possible summons to the vacant
throne of her eldest son, the Prince of the Asturias—
in proportion as those some time tenderly cherished
hopes of the Ex- QUEEN faded away, the aspirations
of the Democratic party rose, and gathered strength
as they rose, until the originally derided dream of a
Spanish Republic seemed, to themselves at least,
almost within reach of realisation. Everything de-
pended, of course, upon the decision that would be
eventually arrived at in regard to one of the most
momentous articles of the newly-prepared or preparing
Spanish Constitution. Upon that particular article,
it is that the national representatives have now
formally, and deliberately, and certainly, it must be
added also, most emphatically pronounced. The
Cortes have declared, in point of fact, by a majority
of more than three to one—that is to sty, by a ma-
jority of 214 to 71—for a Monarchical against a
'Republican form of Government. Away, into thin
air, vanish at once the daydreams of the Democrats.
The notion of the new Political Institution preparing
for Spain proving in the end to be a Republ:can
Stronghold, or Watch fower, or Citadel, or Barbican,
whence the Democratic banner might flutter as a raly-
ing signal to all the political freethinkers of Chris-
tendom—all this turns out to be the merest castle in
the air, or, to use the aptest phrase possible at the
moment, the merest Chateau en Espagne ! Our own in-
stitutions being essentially Monarchical, being almost
immemorially Monarchical, from BOADICEA to VIC-
TORIA, with the one memorable interregnum of his
Highncs the Lord Protector, OLIVER CROMWELL, as
the all but Kingly Chief of the Commonwealth—
naturally the decision of the Cortes appears, to our-
selves, in:a remarkable degree reasonable, judicious,
and satisfactory under existing circumstance. That
is to'say, remembering that, in Spain as in England, the
very genius of the laud, so to speak, is Monarchical.
As for ourselves, as for England, when England was
a Commonwealth, it is recorded indelibly on the pages
of our history at that memorable juncture that even
the Puritan Soldier, then chosen by the people as their
Democratic leader, though, like CESAR on the
Luperaal, he thrice declined the kingly crown
when offered to his grasp, he—strong, bold,
stalwart veteran as he was--fainted away after
he Lad entered his carriage on leaving the doors
of Parliament. Whetl}er as Protector, or Regent, or
what not, the holder of the rights of sove-
reignty, upon the rare occasions when the throne
has not actually •at the moment been occupied—
both in Spain and in England—has, as a rule, always,
invariab:y, like King Death in the allegory of MIL-
TON, " the phantom of a kingly crown had on !" It
was, there, even discernible around the brows of red-
nosed OLIVER—it was appreciably noticeable in his
very title as " His Highness the Lord Protector."
The pomp and pageant of the thing is in a
manner, one is almost tempted to say, irremovable
from Spain. It is, thence, at the least, not very easily
removable. It is consequently a wise decision that the
Cortes has now arrived at under the emergency.
Granted, however, that it has been satisfactorily de-
cided that Spain is to be a Sovereignty—it yet re-
mains to be discovered who is to be the Sovereign.

A SOMEWHAT delicate duty was set before the
Vice-President of the Committee of Council at
Leeds, on Wednesday evening, and he displayed
considerable finesse in discharging it. He was called
upon to preside at the thirty-second annual meeting
of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes.
It must be admitted that mechanics' institutes in
general, and those of Yorkshire in particular, have
been put to a tolerably lengthy practical test. The
experience of a generation ought, one would think,
to determine the value of most philanthropic enter-
prises. And, certainly, if mechanics' institutes do
not flourish in the West Riding—that great centre
of manufacturing industry, artisan intelligence, and
liberal ideas —it can scarcely be expected
that they will prosper elsewhere. And yet
the best friends of the Yorkshire Union appeared
rather dubious on Wednesday as to the result of
more than thirty years' labour. It is yet a vexed ques-
tion whether mechanics' institutes have proved a
success or a failure. The West Riding was, in a measure,
the home of the idea. Its large communities of well-
paid artisans seemed to present a field from which a
plentiful harvest of social and intellectual reform
might be reaped. But the educational improvement
wrought by the institute has been only limited,
and it is clear that it has yet to become
the successful rival of the public-house. Never-
theless, the case is -not one for despondency. The
advocates of other good works have fought uphill
battles of even greater length, and have triumphed
in the end. In the case of mechanics' institutes,
there seems a special reason why they should not at
first prove successful. They were a structure without
a foundation. In order that working men may be able
to avail themselves of such secondary and scientific
education as these establishments were designed to
furnish, it is necessary that they should first enjoy
the blessing of good elementary training. This,
thirty years ago, they had no chance of obtaining.
On the contrary, the national system of primary
instruction and these institutes were established
at the same time. The generation of working men
to whom the institutes were first offered had been
reared during a period when primary instruction
was woefully neglected. It was not likely that they
should tarn their attention to the higher branches of
learning v.-lien they, as a body, knew nothing of the
~
elements.

„
FORSTErt succeeded in sheaving clearly
that the difficulties' with which scientific training
has hitherto struggled
ought no longer to prove for-
midable. Dismissing tie unsatisfactory past, he
fairly made out that if m,o.ehanics' institutes and
kindred undertakings fail for the future, it will be
owing solely to the indiffeiVirce of those
for whose benefit they are Provided. In
the first place, we have no Pr a system of
national elementary education, wb e.ceas a generation
ago there was none. This systeni is not all that we
could wish, but it answers a tern porar3' purpose, and
the time for decisive reforzin cannot be far off, Mr.