The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES. —Our difference with Spain is in a fair
way to a satisfactory adjustment. The Spanish
Minister for Foreign Affairs, General Calonge,
assured the Senate, the other day, that Queen
Isabella's Government would cause the rights of the
nation and the decisions of the Spanish Tribunals to
be respected. The Minister well knew to what
extent he could rely on the Spanish magistrates.
Yesterday-.that is, less than three weeks after
the date of Lord Stanley's conclusive letter to
Sir John Crampton—we heard that " the Prize
Court at Cadiz has recognised the illegality of the
capture of the Queen Victoria ;" and the most
moderate paper of Madrid, commenting upon
this news, considers that "by this decision the
difference between England and Spain in this
matter is terminated." For several days, indeed,
we have had every reason to believe that the Court
of Madrid was inclined to acknowledge the justice of
the demands of her Majesty's Government. It was
positively stated on Saturday that Spain had agreed
to make complete reparation as to the flag, vessel,
cargo, and crew in the case of the Queen -Victoria.
No mention was made of the Tornado, but with a
little goodwill on both sides it will not be difficult to
bring that part of the dispute to an equally reason-
able arrangement. We need hardly waste many
words in congratulating the country on its happy
release from an unpleasant difficulty. We have
repeatedly expressed our opinion that nothing
could be more repugnant to the feelings of every
Englishman than the idea of a real, serious
quarrel with the Spanish people ; and, as to the
Spaniards, we were unwilling to suppose that no
recollection remained of the time in which they
professed to care but little for the enmity of all
other nations so long as they could only secure our
friendship : _ _ -

" Con todo el muhdo guerra,
"Y paz con Inglaterra."
Although the authorities at Cadiz, and their supe-
riors at Madrid, had contrived to put themselves
so clearly in the wrong that no other course was
left to this country than the one followed by Lord
Stanley, it would hardly be just to deny that in-
cessant provocation is offered to the Spaniards by
the facilities afforded' to -the contraband trade on
their coasts by the position
_we occupy at Gibraltar.
The very sight of our flag on " the Rock" is already
a consfant, though by this time a familiar,
subject of mortification for that proudest
of all human races ; and, notwithstanding
the most friendly behaviour on the part of
our military, naval, and civil officials in that im-
portant possession' the brisk intercourse with the
opposite shores of Africa, arising from the necessity
of victualling our garrison, cannot fail to put the
watchfulness and patience of the Spanish coast-
guards to the severest test. Not whittle good will
and forbearance on either side is required under
such circumstances to avoid collision, or to smooth
down difficulties wherever they may arise, and the
narrow escape we have had of an open quarrel in
the present instance will, it is to be hoped, prompt
both Governments to remove any cause for future
grievance. We shall have no reason to find fault
with the Spanish Government for putting down
smuggling by any measures their own law, or the
law of nations, may justify. Neither shall we com-
plain of any legal penalty their courts may decree
against those zealous persons whose importation of
books and tracts is a source of such sore annoyance
to the bigoted clergy and peasantry in many parts
of the peninsula. Lord Stanley's success is the more
a subject of congratulation, as it is never an easy
matter to bring Spaniards to see their own conduct
in the same light as it appears to the rest of the
world. In the overweening conceit of Spanish pa-
triots, that country continues to be at the present
day what it was at the time of the invincible
Armada ; and such, it must be avowed, to a great
extent, the soil and the people actually are, a
brave, sober, patient people, living in a rich and
fertile land. The individual Castilian is conscious
of no decline or degeneracy, and notwithstanding
the depopulation of his country, the dwindled
boundaries of his empire, and the exhaustion of
his treasury, he would, in proper hands, still be
capable of sustained effort and of boundless sacri-
fice. But the Spaniard never was, and probably never
will be, in proper hands. From the age of the First
Isabella to the reign of the Second, anything like
even a tolerable Government has been impossible in
Spain. The land was no sooner rescued from the
Moorish invader than it fell into a state of legisla-
tive and executive impotence. The Philips and the
Charleses, who filled the throne for above two cen-
turies, broke the nerve of the nation, and expended
the wealth of the world. Whether employed against
English rivalry or Dutch rebellion, the largest means
were always found unequal to the smallest ends.
From the days of Gonzalvo and Cortes there is not
a single foreign achievement to soothe the Spaniard's
humiliating sense of rapid and general decay. Yet
for any kind of mad Quixotic enterprise the worst of
Governments could always rely on the co-operation
of the vainglorious multitude. A lull in the ordinary
run of military Pronuncianzentos at the close of a
quarter of a century of civil war had barely allowed
the distracted nation leisure to breathe, and foreign
capital was hardly beginning to infuse fresh blood
into eta veins, when O'Donnell galvanised it into a
rehearsal of its chivalrous exploits against the Moors.
African trophies awakened the longings for Ameri-
can triumphs, and the achievements at San Domingo,
at Valparaiso, at Callao, possibly suggested a new
trial of strength with the old English foe. Under
such circumstances we may, indeed, rejoice that Mar-
shal Narvaez and Gen. Calonge should not have
deemed it expedient to turn against us that
of the Spanish people which they have drawn upon
themselves by the excesses of their misrule. If con-
siderations of humanity did not forbid our ever look-
ing upon war as anything but a serious business, it
would have been difficult to restrain a smile when
contrasting our threatened dispute with Spain with
the great quarrel which seemed equally imminent be-
tween France and Germany on the subject of Luxem-
burg. Spain, to be sure, boasts of 122 men-of-war,
armed with 1,264 guns, and manned. by 1,121
officers, 14,680 sailors, and 7,980 marines;
but no small part of this formidable arma-
ment is still cruising in the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, and her war with the Republics
of the Andes would hardly allow Spain to muster
sufficient forces to make even a show of hostilities
in Europe. We hardly know whether we are in-
debted for the better temper in which Queen Isa-
bella's Ministers listened to Lord Stanley's remon-
strances to a sense of internal security, or
whether their avoidance of a quarrel abroad was
prompted by an acknowledged necessity of turning
all their energies to the control of unruly passions
at home. It would, however, be hardly worth our
hile to be inquisitive as to the causes, so long as we
have reason to be satisfied with the effects. What di-
-Ceetly concerns us is the settlement of our dispute
about the Tornado and the Queen Victoria. That
little matter being disposed of, we•shall resume our
part of neutral, though not indifferent, spectators of
Spanish politics, heartily wishing that the Spaniards
may find the Government which may best suit them ;
but well resolved, at the same time, never to inter-
fere with that Government, be it good, bad, or in-
different, and never to allow that Government to
interfere with us.

POST.—Strikes appear to be now the only recog-
nised means of settling any differences which may
arise between employers and employed ;.and, as the
tendency of them is to increase in extent and impor-
tance, it is useful to gain such an insight into their
causes and• conduct as will enable us to form a clear
estimate of them. An opportunity for doing this has
lately been afforded by the strikes of the engine-
drivers—first, on the Brighton, and now on the North
Eastern Railway ; for both sides to the disputes have
in some sort appealed to the public, and have done
their best to put forth statements calculated to sup-
port their own view of the case. There is no doubt
that strikes of any sort do entail a large amount of
inconvenience and of actual loss upon all those who
have the misfortune to be affected by them, and it
is therefore unfortunate that some other means
cannot be devised by which disputes between masters
and 113ela could be arranged without recourse being

hal to actual conflict of this nature ; but yet strikes
are in themselves as justifiable as any other sort of
means of driving a bargain, and, so long as they
are conducted within the limits of the lawB,
must be respected as the exercise of an pub-
doubted right. It must not, however, be for-
gotten that it is a very unpleasant way of bar-
gaining, and one which does not harmonise With
our ordinary ideas of the courtesy and VI
temper which should subsist between buyer an.
seller, and when once this disturbance of the oreb"...
nary relations is brought about it is not to be cv
pected but that the seller should insist upon the vel
last farthing he can get, and that the buyer should
refuse to add one jot to the price for which he c 3.11
satisfy his requirements elsewhere, while both will
certainly long retain a very considerable degree
irritation not calculated to facilitate future trans:
actions. It may be perhaps said that strikes furnish
the only means of bringing disputes to an issue, bt%
the same was said, in their time of trial by halt'
and of duelling, and yet we see that when private in-
dividuals have a dispute tosettle they are now content
to resort to the courts of law and to abide by the de-
cision arrived at. There is no reason, except obstl:
nacy and stupidity, why the same course should no
be adopted for trade disputes which has succeeded in
all others. It has been objected that if any tribunro
of the nature of courts of arbitration were estanh
lished it would not be possible to invest them viit
authority to enforce their decisions, but, if the
courts were known to be impartial, the mere fact
that the decision had been arrived at would give, at
any rate, a pieponderating weight to the side they
might favour or to any compromise they might Sig'
gest. At present, however, the only plan that
been discovered is for masters and men to fight lob
their quarrels by inflicting asmuch injury as possib
upon each other, and no inconsiderable amount ton
the public ; and the latest. examples of this sort o,f
.
conflict are very edifying as to the manner in which
such struggles are carried on and the sort of result W
which they lead. The Brighton Railway strike, ~
will be remembered, ' ended almost as soon as it
began, by the return, of the men to work upon terms
which, virtually, were the same as those upon NO°,
they had struck. It was very generally thought the
the men were not justified in requiring that all drivel
should be paid alike, irrespective of their merit, and
they themselves, ultimately had the good sense to see
this and to come than agreement with their directors'
Bbt that strike had one very unexpected result, to
that it taught us that an engine-driver is not such,,
difficult man to replace after all. The inconvenience,
upon the pressure of which the men had no doubt
eounted to help them in their demands, proved, 18
fact, to be much less insurmountable than was 0±;
pected, and there is no doubt that if the strike ha'
continued a few days longer the whole of the place
of the men who had left their work would have been
filled up. The strike on the North-Eastern Rail
has naturally, after this experience, been receive,,
with much more equanimity than would hither"'
have been felt at the prospect of all the traffic °a
important line being stopped for an indefinite period,
and it has again been made clear that the commul*.
cations of th country are not in the exclusive core
trol of the drivers. So far as the interests oftufr
public is concerned, therefore, we can afford to 10°'
upon the struggle with great composure; but, as
_1:8„.:1
gards the abstract justice of .the case, there is a g°73l,
deal- more-to be, said than with respect to the
Brightop dispute. The North. Eastern qriverSd,s
appears, are engaged under a contract that a montbh
notice should be given on either side of 'an intention
to terminate the engagement, and when the qtlesti%
of strike was first mooted the Men did actually sel
in such notices, which, however, were. afterWalw
withdrawn in consequence of an arrangement 130 r
ing been made. But a week ago the men chose
consider that the arrangement had been violated'
and then and there, without any notice whatever,
they one. and all struck work, and left the comps
to conduct their traffic as best they might.
very strong measure was met by a prosecution 1"r
breach of contract, which was on Tuesday last nelc
cided against the men by the Leeds magistrates, av(l,
although sentence has been postponed for the pr',,
sent, it appears not unlikely that the matter Of,
yet be complicated by the actual punishment of sell.
of the offenders. In the meantime, the union,::
making every preparation to continue the strugrA
The Central Committee of the Engine-drivers' an
Firemen's United Society has made a levy upon 8,
the drivers and firemen belonging to it for the noss;
sary funds, and it has been distinctly threatened
that unless the demands of the North Eastern Who
are complied with, a " united movement" of "
great body of our own calling throughout the ccoa;
try" will be resorted to, or, in other words, all vhi
drivers in the country are to be taken away from
their employment unless those who are now
strike get what they want. The facts of the cal
as we are at present in possession of them, do nd
tell in favour of the justice of the men's claim, O
unless it is considet ably stronger than it now apnea:,
to be, they are certainly not entitled to our symr";
thy, while the threat held out of a universal strik
is still more calculated to make the public look u orc).
their pretensions with suspicion and distrust.