The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-12 00:00:00

THE OUTBREAK IN SPAIN.

The difficulties which have beset the authorities in Spain
have been of a universal character ; they have produced a
revolt at;Cadiz, and Madrid itself has only narrowly escaped.
The mob of unemployed and, to say the truth, half-starved
labourers and artisans was for some time
satisfied with getting wages and doing nothing
for them ; but even that period of contentment has
passed. The multitude are weary of idleness, and have
sought excitement in fighting—notoriously the most
attractive employment to a people in want of an occupa-
tion. The Spanish Revolution, says the Times correspon-
dent, has been for the last two months going through its
Jack Cade period. The people had made good its title to
bear arms. It bad lived in the free exercise of its "right
to work " the right to work as little as it pleased,
and to get as high wages as it listed. To begin with
Madrid, Escalante supplied his Majesty the Mob with
50,000 muskets ; the Junta converted the city into a vast
workshop, where the said Majesty was allowed 7i reals,
or about ls. 70. a day, upon merely entering his name on
the rolls of the municipality, and whether he carried a
musket, or handled a spade, or simply did nothing. Ever
since that happy day the bands of "armed people" and
the gangs of " working people" have been our trouble,
our terror, our puzzle. Whatever happened in Madrid
became the rule upon which some thousand other commu-
nities in Spain modelled themselves. The Revolutionary
Juntas lived long enough to see the inevitable conse-
quences of their bungling work ; both they and the more
regular authorities who took their places have been ever
since earnestly and incessantly striving to ludo that work,
but it was evident from the beginning that the knot was
tangled beyond all untying skill, and that the sword alone
could afford the final solution. Endeavours were made to
neutralise one evil by the other. The citizen was at first
paid as a soldier. He was offered the same pay as a work-
man. It was hoped to empty the barracks by filling the
workshops ; but the monster had " many heads." It had
many hands, many whims, also, and changing moods,
which all had to le humoured. It had " the mastery
of the situation." The lion was loose, a:id care should be
taken not to anger him till he had been safely coaxed
back behind the bars of his cage. What this heroic Pro-
visional Government has bad to put up with, what despe-
rate shifts its civil and military' governors, its police agents,
and its municipal authorities had to resort to to avoid
collisions, it would hardly be possible to imagine.
These causes have well-nigh brought about a conflict
in Madrid. An outbreak at the Puerta del Sol had
become so imminent that the members of the Government
had warned their families on no account to venture out
into the streets, and a large force had been prepared to
meet the people. The encounter there was averted by
mutual forbearance ; but in Andalusia, as we have seen,
the rising has assumed alarming proportions. The same
writer observes : " I cannot believe that either republi-
canism or reaction had anything to do with it. It was
merely the people, the prole'ariat, standing up for
what it conceived to be its own right. That right
had been admitted and practically sanctioned by
the authors of the revolution under the pressure of
its first necessities ; but evidently the exercise, of
that right is not compatible with the existence of
any society such as men have hitherto been able to orga-
nise. Work is man's duty as well as his right. All he can
claim is freedom to seek work wherever he may find it,
and on the best terms the work itself may command. If
the State undertakes to supply the work, and the workman
is to name his own terms, the work itself will soon Le
infinitesimal and the terms exorbitant. The Madrid popu-
lace have been as yet very far from feeling that they
could have everything their own way. Yet they have
been strong enough to obtain seven reals for work the
worth of which would never be computed at two real.%
Now, if reals sprung from inexhaustible sources, a corn-

munistic Government might, by taking the money where-
ever it might be found, keep up the national workshop
to the end of time. But the stubborn fact is that reals
are the produce of so much work. Unless somebody
do that work, the stock of reals will soon be exhausted,
and the State will still be under necessity either of en-
forcing work or allowing society to perish." The whole
history of the last two months may be summed up by
referring it to the behaviour of a Government living in
perpetual fear of the people. It was not because the
people were formidable, or the Government weak, but
because it was deemed unadvisable, however it might be
necessr►ry, to " draw a line somewhere."
A correspondent of• the Constitution net, however, states
that there can be no doubt of the participation of the
Republicans in the movement. Junco, a well-known
Republican, and commander of a battalion of volunteers,
is amongst the insurgents. On the other hand, it is well
known that several very rich and important personages of
Seville and Cadiz, devoted partisans of the fallen Govern.
ment, have given the movement their aid, and have allied
themselves with the Republicans, in order to overturn the
Provisional Ministry.