Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-11-05
BRITISH DESIGNS IN CUBA"

principles to be continually wrangng with the ul-
ira notions of our Democratic contemporaries; and
therefore it is that we do not often attempt to show
their pernicious tendency. But when an osensible
organ Of our Administration, presumed to speak the
sentiments Of that Administration, persists in press
ing upon the notice of the country aseres Of arti
cles seemingly designed for no other purpose than
to insult all the Governments of Europe because
they do not acknowledge right to interfere in
their policy, and because they cannot with our
eyes the superiority of republican institutions,
we should be derelict to our duty as faithful cit
gems to remain silent.
The Union of the Doth October contains one of
these articles which, had it appeared in any other
paper, we should have passed by, as we have done
all others of similar character bearing internal evil
dence of disturbed and heated brains, and not like
Iy to produce mischief among the sober and reflect
ing portion of the Democracy, to whose excitabe
passions and appetitcs they especially address
ed. The article to which we alude, under the text
which we have pre6xcd to this, bears every mark,
except in its signal departure from the courtesy OF
calm discussion of being an official proclamation !;
and appearing as it does, just on the eve Ct the
meeting of Congress, we may regard it as intend
ed to pre6gure some of the measures which will
be recommended in the Presidents first annual
message Viewing it in this light, the opi.ions it
promnlgascr, and the action upon them which it
seems to contemplate demand that we should give
it consideration of which we should otherwise have
thought it utterly unworthy.
The Union begins by assuming that the British
Ministry were insncere in their proposition to our
Government. 1t says: We have intimated the
Sopinion that the whole scheme of triparte treaty
to secure to Spain the peaceable and perpetual
possession of Cuba was mere diplomatic ruse on
the part of Great Britain, rcsorted to Nth no &C.
tpectation aUish that IL pould succeed, bat deemed
necessary to advance her real design Of african
izing tie Lland;" and then, conceding for the
present that the distinguished noblemen have
meant just what they said in their negotiations
with our Government, and that they really and
Earnestly desired only to maintain Cuba in her
present condition" it undertakes to argue the
right and the orong of that policy, if Great Bri
tain were bound by any law, human or divine, to
act upon the view which Government might
choose to take of what she ought or ought not to
regard right or wrong. But in this gracious
concession that it is possible the British negotiators
Cuba in her present condition." the Government
organ chooses to give forced construction to the
phrase "present coadition"-a construction which
certainly never entered into the conception of Lord
John Russell or any of his official associates
whose obvious meaning went no further than to
guaranty to Spain the peaceable possession of an
island which had been indisputably her property
from the time of its discovery This was the
"preseat condition. which Great Britain desired to
see maintained. But in order to render that policy
as disgusting and abhorrent to the republican feel
ings Of our people as possible the Union travels
back to the sixteenth century, hunts up the forgot
ten records of the Escuria to paint the tyranny of
Philip II, and descants upon the tortures Of dead
and buried Inquisiton, all which it asserts are still
kept up in their blacklist enormities in the present
government of Cuba. We fear to be considered as
exaggeratng this historical epitome, and therefore
give It in the language of the official paper:
ain Cuba and there alone the black and ghoule like
soul of the Escurial is still dominant. Could Philip the
Second rise Of his dismal grave, he would glory in the
Moro lie would not find there the Spain Of to-day or
the Spain Of 1872 Of Paafox of Bonaparte, Of
that struggle for national life which in spanards is
respectable or the Spain Of people beginning to
breathe existence and using in their asphyxia great
British constitutional windpipe. lie would find there
hideous annchronism He would find there the living
members OF every abominable and beasy tyranny, the
quyerng yet armed limbs Of every ferocous and disgust
ing cruelty which the bad passions Of have for cenu
ries invented and which mankind has warred for centu
ries to eace from the earth. lie would find there the
Spain he fabrcated-black dismal, and silent the
earthen sepuchre in which he dwet he would find there
dominant and alpossessing monopoly, with the power
IL not the name Of the Inquisition he would fad
the savetrade in its horrors and in its horrors the
grant and desoang garrison which, in his day and after
il customary inct the dependencies Of his do
minion. The accumulated inventions Of Spanish barba-
rity he would find there to clohe his soul in in pail
1t is only possible for Philip Loyola to realize in its
fragrant immensely the tyranny practised in that island
An all. dominant and perfectly INSCRIPTIONS foreign gar
rsop there plumber and recuperate degraded Of
foia whose sanctty and whose crimes 20 handn hand
dungeons silent and inscrutable power without response
bity, place without dignity, valor, virtue peo-
pie without representation without Government without
protection without belief loyalty, with terror only
could the ghoue OF ultra -montansm desire more
" There is no liberty in Cuba; there Is no property
there safety Of life honor in Cuba. tyranny,
against which Europe would revolt, you any
clear day from the promontores Of Florida There IL is
the death Of intolerance the agony Of military torture
the horror OF the Inquison, the everincreasng and
agonisng demonsm Of the slave trade oil in one, all col
iected from the barbaries OF ages brewing and whing
under those couded mounsnops to the east And that
Is what Lord John Russell proposes with entire liberty
to protect
"There are no laws in Cubs save such as n nomsdic
Governor equally remorseless life money chooses