The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-20

We publish in another column to-day some
interesting documents upon the deferred debt
of Spain, and the movement that is now being
made to interest foreign governments in the
effort to induce the Spanish government to act
with justice towards its creditors.
The fact of such q movement having been
undertaken, shows the existence of growing
conviction on the part of European capitalists
that Spain has the means, If not the will, to sa
tisfy her debts. In fact, for the last thirty
years, but more particularly since the close of
the earliest civil war, the Spanish nation has
exhibited marked advance in the develope-
ment of its industry and commerce. Its mer-
camille marine has exhibited q vast increase in
the industrious provinces of Biscay and Cata-
lonia, and the government has been able to
build up navy, respectable both in numbers
and efficiency. In its internal improvements,
too, the Spanish nation has recently made
great advances. An impetus has been given
to the construction of system of railroads
which must produce the greatest benefits to it
in an Industrial, social and political
point of view. 1t will bring the cereals
and the wines of the interior within reach
of consuming markets, thus giving value to
its surplus production which has never before
been known. This facility of access is creating
new demands in the interior, and producing
social change there which will, before many
years, assimilate to the rest Of Europe people
whose manners, habits and condition of life
bov nd lttflo oh for nanturipa
In politics the social revolution will produce
still more remarkable changes. By giving
greater life to the Industrial and mercantile
interests, powers are created in the State to
compete with, and eventually subdue, the mill
tary element, which, for so many generations,
has controlled and contributed to the mis-
government of Spain.
Unfortunately the reigning family does not
comprehend either its own position or that of
the nation it rules. Belonging to the BourbOns
of Naples, the most vicious, bigotted and retro
grade of the European dynasties, it has a
priestly clique about it, with whose malefc
influence the national sentiment is always con-
tending The consequence is, that in Spain
two powers are almost constantly in conflict.
One of these is the tendency of the people to
Development, and the other that of the Court,
striving always in favor of reaction. This
struggle delays the advance of the country in
commerce, industry and power, and even
keeps it in constant jeopardy. At this
very moment the priestly influence at
court is placing the whole nation in
a false position towards the rest of Europe and
the only other purely Latin nation, which is
beginning to enter upon the path to regenera-
ton. Italy finds Spain to-day arrayed against
her by the intrigues of q worthless court in
favor Of the rotten and falling temperatures of
the Papacy. The continued rule of this inHu-
ence in Spain cannot but delay her advance,
and place her, while the rest Of the nations are
rising in wealth and power, in the position Of
relative retrocession.
There are beginning to prevail in Europe
other ideas, which the power of Spain must
soon admit. England, from the time of Crom-
well until recent period, chung to policy
which was CURLY expressed in the popular
motto, "Ships, colonies and commerce" The
first of these words embraces the idea that in
stigated her naval wars against Holland, France
and Spain, in order to drive them from the
ocean. The second represents that combine
ton of theories which started with the thirteen
colonies of North America, and is in danger of
being finally exploded by the bitter experience
of India. The third involved the complete
scheme of monopoly which aimed to confine
trade to British bottoms, the colonies to ex-
change only with the mother country, and the
world to the purchase of the products of British
industry. The greatincrease Of the trade of the
thirteen colonies with England struck the first
practical blow at this mighty group of fallacies,
and the logic of free trade is rapidly sweeping
its remnants from the world. 1t is now being
admitted that ships are most profitable when
trade is unrestrained; that colonies are drags
and not aids, to the true interests of the mother
country, and that commerce and monopoly are
direct antagonisms.
Some of these truths are best demonstrated
in the history of Spain herself She is one of
the youngest nations of Europe. Her real
national existence commenced with the union
of CASTLE and Arragon, by the marriage of
Ferdinand and Isabella, and their joint con-
quests Of the Moorish remnants in the Spanish
peninsula. In her youth she discovered and
conquered America and contributed mainly
to the creation of the mighty empire of Charles,
the Fifth Of Germany and First of Spain. But
her vast colonies in America drew off her
youth and energy, and returned only vice and
corruption to her court. Yet she still clings to
the old folly of colonial development, and the
colonies of Cuba and the PHILIPPINE Islands
keep her court to-day in that vicious system OF
policy which for three centuries has stepped
the Spanish people in poverty and beggary'
The day that shall dawn upon the separation
of the last remnants of the Spanish colonial
possessions from the mother country will dawn
upon the era of the true regeneration of Spain as