The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-22
SPANISH EMANCIPATION.

From the NJ Y. Tribune.
The bill for the emancipation of slaves in
the Spanish colonies, now the subject of such
acrimonious debate in the Cortes, is not a
measure over which the friends of liberty can
enthusiastically rejoice, or at which the Con-
servatives need feel much alarm. Slavery all
over the world received it's death-blow when
Mr.. Lincoln declared it abolished in the
United States. Even the Spaniards and Bra
zilians have long perceived that its end was
near in the West Indies and South America,
and the utmost efforts of its friends could
only prolong its existence generation or SO,
or obstruct emancipation with conditions
onerous to the freedman and profitable to the
master. The action of the insurgents in
Cuba has strengthened the hands of the
liberty party so much that there is hardly a
question of deferring the inevitable decree
much longer except by subterfuge; and the
struggle between the two parties in the
Cortes now is not SO much on the main
question of abolition as on the condi-
tions under which it shall be effected. The
bill now under debate is in reality COM
promise through which the masters, while
ostensibly giving up their property in human
flesh, hope to retain the actual or virtual
ownership for two more generations.
The bill provides for the freedom of all per-
sons born after the PRONUNCIATION of the de-
cree, and of all slaves who have fought under
the Spanish flag or otherwise aided the troops
in Cuba. Slaves over 60 years of age are to
be emancipated at once, and dallowed the option
of either supporting themselves or remaining
under the care of their former masters, who
will be obliged to maintain them and entitled
to their labor. The masters rights, as we
understand the law, can be sold or otherwise
transferred to another, so that the servant will
really be in the condition of a slave. These
are the only persons directly benefited by
the law. When the slave of loyal owner is
manumitted on account of his military SER
vices, compensation is made to the owner; in
other words, the loyal colonist is to be paid
for property which he has already lost and
has no hope of recovering.
The rest of the slave population, en-
bracing nearly the whole, is divided into two
classes, those born before the 18th of Sep
tember, 1865, and those born after that date.
For the former class nothing is done, except
that they are promised their freedom when
they reach the age of sixty-tive and are toe
old to accept it. Children born since Sep
tember, 1868, are to be purchased by the
State at fifty dollars head, but they do moi
really obtain their freedom until they arrive
at the age of twenty-five. In the meantime
they remain under the guardianship OF
the owners of their mothers The guardian
is enioined to teach the child some trade ol
occupation, and give him the rudiments OF
an education, and is entitled to his labor
without pay until he is eighteen years of age
| After that the enlancipddO is to receive hall
the wages of free person, one-half of this
half payable in hand, and the rest when ht
reaches the age of twenty-five, and comes
into full possession of his civil rights. Chill
dren born of slave parents after the promul
] cation of this decree are subject to the