The New York herald., 1870-04-11
Tie Couscription In spain.

Tiie COuscriptiOn In Spain.
Among the grand reforms which were
promised by the revolutionary leaders two
years ago, when they were secretly agitating
for the overthrow Of the Bourbon government
in the Iberian Peninsula, chief and foremost
was the abolition of the detested quiatG or
military conscription. This ''lottery Of blood"
this tithe of human flesh, had wrought such
woe in nearly every province of the realm
that, to get rid of it alone the people were
ready to follow any one whom they thought
strong enough to deliver them from so
abhorred burden. This was the string upon
which Prim played the most loudly and per-
sistently in his insurrectionary proclamations
Of 1866 and 1867, and it vibrated fercely
through the popular heart. Again, when the
revolutionary Junta Of Cadiz subsequently
called the people to arms and started the
movement which drove Queen Isabella from her
throne and over the border, ''Abqjo las Quiaa-
tos"-'Down with the conscription was
their most effective rallying cry. Every club.
coterie and committee of the ''patriots" placed
this demand at the head Of their programme,
and the result, as all may remember, was
magical. The revolution swept over Spain by
a well-nigh unanimous outburst Of enthusiasm.
The old system went down like a castle of
frost work, and with it true men fondly hoped
the bitter abuses which had so long chilled
the blood and stagnated the enterprise of
historic race fell to rise no more. Last year,
however, the resumption of the quint0 was
imploringly called for by the revolutionary
Ministry, on the plea that public safety abso-
lutely required it, and the majority voted for
it in the Spanish Cortes upon the solemn
assurance that it was to be but temporary and
for the last time. Even then, when the period
for the drawing by lots arrived, there was
some resistance in the provinces; but the
voice of the nation consented to the law as to
a supreme and final sacrifice. Some feared
French invasion, and all recognized the neces-
sity of replacing the strength drawn away from
the home forces by the despatch OF forty thou
sand men to Cuba.
But this was not all. Military ambition de-
manded much more. The conscription of 1869
was greatly alleviated by general volunteer
ing, and the towns and communes bought off
all the real conscripts by willing and weighty
bounties and contributions The volunteer
system, however, was but thorn in the
side of those generals who were dreaming of
military relationships and prolonged power.
"Non tall oari,io, nee defensoriJus istis !"
was their secret watchword The conscrip-
ton must be made permanent, and thus we
have seen the project to prolong it shamelessly
presented in the Cortes. In the meantime the
one year volunteers are going out of service,
and the Municipalities, utterly exhausted of
funds, can no longer oner bountes for substi-
tutes. The revival Of the hate, law is re-
Malaga, Seville and Barcelona-in the latter
city the more fiercely because Catalonia was
long exempted from tho 'blood tax" and feels
it most. '4bqjo Ms quint0s!" rings again
from one end of Spain to the other, and there
is sad prospect that the present government
will disappear in slaughter and anarchy, to be
followed by the miseries of invasion, unless
the true patriots Of the Peninsula can rise TO
the height Of the exigency, compel their plot
ting leaders to abandon their unholy lust for
power, and give their country that peace
which is best founded upon liberty and safety
at the freside.
WHO OwNs THEM?--There has been nice
little discussion in Peru between the American
Minister, the French Minister and the Peruvian
government about two sailors who were desert
rest of the men as desertcrs from an American
an-of- WEI and while they were in custody