The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-19
spain and Her Troubles-Tho Disease
Chr0nic-What IL To BE tho Cure.

70 the HERALD, revealing most alarming state
| OF tnings IN Spain Hwould seem as if all the
pohucal parties had been reduced to some
thing like despair. The conservatives have
done their best but they have failed It ap
pears that in their despair, seeing that they
had failed and that no other party was strong
enough to take up the lapsed reins. thew ad-
vised the King to consent to a dictatorship in
the person of Serrano. The King has refused
his consent. All things, in consequence, are in
the widest confusion. Serrano it is said. il
about to retire in disgust and seek temporary
home in England. Sagasta, equally disguised,
is about to cross the border and from some
snug retreat in France contemplate the fate of
his country. The radicals are arousing the
populations of the great cities. The leading
journal, devoted to the interest of Serrano, ex-
claims, "a radical Ministry and then the
deluge.'
To-day Spain must be pronounced the most
unfortunate country and the Spanish people
the most unhappy people on the face of the
earth. To call the disease chronic is but to
repeat what every sensible and thoughtful
person has been saying Of Spain and the
Spanish people for the last seventy years. We
know no good reason why Spain, but for some
perversion of the national character should
not have been one Of the most forward Of the
nations Of Europe in everything which essen
TALLY belongs K medsga civilization. Il is our
duty and our privilege, however, " - look facts
in the face and, looking facts in the face, we
have no choice but say that Spain is in con-
dition in which she has no claim either to our
sympathy or support. If we look at the
domestic state Of the country we find chaos.
In the wild turmoil of confusion which has
lasted for over three years, the native sovereign
has been dethroned and the dynasty exiled
republic has been found impossible; the
adoption of a foreign prince as sovereign ruler
has been found necessary; the leading spirit Of
grand and promising revolution has been
assassinated; the alien Prince has done his
best to make good and maintain his position
by counting the assistance of each Of the great
political parties in turn; but after many hope
full signs and after many great failures it is i'm
possible to say that Spain has found the light
likely to lead to the end of her troubles, or that
/ the fate Of the Savoyard King is to differ in
any essential particular from the fate of Maxi
milan of Mexico. Inside the country it is
chaos and wild confusion. The domestic
policy--if it is reasonable in such a state of
things to speak Of domestic policy-has been
scarcely more failure than the policy pursued
by Spain in all her foreign relations. We
do not blame her for doing her best to keep
firm hold Of her remaining colonies. In the
one case, in which little wisdom would have
stood her in good stead that little wisdom has
been found wanting, and her wretched Cuban
policy has effectually and forever alienated
from her the sympathy Of the United States.
In her treatment of DR.. Houard and in the
impertinence which she has just shown in
suggesting or demanding the recall of the
American Minister we discover the stubborn
ness, the intractability and the hopelessness of
the race. ~c.tt
Why has this great nation SO fallen, and
what is the cause of the hopelessness of her
condition? When we think Of Spain, as Spain
once was, and look at the Spain Of to-day, the
exclamation involuntarily escapes us, "How
are the mighty fallen" Full Of energy and
daily adding to her strength in the
days of Ferdinand and Isabella mag
nifcent aggressive and resistless in
the days of Charles the Fifth, and powerful
as no nation and people had been powerful
since the fall of Rome, in the days of Philip
the Second, it is question which has puzzled
the philosophers why such nation and peo-
u. L
one hundred and twenty years, from 1873
until 1898, the history of Spain, in almost oil
that belongs to material progress and pros
perity, was one of the greatest on record.
At the first of these dates the Mohammedans
were still masters of Granada and CASTLE
and Arragon had each princes of their own
Before 1890 Spain had become unit ;
and in addition to her territory proper
Portugal Navarro and Roussillon, Artois,
Franche-C omte and the Netherlands, the
Milanese, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, the
Balearic Islands and the Canaries, all recog-
nized the authority of the Spanish monarch.
During the interval one of the Spanish kings
was Emperor of Germany, and another for
brief space was virtually King of England
Such at this period was the power of Spain
that the independence of Europe was in
danger. Out of Europe the Spanish do
minions were great In America sixty degrees
of latitude, which covered both the tropics,
marked the extent of her sway Mexico,
Central America, Venezuela, New Granada,
Peru Chile, with Cuba, st. Domingo, Jamaica
and other islands-all were Spanish. In
Africa Spain really had no rival. In Asia she
had settlements on each side Of the Deccan.
She owned part of Malacca and had found
solid foothold in the Spice Islands and,
finally, by the conquest of the Philippines,
was completed that connection which girdled
the world and justified the boast first made by
the Spanish monarch that the sun never