The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-08-30
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOtrtl5rr.
AUGUST 81
The Spanish Situation.

Certainly the worst enemy Or tie proud and gal
liant Spanish people could uOt wish them worse
fortune than now atlicts their unhappy country.
We do not know Of any more pltlable spectacle III
the history Of civilized nations than that presented
in the ever-ch4ngiug panorama oi The peninsula OF
Spain coru into Discussions by 80 many factions.
each bent on the Others determination. though
such course involve the destruction not only OF
their common country national integrity. but the
very extinction o. her name from the map Of Eu-
rope. She has suffered q dreadful degradation. IN
her now chaotic and pOweriess condition, from the
time when her standard was feared and respected
all over the habitable globe and her gallant navies
rode the seas in unchallenged supremacy when
her conquests and discoveries opened the richest
lands under the sun and her galleons brought TO
her shores the most valuable products of the virgin
soil Of India and America. Those vast aecretiOnS
have no doubt been in large measure responsible
for her decline, by breeding in her once sturdy and
industrious sons effeminacy and inertia. Neverthe-
less, the present race of Spaniards possess many
noble attributes and qualities OF essential grandeur,
extorting the admiration Of all who are familiar
with them. They are q generous. hospitable, mag
unanimous and virtuOus people. and no one can re-
gard their present plight without a throb Of sym
pathetic regret.
From the first proclamation. our Judgment was
against the permanency OF the republic. notwith-
standing the fictitious unanimity which announced
its birth. From day TO day since. events have con-
frmed orr frst-toTmed opinion. made up though it
was against our earnest feelings in favor OF the re-
public. But il was impossible TOR the intelligent
OAAOOAtA 1AhE WIN ~ oAANAN anu ~
quainted with the nature and characteristics and
diversified local interests of her people. TO Judge
otherwise than we did of the probabilities of re-
publican success IN Spain.
True republicanism is a growth Of long duration
and is not to be attained at a leap, or by the gor-
geOus announcement of enthusiastic theorists, ac-
cidentally uppermOst in the public councils. at 4
time of governmental crisis The republic in
Spain has failed because the people were not pre-
pared for il. If they were really partial to that
form of government it would ere this have been
firmly established but. except in certain large
towns, the popular sentiment was and is enOr-
mously in favor of the old monarchical system. In
the towns, too, the republicans are for the most
part composed of the worst elements of the COM
munity, as they call themselves, the deScdmisddOs,
the shirtless. who are generally also q most shift
less class OF people addicted TO Tepublicanism
not because they understand what the term signi-
fes, but because it brings to their frenetic imagi-
nations the vision of riot, plumber. free living, di-
vision of wealth, distribution of capital. all play.
no work, and all such wild and licentious notions
Of social change.
This is the reason the scum clamors for a repub-
lie, and the same false conception is what causes
the respectable and order-loving peasantry of the
rural districts to oppose any such radical change
and cling to monarchy. which has most promise to
them of security and peace in their industrial pur-
suits. The higher classes favor monarchy for a
different reason. of course, for it enables them to
retain their privileges and patrimonies. Undoubt-
eddy there are some men among the Spanish repub-
licans possessed L of sound and Just ideas of such n
form of government, but they are. as we have seen.
in a powerless minority, incapable of doing any
effective work, Overawed in their own assemblies
by the irrecOncIlables, the reds, the Internationals.
the furious fellows who want TO wipe out the idea
Of God from the minds of q most thoroughly relig-
ious people, men who would uprear some scarlet
woman. proclaim her Goddess OF Reason, and COM
mand the p~opulace TO do her honor. 1t is the pre-
dominance of this wretched class of persons that
repels the friendship and sympathy of all true low
ers of liberty from these misnamed republics of
France and Spain. If such fail. it is not because
the people are enamOred of their chains, but be-
cause the chains are preferable to the Hnbridled
license, wild disorder, and anarchy attendant upon
the establishment of n red republic.
It is not an easy task to forecast the immediate
future of Spain. The republic of CASTELAR, and
Figueras seems inevitably doomed the republic
of the international would most certainly invite
foreign interference and possible partition of the
country the installation of a Prussian prince on
the vacated throne of Amadeus might result differ
emily in Bismarck;s decadence from what 4 similar
threat did in Bismarck's prime the success of Don
Carlos seems on the whole most probable and most
desirable. as it would be the likeliest event to sat
isfy the army, the people, and nobility, and secure
outside recognition and supports. +. Examiner,
July 81.