, 1874-05-09
Rainfall at Estate Morning Star,
May lst, l line.
THE WEAKNESS OF SPAIN.
(FrOm the Spectator.)

IT seems absurd, just as the quarrel be-
tween Carlists and Republicans hangs undecid-
ed upOn an effort to storm an enlrenchmcnt, to
write about the causes of Spanish weakness,
but at no other time was the fact of her weak
ness so obvious to the fore. gner. To careless
observers it would seem as if the work which
Marshal SerranO had set himself to do was
scarcely worthy of a supreme effort. The
Legitimist Pretender, Don Carlos, after many
months of useless skirmishing among the
northern mountains, has at last gathered a
force which makes him formidable to the Co.
vernment of Spain. He has probably twenty
five thousand men, of whom five thousand may
be disciplined some good artillery officers,
deserters from the national ranks; a few good
guns, captured or purchased with the money
advanced by the Queens father, the Duke of
Modena; and a number of sympathisers scat
tered over the country, who are as unable to
help him as our own English Jacobites were
TO help the Pretender. Still, as be cannot be
allowed to reign even as King # the North,
the Dictator of the hour advanced against
him, with advantages such as no ruler in Spain
has yet enjoyed. He has the entire control of
all Spain, except the highland provinces and a
bit of Catalonia, There is no dissension in his
own dominion, for the Communists have been
conquered; the Republican leader, Castelar,,
is for this purpose his determined supporter
and The Alphonsists, however jealous, look to
him as their protector rather than to any rival.
There is every reason to suppose that he is
earnest in his cause, every assurance that he
is the favourite of the military, every pr0babi-
lily that the pOpulace, however disunited, waits
eagerly for his success. All the springs of
Government are in his hands, he has full com.
mand of the Treasury-disburdened for the
moment of any liability to its creditors-and
complete control of those munitions of war
which, In spite of want of money, every Co.
vernment of Spain has, as the example of
O%arthagena shows, c~ontrived to accumulate in
some profusiOn. He has the only national
feet and the only national army, and is deter
mined on concentration, and what is the force
he has cOntrived to get tOgether2 Backed by
the severest of CONSUMPTION laws and by every
party, he has barely SO, 900 men, probably not
10000 eficients, a few Krupp and other guns,
a fair supply of food, and a cOmmissariat sufi
cient for q moderate campaign that is all.
He has no reserves, he has scarcely any money,
and he has not one General upon whom he can
depend to defeat EliO, a great partizan doubt
less, but only a partizan. A nation Of seven.
teen millions of men, of whom all the lower
classes may be considered brave, can send
him up no force certain to overwhelm a few
thousand highlanders. A nation certainly
wealthy, and for the moment almost unta xed,
cannot present him with a respectable military
chest: An army of officers can hardly find him
one decent General. If he wins, unless he
Kills Don Carlos and his brother in action, he
cannot follow up his victory, for he cannot
make roads, for they require money, and can
not dlsarm the mountaineers, for that opera
zion would require troops. In a supreme
aour for Spain it would seem as if
everything were languid and undecided,
a. if her invaders could not advance.
AZ II hes defenders could not crush, ss if she