New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-27
THE CABRERA MUTINY.

EdtlOu anu UlScHlci.
THE CABRERA MUTINY.
Spain pursues her even course of anarchy
in spite of the return of Don Alfonso XII.
No change for the better in any respect can
as yet DC seen since the opening year gave to
the Peninsula that present of a King which
was held by so many to have a sort of magic
in it to heal the nation. Internal tranquility
has certainly not been restored. 1t is perhaps
little easier to borrow money than it would
be under a provisional government, but it
has always been far easier for Spain to bOr
row than to pay. There is mysterious at
traction il a big discount which is too much
for the prudence Of the money-changers of
the world. Turkey and Spain have never
had any difficulty in raising money, simply
because, like Mcawber, they never hesitate at
rate of interest, and are always ready to draw
their promssory notes for any amount. But
the country cannot be said to have derived as
vet any advantage from the advent Of the King.
In fact the moral order would seem rather to
have been disturbed than established. The
principle of liberation "consccrated," as the
SpaniarlS arc fond of saying. by the Constitu-
ton Of 1862 was well enough received in Spain.
enough to agitate society or excite the appre-
tensions of the Church. Nobody cared much
about the little chapels and Sunday schools in
Madrid except those who participated in them.
The measures which Don Alfonso took to
"protcct religion" on his rciuIn were there
fore taken under the worst advice, and if per-
sisted in will injure his cause az much as they
will fan the feeble fine of the new heresy.
His attempt to regulate the press is also merely
futile and annoying. Stronger and ADLER men
than those around him have tried before this
to silence the press in Spain, and never with
any effect. In country where everybody can
write in a ready and vituperative way, and
where q new journal can be started at any
time for q thousand dollars, it is labor lost to
try to prevent newspapers from criticlsng the
Government. In the present case it is not
the violent press, but the comparatively con-
servatiyc Iberia which has been assailed. If
il is suppressed, a lively crop Of successors
will spring up from it's ruins. The telegraph
also has been subjected to severe supervision.
This is nothing new in Spain, and it has
never yet proved elIicacious to a Government
in danger either from its own weakness or
from outside conspiracy.
way in his natural and hereditary warfare
against his elder cousin in the North Wea are
regularly informed from Madrid every few
DAYS that the Afonsl5ts have completely de-
stroyed the Carlists, and the next day we are
told from BayOnno that the Carlists have routed
the Alfonssts with great loss. But one gene
raj succeeds another on each SIDE and it is
impossible to see that either accOmpiishes any
thing. 1t has been recently announced with
great impressveness that Cabrera had made a
convention, delivered q manifesto, and for
saken the Carlst cause. But he has been
doing that from time to time for the last
thirty years. In fact, all the services OF con-
sequence which he ever rendered to the Car
list party were during the five years from 1888
to 1893, when the 'yOung partisan pill
LACED Valencia, Aragon, and Andalusia
The murder of his mother and three
sisters by the soldiers of the Queen made of
him one of those bloOdthirsty and melodra-
matte heroes rarely seen except on the stage
of the Bowery, and he came near avengng
them by the dethronement of Isabel III. The
treason of Maroto broke the Carlist power,
and Cabrera, after long and hopeless
struggle, was driven out of Spain. Since then
he has been the chief malconteDt OF the Car
list party. He married rich English lady
who had been fascinated by his romantic his
tory, and 80 was naturally more independent
and unmanageable than the starving court OF
adventures who surrounded in turn the Count
of Montemolin and the present pretender.
There has been a prevalent superstition in all
this time that when Cabrera came into the field
he would bring back the victorious days of
1885, But he has never brought anything but
chickering's and quarrels into the councils Of
the absolutists, and nothing whatever into the
battlefield. This time he has endeavored to
plagiarize the fatal treachcry of Maroto, but
he has only succeeded in inducing some half
dozen cabecillas to follow him. He simply
takes away himself and the shadow of name
which was a terror to Don Alfonso's grand
mother Nothing that happens in Spanish af-
fairs seems able to change anything. One
leader gives way TO another, and every cam
paign ia like the one which preceded it. In
Cuba Valmaseda gives place to Jovellar, a
man utterly dissimilar In every regard. Jo-
vellar yields to Concha, man of past age.
Consha is superseded by valmaseda again,
and under each of the three, men as unlike as
can be found in thousands, precisely the same
c,rirse Of things goes on. Theft. robbery.