The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-03-06
Advancing Backward.

CASTELAR, and other prominent men formerly most
conspicuous and active in the Republican movement
give their support to the new King Of Spain. We
wonder sometimes how a statesman, scholar and
stanch Republican like CASTELAR, can relish the over
throw Of all his hopes Of Spanish free government,
and bend the knee in homage to an Unqualified
young man who rules solely because he is the illegi-
innate son Of a worthless Queen. But. after all, he
chooses the wiser part. The Spaniards have been
tried. That they are at present utterly unfit for self
government CASTELAR, himself must long ago have
learned to concede. Indeed, when he was forced to
retire from the Presidency, it was already apparent
that the mastery which Spain needed and must soon
have was not one of intellect or patriotism. In
place Of Castelar,, the scholar and statesman, Spain
tried one soldier after another, and now, 10 sheer
despair. comes back to the hereditary monarchy, and
begs a IS faithful defender of the Catholic Church
10 give to the unhappy land that order which its
people are not yet fit to obtain under any other form
Of rule. If stanch Republicans see this, why are
they not wise and patriotic when they acknowledge
it1
In truth, republican institutions are not good for
a people incapable of republican government. Order
is heavens first law, and the first necessity of ma
tons. That form of government which ctnnot
maintain order in any country is not the form of
government which that country ought to bave-net
the form which. sooner or later, every truly patriotic
citizen of that country will demand. France still
trembles in the balance; whether it is or is not capa-
BILE of maintaining free institutions has yet to be
determined. Germany unquestionably makes better
progress, in all that concerns the true welfare of the
people, under q government monarchical in form
than it would as yet have done under popular forms.
Even in Great Britain, it may be fairly doubted
- -4-s II IL 81 L.
been of national benefit, and it is manifest that real
liberty and general prosperity and progress are there
attained under a form of government nominally
monarchical, though in essence one of limited self
government. s
The Spanish people have shared in the opinion
that Serrano was incompetent TO guide the destinies
of their nation. A change in the government of the
country was therefore imperatively demanded. A
correspondent of a New York paper, writing from
the Spanish frontier under date of the fourth Jan
uary, saws that there was an almost universal ac-
knowledgment among the Republicans of the country
that he was not the man to take the lead in Spanish
politics, and that the course he pursued gave very
little hope that the country would soon be delivered
from the deyastations of a civil war. He was con-
scious that he was daily losing power, not only at
Madrid, but every place else, aud was compelled by
the force of circumstances TO take his departure
from the capital TO Tolosa, in order to make some
show of a desire to attack the Carlists in their strong
holds in the northern provinces. But the hope that
he would be able to accomplish anything decisive
was q forlorn one. The Republican army was in q
state Of almost utter Generalization, and was unfit to
enter on any movement that promised good results.
The men uttered loud complaints daily of the treat
ment they received, and often "broke out into open
mutiny.'' The grievances they complained of were
not the coDjuring of disoyal imaginations. They
were a reality which no persons of the least observa-
ton could fail to see. Their rations were scant in
quantity and inferior in quality, compared with
what they had been at the commencement of the
war. It is no wonder that the Carlists were able to
stand out so brayely and successfully against an
army so ~fearfully demOralized. "Under these cir
cumstances,' says the correspondent, cit is by no
means q matter of surprise that Alfonsism should
have gained ground rapidly, and that the troops
were not only prepared, but were eager to accept a
constitutional monarchy in place of a republic, under
the regime Of which they have Jared SO badly"