Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-22
spanish PuEEles.
From the London Spectator. ]

A~OAUoAA DPSSooSOA.I
 A people which is never conquered moulds its own government, and the failure of Span iards to arrange theirs to their liking indi-- cates some deep-seated weakness among themselves. There they are, homogeneous
 people, high-spirited, full of pride and apa bition, and deeply conscious that they have not reached their goal, but unable, neverthe-
 less, either to found secure government or
 to make their government popular, or to keep their financial system, which is essen. tial to modern administration, reasonably straight. With revenue of thirty five mil lion pounds, they are always borrowing, al
 ways making shift, and always trying expe- dients not invariably in accord with rigid honor. At this very moment when every- thing else is favorable, and they have a chance of steady improvement for twelve years at least, it is doubtful if breakdown in the treasury, which is pressed almost be- yond it's bearing, will not again throw every- thing into confusion. That is not political success.
 The completeness of the puzzle is greatly increased by the fact that, certain conditions being granted, it is not difficult to govern Spain. The people have loyalty of kind in their very blood. They never rebelled against the extraordinary succession of cretin princes who ruined them throughout the
 eighteenth century. They fought Napoleon
 to the death for the wretched Bourbon dy-
 nasty. They bore with, and rather admired, the tyrant Ferdinand the Seventh. Had Queen Isabella lived commonly dignifed life, had she even conciliated the army, she would have been reigning now; and, indeed, after her fall the Minister Ayala declared publicly in Congress, amid assenting silence, that he and his colleagues dared not resort to plebiscite. for it would infallibly restore the Queen. Her son Alfonso, an undignifed looking lad, though possessed of courage and ! ability, restored the power of the monarchy, | reduced the army to discipline, and, though ! almost oGenly irregular in his private life, { made himself completely master of all the politicians. His widow, Queen Christina, | though at first intensely unpopular-not, as | is alleged, because she is stranger, for the | Hapsburgs were Spanish once, and are still ! by blood, as we'll as by written treaty, heirs of the throne, failing the Bourbon line, but ! from misreading of her character-has sue | ceeded in maintaining order, has riveted the ! loyalty of the army, and if not paralyzed by the increasing financial difficulties, will as all Spaniards believe, reign securely until the people have learned what manner of sov- ereign their child king promises to be. If he is a man of average ability and conduct
 he may be a successful King of Spain for
 half century. The papers attribute this
 tranquility to some exceptional ability in Queen Christina; but it nay be doubted if,
 though her courage and patience are worthy of her house, she has any exceptional capac- 1ty TOT rule. Sne does her QuGY as nunQreQS
 of women in Europe do theirs, and without
 particularly liking the work, which tires her
 to exhaustion, exasperating a constitutional
 liability to neuralgia, she keeps her son's grand estate together with admirable perse-
 verance and nerve. If they would let her
 govern the treasury she would keep that straight too; but Elizabeth of England was
 the last woman in Europe who has ever act
 ed successfully as treasurer to nation. Queen Christmas position is 8 most crsdita- ble one, and she deserves much of the adula- tion recently flung at her feet; but still she is helped by her people, who intend to wait for their "natural King" and who are not, we repeat once more, difficult to govern. It is, we believe, beyond any one, certainly it is quite beyond us, to state satisfactorily where the root of weakness In Spain is, but that there is one is beyond all doubt, or the country would by this time contain thirty
 million of prosperous people, possess the
 strongest fighting fleet in the Mediterranean,
 and be accepted by all Europe as the inevita-
 ble heir to the reversion of Morocco-that is
 of second Kingdom nearer to her than Ire
 land is to Britain, as large as herself and po-
 tentially as fertile.