New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-27
THE PASSING OF SPAIN.

Matters are going from bad to worse FOR
Snain The Cuban instruction Is not Quelled.
but is rather increasing in ominOus strength
II woull alone seem enough to tax the ener-
oies of the Peninsula to their uttermOst. since
It has baffied her ablest general and 2Oo.OVO
of her best troops. But concurrently with IL
there has arisen a formidable rebellion I'D the
Philippine Islands. marked with much deter
mInatlOn and not little ferOcity what FORCES
can be spared for its suppression. seeing that
it is in country more remote than Cuba ana
five or six times as populous. Is serious PROD
lem Surely two colonial wars, on opposite
sides of the world, with Frustrated Industries
and a depleted If not bankrupt treasury at
home, are a well-nigh hopeless burden. Yet
even they are not all, for the implacaDle Car
lists have seized upon this season Of distress
abroad as a convenient opportunity for pressing
their agitation in domestic politics, to the seri-
Gus embarrassment of the Government, ana 10
the menace of Peninsular peace.
The fact Is, Spain Is at about me end OF her
resources. Her power and possessions, which
reached their height three centuries ago, have
been dwindling away, until to day she Is Only
the most tenuons shadow of her former SELF
Elsewhere In this paper the story or her de-
cline, of her present desperate plight, and OF
the designs Of the Carlist pretender, Is well set
forth. 1t IS an instructive bit OF history, and
quite unique. Once Spain had an empire In
four continents, the greatest since tcat OF Rome
under the Spanish Roman Emperor Trajan.
Now she has practically nothing but Cuba
and the philippines, and they are both In vio-
lent revolt, apparently beyond her power to
pacify and to restore to loyalty. With the last
of her colonial possessions gone, and with a
home population devoid of industrial enter
prise and recupcrative vitality, the outlook for
the ancient mona 'chy is dark indeed.
Nor Is the lesson of her fall less evident than
the facts Spanish intolerance and pride have
been the secret of SPANS undoing. The mon
strous crimes Of the expulsion OF the Jews
and the Morscoes fatally crippled her dOmes-
tic industry and stopped all progress In the arts
| and left her dependent upon lEr colonies.
| But her colonies have been treated as subject
| provinces TO be governed solely for SPANS own
| benefit Home rule has been denied Them and
| they have been made to feel that they have no
| lot in the glory or prosperity of Spain, but are
| to be merely hewers of wood and drawers Of
| water SO long as they belong TO her. They
| would have been less than human had they
not revolted. To-day, under the bitter irony
of an inexorable fate. Spain, with her still great
population, her unrivalled natural advantages
of position, soil and climate has fallen below
the rank OF even the little Netherland States
which she cruelty and so cOntemptu-
ously oppressed. They retain and even expand
their colonial possessions, and develop their
domestic resources. while she seems capable of
doing neither. That Pretcnder should now
so eagerly and pertinaciously seek succession
to n falling throne is one of the curiOsties of
political ambition. One almost wishes he might
| succeed, just to see what new form Spanish
| policy would take 1t could scarcely be a
| change for the worse. or cause the decline of
the Spanish Empire to be more rapid than II
now is or more inevitable.