The San Francisco call., 1898-02-11
THE DE LONE INCIDENT.

HE Spanish Minister has taken his pen 1n hand
 | and cut off his head. He is victim of the
 epstolary habit, complaint that carried oil
 the Hon. Sackville West in 1888.
 The offenses of these two diplomats are mild
 however in comparison with the attack of foot and
 mouth disease which undid the Citizen Genet, sent
 here as the Minister of France in the midst of the
 French revolution. He landed at Charleston and seemed to that he was sent here to order Us to to fight for France. He found the people ready to shout and immediately began issuing proc ianations, holding public meetings and making speeches, before presenting his credentials to the President Seen in the perspective ot nearly cen tury the affair is merely fantastic and funny, but it is probable that other country put under such peculiar strain as that to which the French subjected this. He freely criticized the Presi- dent and Secretary of State, and acted if he had it i'll mind to depose the administration and take charge O. the country himself following the method by which Bonaparte in the habit of unseating kings and putting in their places his brothers and brothers-in-law Citizen Genet was finally sup pressed and sent home, foaming at the mouth, and not heard of again. Compared with him Sack vile West and De Lome were models of prudence though ret himself be trcked by decoy letter into writing about the domestic affairs of this country and the other has permitted his resentment and anger to get the better of his discretion, and the wrestle not hard for his discretion is robust Ills Spanish countrymen who compose the Cuban Junta have perfectly clear comprehension of the sit uation. They counted with certainty upon their ability to goad him into making false step and ex- posing him in it, and they have succeeded.
 The incident gives rise to inquiry into the re- laons of the United States diplomacy and our in ternatonal relations The Senate is part of the ecutive when treaties are made, and comes directly in contact such with the representatives of foreign Governments.
 Members of the Senate have not recently sough, to butter their diplomatic parsnips with soft words in their characterizations of the Spanish Government and people. Spain has been openly abused and de- rlded, and everything from the Inquisition to the quality ot Havana cigars has been flung in her face One Senator deliberately said that she was a nation of thieves and robbers. The epthetic and invectve resources of our language have been pumped dry for verbal ammunition to use against the Dons. It may be hard to convince foreigners that Senators who show such violent prejudice and express it in such violent language, legislators can enter the secret session and sit with diplomatic fairness and courtesy over international matters with the same country whose people they have publicly denounced De Lome seems to have been unable to comprehend this His country needed in his place incapable of being affected in his temper by the almost daily violence and abuse in Congress Perhaps the fact that he was not such man, and that he will be probably suc- ceeded by like himself is evidence of the weak. ness and decay of Spain and proof that fate is not fighting on her side