The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-19
SPAIN SINCE WATERLOO.
Feature of Tyrnnny-RuIe of De-
prave women.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

From the Philadelphia Ledger
"If coming events cast their shadows
before" with any reasonable certainty,
then the significance of the present state
of Spanish politics was predicted at a
dozen different times during this century.
There is a curious succession of doubles
in the events that have transpired in the
affairs of the troubled peninsula since Fer
dinand VII died, in 1888.
Twice within five years the Spanish
sovereign has abdicated, viz: Isabella II,
in 1868 and Amadeus I in 1873; the Car
lists have been dereated twice and twice
have been triumphant; two republics have
been established at two different times, in
1868 and in 1873. and two royal houses have
had representatives on the throne. To
complete the odd coincidence Cuba has
had two distinct revolutions, and twice
within the past fifty years the United
States has openly interfered in her behalf.
With such unrest at home and such dis
content abroad, it is hardly TO be won
dered at that when Alfonso XII was on
his throne, and there was brief sea son
of peace, 1t was wittily said of the politi-
cal situation that IF there We're sixteen
millions of people in Spain there were six
teen million and one political parties"
Much has been written and said about
but one of the strongest factors
against her in the solution of her political
problems has been the attitude of her rul-
ers toward the literary people, the think
ers of her nation. Our century has shown
remarkable development in the literary
activity of every civilized nation on the
globe, and the several sovereigns of Eu-
ropean countries have WED with each
other in promoting freedom of thought
and profound scholarship. But in Spain,
when Ferdinand VII was restored to his
throne, which Napoleon had given to his
brother Joseph Bonaparte, almost his
first royal decree was one of Punishment
for the Cadiz Constituencies. together
with all the men whose intellects marked
them as Independent thinkers.
So sweeping was this decree that not
a single poet or critic remained to break
the absolute silence of Spanish thought
during the years from 1914 to 1920.
However, even this suicidal measure did
not entirely annihilate Spanish letters. If
had had a splendid ancestry, and It's spirit
gradually revived from 1920, until before
1888 there was promise of renewed vlgor.
But Ferdinand again took alarm, and
some months before he died the second
decree went forth, which exled no less
than 1900 scholars, among whom men
like the educational reformer, Ldsta, went
to join despairing groups, which contain
ed Melendez Chat most gracious poet and
gentleman), Moratin, the famous drama
fist, and Code the famous Arabian scbol-
ar.
1t is within the bounds Of careful as
sertion to say that two influences that
are to be counted among the strongest
that control a nations progress are its
literary workers and ats powerful wo-
men, and in both of these directions Spain
in our century, has shown painful con-
trast to England as indeed to all her
mi rip hap
ars, silenced her poets and frowned upon
her painters, and then by a disastrous
stroke of fate she was for many years
under the domination of women whose
depravlty has not been surpassed by any
feminine rulers which the world has seen.
Maria Christina, the last wife of Fer
dinand, was a woman without single
redeeming trait to tighten the depths of
her moral and mental degradation, and
her daughter, Isabella II, was so utterly
careless of all social decorum and moral
cleanliness as to shock and abhor even
the easy-going standards of her most
licentious court.
When royalty means absolutism and
power has been granted to women such
as the Spanish Regent, Christina, for
twenty years, and to the Queen Isabella
for fourteen more, 1t is a calamity from
which the most verile nation I'm the world
would need generations to recover, and
when we add to these things that success
sion of revolutions the instability of the
throne, the ever-increasing national debt,
and finally the suppression of the only
men whose brains could have thought out
a plan of rescue, we need not be at all
surprised to hear to-day that the present
regent (who Is a good and gentle woman
and her little boy King are facing state
of things which remind the loolSer-on of
those days which evolved the French rev.
olution.
The sad likeness accentuates itself In
recalling that Louis XVI and Marie An
toinette were simply the helpless victims
of storm which they had no hand in
raising.