The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-11-15
ANOTHER BLUFF.
sagasta Says the, COrtes Alone Can
Consent to Abandon Territory.
Spain Finds the Elections in the Eaited
States Resulted in Nothing to Aid
Spanish Diplomacy-Emperor
Williams Visit to Spain.

MADRID, Nov. 1.-THE result of the
United States elections came as sur
prise and disappointment to Sagasta,
who had confidently expected that the
republicans would at least have lost
control of the house of representatives.
The Spanish cabinet is convinced that
the election upon which it had been
counting to obtain better terms at
Paris have resulted in nothing that
can aid Spanish diplomacy.
The intended visit of Emperor VIII
liam, in honor of which Adm. Camara'S
squadron is under orders to proceed to
Cartagena, now furnishes another
straw to clutch at. The queen regent,
whose health is visibly impaired by
the strain of the last eight months,
thinks the wiseSt course to be for the
cabinet to instruct the Spanish peace
commissioners frankly to concede the
American demand of the Philippines
and to work honestly and expeditions
ly to frame treaty.
Not so, however, Sagasta, who is
still sparring for time and hopes to
succeed in one more gigantic bluff.
He now says that the cabinet requires
the authorization of the cortes before
it can consent to abandon the Philip
pines, and he is reported to have in
formed the Spanish commissioners that
they have no mandate to discuss such
eventualities.
The marked sympathy for Spain eX-
pressed almost unanimously by the Ger
man newspapers, coupled with the pur-
chase at Berlin and Frankfort of Span
ish exterior and Cuban bonds, the Ger
man holdings of which have been
quadrupled during the last three
months, give an exaggerated
significance TO the intended Wis
it of the German emperor
and empress. It is not yet known
what the emperor's plans may be on
his arrival at Cartagena on November
10, but as soon as the HohenzOllern
reaches that naval station the imperial
pair will be invited by an autograph
letter from the queen regent to visit
Madrid.
Lord Salisbury's reference to the
American republic as a factor in Asiatic
and possibly European diplomacy
which might not conduce to the inter-
ests of peace, is widely commented up
on here as strengthening the prevail
ing impression that Germans wish to
intervene IL the Philippines. All but
the extreme Weylerites dread the
tilities by the United States, which
they are aware would probably involve
the loss of the Canaries, and this in
spite of the present German lining to
the cloud, remains the irresistible mo-
tive that must eventually determine
the cabinet to reconsider the inStruc-
ton that it is now believed to have
sent to the Spanish peace commission
ers.
The ministry of finance has in hand
a project for the conversion of the
Spanish exterior bonds and the funded
debts of Cuba and the Philippines, the
idea being to maintain the treasury
guarantees of Philippine bonds and
Cuban bonds of the six and five per
cent. denominations, but to reduce the
intetest tO,3E and 3 per cent, respec-
lively. This partially accounts for the
frmness of Cuban bonds in Paris and
Berlin, where speculation in them is
unusually active.
MADRID, Nov. II. Ell Impartial
says the government has forwarded
instructions to Senior Montero Rios,
president of the Spanish peace commits
sion at Paris, and that Mondays con-
ference may be the last but one, ''un-
less the American commissioners mod
crate their claim
According to Ell Impartial. a mem
Der of the cabinet has virtually de.
clared as such.