The times., 1898-07-14
spnin.s political preaicamcnt.

The favorite quadruped of the Span
ish nation is the bull. Affection for him
throughout the kingdom is as intense as
the exuberant JOY the people feel in
seeing him tortured and finally over
come and butchered in the ring. Other
races may consider this paradoxical,
but it appears quite natural to Span
lard. Our friend, Senor Sagasta, who
must be an amiable person. because
formerly he was wont to ''do everything
he was ever asked to- by President Nc
Kinley, appears to have that bull by
the tail, like the bucolic boy in the par
able. He dare not let go, while TO hold
on promises equal fatality.
The Alfonsist dynasty still reigns,
after a fashion, and the Sagasta min
istry still lives in painfully precarious
way In fact, there is no doubt what
ever that the present premier would
bless the man who could show him a
feasible method of release from power
and responsibility; but workers of mira
gentleman is still nailed To his post. In
normal times there are plenty of aspir-
ants for cabinet honOrs, and the po-
litical chieftainship of a nation, but il
is not so in Spain just now. The ques-
ton is not who shall be honored with
the premiership which Sagasta finds
TO be a red-hot poker in his hands,
but what statesman can be forced to
make himself the football and scape-
goat OF exasperated Spanish vanity, ig-
norance, and national insanity.
The new man viii have to be the
peacemaker. Spain now knows we'll
enough that peace can only be had at
the cost of colonial sovereignty, but,
popularity, shuts her eyes to the fact
and viii insist that it be secured on
honorable terms" by which, of course,
is meant the loss of nothing but Cuba,
and even that qualified by Cuban as
sumption Of Spanish bonds. The unfor-
tunate minister VINO should dare TO ne
gGt.ate on the basis of surrsndering the
Philippines, Ladrones. Canaries, and
Porto Rico, acknowledging Cuban in
dependence, without indemnity, and
agreeing To pay a cash penalty in ad-
dition. would simply court personal, as
well as political, death at the hands of
the mob. and throw the door open for
the expectant Carlists to enter upon
possession of the Iberian peninsula.
The dilemma Of the Queen Regent and
the Sagasta government presented by
this situation is desperate one.
Either horn is recognized as deadly
as well as sharp. What, then, is Il
result? Peace, of course, at last, as
far as the United States are concerned
but perhaps only when we have taken
everything we want, and the Spaniards
have proceeded 20 cut each other 5
throats in a combination Carlist-Wey-
lerist-Alfonsist civil war. as a more feas-
ible diversion than fighting Americans
who have the bad and, in Spanish eyes
the incomprehensibIe taste not to run
away when fired at.
President Mckinley still looks for
ward to an early peace. No doubt he
expects it to come through Spanish ex.
haustion rather than negotiation, and
perhaps he is right. In any event his
duty is plain to absorb everything
Spanish in sight while he has a fair
field and free hand. All the recent
or remaining colonial territory of the
enemy will not suffice to pay our bill
when it has been made out When oncg
we have paid it out Of the Spanish as
sets in our clutches, it viii matter little
who reigns or misgoverns in Madrid.