New-York tribune., 1901-07-28

Cruel. as worse than any other. Speaking of
him he says: THAT he cruel, perjurer, a
oronigate and murderer. is doubt true for
mat was the way OF Peninsular kings OF his day;
mt to gibbet him for all time the exception
ony cruel King of CASTLE is to falsfy history
md to shut our eyes to the habits and ethics OF
medieval Spain" IT not his cruelty that
saused him to fan IN his career, but the short
eoInings Of his political system. Fernando and
babel were no less cruel, and they accomplished
Infinitely more
Major Hume describes them as two govern
ng geniuses OF the highest order In their re-
Goective ways" Their ways" were peculiar
ttatecraft as they understood Il implied consum-
nate and perhdious diplomacy. but It also i'm
Dhed large Of brute force. Spain for the
epaniards' was the thing they were driving at
and while they paid close attention to legis-
ktive and kindred matters in working out the
hAtional destiny, they went about the task of
clearing away alien growths in the social fabric
with no slightest thought of waiting for
the law. They expelled the Moors with every
circumstance Of malignant brutality, and their
treatment Of the Jews reads like nothing more
Eor less than explosion of mad inhumauity.
People and clergy were alike inaamed with
hatred of the Jews. The King wanted money.
From conquered Granada, therefore, went
forth the fell edict that within four months every
+eW-man, woman and ch1d-WaS TO leave SPAN
OF surrender his life at the end of that time. BY
= refinement of cruelty the wealth which had
Brought upon them the hate of their neighbors
was all 10 be left behind them 1here were
quarter of a million Jews in the country, and
amid scenes Of heartrending brutality these
poor people, old and young, SICK ana wei, rlch
and poor, Were driven from their homes and the
hand in which they had been born. On foot and
mostly penniless. they crowded the great roads
70 the seaports and TO Portugal. thousands fall
ing and dying 10y The wayside. starved robbed OF
what little they tried 10 conceal, maltreated ana
tu MANI cases murdered. Those that were Ieit or
these people. many Of whom We're bred IN luxury
Rn1 OpIleuce were driven forth 10 seek refuge
IN less savage lands there to perpetuate the
Spanish speech Of Their fcfeiathers, ana 10 pear
for all time their CastiIian names. But there
was = lower depth Of inhuuanity still The Jews
WEE ho uled out and their property COntis-
cated lat dead men can make claims and
w-eak no vengeance, and bull was obtained
from the Pope enjoining all Christian sovereigns
TO appreherd and send back to Spain such Jews
as had reached their domin.ons Fortunately for
the sake Of humanity, this brutal order was gen
eTally ClsregaIded.
Fernando and Isabel paved the way for the
re.gn Of Charles, which TO witness an eX-
t1aordinary consolidation Of the Spanish power,
and they sowed the seeds of a decay which
neither he nor Philip could arrest. They wanted
70 build up a great state, and they certainly did
a great deal to establish the foundations of one
but their political prescience was vitiated by re-
hgious bigOtry, and il is no eXaggeratiOn to say
that contemplation Of their sound achievements
is obscured by the smoke of the auto da fe;
one looks back at the splendor Of their
court and the constructive aspects Of their
rule though through a lurid veil. The
cries Of thousands, dying agonized deaths
In the clutches of the Inquisition, are
IN the air, which is tainted with the odor Of
burning human flesh. There is too much of
this sort of thing in the annals Of Spain for
Major Hume's book u make very pleasant read
ing at any until the last chapter is reached
with its brief glance at the saner If less glorious
annals Of the nineteenth century. Spanish in
dividuaIsm has made the growth Of the state
painfully hard and slow, and Spanish cruelty