New-York tribune., 1901-07-28

present an invincible front 10 it's foes The
tale OF Romans and Barbarians. Christians and
Infdels. is complicated enough, but the antaSo-
nisms cherished among themselves by the
different divisions within the natural boun-
daries OF the land breed confusion worse
cOnfounded. Major Hume thus traverses the
innate disposition Of the Spanard to sacrifice
the welbeing of the whole to the pride Of a part:
From the earliest dawn Of history the centre OF
Spanish life, the unit OF government the birth
place of tradition, and the focus or patriotism
have been the town y Spaniard's pueblo means
infinitely more To him than his town means to
an FngliShman or A FTenChman. With the
Spaniard the idea of the state-of the nation
is superpoSed upon his more ancient traditions:
in the Ibevian heart of him his pueblo comes first
and then, far after. his province and last of all
Spain. 1t may be argued that much of this
dominant regional feeling. which lies at the root
of all Spanish political problems. has been
caused by the physical conformation OF the
country; split up by numerous mountain ranges
into small divisions, by which intercommunica-
ton has been rendered difficult. local jealOuSieS
perpetu tuated and the fusion of races retarded:
and this it may be admitted, has produced its
effect. But the Atlas tribes, with whom no
Aryan ideas of state government have inter
fered, maintain in fall vigOr the same feeling as
the Spaniard toward the town. Centuries OF Ro-
man administration broke up the trloai orgahI-
cation of the lberianS. which the kabyls StlI re-
tain. and substituted for it the idea of a CEN
tralized state. but on both sides of the Medi-
terranean the smallest unit or local SONernInent
remains practically untouched from prehistoric
times The djcmdd and the pueblo, respectively.
are the centres around which life reVOlveS; the
elected amin and the elected Gtcdtde remain, as
they have always been, the first and ever present
unit OF authority
The historical events flowing from this state of
affairs make of course, the material for a curl
ously varegated narrative. 1t is house divided
against itself. as we'll as a house warning with
the outside world, that Major Hume has to de-
lineate Not until the fifteenth century had
and the marriage of Fernando and Isabel
brought CASTLE. Leon and Aragon under their
united sway. did Spain begin TO develop that
homogeneity which was Indispensable to her Sc
Curity. Even then much still left 40 do. II is
significant that when unificatiOn at last doomed
in sight the most ruthless methods were required
to impose it upon the people. RuthlesSnesS.
however. was ever a Spanish trait. The native
had the ruler he deserved. Major Hume makes
this question. From the Cid himself he strips
the glamour Of unsullied chivalry in which
countless hero worshppers would fain have him
eternally enveloped. If TO believe a
tenth of what the Arab chronicles tel,' he says
the man must have been monster of cruelty.
In mere sport human creatures were torn TO
pieces by savage dogs before his eyes. and every
day in sight of the doomed city Valencia be-
sieged by the Cid in 1093l the prisoners OF the
brushes aside the popular misapprehension
which has pilloried one Spanish ruler. Pedro the