Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-04
TREATY Due TO KING
Dislike to Portions of Anglo
as1k
enlargement.
DEATH OF i ISABELLA II
TIE GAR MORE ACCESSIBLE
THAN HIS PREDECESSORS.
Interesting Matters In the Artists
World-some Remarkable Art
Club Contributions.

| Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
LONDON, April 18 1904.
Prior to his departure for Paris yesterday
I had long conversation with diplomatic
authority who has played a very important
| part In the negotiations which have SO hap
| PLY resulted in the signing Of the Anglo
French agreement The negotiations. he told
| me, have been in progress for just over six
months, for 1t was in the early days of
October last that the prospect Of an agree
ment was seriously discussed At that
| time, however, no one, either on this or the
| other side of the channel anticipated that
all the questions now settled could be COW
| cred by comprehensive agreement.
| The interests at stake for both parties
| and the territorial complications offered
many obstacles, and just when the negotia-
lions had reached a hopeful stage there
| was serious risk of their being aban-
| doned as a consequence of the tension and
final rupture between Russia and Japan.
My informant added that it ought to be
| known, for 1t Is an unquestionable fact,
| that 1t was on the personal initiative of
King Edward, and entirely through his
majesty's influence, that the negotiations
| were resumed, and it is impossible to over
StatC tiiC value VI Ills SuStdiHcu INTEREST III
| the result of turning cordial understand
| ing to definite treaty. incidentally my
| friend told me that NJ. Cambon, the French
ambassador has, during the negotiations
made no fewer than twenty-five journeys
| between London and Paris to discuss with
| his chiefs the points raised.
With the publication of the text Of the
treaty. however, public opinion is not as
enthusiastic as 1t might be-. There is
feeling that England has given too much
and received too little. There is fear that
Canadian sentiment will be displeased with
respect to Newfoundland and Australian
opinion offended with regard to the New
HeDr1des Financial circles do not disguise
their disappointment at the portion of the
treaty which refers to the future of the
public loans of Egypt.
1t has been decided to postpone the con-
version of the unified debt indefinitely The
annual saving which might have resulted to
Egypt from this operation would have been
no less than 100000, and this sum, which
represents a capital value of more than
seven millions, may be said to have been
sacrificed at the altar of Anglo-French
frfendship-at the expense of the Egyptian
taxpayer. ri 49,
Passing Of Ex-Queen.
Poor ex-Queen Isabella II has passed Off
| the stage of life In which In her time she
| played so many parts, though neither hap
PLY nor wisely. She was more sinned
! against than shining, and the real respon-
sibility for many of her errors, public and
| private, rests unop those, who treated her
as pawn in their games of intriguing am
| bition. Uneasy lies the head that wears
crown. poor Isabella might have said. for
| Ferdinand VII sealed the unhappiness of
| his little daughter when he induced the
| chambers to assent to the revocation OF
the Sale law and made her eligible for the
! throne. ft9
! If Ferdinand himself had lived longer
| matters might have been better but his
| death when Isabella was but three years
| OF age entailed a regency, and of all mis-
| chief-making regents Maria Christina was
| surely the worst So bitter were the recol-
| lectiQns of her rule that when years after
| ward Alfonso XII found hts second wife in
| another Christina there was something like
| dismay among the people.
| Happily, the two were wide as the poles
| asunder and though history repeated itself
| and another premature death made the sec
1 ond Queen Christina regent, her govern
| ment was as beneficent as her predecessors
| had been disastrous.
| The Carlist war was the first fruit of Isa-
| bella's accession and 1t lasted for seven
| years. desolating the country. When it was
over and Maria Christina had found it de-
| sirable to fly to France, things looked more
| hopeful; but the queen mother came back,
| and she was the main agent In forcing her
| daughter into the marriage with her cousin.
1t was said that Isabella was locked in
| her room until she gave reluctant con-
sent. She has lived off the throne nearly
1870. and had been practically dethroned
two years earlier by the revolution of 1868.
Afraid of the Evil Eye.
Queen Isabella had one singular superst-
ton. She believed that all her misfortunes
were due to the mala sombra (or evil eye)
of the Italian Bourbons. Both her mother,
Queen Christina, and her aunt, Carlotta
Duchess of Seville belonged to this family,
and Queen Isabella was only happy and
prosperous in Spain when they were out of
the country. Their return was the signal
for her unhappy marriage.
Presently there came along another 1tal-
ian Bourbon, the count of sGirgent, who
sent her token of his desire to become her
| son-in-law.
She exclaimed: Take it away and fling
1t into the river. Otherwise, some misfor-
tune will surely overtake the town." She
| reluctantly consented to the match, how
| ever, and found confrmat ton of her super
stition in the fact that she was exiled dur
ing the honeymoon of the young couple.
| The mala sombra was also, In her opinion
the cause of the last Carlist rising. Die
| not Don Carlos marry Bourbon of Parma
| niece of the Comte de Chambord? And was
not that enough? She lived in terror thai
the marriage of the Princess of the Astur
las to the Count of Caserta son of the pre-
tender to the throne of Naples, would have
| some equally disastrous consequence.
1t is not generally known that the ex
queen had a sister-in-law who died in alb
|
Infanta Isabella Ferdinande Francois
Josephine direct descendant of Charlie.
Nv, who, little more than half century
ago, was one of the beauties of the Spanish
court. SCI
Talked With the Gear.
In the next number of "The World.
work its editor Mr.. Henry Norman, M
p. will give us an account of the inter
view he had with the car the other da,
| at the winter palace.
Mr.. Norman has been great traveller il
the far east, about which he has writer
several books: but II was mainly. no doubt
his work on "All the Russias" In which h,
presents what Mr.. Stead and others con
! sidered a much Sf0e sfavorable picture O
the czar's dominions-for even autocrat
are open to fattery--which procured hin
the honor of a special audience with Mich
oas Ii. But other Journalists are begin
ming to realize that his majesty is by n,
means so inaccessible as were all his pre-
decessors TO the ministers of the press.
} TIE only occasion on which his fathe
proved indulgent 10 them was In the au
, tumn of 1884, when he had his famous meet
, | ipy at Skiernievice, in Poland, with his fel
! low sovereigns of Germany and Austria ac
eornpanied by their respective chancellors
x,,,,ar, .rapresenfafigre of ba Iaadinc io,,r