New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-19

mad received assurances OF good
"a. will the part of the Queen
A2z42z2zA@s2a424za Regent and her Ministers. Cen
eral Weyler had been withdrawn
from Cuba because of his reconCentrado SYSTEM
and in his place had been sent General Blanco
a scholarly kind-hearted man. well equipped as
an administrator. He undoubtedly the best
man in Spain for the situation He was sincere
in his proposal of autonomy; but the Spaniards
incapable of administering a government
under such a system. And the effect in Madrid of
the explosion of the Maine only served to show
that had it not occurred, the war, even under the
older and slower diplomatic system, not only might
have been but would have been averted.
This effect in Madrid was of surprise of
shock and of undeniabe sorrow All the ardent
hopes anticipations and beliefs of peaceful adj
justment faded instantly 1t a bolt from a
clear sky, and it stunned the Spanish even more
than 1t stunned ourselves.
When the news reached Madrid l was 1unching
in my apartments near the PradO, about mile
and half from the Legation. l first received it
from Senior Moret, Minister of Colonial Affairs
who sent copy of a despatch just received from
Havana, which announced the destruction of the
Maine by an explosion | called my carriage and
drove at to his Office for further information;
but found that this all he had. He did
not know what to think did Senior Sagasta,
then Prime Minister, Senior Gullom, Minister
of Foreign Affairs, upon whom | called few hours
later after receiving news to the same effect from
Washington. The three ministers were surprised.
shocked and mYSt1ted, and this was the general
feeling reflected by the press that evening IN deal
ing with the catastrophe
And there is doubt whatever that public
opinion in Spain is now and always has been as
convinced that the explosion which wrecked the
Maine internal as the people in this country
were confident that it came from external source.
Ny own belief from ali the evidence, is that it
was external; but that the Spanish Ministry
innocent OF it in every way.
Thereafter l was unhappy American Minister.
Those days were sad ones to me. | remember
how, on two occasions at least, worried by
slant friction and overburdened by the
growing responsibility l journeyed to that somber
pile of masonry thirty miles northeast of Madrid,
called the Escurial and passed day wandering
about its gloomy Corridors medltatlng upon the
decadenCe of a mighty empire that once had dOm1-
mated what was supposed to be best of the Western
World Philip IL, who raised that gridiron-like
structure to the eternal memory of St. Lorenzo left
at hotel that stands nearby the great monastery,
on the foothills of the Guadaramas. l always
came back to Madrid in better mood for Crap
ping with my diplomatic antagonists.
But events were moving too rapidly for me on
this side of the water The Court of Inquiry found
that the Maine had been wrecked by act of
deliberate treachery and violence, and from that
hour war was seen to be inevitable My visit to
the Foreign Office to take leave, was one of appar-
ent sadness to the officials there-and there was
doubted sadness behind the words of parting.
Ny departure from Madrid without any
blare of trumpets | left April a. two days
before the cr post fdco declaration of war; by way
of Valladolid, Vitoria, Burgos and Irun-