Year: 1874

Don Carlos snd the spsnish Prsb-


lem-Our Interest In the oesmsA


Alliance.


Our despatch from Eloxrio in Spain, recit-
ing the important points Of . recent conver-
sation between Don Carlos and HERALD cor
respondent is of interest in view of the pres
ent noteworthy attitude of Germany toward
the Spanish government, and also in view of
the unpleasant possibilities there was reason
to anticipate for newspaper correspondents in
that part of the world. Our correspondent
has been, in his time, in warmer places than
most men care to go in in their cooler moments;
but he has never been in any that seemed
less promising for comfort and q safe issue
than the country within the Carlist lines, just
| on the heels of sucn an event as the execution
! of the correspondent of the Cologne Gozdte,
| for that occurrence seemed to be the result of
a mot dordrc and the beginning Of resentful
war on the press, SO far as it was within
reach. Happily, however, these anticipations
were all wrong, and our correspondent was
not only warmly welcomed by the putative
king, but when he ventured somewhat hardly
in the circumstances to express the hope that
he might not meet with such an accident as
occurred to Captain Schmidt, he received
every possible assurance and drew an express
sion of royal regret at that event


Don Carlos presents cogently his own view
of the Spanish problem and seems sanguine
of eventual success. He does not attach to
the attitude Of Germany the importance which
L. TrIa x1o 1a<;o ho
tween Berlin and Madrid now suddenly
bruited are likely to appear the more impor-
tant the more they are understood and the
alliance between the Powers, Whatever its
conditions and limits, is the most notable
event of recent occurrence for Spain. and for
France as we'll If there are any Frenchmen
whose eyes have not been opened by the rude
events of the recent war to the difference be-
tween the France Of our day and the France
of other days this diplomatic event VIII assist
to enighten them ; for they must necessarily
be Of that order Of men which glories in the
fine points Of national quality and heeds as
little as it may those triumphs of open force
which it chooses to contemn as the pre-emi-
nence of brutality. If war may be called the
athletic trial Of the nations, diplomacy is
essentially their game Of whist; and while,
with q fair opportunity given, we should
naturally expect just what we have recently
seen in Europe-the constant triumph of
the most robust race of men on the
face of the earth over their physical
inferiorsEwe should, on the other
hand, see the giants Of middle Europe
tangled like lions in the nets of diplomacy if
events are to sustain the notion that the
French are better men than the Germans on
other fields than those Of force. In their
acute perceptions, in comprehensions Of the
tive in their logical habit and their intellec-
tual adroitness generally, the French seemed
always especially fitted for success in this
field, and in this field they have gained great
successes. Indeed, the greater part Of VIII at
are chronicled as the military glories Of France
| were due strictly to the diplomacy that
divided and otherwise crippled her enemies.
| All Germany under one flag never was arrayed
against France until in our own time, when the
race of French diplomatists seems to be run
out. And what can be thought of the genera
ton of ambassadors that the French Republic
has scattered at the various capitals as its rep.
resentatives? As in the war only the German
generals seemed to be conscious that such q
man as the First Napoleon had ever lived,
and seemed alone to have studied his cam
paigns, must it be also acknowledged that
only the Germans have comprehended Talley-
rand and perceived how to apply his processes
to new facts? As there was little left Of the
French army but the feathers and the gold
lace, is there also nothing left of the great
French diplomacy but the cookery and the
grimaces


All this understanding between Germany
and Spain has that appearance. French rep
resentatives in Berlin, in Madrid in Rome
and in Washington never smelt out this ne
gotiation, and it has been under all their
noses for perhaps six months. France has,
moreover, played into the hands Of her enemy
all that time in her spirit of inexhaustible
vanity and self-suficiency and indifference to
the thoughts of others. Her course has been
such as to outrage the Madrid government by
her assistance-to the Carlists, and yet she has
not given such aid to the Carlists as might
secure her against the enmity excited at
Madrid. She was in position to obtain,
with the consent and even the applause Of
Europe, the friendship and close alliance Of
Spain by easy operations that would have
been instructive exercises for her army. In-
stead of that she drove Spain into the arms Of
Germany, and she discovers the propriety Of
treating her neighbor fairly and generously
only when that neighbor no longer needs her
and has even made terms against her.


But what is the condition of our own diplo-
macy In regard to this case? What does Mr..
Fish know of the terms agreed upon between