Year: 1873

nave Su1ereQ, IN the museum, Wner6 Will Do
gibbeted for all time the shameful doings we
have seen perpetrated in the age Of Buchu.


spnin's Objections to Our Dcmn nds.


Some notion of the character of the Spanish
answer to the demands of our government,
and of the grounds on which they base their
refusal to comply with them may be gathered
from the points given In our Washington
telegrams yesterday. Five points were pre-
sented, three of which denied that the
Virginius was entitled to our protection; the
fourth denied that Ryan was citizen of the
United States and the fifth alleged that the
Virginius at the time she was taken was
engaged in an unlawful expedition, contrary
to the neutrality laws of the United States,
under which laws all on board might have
been convicted without reference to the ques-
ton whether or not war existed in Cuba.


We pay in this country some millions OF
dollars annually to keep up government and
the machinery of administration, courts and
judges and functionaries of all sorts; and we
may see by the above how absurd and useless
it is to do all that when the Spaniards stand
willing ana ready to save us all our expendi-
ture and all our trouble in the premises, and
take the whole business off our hands by simply
administering our government for us. Hereis
a ship that, it seems, has violated our neutrality
having this point judicially determined by
determining it for US off hand in the Office Of
their Minister of Foreign Affairs, or, perhaps,
even in Cabinet council. Not only so, but
they save us the expense we might be at in
catching the ship and, having caught hen
and killed oil the dangerous fellows on board.
and thus made descent on their coast i'm
possible, they have, Of course, saved us enor.
nous prospective damages; for if the Vir.
ginius has violated our neutrality laws We
might, in case she had landed an expedition.
have had to pay for her depredations.


But that is not oil the trouble the SpaniardA
have saved US. There is much more of the
same sort of favor from them included in
the three points that deny the right of the
Virginius to our protection They say she is
not an American ship, as she is owned by
Cubans and registered falsely in the name Of
On American that, even if owned by this
American now, her register is false, as since it
was made she has been owned by other per-
sons, and that she has frequently sailed under
other flags than ours. There is tremen-
dous complication, therefore but it is o
complication that nations ordinarily have to
settle for themselves in regard to their ships;
and, in fact, it is common between nations for
these things to be regarded as domestic con-
Germs, for inasmuch as every nation fixes for
itself the conditions upon which it gives a
ship the right to carry its colors, it is ordi-
narily thought to be the only competent judge
whether the conditions have been complied
with. But our friend, the Castilian, in his
ardor to do us O service, has not been tram
melled by any such small comities, and has
seriously annoy us.


In fact it seems open to consideration
whether we might not as WE'LL nationally
speaking, shut up shop; for, as the Spaniard
gets the habit of doing such things for us,
what will be the use of our keeping up govern
our government is done by the Spanish gov
ernment, and we seem to like it, another par
will doubtless be done by some other govern
ment, and this will render it finally altogether
superfluous and absurd for us to have any
government of our own. It will be great
economy, and economy is and ought to be in
great favor It will be hard on the poor ole
American eagle to be thus turned out in the
cold but who would be ill-natured to Spain
for the sake of an eagle?