THE TROUBLE IN SPAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12425, 14 February 1901, Page 4

THE TROUBLE IN SPAIN.

The riots which are referred to in this morning’s cable news are but one side of the widespread turmoil and discontent obtaining in Spa'in. The unfortunate country has never recovered front the calamities of the American War and the loss of her colonies.. Apart altogether from Cat-list conspiracies there are all the elements of revolution in the temper of the people, the poverty of artisans thrown out of employment by the decline of industry, the corruption of the Government service and the revolt of whole provinces against an iniquitous system of taxation. The boy-King—-the superstitious remind one another that he is the thirteenth Alfonso —has neither the mental qualities nor the physique that attract Spaniards and his health has always caused anxiety, the Queen-Regent, again, has never possessed the affections of her people. She is an Austrian, and has few Spanish sympathies. The Spaniards have a saying almost identical with the famous sneer of Tacitus, when he wrote of a German tribe, “they are sunk even below' servitude; they obey a woman.” The crimes and mistakes' of the Ministry are laid at the door of the Queen, and! political discontent almost invariably take® the form of hostility to the royal house. It is not many months -since the Spanish national anthem was hissed! at in Barcelona, whilst the streets of Madrid and Valencia have been red with blood' during the past year. The anti-tax agitation came to naught, but it left the people in a state of absolute discontent. The question of the marriage of the Infanta Maria-de-las-Mer-cedes, 'which was originally raised in. the Chamber of Deputies for political purposes, has recently developed into a great national issue. .It has formed the subject op-many bitter attacks upon the Government and the Royal House. Speaking recently in the Chamber, Senor Romero y Robledo demanded the immediate breaking-off of the match, or at least its postponement until the King should bo of age so that he might give his decision on the mattey. Count Caserta -and his family, he pointed out, were pretenders to the throne of Naples and the marriage of the Princess of Asturias, who had for a brief space been Queen of Spain, with the Count’s son would assuredly prejudice the relations of 'the country with Italy. In spite of all protests, however, the Premier advised the Queen-Regent to approve of the match. He was not strong enough to obtain parliamentary approval of his action, and Prince Charles will probably receive no monetary grant from the State. It iS not easy to see how this unsatisfactory condition of Spain will be remedied. The failure of the anti-tax agitation showed the weakness of the discontented elements of the population. They are numerically strong enough to control every department in the country, but they have no organisation, and the Government has used every opportunity of getting rid of its oponents. Dr Robert, who- led the commercial and industrial agitation of 1898, was dismissed- from the mayoralty of Barcelona and' thrown into prison, and Government nominees hold practically every office of importance in Spain. A strong man capable of drawing the' various parties together might save the Crown or might convert the country into a .republic, but there does not appear to be one man of commanding personality in the whole arena of politics.