PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2318, 4 August 1898, Page 52

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Spain : Past and Present.

How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How is she become as a wuloW She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces how is she become tributary? She weepch sore, &c.

This quotation sonic of you will recognise ; those who don't had better turn up Lamentations I, 1 and 2, and read also the context. These verses are at the head of a recent article- describing the present position of Spain, and in the body ot the paper it is said thjt in few decaying empires is the contrast between the glory of the past and the sordid present, between fantastic dreams and repulsive facts, splendid possibilities and hateful realities, so striking and so cruel as in the lan-1 of Cervantes and Cortes, and there is pictured in detail the decay of the once mighty empire, now but a shadow of its former sett, with its prosperous cities shrivelled and shrunken to villages; and the footsteps of the foreigner as he crosses the broad public places and ill-paved streets, or moves along the mystical sombre aisles of the majestic cathedrals, which echo and re-echo with a weird and ultramundane sound, till lie starts and turns to reassure himself that the ghosts of the past have not risen from the historic dust. In its greatness the . University of Salamanca numbered more students than the city has now inhabitants ; and walking along the deserted streets of Vallodolid, or the dead city of the Cid, the imaginative stronger seems to hear the very wind chanting the requiem of the warriors, statesmen, princes, and poets who built up the greatness ox Spain. , From the time when Spain's venturesome mariners opened up America, the Peninsular, and the Old World, Nemesis has dogged her. But ills and misfortunes which formerly followed each other at comparatively long intervals are now crowded into the space oi a single decade. Colonial, civil, and international wars, urban riots, provincial risings following one another with bewildering rapidity have demoralised the rulers and exhausted the people. Abroad, Greater Spain has shrunk and collapsed like a pricked wmdoag, and now she is likely to lose her ast and most precious possessions in both the Occident ami the Orient, and cease to be among the great nations of the earth. Much could be written contrasting the past iviUi the present, but. it isn't necessary. We inicrht, however, aslr ourselves what has caused this swift downfall, a downfall running almost parallel with the rapid uprise of Great Britain? Religion has been mentioned as one of the causes ; but I snail not discuss that. Tho dense ignorance of the population is no doubt a chief factor. Jiignt out of nine (16 millions out of 18) can neither read nor write; and with three-fourths of those who profess to be educated the education acquired is more a name than a reality. In France and Germany anyone aspiring to anything like a responsible position in politics or commerce, or as a student, learns, afl/r French and German, one or more foreign languages. English being the one generally laken as the first of them ; but in Spam very few trouble to acquire a knowledge of another tongue. This general ignorance, combined with a certain haughtiness and reserve of character, has brought about a national isolation. Last week I referred to the doctoring of the news for the papers; this interference with tlw accuracy of press news, combined with a censorship "at times os severe as tnat ot Russia, has also helped to keep the people insular in ideas, and therefore apart from the rest of the civilised world. The Government is as corrupt as it, can well be Bad as electoral corruption has been proved to be in both France and Italy, neither country has s?one quite so far as to at ballot boxes with false bottoms; nor has it been found necessary to seriously suggest the use of crystal urns for voting papers. Vandam, in " Tn Spain with the Glare Oft, rel's of ballot boxes installed on the thud iloois of houses, tho doors of the houses being locked and admittance being made up a ladder, access to which was jilted or denied by those standing at its fool . And where eke is it found necessary to surround vollin" places with soldiers armed to the teeth 'and accompanied by field ambulance.' All this, says Vandam, has happened in Spain, and will happen again, at the distinct bicMin" of the ever freshly-recruited bands ot adventurers in Madrid, each of which, as it rises temporarily to the political surface, loudly claim* to be the incorruptible, custodian of the national honour. Spoils to the victors is a line of action well lived up lo in bpain. In referring to the methods of government adopted by Spanish c.ibinels, several curious statements arc made by one writer. 1 ohtical opponents are silenced at public meetings by men hired by the hundred at so muHi Tier hour; and candidates, Government and Opposition, corruptly juv their expenses out of the public purse. We in Now Zealand are trying to gel rid of party government, but it" seems that a Spanish premier became so enamoured of it that he deliberately founda.l an opposition and nominated its leader; sonip time after, however, the Opposition leader and his merry men said it wt's time they had. a turn at the loaves and fi^ics, and threatened to organic a revolution, ha id Uio Premier in effect : " Very well, 1 11 ask ihe Ki-if to give me bis confidence for ten years. He'll refuse, then I'll resign. ' Refuse the King did. and the Premier kept his word This is given as a sober fact ; but clopsn't it read like a fairy tale?

It. is said thot at present Spain has no capable politicians, Wevler exceptcd. and he is too unpopular with the governing classes to £et an opportunity to phoyr his caDacitv.

Madrid lives on political corruption, the politicians arriving there with nothing in their pockets but their hands, and nothing in their heads t but clap-trap phrases; but soon their pockets are filled with pesetas, and theiv heads crowned with parliamentary laurels. Can it be wondered at that such men refuse to see war until it comes, and delay buying coal and other war necessaries until prices are more than doubled? What is the end to be? Loss of her colonial possessions, possibly, as Shaw said ; but what of herself? Vandam says :— " Will it be Queen Christina, her son, or Don Carlos? The first-named, in spite of her undoubted genius ss a statesman — if that bo not a bull — is only a woman. The second is yet a lad. The third is equally an unknown quantity as a ruler, who has. moreover, already failed, and not very gloriously, as a captain and would-be usurper. Time will probably show that neither of these three hos a chance, and that for some time at least there will be another period of so-called republicanism, which is really anarchy in the thinnest of disguises."