THE SPANISH INSURRECTION

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 6, 11 August 1909, Page 30

THE SPANISH INSURRECTION

The Struggle in Barcelona —New Aspects of a Decadent Empire

(Specially Written for the “New Zealand Graphic,” by ERNEST W. MI’NTON.) EADERS of cable nows, who have ever travelled in the country. 1 V which, in conjunction with llol- \ land for a century or more was able to effectively challenge England’s supremacy at sea, will have had plenty oi food for thought in the revolutionary developments in Catalonia during the last few weeks. A few notes on Spain and its people, its past, and its possibilities, may, therefore, be of interest at the present moment. When one considers that Algeciras (opposite to Gibraltar, and the southernmost. Spanish point in Europe) can be reached in less than sixty hours from London, one can but wonder that

so few Englishmen have travelled through Spain—the more so when the marvellous examples of the Golden Age of Art and Architecture to be found there are remembered. .There is per haps no country in Europe to-day which can -how ho much in the way of medieval buildings, or -o many ancient ruins; ami the old Roman bridge across the Tagus at Toledo, or the famous Court of Lions at the “Alhambra,” in Granada, are widely divergent examples of different st vies—while the Madrid Gal-

lery, badly housed and lighted as it is, contains, after all, so many masterpieces that one could not hope to enumerate them—but one can never forget the glories of any gallery sheltering

such pictures as Velasquez’s “Forge of V ulcan,” Titian’s “Venus,” or the splendid collection of “Murillos.” The principal difficulties in the way of an Englishman travelling in Spain are: (1) The language, it being almost impossible to get along in comfort without some knowledge of it; (2) the defective railway system, all long-distance travelling being performed by night only involving continuous breaks in one’s

journey; and (3) the lack of any concise and reliable information as to the places most worth a visit, or the things to see when you get there. With regard to the language, there are few tongues as soft as -Spanish, and few of which it is easier to acquire a colloquial knowledge—especially if one is familiar with French and Latin —and there is certainly no country in the world where a stranger, knowing nothing of its language, will be less ridiculed than in Spain, where even the children are brought up on lessons demonstrating old-fashioned courtesy, ami a chivalry fast disappearing in more Northern climes. Spain is a country abounding in great cities —Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, Saragossa, Cadiz, Seville, Cordova, Granada, Malaga, etc., etc., are only a few of the places filled with historic lore, which recur to one’s memory, and to go to older places still, few who have been to Seville, have returned without a visit to the ancient ruins of “Italicus.” The Spanish people, though in many respects centuries behind the time-, are in others far beyond them. You can still see to-day in Toledo the barred windows and narrow street-—relics of a Moorish fast —and yet, in Madrid, you find the most up-to-date Ro’ 1 Palace in the world. You might witness the afternoon drives along the banks of the Guadalquiver at Seville, or in the Park at Saragossa, and imagine yourself at Brighton or Cowes the season—-

while to see the same people at a bullfight you would l>elieve the clock had been put back a century. From being the greatest naval and colonising Power in the world. Spain has now become the least—but who is to say that her lessons have been learnt in vain? Who would lie bold enough to prophecy that a nation, able to undertake the training of a Montezuma, and having internal wealth, a patriotic and courageous people, and a history not less glorious than our own, has completed all her records, or is indifferent to the possibility of lieing deleted from the map of Europe? Barcelona is the great business city, and without a doubt come- easily first as regards trade importance, shipping, and general commerical instinct, and yet it has always been the “locale” of strikes, incipient Revolution and Anarchism. This may be partially accounted for by the preponderance of the “working” element, often badly paid, and always worked to excess. The loss of the colonies was probably the very best thing that could happen from the point of view of the regeneration movement —they were unproductive to Spain, notwithstanding their excessive taxation, which was insufficient to pay the cost of keeping them in order—and the advent of a youthful ami popular monarch a few' years back did much, at any rate temporarily, to rally malcontents round the throne. There

has of late been less of corruption in Government circles, and more honest attempt not only at clean administration, but at the development of the country's latent resources, and the re-istance to too much control of lay questions by the Church—perhaps in no country is the latter in possession of more influence, or in control of more tangible accumulated wealth. With good Govern ment for a decade, Spain would emerge to a prosperity not enjoyed for two centuries, and her enormous mineral wealth, at present scarcely scratched over, would be sufficient to make of her a great exporter and manufacturer. She already has a good and growing population. and living is both comfortable and cheap. .It may be that some day Portugal will be absorbed by her big ger neighbour, and, in any case, the Peninsula is well protected by the Pyrenees on the one side, and the sea on the other. Whatever happens, the real problem is one for the Spanish themselves- unity of purpose and aspira-tions-—and when they have solved it by the abandonment of internecine strife, it will be found that their country has in front of her a future more glorious and prosperous even than her glorious past, a future perhaps to be influenced by the English blood and traditions, which will be handed down t<% the future Princes of the Asturias through our own Queen Ena. the first English Princess, as far as I can renumber. to ascend the Spanish throne.