13 JANUARY 1883, Page 2

Spain has been going through the throes of a crisis -

not very intelligible to outsiders, the history of which we believe to be this. The King, true to his policy. of allow- ing all parties to reach office, wished S. Sagasta to admit some members of the Democratic party into his Cabinet. S. Sagasta consented, though as we judge, with some re- luctance, and as the Finance Minister wished to sell the State Forests, and the Minister of Public Works claimed them for his Department, he took advantage of S. Camacho's resignation to remould the Ministry. It is now, therefore, though still his Ministry, a little more Democratic than before, and contents Marshal Serrano a little better. The" matter would be of little importance, but that the mili- tary chiefs reappeared on the scene, and that the Government fell, though supported by heavy majorities- in the Cortes. Substantial power in Spain still belongs to the Army, though the King, a much abler man than any Bourbon has recently been, is gradually making himself independent of the Genevals. They would not even now venture to risk a pronunciamiento, in which he might appeal to the soldiery at large.