There is evidently a serious hitch in the Spanish-American negotiations.
It arises in this way. The Spanish statesmen are well aware that they must lose their colonies, and are not unconscious of relief in losing them; but they are desperately afraid of having to bear the weight of the Colonial Debts. If they repudiate them there will be a crash in Paris, and the great financiers will lock their safes against Spanish demands; while if they pay them they must put on new taxes, and so cause a revolution. They are quite desperate on the subject, and are beseeching the French to help them. The French are quite willing, but are afraid of the Americans, who seem perfectly immovable. It is not impossible, therefore, that the Spaniards, while acknowledging that they cannot recommence the war, may refuse peace, and thus throw the responsibility of repudiating the Colonial Debts on to the Americans, who are not at all likely to bear being so treated. The dispute is a very grave one, and will materially modify the view taken by great financiers of future wars.
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