Spain has suffered three misfortunes this week,—the loss of an
ironclad cruiser with all hands, a successful military é.neute in Madrid, and a grave diplomatic affront. The cruiser was the ‘Reina Regente,' of 4,800 tons, which was on her way from Tangier to Cadiz, but was found sunk near Cape Trafalgar, in the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. She is supposed to have been too light, and to have been cap- sized in a great gale. Of the four hundred souls on board, no one has escaped. The gmeute will be found described in another column ; it began with the wrecking of newspaper offices in Madrid by a mob of officers, commissioned and non- commissioned, and ended practically in the subjugation of all journalists to martial law for attacks upon the Army. The affront was received from the Government of the United States, which directed its Minister in Madrid to insist that the Spanish Government should make "apology and reparation" for an act of one of its cruisers before an inquiry had been instituted. The cruiser had ordered the steamer `Allianca' from Florida to stop near Cuba, and when she did not stop, fired at her. The captain of the 4.Allianca' says he was carrying rifles to Columbia, but as he landed passengers on the Cuban coast the captain of the cruiser thought he was carrying contra- band. In any case, as the Spanish Government has replied, inquiry must precede apology,—a doctrine to which we understand Mr. Cleveland to have assented. It is quite possible that the Spaniard had exceeded his rights, but there is a little too much desire at Washington to seem exceedingly prompt and vigilant.
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