The Government won the first trick when the King yielded
before the menace of Civil War. We do not doubt his honest belief in the proud words that he flung back to his country : " I am King of all Spaniards . . . I could find ample means to maintain my Royal Prerogatives." Whether the Republican leaders would or could have held back their followers from Civil War if the King had not refused the challenge, we cannot say. They have also won the second trick, which had to be played with Catalonia. In ,Barcelona, as must have been expected, a Catalan Republic was at once declared with Colonel Macia, the old. Separatist leader, at its head. Would he put his Separatism into force ? Apparently there is a compromise which must be held as a relief in Madrid. The Catalan Republic disappears and Catalonia becomes a State or " Generalidad " within the Spanish Republic. Under the plea of liberating political prisoners the gaols have in most towns been emptied. So far the Government have wisely shown no vindictive feeling against officials, administrators or politicians of the fallen regime. Inquiries, however, are to be instituted or revived into the responsi- bility for the early disasters in the Moroccan War. It is greatly to the credit of all concerned that there should have been so little violence. The rabbits in the Royal Park, promptly slain by poachers, were the only recorded martyrs unto death. The Government had time to consider and to stop the imminent summer time, evidently a radical innovation of the Monarchy.
