A great change is about to pass over the government
of Spain. The next elections, which take place almost im- mediately, are to be held under the law of universal suffrage, and the alarm of the authorities is great. They are not so much afraid of an uprising of Radical opinion, as of the loss of that power of manipulating the elections which has hitherto belonged to every Government in Spain, and has made the Royal authority a kind of refuge from the tyranny of the politicians. Great efforts are being made by the Premier, Senor Canovas, to suppress Municipalities as centres of electoral agitation; but they will probably fail. We cannot approve universal suffrage, which is the elevation of the extremely ignorant to autocratic power; but it must be said in fairness that it does not yield readily to manipulation. Alike in France and in Germany, though the voters, when so inclined, obey readily a hint from the Centre, when disinclined they are as stubborn as mules. The whole strength of the French Government, the strongest in Europe, was stretched to obtain a Chamber favourable to Marshal Ma,cMahon, and it failed. Spanish universal suffrage, if Radical at all, is not unlikely to show itself Federalist in bias.
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