THE SPANISH VISIT.
IT is much too soon even for diplomatists to form a definitive judgment upon the character of the King of Spain. He is only nineteen, and experience may develop his character as much as it developed that of his great kinsman the Emperor of Austria,' who, having been for the first ten years of his reign an object of hatred as the most tyrannical of rulers, is now perhaps the most popular Sovereign in Continental Europe. A Bourbon by race, born a King, and bred up with the strictest care by his mother, an Archduchess of Austria, it is not unnatural that he should be regarded by the revolutionary parties as" inevitably " an absolutist and "clerical," and should therefore be one of the ruling men whom the Anarchists have selected preferentially as their victims in the war they proclaim against society. A good deal of this hatred, however, perhaps all, rests upon evidence which may prove wholly imaginary. Men are not made entirely either by heredity or education. Alfonso XIII. is doubt- less a sincere Roman Catholic, and has once or twice asserted his devotion to his faith in a very open way ; but Sings in our day are seldom fanatics, and if his Majesty, as is vaguely reported—we have no information on the subject, and quote the rumour merely as a rumour and with all reserve—has sought and obtained from the Vatican permission to seek a Protestant bride, that of itself would prove that he is by no means narrow-minded. We are bound to add that the desire for absolutism does not attach inherently to creed, for the King of Italy is as constitu- tional as any of his house, while the German Emperor, a Protestant if ever there was one, manifests in every speech and decree his belief that he reigns by a right higher than that conferred by any Constitution. For the rest, the young King has already proved himself, by the admission even of cynical Parisians, to be an exceptionally brave man ; he is no hermit of the Palace, as so many of his ancestors have been, but a man, in fact, as active as the German Emperor ; he is eager in work, in travel, and in sport ; and he is placed in circumstances which, if he has any strength at all—and his intimates say he has much—will inevitably call forth all his energies. There is a great deal in the present situation of Spain to inspire her people with hope, and to induce her King, if he can either originate or accept good advice, to believe that if he exerts himself to that end, his dynasty may yet be important and prominent in Europe.
We all underrate the potentialities of Spain. The country is one of the best situated geographically in the world, planted as it is on two seas, both of them inter- national highways; is nearly as large as France ; and though not uniformly fertile, is full of provinces which, if the tenure of the soil were not so unfavourable to industry, would be as fertile as any portion of Southern Europe. Wine, oil, and wheat can be produced in Spain in any quantity, and the whole land is full of undeveloped mineral treasures, including coal, copper, and, if we may believe the testimony at once of the ancients and of modern geologists, of silver and, in less quantity, gold. Her people are supposed by Northerners to be lazy ; but if they ever reaped the fruit of their labour for themselves, there is no reason why they should not be as industrious as Frenchmen or Italians. They are as healthy, as powerful corporeally, and on occasion as energetic. With wealth population would come; and the country, though it is now reduced. to eighteen millions, could with ease support thirty millions in com- fort and prosperity. All that is required is that those who cultivate the soil should reap the reward of their labour, that justice should be speedy and cheap, and that taxation should be moderate,—all of them . objects attainable if rulers and people will but pull together. The owners, who now work their estates on the latifundia principle, which forces the people to live in villages at a distance from the fields they till, would be far richer with fixed quit rents ; the Courts can be remodelled under well-paid Magistrates ; and Spain is so defensible that her Army and Navy need not press upon her resources as they do upon those of France and Germany. She has practically but one frontier, and that a system of lofty mountains, which the Power on the other side, so long as she is not menaced and is protected from the south, has no inducement to cross. A purely defensive Navy, as Japan is showing us all, may be strong without being crushingly expensive ; and Spain has no longer a transmarine Empire to defend at the cost of the demoralisation of her Generals and Admirals. Cuba and the Philippines were her dead. weights. Her people are difficult, and divided into two great sections of opinion, clerical and anti-clerical ; but they all long for internal economic reform, and would leave to the King or statesman who gave it them any extent of authority necessary to com- pleteand preserve his work. The imperfecthomogeneousness of the provinces is troublesoine ; but it is not more incurable than that of Italy before Napoleon, the house of Savoy, and Garibaldi swept away in so few years obstacles to unity which seemed to all observant statesmen so nearly insuperable. There is no real wish among Spaniards to split up Spain, if only Spain is allowed to be prosperous ; and the Government, if it will but work with a single eye to that end, can, as we believe, secure the prosperity for which, rather than for any victory of abstract ideas, the people are now thirsting.
It would be well at any time that the King of a country. with such resources and such a possible future should receive a cordial welcome in Great Britain, and it is especially well just now. The future of Morocco has to be, decided; and to decide it wisely Great Britain, France, and Spain must all be united on one policy. That policy is to leave to France the general guidance of Moroccan affairs, while preserving to each of the partners in the undertaking her own sphere of action and securities against injury. The entente necessary to success is perfect now, but there are serious obstacles in the way. The work may occupy years, and. during those years all manner of dangerous ambitions may be developed. It is of genuine political moment that the three Powers should establish the friendliest relations ; should feel, in fact, their community of interests, and a real wish to help one another ; and towards that object the satisfaction of the King of Spain with those who are in all but name his allies will furnish serious help. We heartily approve, therefore, the cordiality with which the King of Spain has been welcomed, the great effort made to secure his personal safety, and the heartiness with which the people have joined in doing him personal honour. Englishmen will always, we hope, be courteous to any head of a State who may honour London with a visit ; but there is no country where the reception of a guest and the welcome of a friend differ so markedly from one another. We can only trust that Alfonso XIII. perceives clearly that it is the second kind of amity which has throughout been ,offered him by every force in the country, excepting the one which even the science of Greenwich can only describe, but not control. However, with his own province of Andalusia, perishing of drought, he can hardly have felt aggrieved even by pitiless rain.
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