Spain is galloping towards either anarchy or a dictatorship. The
new Cortes, said to be composed of tolerably moderate men, very new, very disorderly, and very indiscreet, have been com- pelled by a threatened rising of the Irreconcila.bles to declare by 210 to 2 that Spain is a Federal Republic. Theyhave not, however, defined the power either of the States or of the Republic ; and on Pi y Margall presenting them with a list of Ministers, pro- tested violently, demanded the right to select Ministers sepa- rately, and after a night of confusion, failed. Figueras was then called back to power, but he could not form a Cabinet, and under a renewed threat of insurrection fled to France. The Cortes then elected eight Ministers name by name, the only one of whom known abroad is Pi y Margall, the Premier ; S. Estevan, formerly in the Artillery, Minister at War ; and S. Ladico, Minister of Finance. Four are Conservative Republicans and four Irrecon- cilables, that is, not Socialists, but Jacobins of an extreme type, who would repudiate the debt, divide the land, and put on an impot progress!'" The second project is now probably imperative in Spain in order to produce a conservative class, but neither Government nor Cortes have as yet any power to act. They must quell Madrid, or they are merely registrars for the mob.
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