LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.
[To TES EDITOR OF THZ SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—The important article in the Spectator of March 7th, on the international aspect of the quarrel being picked by the United States with Spain, will be read with interest, and, I think, with fall agreement by every one who has any sort of acquaintance with the people of the westernmost penin- sula of Europe. To those who know the Spaniards and Portuguese peoples at all well, the quarrel will seem to be fraught with great possibilities and issues. The country inhabited by these nations is geographically and physi- cally unique. The Iberian Peninsula emerged, after the tide of Moorish conquest and dominion had ebbed, as a congeries of little semi-Gothic nationalities, which had won their independence after long fighting against the Moorish invaders. Leon, Castille, Navarre, Aragon, Galicia, Portugal, and other similar States were all at one time or another in the history of the peninsula, separate, independent kingdoms. Some superior grit and sturdiness in the Portu- guese, and the accident of a frontier of mountain rampart between themselves and the Spaniards, and of ocean between them and the outer world, have kept Portugal independent nearly from the first, while all the other little States have been merged in the kingdom of Spain.
Still, however, the larger national bond in Spain is looser and the national life less felt than the local bond which holds together the men and towns of each province, while the life of each provincial hamlet and municipality is stronger than the life of the nation at large. That which blended the discordant kingdoms of Spain into a nation was Religion, backed with Militarism—the sword of the soldier and the torch of the inquisitor, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries—and what has made the Spain of the last two centuries a weakling among the nations is the weakening of these two forces.
Now, what is remarkable in the peninsula, is that indi- vidual prosperity—the thriving of the unit, the well-being of the province, the hamlet, the parish, the farm and the field— has gone on very steadily through some eighty years of com- parative peace. Mining, fishing and agriculture have pros- pered, flocks and herds have waxed in number, and if manufactures have not thriven equally, it is because jealous protective laws, selfishly passed by the farming classes, have hindered trade. What, I say, is remarkable, is that with this growing individual wealth the nation has never progressed correspondingly in national importance. Spain in the poli- tics of the world is still a very negligeable quantity. In truth, the nation has never much felt the need and desire of national importance. The individual Spaniard is not a shoulder-to-shoulder man as we of the North are. He is radically jealous of the class that governs him, and is con- temptuous and cynical towards the authority that has set itself up over him. He is an idealist born and bred, still possessed with old world, romantic ideals, and he submits to no authority that is not clothed with some ideal quality which he can rever- ence. So it has come to be that the head and heart of the nation are weaker than its members. It is a nation strong but dormant, full of potentiality for good or evil, but that lies indolent, unawakened, and unconscious of its strength.
In the recent unprovoked insolence of the American nation towards Spain, there may well lurk that which shall arouse the Spanish nation to fall national life. We saw what the isolated action of a British Minister, unbacked by British public opinion, did six years ago to rouse the kindred Portu- guese people to a not unjustifiable frenzy of rage ; but this later insult to a nation, the proudest and most fastidious of its honour of any in the world, is the work not of an isolated Minister, it is the vote of a Representative Assembly, and backed by a people whose delegates they are. It cannot be explained away ; it is not the indiscretion of an individual, but a deliberate affront offered by one nation to another. It Cannot be apologised for, for how can a nation apologise ?
The insult must remain and rankle among a people possessed of all the just vindictiveness that goes with pride. We must always remember that the Press in Spain is not what it is with us. It is a very poor index of the feelings of a people. We hear very little of the commotion of indignant rage which has stirred the hearts of Spaniards in every hamlet from Malaga to Santander, from Corunna to Caxtliagena. Lord Salisbury's ultimatum to Portugal six years ago roused a great and unexpected sympathy of indignation in Spain, and the great "Iberian idea "—the unification of the two countries into one federation—was brought sensibly nearer to realisa- tion. Will this fresh and far greater affront to the national pride of the whole peninsula lead to this great, obvious, and natural issue P If it does—and no true friend of Portugal or Spain but must heartily desire this natural consummation in the destinies of the two nations—there will arise a fresh and powerful factor in international politics; a new, numerous,. and wealthy nation will be born, endowed with great and glorious memories; a nation all but compact of the sturdiest fighting and seafaring men on the continent of Europe; a nation living in an unconquerable country, with a great, seaboard set richly with seaports, and one great harbour in the Tagus estuary, the finest in the world, one where all the fleets of Europe, Asia, and America may ride at anchor in security. If the action of America leads to this issue, it- will be blessed with good for the human race at large.-1
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