22 AUGUST 1903, Page 1

• The Madrid correspondent of the Times evidently expects a

revolution in Spain. In a long and most interesting letter published on Tuesday he explains that all classes of the people, peasants as well as bourgeoisie and artisans, have lost their respect for the Government, and, owing to a variety of causes, one of which is the failure of most recent speculations, are suffering extreme economic depression. The peasants attack the officials and the towns, and the workmen are striking in masses. They have all thrown themselves into the Republican movement, which, again, is strongly favoured by the Army. The higher officers think themselves neglected and deprived of their old position in the State; the lower officers are indignant at the military economies; and the men, especially those withdrawn from Cuba, are "dragging out a miserable existence in the large towns." The cry is that the Monarchy, the Church, and the capitalists are responsible for the general misery, and that society ought to be reorganised as in France. The Conservatives are trying a policy of re- pression; but the Liberal Monarchists would make large.. reforms, and it is believed that their leaders, General Weyler, Senor Canalejas, who would establish peasant-proprietor- ship, and Senor Montero Rios, have already had an intima- tion that they will speedily be called to power. They will have to do some violent things if they are to satisfy their fol- lowers, and it is by no means certain that they can do them without establishing for a time a military despotism, if only to prevent the discontented from breaking up the unity of the State, which was constructed from little kingdoms, and has never been thoroughly cemented.