The effort recently made in Spain to form a composite
Ministry or Ministry of Affairs has failed. The Queen-Regent has therefore induced Senor Sagasta, who is old and worn, and contemplated a final withdrawal, to resume power with a Cabinet in which General Weyler is Minister of War, thus securing the Army, and a nephew of his own as Finance Minister, who will, it is believed, compromise the fierce battle waging with the Bank' of Spain and the French financiers behind that Bank. Things will not be smooth, however, for Senor Sagasta, for he has admitted Senor Canalejas into the Cabinet as proof that be has not changed his decision to deal with the Church, which he requires to reduce the number of Bishops, and allow to the State a power of suppressing un- authorised monasteries. Seilor Sagasta will now be Minister on the accession of the boy-King—he is only sixteen—in May, and will, it is hoped, be able to guide him into the con- stitutional groove. There are two sets of reports about him ; but the best accounts show him a 'thorough Bourbon, with parts, but without much initiative, with a high conception of his position as King, and rather imperfect health.
