The accounts of Spanish finance grow worse than ever. Accord-
:131g to the Madrid correspondent of the Times, the revenue, which in 1871 was £23,000,000, is now not above £16,000,000, while the Debt has reached £530,000,000, at 3 per cent., the interest absorbing within a fraction the entire revenue. Of course the interest is not paid, and except under some com- promise in bankruptcy never will be. Spain could scarcely raise more than £30,000,000 a year by any exertion, or afford more than a fourth of that for the interest on the debt. According to S. Salaverria, the war expenditure now absorbs £15,000,000 a year, or nearly the whole revenue, leaving a million for the civil service, the magistracy, the Church, and the central department of public works. Until the war ends, and Cuba is either released or pacified, there is no hope of improvement ; and -even when it ends, a bankruptcy of some kind must be pro- claimed. The Spanish Treasury is still much better off than the Treasury of France was when the States-General were called together, but then Spain has not a people ready to change all, try all, and endure all in the hope of arriving at an Utopia.
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