The Spanish eagerness for a great expedition in Morocco has
unaccountably died away. Having accumulated twenty- five thousand men at Melilla and much of the equipments, necessary for a campaign, they have demanded terms which, as compared with their threats, must be pronounced moderate.. Marshal Martinez Campos has asked that the Kabyles who threatened Melilla shall be surrendered ; that a zone round the forts shall be declared neutral ; and that an indemnity shall be paid of an amount to be settled by subsequent nego- tiation. To these terms the Sultan, who, be it remembered, had nothing to do with the rising, which was entirely local, has at once assented; and orders have been issued from Madrid dismissing the Reservists who had been called out and recalling half the corps d'arm4e sent to Melilla. The remainder will follow as soon as the negotiations are complete. The Government of the Queen-Regent appears, in fact, to have yielded against its own judgment to a popular cry, to• have had no serious intention of entering on a mountain campaign, and to have instructed its Marshal to compose the quarrel as speedily as might be, which, fortified by the con- fidence of Spaniards in his soldiership, he succeeded in doing. It is an expensive way of doing business; but if the Spaniards like it, that is a matter only for them and for their creditors. Nobody else wants a war in Morocco just now.
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