The news from .Melilla is scanty. The Spaniards have paused
in order to obtain fresh reinforcements, and the Moors . have been somewhat inactive, partly from the same reason, but also because they prefer the tactics of defence to those of
offence. But though we speak of a pause there has been some local fighting, and on Monday there was a determined attempt to injure the railway-line, three hundred yards of which was torn up. We do not doubt that after an expenditure of a great deal of money and the loss of many lives the Riinaus will be driven bask to their mountains. They will not, how- ever, be conquered, and the question of whether it is worth while for Spain to retain so expensive a position will remain unsettled. The difficulty in regard to Spain's African poesessions, as we have pointed out elsewhere, is very great. The position may be compared to that of a man who has got a burning torch in his hand, but who dares not drop it for fear' of setting fire, not only to his own house, but to the whole town. At the same time, his powers of quenching the torch are very limited, and all the while his fingers are burning. We are afraid that both here and in the case of Spain's internal difficulties there is no short cut to a better state of things. That can only be obtained through generations of patient hard work,—a prescription which is unfortunately extremely distasteful to the Spanish nature.
