No. 424.
Mr. Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, June 20, 1872. (Received July 9.)
Sir: The cabinet of Marshal Serrano left office after the very brief tenure, even in Spain, of seven days. It appears that, in view of the extremely critical state of affairs reported in my No. 383, the president of the council of ministers advised the King that it was necessary to suspend those articles of the constitution guaranteeing personal rights. His Majesty declined to sanction this measure, and declared that when he found he could no longer rule in accordance with the constitution he had sworn to maintain, he would resign his office. The announcement of this decision to the council of ministers over which His Majesty presided was followed by their resignation on the spot. The King did not hesitate a moment in accepting the situation thus suddenly presented, and, until an hour afterward, when Admiral Topete, the minister of marine, surprised the chamber of deputies with a brief statement of what had occurred, no intimation of a cabinet crisis had transpired.
Remarkable as Spain is for political changes, nobody was prepared for the transformation that followed. The King went through the customary form of consulting the presiding officers of the two houses of congress, both of whom belong to the conservative party, and, putting aside their advice, immediately sent for Lieutenant-General Fernandez de Cordova, the leader of the radicals since the recent withdrawal of Mr. Ruiz Zorrilla from politics, who was asked to form a cabinet. It seems that, after a confererence among the chiefs of the radical party, Rivero, Martos, Cordova, and others, they agreed to take office on condition that Mr. Zorrilla should be named president of the eounc 1, with the portfolio of the department of the interior, and that the present Cortes, chosen under the auspices of Mr. Sagasta, should be dissolved, and a new election ordered. These arrangements were accepted by the Crown, and on the following day the cabinet was announced, as follows:
- Presidency of the council and home office, Mr. Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla.
- Foreign affairs, Mr. Cristino Martos.
- Grace and justice, Mr. Eugenio Montero Rios.
- Treasury, Mr. Servando Ruiz. Gomez.
- War, Lieutenant-General Fernando Fernandez de Cordova.
- Navy, Rear-Admiral José Beranger.
- Colonies, Mr. Eduardo Gasset y Artime.
- Public works, Mr. José Echegaray.
You will remember Mr. Martos as the minister of state in the coalition cabinet of Marshal Serrano, formed early in 1871, and with which we succeeded in adjusting several of the questions then pending between the two countries. Mr. Ruiz Zorrilla and Admiral Beranger were also of the same, cabinet. Mr. Gasset y Artime, who now takes the colonies, is the director of the Imparcial, a radical journal of large circulation, and heretofore regarded as the organ of the Martos group of liberals. Mr. Gasset y Artime has not, I believe, heretofore held office.
It must be admitted that this ministry takes office in the presence of the gravest difficulties. On the first of next month the half-yearly interest on the public debt, amounting in round numbers to twenty-five millions of dollars, becomes due, and there is not a dollar in the treasury to pay it. The financial situation in Cuba is so critical that it causes [Page 560] even more disquietude than the insurrection, which remains defiant at the close of the fourth campaign. The Carlists’ revolt holds out in the north against an army of twenty-two thousand regular troops. General Moriones, lately assigned to the command of these forces, is the third officer who has filled that post within three months. In Catalonia, called the New England of Spain, for the thrift, industry, and independence of its inhabitants, the Carlists’ movement is combining so rapidly that General Baldrich, lately appointed to the command of the forces operating in that principality, demands a re-enforcement of no less than ten thousand men. The Duke of Montpensier announces to-day his reconciliation with the Spanish Bourbons, represented by his nephew the young Prince Alfonso, and this publication is accompanied by a manifesto signed by two hundred and thirty generals, deputies, senators, and grandees of Spain, in favor of the Prince, with Montpensier as regent. And although the republican leaders still restrain the impatience of the great body of that party, professing a purpose to pause awhile longer, at least until the struggle between the several monarchical elements becomes yet more pronounced, there is, nevertheless, a numerous body of republicans following the counsels of the Ignaldad and the Combate, two of the most popular journals of that party, who insist on taking arms and trying their fortunes in the civil war that seems unhappily to be really inaugurated.
No authorized statement of the purposes, of the new cabinet has appeared. The usual manifesto of the president of the cabinet is looked for at an early day. The Official Gazette announces a new set of governors for all the provinces, forty-seven, some of which have already had the benefit of a dozen or more of these dignitaries since my residence at this capital.
It remains to be seen whether the radical ministry, summoned at the eleventh hour to the councils of the King, can deal with a situation so grave, and for which they need not only statesmen, but military talent of no common order. The main current of public opinion runs in their favor. The prestige of the Crown is once more on their side. They lose no time in taking advantage of an opportunity afforded by the resignation of nearly all the incumbents of the principal offices, to fill up the vacant places with their partisans, thus securing the large and profitable patronage of the Spanish government. They promise, through their newspaper organs, to put in operation at once a series of reforms, embracing a large reduction of expenditures, the suppression of useless offices, the separation of church and state, the abolition of conscription for the regular army, trial by jury, the emancipation of slavery, and the extension of the Spanish constitution to the colonies. Whether these promises will be kept—whether, if fulfilled, the resistance such a development of the programme of the revolution of 1868 must encounter will be overcome by the support it should bring to the party that has the courage and the constancy to undertake it in earnest, I shall not venture to predict. To-morrow, I am to offer my felicitations to Mr. Martos, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, and I may then be better able to acquaint you with the views of the new cabinet, so far at least as they concern American interests. I am, &c.,