No. 193.
Mr. Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Sir: Immediately after the announcement of the new provisional government in France, the republican members of the committee asked that the Cortes be assembled at an early day. Although they were supported by the partisans of the Duke of Montpensier, the friends of the administration in the committee, led by Mr. Sagasta, the secretary of state, opposed the proposition as inopportune, and it was defeated.
I was not unprepared for this action, General Prim having intimated to me the day before the committee met, that, in his opinion, the irregular and exceptional manner in which the new government in France had [Page 237] been inaugurated seriously impaired its influence, and that the unfortunate circumstances under which it assumed power were unfavorable to its duration. It was evident that the president of the council did not regard the republican movement in Paris as having attained proportions which would seriously disturb the situation in Spain. Meetings have been held in several of the principal towns, expressing sympathy with the popular reaction in France. The radical press of Madrid and the provinces is loud in its appeals to the government to seize this opportunity to complete the programme of the Spanish revolution by abolishing the monarchy. The republican deputies, some sixty or more in number, propose to issue an address to the nation, in which they will decline any further responsibility for the attitude of the people in view of the refusal of the government to convene the Cortes.
Yesterday the journals published the correspondence between the Spanish ambassador in Paris and the French minister of foreign affairs, in which Mr. Olozaga states that he has been directed to enter into official relations with the provisional government. The reply of M. Jules Favre treats this communication as an acknowledgment of the republic on the part of Spain, and appeals to her Latin sympathies to join France in asserting the principle of self-government. This action of the Spanish cabinet was as gratifying to the republicans as it was unpalatable to the monarchical party, until it transpired that by some inadvertence the Spanish ambassador must have exceeded his instructions, as the ministerial organs affirm that he was expressly directed to hold no other than unofficial relations with the present de facto government in France, and it is now said that Mr. Olozaga has been summoned to Madrid for explanations.
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A profound impression has been made in all political circles by the reported action of the president in tendering his good offices to the belligerents in opening negotiations for peace. And it is not too much to say that the expression of our interest in the welfare of France, now that she has unfurled the republican flag, has rebuked the suggestions that the republic would find itself more isolated than the empire, and has, at least, checked the disposition that was at once evinced in some quarters to turn the reverses France must yet suffer to the detriment of popular institutions.