SPAIN. 



747 



thirty crimes and punishable offense?, or two 

 thirds of the entire number on the statute- 

 books. The election of jurors was fixed for 

 January, 1889, and the juries will begin their 

 functions throughout the kingdom in the fol- 

 lowing April. The establishment of trial by 

 jury is regarded with great satisfaction by the 

 majority of Spaniards because the administra- 

 tion of justice by judges who are the creatures 

 of politicians has been often scandalously par- 

 tial and has brought the law and the courts 

 into contempt. 



In the financial legislation for 1888, Sefior 

 Puigcerver was called upon to obtain a larger 

 revenue, and at the same time to remit a part 

 of the land-tax in order to relieve the agricult- 

 ural depression caused by the fall in the prices 

 of grain anddiminished exportsof cattle. Heavy 

 taxes on imported spirits met the approval of all 

 the chambers of commerce, as they served the 

 double purpose of increasing the receipts of the 

 treasury and of discouraging the manufacture 

 of artificial wine, and thus promoting vine-cult- 

 nre. The spirits used in imitation and forti- 

 fied wines are mostly German potato brandy. 

 The new tax is a consumption duty on all spir- 

 its, foreign and domestic, ranging from 80 pe- 

 setas per hectolitre for qualities containing 

 less than 60 per cent, of pure alcohol to 120 

 pesetas for these above 80 per cent. The wine- 

 growers demanded the prohibition of imports, 

 and in their interest the Cortes passed a law 

 against the manufacture of spurious wines, in 

 pursuance of which many factories were closed 

 ami the manufactured stock was destroyed. 

 In attempting to collect the new tax on spirits 

 the revenue officials encountered in all the 

 large towns the resistance of the distillers, who 

 organized indignation meetings and appointed 

 a committee to arrange with the Government 

 for changes in the law. At Tarragona, -where 

 there are large distilleries, the populace rose 

 against the police and revenue collectors, stoned 

 them, and raised barricades. To prevent se- 

 rious disturbances the Government suspended 

 the collection of the duties. The largest dis- 

 tillery in that town is a Swedish concern on 

 behalf of which the Swedish Government raised 

 a protest. In Saragossa, Barcelona, and Madrid, 

 the manufacturers, liquor merchants, and retail- 

 ers refused to pay the tax on their stock in trade, 

 and threatened to close up their establishments 

 if the Government insisted on the payment. 

 The Minister of Finance finally yielded and 

 agreed with the deputations from Tarragona, 

 Barcelona, Reus, and other cities that the tax 

 on pure alcohol should be collected, but not on 

 manufactured wines ; that the tax on spirits of 

 all kinds should be remitted if the municipal 

 authorities of any town demand it ; and that 

 the cost of excise licenses should be graduated 

 according to the density of population. 



Elevation to a Great Power. Germany has gone 

 out of her way to show diplomatic courtesies to 

 monarchical Spain, and aimed to be the sponsor 

 who would help Spain to regain her former 



place in the European councils, partly with 

 the object of attracting the good will of Spain 

 and of gaining her moral support or definite 

 adhesion to the Central European leauii' 

 partly in order to enable her to a<-ert her pre- 

 tensions to Morocco, and thu- prevent the 

 French and English from establishing them- 

 selves in that country, and gaining control of 

 the road to the Suez Canal. In 1881 Germany 

 invited Spain to take part in the conference 

 of the great powers for the regulation of the 

 Suez Canal. Spanish pride and antipathy, 

 especially on the part of the Liberals, toward 

 the "hereditary foe of the Latin nations" de- 

 feated the purpose of the patronizing court- 

 esies. The consequences of the indiscreet nom- 

 ination of Alfonso XII to the colonelcy of the 

 Uhlan regiment in Strasburg. and, the feeling 

 roused by the Caroline Islands dispute, caused 

 the Government to abandon the purpose of 

 raising the Berlin legation to the rank of an 

 embassy after the visit of the German Crown- 

 Prince in 1885, although the permission of the 

 Cortes had been obtained, lest it should be 

 construed as a sign of a political treaty. The 

 allied monarchical powers are especially inter- 

 ested in preventing the establishment of a re- 

 public in Spain, and since 1885 a secret agree- 

 ment for this end has subsisted between them. 

 The matter of raising the rank of ministers to 

 that of ambassadors was allowed to rest until 

 1887, when Spain called the Morocco confer- 

 ence, where it was desirable that she should 

 appear as a great power. The authorization 

 of the Cortes was obtained, and by the royal 

 decree of Dec. 27, 1887. the ministries at Ber- 

 lin, London, Vienna, and Rome were changed 

 into embassies. In January, 1888, the repre- 

 sentatives of these four great powers at Madrid 

 presented their credentials as ambassadors. 



It was the opposite of a rapprochement with 

 Germany that Sefior Moret and his colleagues 

 had in view when they invested Spain with the 

 outward rank of a great power. They hoped 

 to see their country take the lead in the Latin 

 League, comprising Spain. France, Belgium, 

 and Italy, with the Spanish republics of South 

 and Central America, over which the suprem- 

 acy of the mother-country would again be as- 

 serted when Spain, strengthened by the acqui- 

 sition of Morocco, should be restored to a 

 leading position among the powers of Europe. 

 The alliance, which is the dream of Spanish 

 statesmen, is to be directed against Germany's 

 predominance in Europe and the expansion of 

 the Germanic races in all parts of the world. 

 Count Benomar, the Spanish ambassador at 

 Berlin, disclosed to Prince Bismarck commu- 

 nications of Anti-German tenor, intended only 

 for his own instruction, revealing this secret 

 aim of Spanish policy, and for this offense was 

 abruptly recalled in the autumn of 1888. 



Labor-Riots. The farmers and land-owners 

 in the province of Hrielva, adjacent to the 

 mining district of Rio Tinto, complained that 

 the process of roasting copper-ore in the open 



