SPAIN. 



bank. English, as well as French, Dutch, and Bel- 

 gian bankers, refused to lend. A salt monopoly and 

 a reform of the octroi were among the expedients 

 proposed for raising money without borrowing. 

 This latter, it was feared, would lead to disturb- 

 ances. The imposition of new municipal taxes led 

 ious riots in Alicante in the beginning of July, 

 and the collection of the taxes was su>pended. 



The tariff war that had been waged with Germany 

 for two years came to an end when a mod' 

 was arranged between the two governments and 

 went into operation on July 25. When the old 

 treaty of commerce terminated in 1894. after vari- 

 : tempts to bring about a new understanding, 

 Spain imposed upon German imports an exception- 

 ally high scale of duties, whereupon Germany in- 

 creased by 50 per cent, the tariff on Spanish goods. 

 Spain was the heavier loser by the tariff war, which 

 closed a large market to Spanish wines and fruits. 

 By the modus vivendi. which was preliminary to 

 the arrangement of a new commercial treaty, the 

 extra 50-per-cent. duty on Spanish goods was re- 

 voked and they were admitted on the same terms as 

 those of other countries possessing no special agree- 

 ment, in return for which Spain conceded the most- 

 favored-nation treatment to Germany. 



The imposition of the new octroi duties gave rise 

 to rioting in Valencia, where a band of men armed 

 with rifles, led by Bernard Alvarez, a retired colonel, 

 on Aug. 4 attempted to shoot the octroi officials. 

 Similar disturbances took place in other towns. Dr. 

 Toledo, a Cuban, was another leader. Violent dem- 

 onstrations were made against the departure of fresh 

 re-enforcements to Cuba. Radical Republicans 

 joined in the movement. Several Republican ex-Dep- 

 uties were arrested in Barcelona and imprisoned in 

 a fortress. Anarchistic circulars were spread abroad 

 in great numbers urging the soldiers not to fight. 

 The Liberals resisted the proposals of the Minister 

 of Finance to lease the Almaden quicksilver mines 

 to the Rothschilds and to prolong till 1980 the priv- 

 ileges of the railroad companies without any appar- 

 ent equivalent consideration, and also the revival 

 of the tobacco monopoly. On receiving assurances 

 that the concessions were based on promises of loans 

 from the French companies receiving them for the 

 speedy termination of the Cuban war the Liberals 

 withdrew their opposition except to insist on a pro- 

 viso that the renewal of the railroad subsidies should 

 be made conditional on obtaining at par a loan of 

 1.000.000.000 pesetas bearing 4 per cent, interest. 

 The Carlist members of the Senate and Congress 

 withdrew on Sept. ? as a mark of their disapproval 

 of the railroad subvention bill. The efforts to raise 

 the loan in France finally failed, and the arrange- 

 ment with the Rothschilds and the railroad com- 

 panies fell through. The Government then pro- 

 posed to raise an internal loan of 400.000,000 pese- 

 tas, specially guaranteed by the customs revenue. 

 for '250,000,000 pesetas of which, bearing 6 per cent, 

 interest, subscriptions were invited at the price of 

 93. Motives of patriotism were appealed to rather 

 than commercial self-interest, with the result that 

 the loan was largely oversubscribed when offered 

 to the public on Xov. 16. On Dec. 31 the Queen 

 Regent signed a decree by which it was ordered 

 that the administrative reforms be carried out in 

 Puerto Rico, and was promised similar reforms 

 should begin in Cuba as soon as the insurgents 

 should return to their allegiance. 



Colonies. The colonial possessions of Spain have 

 a total area of 405.3:38 square miles, with 9.695. .V, 7 

 inhabitants : 45.205 square miles and 2.438.395 pop- 

 ulation in the West Indies, 116,256 square miles and 

 7.121.172 population in Asia, and 243.N77 square 

 miles and 136.000 estimated population in Africa. 

 (See CUBA and PHILIPPINE ISLAXDS.) 



SPKNCKIJ. HKI:I;J:I:T. 



711 



SPENCER. HERBERT, an Kngli>h p! 

 born in I)erby. April 27. 1*20. In a fain. 

 in his autobiography. Kdward Gibbon ha- 

 the mingled emotion- with which, on a im n,. 

 night in June, 1787. he penned the ; f the 



last page of his " History." and thu- un- 



dertaking of many lab<>rioii< years. In a somewhat 

 similar, though at once more dignified and D 

 touching strain, Mr. Spencer, in the pref; ; 

 recently published third volume of the " Princ 

 of Sociology." has set on record his feelings on re- 

 viewing his finished life-work. Doiibile>~ in ear- 

 lier years some exultation would have resulted. 

 says. " but as age creeps on feelings weaken, ami 

 now my chief pleasure is in my emancipation. Still, 

 there is satisfaction in the consciou?nes> that ] 

 discouragements, and shattered health have not 

 prevented me from fulfilling the purpose of my 

 life." 



When Mr. Spender entered upon his work, he 

 estimated that it would require at least twenty 

 years of regular and persistent toil, allowing two 

 years to each of the ten stout volumes called for by 

 his plan. Reckoning from the publication of the 

 initial installment of " First Principles " in Octo- 

 ber, 1860. it has occupied thirty-six years. Begun 

 with little encouragement from the cultured world, 

 and even against the more cautious judgment of 

 immediate advisers, at a time when its author was 

 already broken down in health, with an uncertain 

 financial outlook and narrowly limited working 

 powers, it has been pushed slowly and painfully 

 toward completion. For a time the practical sup- 

 port yielded him by the reading public was so slight 

 that he seriously contemplated the abandonment of 

 his labors. After this, interruptions occurred with 

 increasing frequency in various unexpected ways. 

 He was forced to pause in the methodical unfolding 

 of his plan, to explain, restate, clear up misconcep- 

 tions, and reply to criticisms. On several occasions 

 his energies were drawn off into other, though in 

 most cases directly subsidiary, lines of work. The 

 supervision of the compilation of the " Descriptive 

 logy." the writing for the "International Sci- 

 entific Series " of his " Study of Sociology," the pub- 

 lication of timely essays rendered necessary, as he 

 felt, by the conditions and tendencies of public af- 

 fairs all delayed the prosecution of the larger de- 

 sign. And, worse than all, his physical powers, in 

 s[ ite of temporary improvements, continued, on the 

 whole, to decline. He had reckoned on a regular 

 working day of three hours : but this calculation, 

 moderate as it appeared to be. was presently proved 

 extravagant. Absolute inaction has often been 

 forced upon him as the sole means of recuperating 

 his strength, while through many a long period of 

 sleeplessness and prostration the dictation of a para- 

 graph or two each morning has represented his pro- 

 ductive capacity. 



Of the importance of this finished work in the in- 

 tellectual annals of the nineteenth century much 

 might be said. That it is in itself the largest, most 

 comprehensive, and most ambitious plan conceived 

 and wrought out by any single thinker of our time, 

 is obvious : nor will it be less obvious to those who 

 concern themselves in any way with the progress of 

 thought that, measured alike by the constructive 

 genius manifested in it and its far-reaching influ- 

 ence, the " Synthetic Philosophy " towers above all 

 other philoso'phic achievements of the age. There 

 is no field of mental activity that Mr. Spencer has 

 not to some extent made his own ; no line of inquiry 

 in which his power has not been felt. Even those 

 who differ the most radically from him are at the 

 same time compelled to define their positions in re- 

 lation to his arguments and conclusions, while his 

 speculations constitute a common point of departure 



