818 



SPAIN. 



Glassicare. Lamps for petroleum; goblets, tum- 

 blers, lightning-road insulators, glass tubes, vases, 

 and window-panes. 



Domestic Ltensils. All sorts of hardware, such as 

 pots, pans, cups, stoves, coffee and tea pots, sieves, 

 mortars and pestles, etc. ; crockery, tubes, buckets, 

 dippers, coffee and pepper mills. 



Cutlery. Knives, forks, spoons, carving-knives, 

 and potato-knives. 



Hardware. All sorts of carpenter's and builder's 

 tools, pianino-machines, molding-machines, machin- 

 ery for making windows and shutters, hand-drills 

 or foot-power drills, turning and mortising machines, 

 band-saws, hand-saws, chisels, scroll-saws of the 

 large kind, carving instruments, etc. ; paints, espe- 

 cially fire-proof paints, putty, lubricating ana paint 

 oils. 



Clothing. Shirting ? calicoes, lighter classes of 

 woolen goods ; shoes, if made according to the Cuban 

 pattern sharp points, high instep, and narrow ; but- 

 tons, thread, linings, etc. 



Soaps. The cheaper sorts, and small importations 

 of fine. 



Stationery of all sorts. 



Locomotives and all sorts of railroad supplies. 



Sewing-machines, hand and treadle. 



In the royal speech, read at the opening of 

 the Cortes, on December 30, 1880, was point- 

 ed out the progress achieved in the country 

 from the time of the accession of King Alfonso 

 XII, and on January 19, 1881, the debate on 

 that speech was concluded. Sefior Sagasta, 

 the leader of the Liberal-Dynastic party, in an 

 intemperate but telling speech, attacked the 

 Government on all points of their policy, and 

 accused Sefior Canovas of remaining in power 

 for his own self-interest at the sacrifice of the 

 country. He drew a strong argument from 

 English politics, where patriotism and liberty, 

 he said, marked the policy of public men. 

 Touching the question of finance, he said that 

 increased taxation was impossible in the pres- 

 ent overburdened condition of the people, and 

 that the Finance Minister, in his project for 

 the arrangement of the debt, had contradicted 

 all his arguments of last year. Sefior Canovas 

 replied that he owed his power, not to mili- 

 tary influences, but to the will of the monarch, 

 and that he would remain in power as long as 

 he retained the confidence of the crown and 

 of the majority of the Cortes. The House di- 

 vided. For the Government 209 votes were 

 recorded, and 65 against it. The opposition to 

 Sefior Canova's policy persisted, however, and 

 gained such a majority as to lead to the dis- 

 solution of the Cortes by a royal decree, under 

 date February 9th. 



On September 20th were inaugurated the 

 first Cortes under the Liberal-Dynastic Gov- 

 ernment of Sefior Sagasta. The speech read 

 by King Alfonso on that occasion was noted as 

 an expression of the essential spirit of liber- 

 alism. His Majesty began by congratulating 

 himself and the newly elected representatives 

 of the country on the confidence which they 

 had inspired, and invited them to improve the 

 present situation and develop those opportuni- 

 ties which the future so strongly promised. 

 He heartily desired the definitive alliance of 

 .the two elements which compose the political 



community in Spain by giving satisfaction to 

 the one, with the traditional symbol of mon- 

 archy, and tranquillizing the other with re- 

 spect to the due development of liberal ideas. 

 " Spain enjoys to-day the benefit of universal 

 peace. The relations with the Holy See and 

 with the foreign powers are most cordial, and 

 the satisfactory result of the negotiations* 

 with the French Republic on the Saida ques- 

 tion once more proves the firm friendship ex- 

 isting between the two countries. The pref- 

 erential attention of the Government will be 

 given to the negotiations for commercial trea- 

 ties pending with Great Britain, France, and 

 Venezuela, and the necessary steps will be 

 taken to prepare new treaties with the Span- 

 ish-American republics. Early attention will 

 be called to the codification of the general laws 

 of the country, to the reorganization of the 

 army, and to an increase of the material of the 

 navy, with a view to rendering that service 

 worthy of its glorious and ancient traditions. 

 Public works and public instruction will by 

 no means be left without attention. Cuba and 

 Porto Rico now enjoy the same civil rights as 

 their brethren of the Peninsula, and the aboli- 

 tion of the tobacco monopoly in the Philip- 

 pines has put an end to an odious servitude, 

 and will, no doubt, open up a new era of pros- 

 perity to the [Philippine] Archipelago." 



Referring to the, royal remark concerning 

 cordial relations with the foreign powers, it 

 may not be inopportune here to transcribe the 

 views of a correspondent of the London 

 "Times" on the subject of the feeling toward 

 Spain. "As for the singular rumor of Ger- 

 many seeking to produce estrangement be- 

 tween France and Spain," writes that corre- 

 spondent under date June 30th, " the moment 

 would be ill-chosen for such an idea. Never, 

 as has been shown by the tone of the Spanish 

 press and nation during the Tunis affair, have 

 France and Spain been more cordial friends. 

 It is even affirmed that M. Jules Ferry, to whom 

 his friends attribute somewhat broad views on 

 international policy, has spoken of the readi- 

 ness of France to embrace an opportunity of 

 introducing Spain into the European concert. 

 Such an act would certainly be warmly appre- 

 ciated by a nation whose pride is hurt at its ex- 

 clusion from the great councils of Europe, and 

 which deserves encouragement in its efforts to 

 recover lost ground. Her young King is popu- 

 lar, and has shown himself a liberal sovereign ; 

 her embassadors are men who earn respect and 

 esteem, her old strifes seem to be allayed, her 

 finances and resources are reviving, and there 

 will be universal congratulation when her rep- 

 resentatives again take their seats among those 

 of the great powers." 



A split, long foreshadowed, in the Repub- 

 lican party became an accomplished fact in 

 November, and, with the secession of Sefiores 

 Cristino Martos, Montero Rios, and Echegarny, 



* Respecting the indemnities to be paid by the French Gov- 

 ernment to the Spanish victims of Saida. 



