PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



67 



rer, the Spanish, minister, " it is by ' units ' and not 

 by ' cargoes, 5 that the process of liberation will take 

 place, so that the proceedings will be much less 

 alarming in their general aspect, or in their individ- 

 ual amount." 



Previous to the arrival of General Pezuela at Ha- 

 vana, the discussion of the slavery question had been 

 sedulously prevented there, by the government cen- 

 sorship of the press. He entered upon the govern- 

 ment of the island on the 3d of December, 1853, and 

 on the 7th and 8th of the same month the " Diario 

 de la Marina," his special organ, contained elaborate 

 articles, in which the former policy of the govern- 

 ment was condemned, and the necessity of " pro- 

 gress was urged, and a change insisted upon," 

 although the writer admitted that, " great social 

 phenomena are not suppressed without creating 

 greater embarrassments, or at least equal difficulties 

 with those we aspire to eradicate." The position 

 and new obligations of Spain are thus alluded to in 

 the articles in question : 



" A member of the vast community of European 

 nations, and bound to it by a thousand ties of glory 

 and of interest, she could not remain unmoved by 

 the general torrent of thought and idea. "With these 

 she has contracted obligations which her honor 



