PRELIMINARY ESSAY, 



37 



is well aware that, should the case arrive for it to 

 defend her right, this nation will do her duty as she 

 has done on former occasions, without counting the 

 elements of resistance, and relying only on God and 

 the sanctity of her cause, and on her constancy and 

 valor." 1 



• 



This position of Spain towards England, was soon 

 after changed for one of complete harmony with 

 regard to the social and political relations of Cuba, 

 and it is somewhat remarkable that the change in 

 the position of the Spanish government was so sud- 

 den, and unexpected by England, that conflicting 

 dispatches were written on the same day to each 

 other, by the secretary for foreign affairs in Lon- 

 don, and the British minister at Madrid. On the 

 16th of March, 1853, the Earl of Clarendon writes 

 to Lord Howden that the position of Spain " endan- 

 gers the friendly relations between the two coun- 

 tries ; m and on the same day Lord Howden writes 

 to the Earl of Clarendon, that " the Spanish govern- 

 ment has agreed to a settlement of a question which 

 has long been a matter of painful discussion and dis- 

 pute." 3 What the conditions of this settlement were, 

 can only be partially conjectured from subsequent 



1 Report on the Slave Trade, p. 196. 

 2 Report on the Slave Trade, 1853— p. 196. 8 Do. p. 74. 



