36 



humboldt's cttba. 



CONDE DE ALCOY TO LORD HOWDEN, 

 [Extract.] "Madrid, February 9, 1853. 



" Her majesty's government has seen with deep 

 regret the hint made by your lordship as to the effect 

 which the supposed increase of the slave-trade is 

 likely to produce on the opinion of England, with 

 regard to the manner of viewing the fact of the 

 island of Cuba being taken possession of by another 

 power ; and I assure your lordship that what on this 

 subject is particularly painful to her majesty's gov- 

 ernment, and even more regretable than any consid- 

 erations affecting the immediate interests of Spain, 

 is the melancholy reflection that the change of opin- 

 ion in England, which your lordship anticipates, 

 would be a triumph for the partisans of force, and a 

 defeat for the upholders of right ; because from the 

 moment in which it should be declared that, for more 

 or less plausible reasons, although not connected 

 with the questions of right, it is lawful to look with 

 indifference at the spoliation of one nation by 

 another nation, the subversion of all principles, and 

 the oblivion of the law of nations, on which the 

 peace of the world is resting, would then be sanc- 

 tioned. * * * 



" At all events, the government, who knows the 

 loyalty, and the noble feelings of the Spanish nation, 



