No. 446.
Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts.
Madrid, June 2, 1879. (Received June 18.)
Sir: I have the honor to report that the new Cortes were opened yesterday by the King in person with the usual pomp.
As it is an open secret that there are wide differences of opinion in [Page 942] the Liberal-Conservative party, which the present ministry are supposed to represent, as to certain questions of policy, especially as to the extent and nature of the reforms to be carried out in Cuba, it is not to be wondered at that the royal speech should deal mainly with generalities, which, if they do not satisfy, will at least not irritate any fraction of the dominant party.
After a very becoming allusion to the death of Queen Mercedes, the speech claims credit for the efforts made “to obtain complete liberty and sincerity in the expression of the public will.”
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Then follow congratulations on the complete restoration of order in the whole peninsula, an expression of particular satisfaction at the establishment of a Chinese legation in Madrid, and an allusion to the meeting at Elvas between the Kings of Spain and Portugal.
The next paragraph is of more importance:
With the intention to make the administration of justice more expeditious, my government will present to you various projects of reform in the penal code, in the law of civil process, in the organization of courts, and in judicial procedure, in order to reduce prosecutions for all kinds of crime to an oral and public trial.
The last-mentioned reform, if carried out, will have excellent effects, both in expediting justice, and making it more respected.
There are brief allusions to the army and navy and education.
The ministry of hacienda is felicitated on the success of the recent loan raised by public subscription—
In which all classes of society have concurred, which has covered the deficits of the treasury, limiting the floating debt to the proportions which the annual estimates exact, and, the interest of money being thus reduced, capital will come to the aid of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, contributing to the increase of wealth and to the solidity and improvement of credit.
The government is also occupied in rectifying the bases of taxation, in reducing arrears to order, and in collecting the necessary data and elements to propose to you the means of remedying or lessening the effects produced on our national industries by the economic crisis through which the world is passing.
The estimates will be at once presented to you without new burdens; and to facilitate their discussion, my government will propose to you separately the measures and regulations necessary to improve the revenue and the public economy.
Then follow a few words concerning reforms to be proposed in public charities, and in provincial, and municipal administrations.
The passage relating to Cuba is as follows:
It is not possible that the traces of ten years of desolation and mourning which our colonies have undergone should be speedily obliterated, but my government will take care to present to you such measures as may tend to remedy past evils, and to draw constantly closer the bond of interest and affection now more than ever indissoluble, sealed as it is with the spirit of concord. Important have been the decisions adopted during the parliamentary recess to arrive with a firm step at the measure of possible assimilation between the administration of those provinces and that of the mother country, thus fulfilling the noble aspirations of centuries. Accounts will be rendered to you of all these measures, and the representatives of the Antillas being fortunately gathered in this chamber with those of the Peninsula, I am confident that with your patriotic help all these designs will be carried out and perfected. Among these new projects, the first place will be given to those intended to solve the social question of the island of Cuba, hastening the day of the complete extinction of slavery in accordance with principles already established, and to those which aim at reforming taxes, duties, and expenses of administration, all with the leading intention of reconciling interests and uniting desires, that being my earnest aspiration, and the end proposed by my government.
The result of this sound policy is already felt, for in spite of the many obstacles offered by industrial crises, and even by the rigors of nature, the receipts of the treasury in Cuba and Porto Rico are increasing, the administration is organizing, and the hope is renewed of discharging without unreasonable postponement sacred obligations necessarily neglected during the period through which we are still passing.
The speech was received in silence with the exception of the passage referring to the death of the Queen. This, however, was to be expected in listening to a document intentionally colorless.
The fate of the ministry will be decided in the discussions which are to follow, and is more likely to turn upon some subsidiary, and comparatively unimportant point, than upon any question of general policy.
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A copy of the King’s speech in full is hereto annexed.
I have, &c.,