but neither of them considered the note an unfriendly one, but on the contrary dictated by a sincere desire of the United States to see the struggle brought to an end. But the matter of the gunboats was one of especial gravity. The pretext that they were intended to be used in any way against Peru was not serious; the war with the South American republics was over. The seizure of the gunboats seemed to indicate a hostile interior toward Spain. If this exists, Spain must and will face the situation thus created. "But if we are forced into war with the United States," he said, "we are not so innocent (candides) as to think we are going to have any allies in Europe. We expect to fight it out alone, whatever the issue may be. We have made no overtures to any power for help."

No. 26.

Mr. Fish to General Sickles.

[Telegram.]

WASHINGTON, September 15, 1869.

If a negotiation were made on the basis of the six successive steps mentioned in your dispatch No. 10, omitting the plebiscit, can the president of council give assurance that if the United States induced the insurgents to lay down arms, and deputies to the Cortes be elected by Cuba, that the Cortes will grant independence? The plebiscit is impracticable, because in the present circumstances and conditions of the island, a popular vote can be no indication of the popular will, and this must be borne in mind with reference to any election to be held for deputies. It is doubtful if the insurgents will consent to lay down arms, but if their early independence can be assured thereby, the United States will make every effort to induce them to do so.

No. 27.

General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

[Telegram.]

SEPTEMBER 16, 1869.

Long interview Tuesday with foreign secretary ad interim. Notes of conversation subsequently exchanged. Am now able to send résumé. First. Spain frankly and gratefully accepts good offices of United States, but cannot accept bases proposed, and asks withdrawal of my note of September 3d. Spain desires, without appearance of pressure, to make the concessions she offers to Cuba.

Second. Permanent commission of Cortes now in session, representing all parties, unanimously assure government all the means at their disposal to put down rebellion; they oppose treating about Cuba with any foreign power; not objecting, however, to a friendly understanding with the United States by which their good offices may help to end the struggle.

Third. Spain has not begun and does not contemplate negotiations with any foreign power about Cuba, or the proposed mediation of the United States, nor has my note been communicated to any foreign gov

ernment.

Fourth. Spain desires to terminate civil war in Cuba, and will agree to armistice if necessary to peace. This measure will be recommended to Captain General of Cuba, but must be left to his discretion.

Fifth. Spain is ready at once to give Cuba ample reforms and widest liberties enjoyed in peninsula, also general amnesty and gradual emancipation of slaves.

These refused, the war will be prosecuted with energy and activity, pardoning, however, the vanquished and prisoners, and striving to prevent all shedding of blood through revenge, and all reprisals, whatever the provocation from insurgents.

Sixth. Reparation promised in cases of Speakman and Wyeth. Orders given to prevent such cruelties hereafter.

Full report will go by next mail. Will telegraph further particulars if desired.

Spain regards Cuban question as purely domestic, and will not, in my judgment, accept mediation. If our offer be withdrawn, and friendly relations continue, our good offices can mitigate the cruel character of the war, promote liberal concessions, and perhaps bring about an armistice.

Two more transports have started for Cuba with troops, from twelve to twenty thousand rumored under arms, besides six war vessels. Will report departures as they occur.

No. 28.

General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
[Telegram.]

SEPTEMBER 17, 1869. Telegram of 15th received. President of council expected in Madrid on or before 21st. Discretionary authority to withdraw pending offer of mediation will facilitate new negotiation. Information about recognition and gunboats desirable before further overtures. Cortes would probably insist on plebiscit. Perhaps the obstacles to a fair vote may be removed by an armistice or by a simultaneous disarmament of volunteers and insurgents. Suggest answer direct by French cable and duplicate through Motley.

No. 19.]

No. 29.

General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

MADRID, September 19, 1869.

In the execution of the instructions contained in your telegram of the 13th instant, you will have observed in the report already transmitted in my dispatch No. 17, that I withheld any intimation of the probable withdrawal of our proposed offer of mediation. In the present temper of the cabinet, which more or less reflects an excited public opinion, the suggestion would have had no influence in preventing the movement of re-enforcements to Cuba, whilst it might have increased the obvious disquietude of this government to be subjected to any appearance of pressure at this moment.

Nevertheless the interview of the 14th had not proceeded far before the minister himself stated that Spain would be embarrassed in the

execution of the liberal policy it contemplated in relation to Cuba, unless my note of the 3d instant, proposing the mediation of the United States, were withdrawn, and that he therefore hoped this might be done. It will not escape your notice that, in my reply, I waived any allusion to the withdrawal of the note, and confined myself to the expression of a mere opinion that my government would not hesitate to withdraw the proposals it had made, if convinced that these would not contribute to the pacification of Cuba; that our offer had been made for that purpose only, and without any motive of present or ulterior advantage to the United States.

It is needless to trouble you with further details of the interview, as the synopsis forwarded by telegraph, day before yesterday, together with the brief report already transmitted in my No. 17, and Mr. Becerra's note inclosed with it, will put you in possession of all that transpired, except the arguments and observations of the minister and myself respectively in support of our views. The conference was marked by the same cordiality that has heretofore agreeably characterized my intercourse with the Foreign Office.

I have not yet deemed it opportune, in view of the commotion caused by our proposed mediation on the basis of independence, to suggest to Mr. Becerra the modifications of our offer communicated in your instructions by telegram through Mr. Motley, dated 1st instant, and received correctly on the 5th. These modifications, as well as the new bases mentioned in your instructions, received by telegraph on the 16th instant, will be the subject of an early conference with the president of the council when he returns to Madrid.

I inclose with this dispatch a decree organizing a commission to consider and propose within thirty days a plan of political and administrative reform for Porto Rico, including the abolition of slavery. It is preceded by a decree dissolving a former commission, and establishing another to prepare and submit forthwith the necessary changes in the penal code of the Peninsula to make it applicable to the colonies. The report of the colonial minister, preceding the decree in relation to Porto Rico, is not without interest in its recognition of the cogent reasons demanding radical changes in Spanish colonial government, and thorough reforms in colonial administration. Other decrees are foreshadowed, establishing freedom of worship in Cuba, and providing for the election of deputies to the Cortes; although several times announced semi-officially as forthcoming, they have not yet appeared.

I am assured by the president of the Cortes that among the first subjects brought before that body will be the cruel and vindictive manner in which the war in Cuba is prosecuted, and he feels confident the Cortes will require the most energetic measures to be taken by the government to prevent hereafter the outrages which have been so justly denounced by the United States. Captain General Concha, Marquis of Duro, has likewise expressed to me his abhorrence of the treatment of prisoners of war and other captives in Cuba, and will move actively in the matter on the assembling of the Cortes, where his high military reputation and personal character will exercise their just influence. Other prominent personages have given me similar assurances.

I have sent confidential instructions to the consuls at Cadiz, Barcelona, and Malaga to inform me of all movements of troops embarked for Cuba, and of vessels of war leaving those ports for the Spanish West Indian fleet. I have already received a report from General Duffie, announcing the departure of one thousand five hundred infantry from Cadiz, and that

five or six hundred more are there preparing to embark. The departure of the frigate Almansas from Carthagena, bound for Havana, is announced to-day. I have not sent to our consuls at Carthagena or Santander for information, as they seem to be Spaniards.

MINISTRY OF TRANSMARINE AFFAIRS.STATEMENT.

SIR: By a decree of September 29, 1866, a commission was appointed whose duty it was "to examine and propose a reform of the penal laws in force in our transmarine possessions," and also to propose "the principles and rules whereby judgments in criminal cases shall be governed" in those territories.

This commission, taking as its basis the penal code which is in force in the peninsula, and accepting as its object the application of said code in our transmarine possessions, has labored to facilitate the same by means of some reforms in the text. But these labors do not embrace the whole code, nor do they refer to the enforcement of the penal code, which was, and justly so, one of the principal ends for which the commission was appointed.

It is important to carry out this intention, and it would be a matter of great regret, if, by reason of its being unduly extended, any obstacle should be placed in the way of its speedy accomplishment. Hence, the undersigned minister is of opinion that the duties of the aforesaid commission being considered at an end, another should be appointed to examine and propose the various reforms and modifications whereby our penal code may be applied to our various transmarine territories, and at the same time to prepare a provisional law for the application of the code, deferring the elaborate preparation of a law for judicial procedure until some future time.

In this manner, limiting its task to the examination of the common penal law, and to the form of its immediate application, the committee will be able to accomplish this as speedily as the government of your highness and our brethren beyond the sea desire

and need.

With these considerations the undersigned minister has the honor to submit to the approval of your highness the accompanying plan of a decree. The Minister of Transmarine Affairs,

MANUEL BECERRA.

In accordance with the suggestion of the minister of transmarine affairs, made with the approval of the council of ministers, I decree as follows:

ARTICLE 1. The commission which was appointed by the decree of September 29, 1866, to examine and propose reforms in the penal laws in force in the transmarine possessions of Spain, is hereby dissolved.

ART. 2. Another commission is appointed in its stead, to consist of a president, five voting members, and a secretary, who shall have the right to vote, and it shall be the duty of said commission, first, to propose as speedily as possible such alterations as may be necessary in the penal code now in force in the peninsula, in order to apply the same to the various Spanish territories lying beyond the sea; secondly, to prepare, likewise with all speed, a provisional law for the application of the same code; thirdly, to examine and propose the basis of a law for judicial procedure in criminal cases for the said territories.

ART. 3. The ministry of transmarine affairs will furnish the commission with the data and information which it possesses, and will further give the necessary orders for the execution of this decree..

Done at Madrid, September 10, 1869.

MANUEL BECERRA,

Minister of Transmarine Affairs.

FRANCISCO SERRANO.

STATEMENT.

SIR: The day being at hand for our legislative body to renew its labors, and the legitimate representatives of Porto Rico being now present in the metropolis, the time

has arrived for the fulfillment of the just duty and of the solemn obligation imposed upon us by the September revolution toward the Spaniards beyond the sea.

Spain is not limited to the peninsula which is bounded by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The community of race and traditions which is manifested by a common language and a glorious history, never tarnished by disloyalty, clearly shows that nations are made principally by means of moral bonds of union far stronger than misfortunes and errors. If governments that distrusted the national spirit by which they disdained to be actuated, hoped more from the always doubtful efficacy of external and violent means than from the attractive virtue of national solidarity, never appealed to in vain among our people, it is now time to seek, in the free manifestation of the aspirations of all, that potent union and that dauntless courage whereby we may recover the position which history claims for us, and which of right belongs to us in the council and assembly of enlightened nations. Sovereign Spain cannot deprive any of her members of that portion of sovereignty which is their due.

The revolutionary movement, therefore, was very soon made in our transmarine possessions, and gave rise to legitimate as well as encouraging hopes. But, in an unfortunate hour, by reason of inveterate feelings of distrust, by reason of the excessive exaggeration of past offenses, perhaps also by reason of inordinate aspirations, this movement, which ought to have been as measured, as regular, and as productive of good as in the peninsula, stepped beyond the limits within which it should have confined itself, raising the flag of rebellion in Cuba, to violate the sacred integrity of the Spanish nation. In presence of such a danger the honor of the country, the duty of the government, the vital interests of the revolution, peremptorily demanded the defense of the territory, and, as a consequence of the state of hostilites, the much to be regretted but necessary postponement of reforms, so that these might not be confounded with the timorous and arbitrary reforms of past times, nor fail to appear solemnly consecrated by the action and free consent of all interested in them, thus strengthening with firmer bonds than those of force the lasting union of Cuba and Spain.

But if such invincible obstacles temporarily prevent the Spanish revolution from exercising its political influence in the most precious of our Antilles, this is not the case in Porto Rico, and the government being free from the well-founded apprehensions which the state of affairs in Cuba cause it to entertain with respect to that island, when the question is to radically change the political and social system there prevailing, it is proper to show how energetic, honest, and sincere is its desire to admit the colonies to the full enjoyment of their rights, and to an untrammeled participation in the great conquests of modern civilization.

A deplorable and pertinacious tradition of despotism, which, if it could ever be justified, is without a shadow of reason at the present time, intrusted the direction and management of our colonial establishment to the agents of the metropolis, destroying, by their dominant and exclusive authority, the vital energies of the country, and the creative and productive activity of free individuals.

And although the system may now have improved in some of its details, the domineering action of the authorities being less felt, it still appears full of the original error, which is upheld by the force of tradition, and the necessary influence of interests created under their protection, which doubtless are deserving of respect, so far as they are reconcilable with the requirements of justice, with the common welfare, and with the principles on which every liberal system should be founded.

A change of system, political as well as administrative, is, therefore, imperatively demanded. To declare and respect the inalienable rights of persons, municipalities, and provinces, to seek to bring about administrative centralization, allowing the widest freedom of action to municipal boards and provincial deputations, as legitimate, immediate, and direct organs and representatives of the people electing them; to simplify the complicated mechanism of the superior administration, restoring to those natural centers the powers which of right belong to them, and as a political guarantee or still greater importance, firmly to establish the public representation, at one time near the colonial government, at another near that of the metropolis, or in both at once, if it should be possible and necessary-such is, in brief, the general intention of the undersigned minister.

But, in order that these intentions may be duly fulfilled, and that their results may be felt by all alike, it is indispensable to solve one of the most difficult social problems, at once the danger and the glory of our epoch. Errors arising from a false view of life sacrificed for more than three centuries the personal liberty of thousands of beings to the idea of preparing for them a greater degree of happiness after death. Mistaken notions of economy were joined to these, seeking in forced labor that wealth and production which are found far more abundantly in free labor. But neither do the eternal laws of morality, which permit not even a good end to be attained through unjust means, nor does the mission of the state, which, as the supreme organ of right, ought to respect it under all circumstances and above all interests, permit the existence of slavery, with its horrors and dangers, to continue any longer, without an act of immorality and injustice. This was recognized by the commissioners appointed to propose