205 "GUILTY !

caused byr a vertically-acting force. The tenuity of the connectingstrip betweenthe two parts of the ship must be remembered, and also that the after part may have moved after the stem became imbedded in the mud. It maybe objected that it is somewhat a bold flight to account for an upheaval of the keel 34 ft. in such a way, and we thereforeonly advance the hypotheses as possible rather than probable."— ■ rineering, April 22, 1898.) It will thus be seen that though one must accept the American report as the most probable explanation of the wayin which the Maine was destroyed, it is not so absolutely- conclusive as to explaineverythingand excludeallpossibledoubt.

This side of the case has been dwelt upon, not with the slightest wish to question either the competence or the impartiality of the distinguished officers who formed the American Court ofEnquiry, but inorder to show that the minority whostill regard the case of the Maine as a mystery— perhaps an insoluble mysterysomething to say for their point of view. - we keep this in mind, we shall not be to understand one of the chief causes that " tly produced the war,but embitteredit on I ides. For while the United States officers hey were called on to punish a cowardly nurderous act of treachery, the Spaniards felt that they had been charged without reason with a hideous crime, and that those who made the charge had been both accusers and judgesin their own cause.

But once theMainereport waspublished,nay, assoon as theactionoftheGovernment inpreparingfor possible war showed what its conclusions would probably be, public opinion in America naturally took account only us the view accepted bv itsown officers,that the explosionwas caused bya mine,andit wentbeyondthat reportinfixing the responsibility- on the Spanish Government.

lly themost thatcould have been demanded fromSpain was reparation for the loss caused to America by the want of due diligence on the part of those who represented her at Havana.

And for awhile there were prominent men in America who hoped that the action taken on the report of the enquiry would be in the form of a request for such amends. But popular feeling heeds not the rules laid down by experts in international law. Spaniards had destroyed the Maine, Spain must be made to suffer for their deed. A money compensation could not atone for it. The freedom ofCuba was the leas' price that should be demanded, and the freedom of Cuba should be exacted at the muzzles of the guns that bristled frum the steel sides of Admiral Sicard's squadron.

THE WRECK OF 'HIE "MAINS