THE POPE'S INTERCESSION 231 discover the New World. The audience was representative of all those who spoke for Spain, and their cheers told how hopeless it wouldbe for any Government at Madrid to yield to the the negotiations should be carried on directly between the Havana Government and the Cuban chiefs without any direct American mediation. The Cuban Home Rule Parliament wouldmeet on May4th. Spain proposed that the settlementof the affairs of the island should be left to that body.

summons from Washington. Surrender would have been followedby revolution.

But a firm attitudemeant,on the other hand, that for once all parties in Spain would be unitedin support of the reigning dynasty. A proclamation from Don Carlos called on his followers to stand by the existingGovernment solong as it upheld the honour of the country by refusing to submit to foreign dictation. And as for the Republicans, Castelar, their most popular orator, who had long withdrawn from active politics as a protest against the existing state ol thu.'gs, now announced that he would return lo hu pJ?ce in Parliament and support the Ministry in its defence of therights of Spain in the New World. Yet all the while the Queen Regent was as anxious as Mr. McKinley tofind a way of avoiding the all but inevitable war,and her efforts were directed to arranging, if possible,that the concessions she intended to makeinCuba should at least seem to be the free act of Spain, and should be carried into effect without the direct interference of American officials. She was in a very difficult position. She wasnot a reigning sovereign. She wasnot a Spanish princess. An Austrian, she had to throwin her lot with thepeopleof heradoption, and as Queen Regent she had to act, as it were, as the trustee for her son, the boy-king, and secure his throne. Absolute surrender on hei part wouldnot have avertedthe war. It would only have resulted in an insurrection, which would have sent her and little Alfonso as fugitives to Vienna and placed in power at Madrid a Government of extremists pledged to war.

It was anticipated that the President would communicate the Spanish reply to Congress on Monday,April 4th. But at the last moment he delayed his message. A new effort for peace was being made from another quarter. Acting through the legate at Madrid, Pope Leo XIII. succeeded in inducing the Spanish Government on the Sunday toconsent toanarmisticeinCuba. Pending further negotiations, Marshal Blanco was to make no hostile movement against the rebels. Columns of troops that had already taken the field were to be recalled as quickly as possible to the garrisoned towns, arid the Spanish troops were merely to repel any attack that might be made upon them by the rebels, whose chiefs were to be informed of the armistice. This was rightlyheld to be a great step in the direction of peace. And the concession having been made by the Spanish Government on an appealmade to themby the Pope speaking to a Catholic people, there was so far no fear of the cry beingraised in Madrid that the Government was yielding to hostile foreign intervention. This concession was followed by others in the same direction, the legate and the diplomatic body at Madrid urging on the Government that everything should be done to give practical proof of the reality ol Spain's desire to meet every legitimate demand for reform in Cuba. A decree was published formally abolishing the Concentration Order, and a grant of three millions of pesetas {£1 20,000) was made by Spain for the relief of the sufferers in Cuba. It was three times the amount that had so far been subscribed in the United States for the same objecL. The pity was that these measures came so late. In January they would probably have altered the whole course of events and averted the war. As it was, they considerably strengthened the hands of thepeace partyinAmerica.

The most important point in the interests of peace was to gain time. In reply to General Woodford's communication,the SpanishGovernment submitted counter-proposals for the solution of the difficulty. As to the Maine, the report of the Spanish Commission of Enquiry denied the accuracy of the verdict returnedby the American report. It was suggested that any claim arising out of this disaster could be metby Spain paying an indemnity, to be fixed by arbitration. Meanwhile the Cuban difficulty could be settled by the insurgents applying sot an armistice, which would be granted by the new autonomous Government just installed by Blanco at Havana. But it was stipulated that But the advocates of war were as active as ever. To every report of Spanish concessions theyreplied that the only possible guaranteefor freedom in Cuba was the hauling down of the foreign flag at Havana. When news came that the two powerful Spanish cruisers that had been lying in Havana Harbour, the Vizcaya and