THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

v 404 that rather than expose their city to bombardment they wouldproclaim Catalonia anindependent republic under the protection of France. The possibility of such developments hastened the surrender of the Madrid Government. The blockade of Western Cuba had not affected its policy for a moment. What it had accomplished was to complete the temporary ruin of the island. Happily Cuba has a rich soil, and its hot, moist climate, deadly as it is to the newlyas has been alreadystated, the insurgents largely adopted the ruinous policy of wasting the fields andburning the factories and buildings in order to force the workers to abandon their peaceful occupations and swell the ranks of the insurrection. Their devastatingpath is still marked in the richest districts of the island with the ruins offarmsteads and villages. Trade,largely in the handsof neutralnations andseriously diminished in amount, continued with the Cuban ports A TOBACCO PLANTATION NEAR HAVANA.

arrived white man. makesit with little labour a perfectgardenof tropical products. Contrary to she general impression in this country, tobacco is not the chief article of Cuban production. For years the sugar crop has exceeded it in value, and the landdevoted to sugar growing and the capital sunk in the industry far exceeded that of the tobacco growers. Both industries were temporarily destroyed by the insurrection, the reconcentration, and the blockade. The only sugar factories and estates that had been kept going during the rising were a few large establishments, which their proprietors literally fortified and garrisonedagainst the rebels. For, during the rising,but the blockade put an end to it, the loss falling not on the Spaniards but on the Cubans and their customers in Europe and America. The cost to Cuba of the insurrection, the war, and the expulsion of the Spaniards, reckoned in lives and in dollars, will never be known. It was certainly enormous, and,sentimental reasons apart, it is difficult to see that the islanders themselves are the gainers. They have changed masters. They will find the new rulers of their land, doubtless, more progressive, but it is not at all certain that the Cuban will like them any the better for this quality. Certainly the negroes and half-breeds