unequalled rigor of its rule. The time has
come when the progress of civilization demands that the island shall
pass into the hands of some power possessed of the ability and the will
to crush out this remnant of barbarism. That power is clearly designated
by the hand of Providence. No European nation can dream of obtaining
Cuba; no administration in this country could stand up for one moment
against the overwhelming indignation of the people, should it be weak
enough to acquiesce in the transfer of Cuba to any European power. The
island must be Spanish or American. Had it been the property of a
first-rate power, of any other European sovereignty but Spain, it would
long since have been a cause of war. It is only the imbecile weakness of
Spain that has thus far protected her against the consequences of a
continuous course of perfidy, tyranny and outrage. But the impunity of
the feeble and the forbearance of the strong have their limits; and
nations, like individuals, are amenable to the laws of retributive
justice.

The present condition of Spain is a striking illustration of the
mutability of fortune, from which states, no more than individuals, are
exempted. We read of such changes in the destinies of ancient
empires,--the decadence of Egypt, the fall of Assyria, and Babylon, and
Byzantium, and Rome; but their glory and fall were both so far distant
in the recess of time, that their history seems, to all of us who have
not travelled and inspected the monuments which attest the truth of
these events, a sort of romance: whereas, in the case of Spain, we
realize its greatness, and behold its fall! One reason why we feel so
deep an interest in the fate of the Castilian power, is that the history
of Spain is so closely interwoven with that of our own country,--discovered
and colonized as it was under the auspices of the Spanish government. We
owe our very existence to Spain, and from the close of the fifteenth
century our histories have run on in parallel lines. But while America
has gone on increasing in the scale of destiny, in grandeur, power and
wealth, poor Spain has sunk in the scale of destiny, with a rapidity of
decadence no less astonishing than the speed of our own progress. The
discovery of America, as before alluded to, seemed to open to Spain a
boundless source of wealth and splendid power; triumphs awaited her arms
in both North and South America. Cortes in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru
added vast territory and