gn the wants of the country, were shorn of their privileges, and
their attributes confined to the collection and distribution of the
municipal funds. Tacon is also charged with promoting the jealousies
naturally existing between Spaniards and Creoles, and with completely
subjecting the civil courts to military tribunals.

"In a state of agitation in the public mind, and disorder in the
government," says the author of an able pamphlet entitled "_Cuba y su
Gobierno_," to whom we are indebted for invaluable information that
could only be imparted by a Creole, "with the political passions of
Spaniards and Cubans excited; the island reduced from an integral part
of the monarchy to the condition of a colony, and with no other
political code than the royal order, conferring unlimited power upon the
chief authority; the country bowed down under the weighty tyranny of two
military commissions established in the capitals of the eastern and
western departments; with the prisons filled with distinguished
patriots; deprived of representation in the Cortes; the _ayuntamientos_
prohibited the right of petition; the press forbidden to enunciate the
state of public opinion, closed the administration of General Don Miguel
Tacon in the island of Cuba, the most calamitous, beyond a question,
that this country has suffered since its discovery by the Spaniards."

The liberal party of Cuba, denied the expression of their views in the
local prints, and anxious to present their wants and their grievances
before the home government, conceived the ingenious idea of establishing
organs abroad. Two papers were accordingly published; one at Paris,
called "_El Correo de Ultramar_" and one at Madrid, entitled "_El
Observador_," edited by distinguished Cubans.[6] It is scarcely
necessary to say that these produced no favorable result, and the people
of the island became convinced that the mother country was resolved to
persevere in the plan of ruling Cuba with a rod of iron, indifferent
alike to her tears and her remonstrances.

The programme of the liberal party was exceedingly moderate, petitioning
only for the following concessions: 1st, That a special ministry,
devoted to Cuban affairs, should be established at Madrid; 2d, That a
legal organ of communication between Spain and Cuba should be
established in the island, to represent the well-defined interests of
the metropolis and the colony; 3d, That some latitude should be given to
the press, now