844                         FOREIGN     RELATIONS.




                                   SPAIN.

                                   No. 535.

                         General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

No. 782.]                     UNITED STATES LEGATION IN SPAIN,
                    Madrid, October 27, 1873.      (Received November 14.)
   SIR: The official gazette of this date publishes the decree, a copy and
translation of which are inclosed herewith, announcing the visit of the
minister of ultramar to Cuba and Porto Rico. The preamble contains
an interesting statement of the motives and objects of the mission, to
which I beg to invite your attention.
        I am, &c.,
                                                          D. E. SICKLES.


                              [Inclosure.-Translation.]
Decree of October 14, 1873, directing the colonial secretary to visit Cuba
and Porto Rico.
                Published in "La Gaceta de Madrid," :October 27,
1873.

            PRESIDENCY OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER OF THE REPUBLIC.
                                     Decree.
  The firm resolution of the government of the republic to re-establish public
order
and peace in the peninsula is even more strongly held in so far as concerns
those
provinces whose remoteness from the mother-country calls for her greaer solicitude
and her first care.
  The island of Cuba is perturbed by an insensate rebellion which seeks to
menace
the integrity of our territory, and which finds meains of self-prolongation
in the rigor
of the climate and the nature of the country; and the action of the government
toward it must needs be vigorous and decisive, in order to put an end at
all costs to
a struggle the continuance of which deprives the island of the blessings
of peace, ren-
ders impossible the development of its resources, and is a constant obstacle
to the
inauguration of the reforms demanded alike by humanity and civilization.
  Its financial situation is, moreover,-grave; and-the exhaustion of public
credit and
the increasing want of confidence, joined to the needs the treasury is in,
to realize
every possible source of income in order to put an end to such a state of
things, make
it indispensable that the finance department promptly present an organized
plan
which will yield the government resources whereby to pacify the island and
at the
same time give it the means whereby the charges imposed on the province may
re-
dound to its prosperity and good.
  The problem of slavery no less urgently demands a speedy solution. The
govern-
ment hopes that this grave matter, so intimately related to the social and
financial
tranquillity of the island, will be settled by means of the concourse and
agreement of
all; for the fact must not be forgotten that public opinion awaits with growing
anx-
iety the day of abolition.
  The republic, faithful to its principles, has given the widest latitude
to the reforms
which carried to Porto Rico the spirit of the revolution of September. Slavery
there
has disappeared; the first title of the constitution recognizes that the
sons of that
province enjoy the same rights as their brethren'of the peninsula, and the
government
which aspires to the completion of its work needs due knowledge of the results
of
such transcendental innovations.
  But for the realization of -its purpose the executive power needs to form
an accurate
judgment without confining its attention to the diverse opinions of the enlightened
consultative corporations and of the most worthy authorities of the Antilles;
and
therefore it has decided that the colonial minister shall visit those provinces,
shall
inform himself as to their necessities, and shall decide upon or prepare
the proper
measures to assure their peace and prosperity.
  The government looks for such great results from this determination, that
it has not