rived of the rights which other people enjoy,--we are
constrained to appeal to arms, to assert our rights in the battle-field,
cherishing the hope that our grievances will be a sufficient excuse for
this last resort to redress them and secure our future welfare."

Ten days later the Cuban insurgent general Cespedes asked our own
government to recognize the belligerent rights of his party, in a letter
which detailed the rapid success of the movement. On the 27th of
December, 1868, Cespedes issued a proclamation of emancipation. In
January, 1869, it would appear that Spain, herself in a very critical
condition under a provisional government, thought that a sop must be
thrown to Cuba, and accordingly the captain-general of Cuba issued one
of those highflown addresses which come with such readiness from Spanish
bureaus. Said this gallant and noble-minded governor: "I will brave
every danger, accept every responsibility, for your welfare. The
revolution has swept away the Bourbon dynasty, tearing up by the roots a
plant so poisonous that it putrefied the air we breathe. To the citizen
shall be returned his rights, to man his dignity." [An admission, by the
way, that they had been bereft of both.] "You will receive all the
reforms which you require. Cubans and Spaniards are all brothers. From
this day Cuba will be considered as a province of Spain. Freedom of the
press, the right of meeting in public, and representation in the
national Cortes--the three fundamental principles of true liberty--are
granted you. Speaking in the name of our mother, Spain, I adjure you to
forget the past, hope for the future and establish union and
fraternity."

These very fine words, however, seem to have utterly failed in buttering
the Cuban parsnips. They were, in truth, calculated to carry about as
much conviction to the mind of Cubans as Joseph Surface's sentiments
after the discovery of Lady Teazle behind the screen do to her
ladyship's husband.

The insurrection saw no abatement. A reinforcement of fifteen hundred
men came from Spain, and within six weeks of all these blessings being
promised by the captain-general, freedom of the press was abolished and
trial by military commission established. On the 3d of March came a
second reinforcement of a thousand men from Spain.

Meanwhile, Cespedes, the Cuban general, found his only available policy
to be a sort of guerilla warfare until he could rally a sufficient force
and collect arms for a