I supposed that the cigars
which I had bought of Senor Bances were anything out of the way. I said
that they suited my taste and that was enough. 'Ah,' he replied, '_Cada
loco con su tema._ Every fool had his opinion.' 'I am the _loco_
(idiot), then,' said I, 'but that again is matter of opinion.' He spoke
of Cuba and professed to know all about it. 'Can you tell me, then,'
said I, 'why the Cubans hate the Spaniards?' 'Why do the Irish hate the
English?' he answered. I said it was not an analogous case. Cubans and
Spaniards were of the same breed and of the same creed. 'That is
nothing,' he replied; 'the Americans will have both Cuba and Ireland
before long.' I said I thought the Americans were too wise to meddle
with either. If they did, however, I imagined that on our own side of
the Atlantic we should have something to say on the subject before
Ireland was taken from us. He laughed good-humouredly. 'Is it possible,
sir,' he said, 'that you live in England and are so absolutely
ignorant?' I laughed too. He was a strange creature, and would have made
an excellent character in a novel.

Don G---- or his brother came down occasionally to see how I was getting
on and to talk philosophy and history. Other gentlemen came, and the
favourite subject of conversation was Spanish administration. One of
them told me this story as an illustration of it. His father was the
chief partner in a bank; a clerk absconded, taking 50,000 dollars with
him; he had been himself sent in pursuit of the man, overtook him with
the money still in his possession, and recovered it. With this he ought
to have been contented, but he tried to have the offender punished. The
clerk replied to the criminal charge by a counter-charge against the
house. It was absurd in itself, but he found that a suit would grow out
of it which would swallow more than the 50,000 dollars, and finally he
bribed the judge to allow him to drop the prosecution. _Cosas de
Espana_; it lies in the breed. Guzman de Alfarache was robbed of his
baggage by a friend. The facts were clear, the thief was caught with
Guzman's clothes on his back; but he had influential friends--he was
acquitted. He prosecuted Guzman for a false accusation, got a judgment
and ruined him.

The question was, whether if the Cubans could make themselves
independent there would be much improvement. The want in Cuba just now,
as in a good many other places, is the want of some practical religion
which insists