e Navy under the Conservative
Cabinet. To the questions which we directed to him concerning the
conflict pending with the United States, he was kind enough to inform
us that he confided absolutely in the triumph of our naval forces....
'We shall conquer on the sea, and I am now going to give you my
reasons. The first of these is the remarkable discipline that prevails
on our warships; and the second, as soon as fire is opened, the crews
of the American ships will commence to desert, since we all know that
among them are people of all nationalities. Ship against ship,
therefore, a failure is not to be feared. I believe that the squadron
detained at Cape de Verde, and particularly the destroyers, should
have, and could have, continued the voyage to Cuba, since they have
nothing to fear from the American fleet.'"

The review from which Cervera's opinion is quoted has, since the
disasters to the Spanish Navy, been full of complaints and of detailed
statements concerning the neglect of the navy, both in its material
and in drills, during the antecedent months of peace, owing to the
practice of a misplaced, if necessary, economy. But that economy, it
is justly argued, would not have been required to a disabling degree,
if so disproportionate an amount of money had not been expended upon
the army, by a state whose great colonial system could in war be
sustained only by a fleet. "In more than a year," writes a captain in
the Spanish Navy, "we have had only one target practice, and that
limited in extent, in order to expend the least possible amount of
ammunition." The short brilliant moments of triumph in war are the
sign and the seal of the long hours of obscure preparations, of which
target practice is but one item. Had even the nominal force of Spain
been kept in efficient condition for immediate action, the task of the
United States would have been greatly prolonged and far from so easy
as it has been since declared by those among our people who delight to
belittle the great work our country has just achieved, and to
undervalue the magnanimity of its resolution to put a stop to outrages
at our doors which were well said to have become intolerable. Neither
by land nor by sea was the state of the case so judged by professional
men, either at home or abroad. It was indeed evident that, if we
persevered, there could be but one issue; but this might have been
postponed, by an active opponent, long enough to have disheartened our