the Cabinet. Thereupon the subject was relinquished without more ado. The King is a sportsman and a believer in the educational value of out-door games which were almost unknown in Spain a few years ago. His endeavours to make them popular cost him a good deal of his own popularity and, in 1917, caused a general feeling of dissatisfaction which was voiced by the Press at the time. But he made the sacrifice with a good grace, attained his object fully, and recovered the affection of his subjects with interest. In a word, he has constantly done his best to make the Constitution a working concern. The sole occasion on which Alfonso XIII accepted a rôle that the Constitution-makers never destined for him was the birthday of the Directory, Sept. 13, 1923, and then there was no longer a Constitution left to respect. It had been dead six years. Primo was engaged in burying it, and the King merely attended the obsequies. People who look at that event through blinkers and lack the side-lights of history may knit their brows and blame him for not splitting the army and sacrificing his position in a vain attempt to resuscitate the corpse of a parliamentary system. But those who are acquainted with Peninsular politics, are well read in the history of Spain since the Restoration, and know personally the dramatis persona of the tragi-comedy to which Primo de Rivera put an end, will dissent from that judgment and applaud the King's chivalrous resolve and its disinterested motives. The President of the Directory has raised a host of bitter and active enemies against himself and his colleagues, a host which now includes the Conservatives, Liberals, Republicans, Separatists, Communists, Anarchists, the International College of Propaganda,' and the tribesmen of Morocco. His only followers are a growing section of the Spanish people whom he has aroused to a sense of their higher interests. And a few of these are disappointed because he has failed to do much that he expected and even promised. But he himself has had no fits of despondency, although perfectly well aware of the shortage of his achievements. In fact, he took the public into his confidence a few weeks ago and made a clean breast of the matter. But he was also ale & On ling able to point to a number of successes which turn the scale and inspire confidence. the e Imost YOU his eel SS At od g fecti Onsta ing acce: One of the main reforms is the Municipal Statute which takes up the threads of Spain's politico-social self-development where they were cut by Charles I and Philip II. The country was then as it is now, profoundly democratic but in its own way. It has never assimilated the imported forms of democracy. Rather than accept those it turned away from politics altogether. The ancient Communal Councils were the cherished centres of Spanish collective life and work, an organic growth rich in achievement and fraught with promise. And these institutions the Dictator has now created anew. Although but a short time in existence they have already given remarkable scantlings of what they are capable of performing. For example, instead of increasing the debts of their predecessors they paid back forty million se pesetas in nine months and accumulated twenty-four millions more, so that they are ninety millions to the good. The next important innovation will be the Provincial Statute regulating public life in the provinces on analogous lines. ine 13,1 le eng ersi b crif Frankly reviewing his sixteen months of work General Primo de Rivera said, in January 1925, that four problems had called the Directory into being: Separatism which was most acute in Catalonia and was also sprouting up in other provices; syndicalism of the Communist revolutionary type; the economic situation; and the warfare in Morocco. ... 'I confess,' he added, that not one of these four problems has found an adequate solution. There were also vices and corruption which we did our best to root out. But neither in the outer form nor in the essence has the Directory succeeded to its own satisfaction. In dealing with the economic situation also we effected much less than we had hoped. When the Directory took over the reins of power it was faced with a deficit of a thousand million pesetas, for during the past three years the annual rate at which this debt increased was two hundred millions.' That deficit it failed to cover, but it brought down the shortage to 532 millions, and this without having recourse to legislation. the Th h As a matter of fact, the Directory seems more firmly established to-day than ever before. In spite of thei frank admissions of the President's speech he has good grounds for self-congratulation. His policy in Morocco has certainly gone far-further than is commonly realised -towards relieving Spain of the horrible nightmare that was strangling her. Then again the tremendous c anti-Monarchist campaign which was inaugurated last November by the field-marshals of internationalism ended in a complete victory of the supporters of the King. The e organised attempt of the revolutionary party to raise the standard of rebellion was quickly foiled by the men in power. The firm and dignified attitude of the Directory towards the French Imperialists in Morocco has inspired a degree of respect abroad which was unknown under d the old régime.' That a considerable section of the Spanish people is deeply interested in the work of the Directory and has faith in its leadership is unquestionable. It renewed the internal loan of 1914 which expired at the close of last year, and withdrew its support and th sympathy so completely from the upholders of the old system that these have lost all hope of reviving it. des Nearly a million and a quarter supporters of the Government, mainly in the provinces, have joined the Union patriotica. The object of the legislation promulgated by the Directory is to make adequate preparation for the transmission of power to a group of civilians. In this connexion festina lente is a useful maxim. It is an essential condition of success in all revolutions from above that the man or men of destiny shall not take their hand from the plough until they have ceased to be indispensable. Another postulate is to render themselves dispensable by the creation of a party able and willing to play the part which non-commissioned officers discharge in the army. If the Bolshevist régime in Russia has maintained itself so long it is largely because of the rise of such a class which governs itself and looks after the others. The Directory is making a move in that direction and hopes to prepare the nation for its share in self-government. Spain, one and indivisible, is its device. Its object is to found a politico-social system rooted in the people, the army, and the King. And to B po the A de te more Dite have recruited, as we are credibly assured it has, a million and a quarter backers among such individualists e ha as the Spaniards, is perhaps the most significant triumph hitherto recorded. n Ma ly re night ema -ated sma ng. to the irec Inst The horoscope of the Directory and of the Spanish Monarchy, then, cast under present conditions and barring the chapter of accidents, appears more auspicious than the world has any idea of. The widespread notion that the kingdom is on the eve of internal combustion or some other dreadful catastrophe is at variance with all the visible signs and tokens. The true Spanish temper which has been smouldering for ages is now recovering its heat and may yet burn with something of its former glow. The people are unspoiled by material prosperity and by the corresponding weakening of spiritual interests. Hopes that have grown shadowy in other lands are still vivid and inspiriting there. Between the causes of the changes now going forward in Spain and Russia one might draw a curious parallel, although the two countries are at opposite poles of culture, Russia aspiring to become a centre radiating destructiveness, while Spain aims at being a sacred hearth to her own children. But each of the two peoples has had its character wantonly warped for ages, having been shackled and gyved-Spain by the politico-social bonds in which she was fastened up by the Flemings, and Russia by the restraints of European civilisation brutally imposed upon her Asiatic people. And now the two have burst the bonds and are free to develop according to type. Russia has already had a clear start, and Spain, tentatively wending along the old road she forsook ages ago, is fast nearing the first redoubtable obstacle that lies athwart it. Catalonia and the Basque Provinces, said to be seething with disaffection, will scout the measure of provisional self-government which the Directory is about to substitude for their dreams of federation. And until this ideal has been gone through the veil that hides the future of Spain must needs remain impenetrable. Art. 12.-SIR H. SMITH-DORRIEN AND THE MONS 1. 1914. By Field-Marshal Viscount French of Ypres. Constable, 1919. 2. The March on Paris and the Battle of the Marne, 1914. 3. Military Operations in France and Belgium, 1914 THE IInd British Army Corps has now been proved by Ape 'No kind of history,' wrote Sir Edward Hamley, '80 fascinates mankind as the history of wars. No kind of record, other than sacred, appeals at once to the deep sympathies of so wide an audience.' In his 'Operations of War' Hamley follows up this statement with various warnings to readers of war history, and he arrives at the conclusion that many who study it feel that their reading can be most profitable according to the means that they may possess of judging of the events of the past, and deducing from them lessons for the future. A criticism frequently levelled against war histories, when written by soldiers, is that the personal factor-the human touch, which is all-important if we accept the view that by 'history' we mean human history-is often swamped by abstract theory and material science. To correct this, historians of the Great War will fortunately have at their disposal an unprecedented array of personal memoirs and reminiscences which will help them to understand the personalities of the leaders whose names |