diplomats have long had an experience with Spanish character and methods such as the public can better understand since war has been in progress. The pathetic inefficiency and the continual indirection of the Spanish character are now apparent to the world; they were long ago apparent to those who have had our diplomatic duties to do. Thus the negotiations dragged on. We were put to trouble and expense to prevent filibustering, and filibustering continued in spite of us. More than once heretofore has there been danger of international conflict, as for instance when American sailors on the Virginius were executed in Cuba in 1873. Propositions have been made to buy the island, and plans have been formed to annex it. All the while there have been great American interests in Cuba. Our citizens have owned much property and made investments there, and done much to develop its fertility. They have paid tribute unlawful as well as lawful, both to insurgents and to Spanish officials. They have lost property, for which no indemnity has been paid. All the while we have had a trade with the island, important during periods of quiet, irritating during periods of unrest. TROUBLE NOT A NEW ONE. The Cuban trouble is, therefore, not a new trouble, even in an acute form. It had been moving forward toward a crisis for a long time. Still, while our government suffered these diplomatic vexations, and our citizens these losses, and our merchants these annoyances, the mass of the American people gave little serious thought to it. The newspapers kept us reminded of an opera bouffe war that was going on, and now and then there came information of delicate and troublesome diplomatic duties for our Minister to Spain. If Cuba were within a hundred miles of the coast of one of our populous States, and near one of our great ports, periods of acute interest in its condition would doubtless have come earlier and oftener, and we should long ago have had to deal with a crisis by warlike measures. Or if the insurgents had commanded respect instead of mere pity, we should have paid heed to their struggle sooner; for it is almost an American maxim that a people cannot govern itself till it can win its own independence.