The desire of the working classes for education has brought about a remarkable change in their attitude towards the conscription. This change is the growth of recent years, and is the result of personal efforts on the part of certain distinguished officers. Their feeling in the matter may be summed up in the words of Colonel Ibañez Marin, who met his death in the early days of the Melilla War: “My ambition is that no conscript shall return to his home, after serving his first three years, without being able at least to read and write.” I am continually asked about the education of the working classes in England. “They say that in your country every one is taught to read. Is it possible that that is true? But you have a different kind of Government from ours. Over there it seems that they attend to the interests of the poor. Here you must be able to pay if you wish to learn anything. “England must do something for us now that our King has married your King’s daughter. If things here were conducted as they are over there, Spain would be the happiest country in the world. But England will take our part in everything now, so matters will improve.” If the connection between King Edward and the Queen of Spain is explained, and it is observed that one nation cannot interfere with the internal affairs of another on the sole ground of relationship between their respective rulers, the speaker will reply: “You say that because Governments talk in that way, but we know better. Are not kings human beings like ourselves? And if the Spanish Government knows that Don Alfonso asks the King of England for advice, will they not have to respect the advice he gives? It is not possible that England should take no interest in our affairs when our Queen is your King’s niece.” Perhaps one ought to explain that the only influence that England could exert in their favour is that of public opinion, and that England is too busy with her own affairs to have time to form an opinion about those of Spain, far less to express it in a convincing manner. But it would be cruel to deprive these people of the gleam of hope which has come to them through the King’s marriage, so perhaps I say, “In the meantime here are a few little reals for teaching,” and get the reply: “May God repay you! My second boy can go to the night school for a month for seven reals.” A movement which has in it great promise for the future was started a few years ago by certain able young university professors, who fully realise how much of the backwardness of their country is due to lack of education, with its resultant narrowness of mind and outlook, and ignorance of the modes of life and thought of other nations.