Spain considers her colonies her rightful market, and therefore has placed a high duty on foreign goods. The Cuban housewives therefore found it to their advantage to buy Spanish goods. Cuba is of course too small an island to manufacture many things for herself. This seemed fair enough, but unfortunately, the Spanish goods thus forced on the Cubans were not satisfactory to them, and were, moreover, sold at prices much too high for their value. The Cubans found that were they allowed to go to the world's markets for their supplies, they could live for half what it cost them under Spanish rule, and rebelled against the power that was treating them so unfairly. The question of tariff is said to be the most serious stumbling-block in the way of home rule for Cuba. It has been said by both Spanish and Cuban diplomats that, if it is enforced, the Spanish merchants will rise in rebellion against the Government. The Spanish ministers are, however, determined to carry home rule through. The plan is now completed, and has been approved by the ministers, received the Queen's signature, and become a law. * * * * * The reassembling of Congress and the President's Message are drawing near again. People are speculating as to the course the President will recommend in regard to Cuba and Hawaii. It is thought that he will suggest patience toward Spain until the promised reforms have had time to be put in effect, and that if these reforms seem wise and just we shall not uphold the island in her rebellion. As to Hawaii, it seems a foregone conclusion that annexation will be recommended, and will be an accomplished fact in a short space of time. * * * * * The _Competitor_ prisoners have just landed in this country. The stories they tell of the hardships they endured and the cruelties practised on them are heartrending. They declare that they were condemned to death without a hearing, and were forced to choose a Spaniard to defend them at the mockery of a trial which they were given. This man laughed when they told him they were not guilty, and never opened his lips to plead for them, or to ask that they be allowed to make their own statements. When they had been adjudged guilty he offered a half-hearted plea for mercy. They were so shockingly treated and so badly fed while in jail that they have come back mere shadows of their former selves, and weak, lame, and maimed. * * * * * The result of the Cuban election has at last been made known, but we find that the new president is not Capote after all, but Bartolome Maso. The election should have taken place on the 2d of September, but owing to the absence of several delegates it did not occur until early in November. Senor Mendez Capote presided over the meetings, and it was probably this which made people think that he had been elected president.