"In granting Y. E. this marked proof of his royal esteem, and of the high trust your proven loyalty deserves, H. M. expects that in due correspondence to the same, Y. E. will use the most wakeful prudence and reserve, joined to an indefatigable activity and unyielding firmness, in the exercise of your excellency's authority, and trusts that as your excellency shall by this very pleasure and graciousness of H. M. be held to a more strict responsibility, Y. E. will redouble his vigilance that the laws be observed, that justice be administered, that H. M. faithful vassals be protected and rewarded, and punishment without partiality or indulgence inflicted on those who, forgetful of their duty and their obligations to the best and most benevolent of monarchs, shall oppose those laws, decidedly abetting sinister plots, with infraction of them and disregard of the decrees from them issuing. And I therefore, by royal order, inform Y. E. of the same for Y. E.'s intelligence, satisfaction, and exact observance thereof. God preserve your excellency's life. Madrid, 28 May, 1825." As a marvel of unconscious irony this is a unique document. Evidently both the King and his minister lacked a sense of humor. Here is a document purporting to be issued "to keep in quietude" "faithful inhabitants." Why the "Ever-Faithful" needed a curb or why if such measures were necessary the insurgents were referred to as "Faithful," only a stupid king through the mouth of an equally pig-headed minister could determine. This royal order, we may relate with satisfaction, proved a boomerang. It gave the Captain-General--just why it is hard to decide--absolute power, not only to govern by military force, but to depose from office those who offended him, whether they were the king's minions or not. It also made inoperative all royal decrees unless the Captain-General chose to sanction them. Now Cuba, at this time, was saddled with hosts of fortune seekers, court favorites who were temporarily and voluntarily exiles from the sunshine of the monarch's smiles, that they might line their pockets and return to startle the Spanish grandees with their new splendor. Naturally they were seeking office and emoluments from the Spanish government. But then came their royal master and placed them, their positions, their fortunes, in the hands of a man who, should they offend him, could summarily degrade them, and force them to return home no richer than when they came. Truly the ways of kings are no less inscrutable than those of Providence. Naturally this royal order found little favor in Cuba. In vain, however, were efforts made to have it suspended, and to prove that it had never been intended to be anything but a temporary measure.