"FRANCISCO XAVIER CARRATALA, Deputy Secretary. "MARIANO RUIZ, Deputy Secretary. "Palace of the Cortes, June 23, 1870. "Therefore I order all tribunals, justices, officers, governors and other authorities of whatsoever class or position, to obey the same and cause it to be obeyed, complied with and executed in all its parts. "FRANCISCO SERRANO, Minister of Ultramar. "SIGISMONDO MORET Y PRENDERGAST. "San Ildefonso, July 4, 1870. "And, having opportunely omitted the publication of the same for the want of the regulation referred to in Article 20, and having received the sense in which said document is to be drawn up, I have ordered the exact compliance of said law, in virtue of which it is inserted in the Official Gazette for future guidance. "CABALLERO DE RODAS." "Havana, Sept. 28, 1870." If these decrees were intended to fill the insurgents with gratitude, and to have the effect of halting the revolution, they fell far short of their mark. In the first place, the Spanish Government had too often tricked her Cuban subjects, and they had little cause to have faith in either her good will or her good intentions, and much more cause to believe that her action was intended as a sop to the Government at Washington, an attempt to "pull the wool over the eyes" of American sympathizers, and even a very cursory glance at the provisions of the Moret law would convince even a layman with no knowledge of jurisprudence that there was small chance of their ever being enforced. It is true that this law provided for the freedom of all slaves born after a certain date, but it left them in the care of their mothers, and under the control of their former masters, condemned to serve without pay and virtually free only in name. It also proclaimed the freedom of slaves who had reached the age of sixty years and who very likely had endured years of such hard treatment that they were infirm and in no condition to support themselves. If they were reluctant to start life alone and either by timidity or by coercion remained with their masters, the latter were at liberty to pay them or not, and when a Spanish planter had the option of obtaining labor free rather than paying for it, there was not much room for doubt as to what course he would pursue. The whipping post was abolished, but the Cubans were too busy with other matters to patrol the country in search of violations of this regulation, and the masters were pretty safe to conduct themselves as they chose. This law, which contained such fair words that it met with the approval of the American minister, was almost ludicrous in its paradoxical terms, and instead of impressing the patriots with the softened hearts of their tyrannical masters, it must have filled the intelligent ones with mirth.