Numbers of these peasants have become dissatisfied with the Government, and are turning toward Don Carlos, because they believe him to be a leader who will respect the laws of God as well as the laws of man.
The Queen of Spain, hearing of this, has sent an urgent message to his Holiness the Pope, asking his aid, and he has immediately set about smoothing the matter over.
England has sent a final refusal to take part in the conference on the seal question.
The British Foreign Office has notified our ambassador in England, that Great Britain must decline to take part in any sealing conference to which Russia and Japan are invited.
We told you a week or so ago that England had objected to the presence of Russia and Japan because she insisted that the conference that was called had reference to the Paris award. As there were only two parties to the Paris conference, herself and the United States, she declared that she could not see what business Russia or Japan had in the matter at all.
The Paris award, if you remember (see page 976), had to do with the right of the United States to prevent other ships from entering the Bering Sea.
The United States has called the attention of Great Britain to the fact that the Washington conference is in no way connected with the Paris award. It has been repeatedly stated that its object is to be merely to discover whether the seal herds are decreasing, and if so to decide upon a means of preserving them. Any decision that shall be arrived at at the Washington conference is to be binding on all nations interested in the sealing industry.
Great Britain will not listen to this. She takes the stand that by the terms of the Paris award the code of laws governing the sealing fisheries will have to be revised every five years anyhow, and as the first five years will be up in 1898, she does not see the use of entering into the matter now. She therefore positively declines to take part in the conference.