304
THE
ENGLISH
IN
THE
WEST
INDIES
We have so contrived that such English as had settled in the West Indies on their own account are leaving them. Spain, four centuries ago, was the greatest of European nations, the first in art, or second only to Italy, the first in arms, the first in the men whom she produced. She has been swept along in the current of time. She fought against the stream of tendency, and the stream proved too strong for her, great as she was. The modern spirit, which she would not have when it came in the shape of the Reformation, has flowed over her borders as revolution, not to her benefit, for she is unable to assimilate the new ideas. The old Spain of the Inquisition is gone; the Spain of to-day is divided between Liberalism and Catholie belief. She is sick in the process of the change, and neither she nor her colonies stand any longer in the front lines in the race of civilisation ; yet the print of her foot is stamped on the New World in characters which will not be effaced, and may be found to be as enduring as our own. The colony is perhaps in advance of the mother country. The Catholic Church, Don G — said, has little influence in Cuba; ‘ she has had no rival,’ he explained, ‘ and so has grown lazy.’ I judged the same from my own observations. The churches on Sundays were thinly attended, and men smiled when I asked them about ‘ confession.’ I inquired about famous preachers. I was told that there was no preaching in Havana, famous or otherwise. I might if I was lucky and chose to go there in the early morning, hear a sermon in the church of the Jesuits ; that was all. I went; I heard my Jesuit, who was fluent, eloquent, and gesticulating, but he was pouring out his passionate rhe toric to about fifty women with scarcely a man amongst them. It was piteous to look at him. The Catholic Church, whether it be for want of rivals, or merely from force of time, has fallen from its high estate. It can burn no more heretics, for it has lost the art to raise conviction