Further than this, Congress declared that if the Carnegie and Bethlehem people would not make the armor for $300 a ton, the Government would go into the business for itself, and leave these two companies with their machinery on their hands.

The committee appointed to examine into the cost of establishing government armor works is to be ready to hand in its report next December.

In the mean while the three new warships that are building will have to wait, and no new vessels can be commenced until this very important matter is settled.

* * * * *

Startling and terrible news reaches us from Spain.

Senor Canovas del Castillo (Casteelyo), the Spanish Prime Minister, has been assassinated!

The whole of Europe is greatly excited by this dreadful news.

[Illustration:  Map

The shaded portions are British possessions.  Islands owned by Great
Britain have names attached.]

Senor Canovas had overworked himself during the last session of the Cortes, and this, combined with the worry of Cuban affairs, had broken down his health.

In the hope of regaining his strength he had gone to the baths of Santa Aguada, at Guesalibar, on the Bay of Biscay, not far from San Sebastian, where the court is summering.

[Illustration:  Senor Canovas]

He was sitting reading his paper in the grounds of the bath-house when he was shot and killed by an Italian ruffian.

In Senor Canovas, Spain has lost one of her greatest statesmen.  It was he who put Alfonso XII., the father of the present king, on the throne of Spain.

During his whole career Spain has been the scene of many stormy trials.

In 1868 the people forced the old Queen, Isabella II., to resign the throne.  She was a very wicked woman, and did so many bad things that the people would not be disgraced by her any longer.  They rose against her, and she was obliged to flee to France to seek the protection of Napoleon III.

On her departure a council was appointed to choose a new sovereign.  There were several claimants, among them Alfonso, the son of the deposed Isabella, and Don Carlos, the grandson of Don Carlos I. (See p. 563.)

The council rejected all the candidates, and chose a German prince.  Napoleon III. objected on Queen Isabella’s account; the Germans were incensed at his interference, and the argument that followed gave rise to the Franco-German War in 1870.

The Spanish council, disappointed of their German prince, finally chose a son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and made him King of Spain under the title of Amadeus I.

The new King did not take kindly to his throne.  The Carlists were striving to gain the crown for their candidate, and the country was plunged into the horrors of a civil war.

After a reign of two years and one month Amadeus abdicated and went back to Italy, disgusted with the honors that had been thrust upon him.