The Sun

Why Burriel Cannot be Tried.

Mr. Hamilton Fish, in his lately published instructions to our Minister at the Court of Madrid, is almost lachrymose in his complaints against the Spanish Government for the non-execution by it of its promise given in the Franco-Prussian protocol, which stipulated that Gen. Burriel, who ordered the execution of Capt. Fry and the other officers and the crew of the Virginius, should be tried for his murderous conduct. Mr. Fish's exact words are these:

"As far as the payment of money can atone for the execution of these unfortunate seamen (those of the Virginius) there has been accepted the former and fuller apology due which the Government of Spain has made to that of the United States, and the prompt restitution of the survivors. But the principal concession which was made through the protocol of San Sebastian has not been complied with. Having made these concessions thus far, the Spanish Government has evaded carrying out the principal concession which was made through the protocol of San Sebastian."

As Mr. Fish has not furnished the note containing this separate instruction, it is fair to infer that he is ashamed to furnish it. His published statement, however, is not flattering to our national pride. In language which a maiden who had been the victim of misplaced confidence might have used, he confesses that he has been befooled and has for over two years been vainly seeking to obtain satisfaction for the wrong.

Gen. Burriel has, since his return to Spain, repeatedly defied the Government to try him, and Mr. Fish knows it. But Burriel declares that he only obeyed instructions of his superior officer, the Captain-General of Cuba, and that he has the verifying documents in his possession. He states further that if he sinned at all, it was in not carrying out his instructions to the letter, which were that in the event of the Virginius being taken into Santiago de Cuba, he should try all on board by court martial, and execute the sentences of the court instantly. But none of those on board the Virginius were killed until the day following their arrival in Santiago 'his sentence of a court martial could have been executed half an hour after its opening.'

Gen. Jovellar, the present Captain General in Cuba, was the person whose instructions Burriel thus moted; and Gen. Jovellar is the man from whom Mr. Fish is now expecting immense reforms in Cuba and the pacification of the island.