3-086-185 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Spanish-American War: the Queen-Regent of Spain reading the speech from the throne to the Cortes, 1898. 'From a sketch by T. Comba. In her Speech from the Throne at the opening of the Cortes, [Maria Christina of Austria] the Queen-Regent of Spain made, it will be remembered, a stirring appeal, of which the chief burden may be appropriately recalled in connection with the Illustration here reproduced. In view of the possibility, said her Majesty, that the efforts of the Pope and the Great Powers might fail to avert the impending war, she had convened the Cortes to defend the rights of Spain at any sacrifice. She appealed to them to defend the throne of her son until such time as he should be able to defend it himself, and affirmed that she was confident that honour and success would attend the action of her son's loyal subjects in the crisis forced upon them "without reason or justice".' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.