exceptional charm. He served, before the War of Independence, as a Deputy in the Spanish Cortes from Cuba; he wrote the famous plea for Cuban independence entitled "Cuba contra España," which was translated into a number of languages; and under the administration of General Wood was Secretary of Public Instruction and of the Treasury. He was once President of the Anthropological Society of Cuba, and was a Member of the Academy of History. He has written numerous books, comprising philosophical disquisitions, essays on nature and art, and lyrical poetry.

Dr. Rafael Montoro, who was refused election to the Vice-Presidency in 1908, has since that date been kept in the service of his country in highly important capacities, and now, as Secretary to the Presidency, is most intimately associated with President Menocal, and exerts an exceptional degree of usefulness in many directions to the national welfare of the Cuban Republic.

Rafael Montoro was born in Havana on October 24, 1852. He received his primary education in Havana and in his tenth year was taken to Europe and to the United States. He was a pupil of the Charlier Institute in New York until 1865. Having returned to Havana he took up his preparatory studies at the school of San Francisco de Asis. In 1867 he returned to Europe with his family, which settled in Madrid. Here he spent his youth until 1878, devoting himself to literary and intellectual activities; he contributed to various periodicals, was editor of the "Revista Contemporanea"; second secretary of the Ateneo de Madrid; vice president of the Moral and Political Sciences Section of that institution; second secretary of the Spanish Writers' and Artists' Association, etc. On his return to Cuba he took an active part in constituting and organizing the Liberal Party, which seized

the first opportunity to uphold the cause of Colonial Autonomy, calling itself the Autonomist Liberal Party. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Central Junta of the party and in the first elections after Cuba had been granted the right of representation at the Cortes took place, he was elected a Deputy from the province of HaLater he continued working for his party as editor of its organ El Triunfo, which became El Pais, and as an orator in meetings and assemblies. In 1886 he was reelected Deputy to the Cortes from the province of Camaguey and yearly went to Spain during the period of the Legislature, being a member of the Autonomist minority headed by Rafael Maria de Labra. The Sociedad Economica de Amigo del Pais appointed Dr. Montoro a Special Delegate to the Junta de Informacion which met at Madrid in 1890, the principal economic institutions of Cuba having been previously invited by the Spanish Colonial Department. The purpose of this Junta was to report on the tariff régime of the Island and on the proposed commercial treaty with the United States, as suggested by the famous McKinley Bill of 1890. Towards the middle of 1895 he returned to his activities in Havana as editorial writer of El Pais and member of the Central Junta of the Party.

When autonomy was granted in 1898, he formed part, as Secretary of the Treasury, of the Cabinet organized by José Maria Galvez, the head of the party since its foundation in 1878. When Spanish rule came to an end, as a consequence of the war and of the American intervention, and the Autonomist Government ceased, Dr. Montoro retired to private life. In 1900 and 1901 he was appointed to but did not accept the professorship of philosophy and history in the University of Havana. He was a member of the Committee which was to undertake the reform of

the Municipal suffrage legislation under Governor Brooke and of the Committee charged by General Wood with the revision of the legislation on the importation tariff.

In 1902 Dr. Montoro was appointed by the Palma administration as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. In 1904 he was appointed also Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Germany, which caused him to reside alternately in both countries until 1906 when he was appointed with Gonzalo de Quesada and Gonzales Lanuza a delegate of the Republic to the Third Pan-American International Conference held at Rio de Janeiro. In the same year he was confirmed in both his posts, at London and Berlin, by Governor Magoon, as were the other members of the diplomatic and consular corps, but later he was appointed a member of the Consultive Committee on Laws. In 1907 he was one of the founders of the National Conservative Party, of which he was appointed second vice-president, and was nominated as the Party's candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, with General Menocal as Presidential candidate.

When General Jose M. Gomez took possession of the Government as President, Dr. Montoro was confirmed in his posts as Minister at Berlin and London, returning to Europe to remain there until 1910, in which year he was appointed by President Gomez a delegate to the Fourth Pan-American International Conference, which took place at Buenos Aires. At this Conference he was elected to preside over the seventh section of Consular documents, Tariff regulations, Census and Commercial Statistics.

In 1910 and 1911, respectively, he ceased his posts as Minister at Berlin and London to become Diplomatic Ad