The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

THE DUKE DE MONTPENSIER AND
THE SPANISH THRONE.

We extract the following from the Paris Correspondent of
The Times :

The claim of the Duke de Montpensier to the throne
of Spain is very much insisted upon in certain quarters.
It is discovered that the Duke has many partisans in
Spain, is greatly esteemed by men of various parties,
and possesses admirable and remarkable qualities.
We hear that the Spanish Government raises no objec-
tion to his return to Spain, and that his own and his
wife's friends advise them to go back. It is rumoured
that the Orleans family has insisted with the Duke
that, were the highest place in ',pain to be offered to
him, he should accept it only in the capacity of regent
for the Prince of Asturias. The short duration of the
power installed in 1830 may have served as a warning
to the exiles of 1848, and the Orleans Princes may be
unwilling again to Bee a younger line assuming the
place of the older one; but it may be doubted whether

any such injunction has as yet been laid upon the hus-
band of the Infanta Ling& Moreover, it might be
foreseen as a possible case that the Spaniards, while
strenously rejecting on various grounds the eon of
Queen Isabella, might, after a time, finding no more
eligible Prince willing to acsiept, turn their eyes to the
ca-Queen's sister and brother-in-law. Without being
popular in Spain, they have what the nench call um
aueee's d'estome. For various reasons it seems scarcely
possible they should ever ascend the Spanish throne,
and yet it is certain that on more than one occasion
the chiefs of insurrection, or malcontents plotting a
rising, have asked the Duke to raise his banner and
combine it with theirs. O'Donnell is fully believed
to have done so when he moved south after Vicalvalo,
but then, to be sure, he may for a time have thought
his cause very desperate, and to have desired to
strengthen himself by a combination he would not
otherwise have entertained. Gonzales Bravo is said to
have at one time made similar overtures to the Duke,
who has, however, always acted as a lays' subject of
Isabella. There are persons who affirm the contrary,
but no evidence is forthcoming. What admits of little
doubt is that when the Duke was ordered out of the
country, and sent on board the l'alii de Madrid, one of
the best frigates in the Spanish navy, he had a famous
opportumtv, had he been disposed to become a rebel,
of requiting the Queen for her uncalled-for severity.
The Captain-General of Andalusia, had received
orders to see the Duke and Duchess on board, and not
to lose sight of them until the ship had sailed. Under
the flimsy mask of respect and attention to illustrious
personages he had to fulfil the duties of a captain of
gendarmes He escorted the Infanta on board, and
offered her his hand to go down into the cabin. At
that moment the captain of the Villa de Madrid
made a proposal to the Duke de Montpensien '' Say
but the word,'' he whispered, "and the Captain-
General shall remain as a prisoner on board, and we
will sail to the Canaries to fetch the banished Gene-
rals, and bring them back to Spain." Here was a fine
chance for liberty awl a crown, but the Duke would
not hear of it, the Captain-General returned on shore,
and the frigate sailed for Lisbon. Had the Duk•
accepted, it could not have been said he had
done so without having first endeavoured to turn
his sister-in-law from those evil ways, persistence
in which led to her downfall. It is known that the
Infanta, with whom, until quite these latter days.
Isabella was on sisterly and affectionate terms, re-
peatedly warned the Queen of the perils she was
wantonly incurring. Both she and the Duke saw with
grief and dismay the progress of reactionary counsels,
and the increase of scandals of a private nature. In
the depth of winter, she herself being at the time iu a
state of pregnancy, the Infanta once hurried to
Madrid to caution and exhort her sister, and referred
to subjects of disaendent which scarcely any one but •
sister could have ventured to allude to. All her well-
intended endeavours proved utterly fruitless. If a
majority of the Spanish nation, contrary to the
opinion and previsions of many who believe themselves
well acquainted with the feeling in Spain, were to
offer the throne to the Moutpensiers, they might
accept it with a good conscience as far as Isabella is
concerned, and she would have no right to reproach
them. She has fallen never to rise again, and as to
her eon, it will be suprising if the proud Spaniards
should ever accept as a sovereign one whom they,
rightly or wrongly, look upon as It bastard.