The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

SPANISH AFFAIRS.

ANOTHER change has taken place in the
Madrid Ministry. O'DONNELL, who arrived at
power by a street insurrection, has ended his
short administration by a sham fight. It
was on Thursday, Oct. 2, that Queen Isassu.a,
with the King on one side of her, and General
O'DONNELL on the other, reviewed 10,000 men
in the environs of Madrid, the troops being
dressed in their new uniforms, one of the re-
wards for their prowess in the latest barricade
combats. On the following Sunday, NARVAEZ
arrived in Madrid, and the Premier and the
Marshal exchanged visits, but it required
only a week for the latter to eject O'DONNELL
from office and to become, for the time being,
the ruler in Spain. This time the battle for
places has been without bloodshed and with-
out a pronunciamento. Whether this pacific
result has been achieved by fair means or foul,
time will show. It has been suggested that
there was a compromise, and that Cuba is
destined to reward O'DONNELL for his prompt
surrender. Madrid letters written prior to
the downfall of the General, on the other hand,
hint that he is destined to be the ambassador
of Spain to St. Petersburg. The Russian Minis-
ter passed through Bayonne last Saturday,
the 11th inst., having been detained there by
a telegraphic message from Madrid to await
the arrival of two Cabinet couriers sent by the
Queen, to prepare a grand reception on the
read to the capital for the envoy of a country
which has had no representative in Spain
since the death of FERDINAND. The late Czar
NICHOLAS was a strong Carlist, and assisted
the cause by strong subsidies, which the
stupidity of Spaniards did not know how to
turn to the best account. Here then, in the
arrival of Russian diplomacy at Madrid, will
be a new element for intrigue.
In the meanwhile there has been the usual
amount of visionary speculation as to the ad-
vent of NARVAEZ, and the biography of his
colleagues in the new Cabinet has been
paraded with much fuss, as if it mattered at
all what men arrived at place and power in
Spain under the present dynasty. It is not of
the smallest consequence that this political
apostate, that rank renegade, this dastardly
traitor, that miserable intriguer, this jobber,
or that robber, obtain Ministerial sway for a
brief period in Madrid. The statesmen—if
such a wretched set of corrupt incapables can
be dignified with such an apnetto+:—
and go; and as the successi
civil war on both sides
haustion, so does the

gradually approach. The
Spain is to came.
At the death of FEED.
LADRON first hoisted the

an appellation—come
cessive results • ,
are hi pees l' ,1,-1
eventualcha; t1,,,'W.)1(014
Lie real wve
tlr
i.-3'.!
MIV iri r
.... Alt Fr:
DINAND, ii:iii •4.
Carlist ii.
~..i • , •a• re .4 7 4a.
--- .:::,i' ..`‘' .• ...
lis4
!•••••• jllllhe A 3'4k.. "‘i
diPt7t,- till
E., ‘ 07. 40
-P. N

986

Basque provinces, the civil war began. I'?
1837, when the army of DON CARLOS ap-
proached within musket-shot of the gate of
Atoca, the culminating point of the battle for
the succession was reached. He refused to
r ?cognise the Cortes bonds, and the Paris and
Lyndon stockjobbers then made their arranae-
ments to enable ESPARTERO to achieve r.by
treachery what he could not accomplish with
the sword—namely, beat the Carlists. On the
31st of August, 1839, the Maroto convention
was signed at Bergora. Since that epoch
Spain has been, and is, in a state of transition.
The quadruple alliance gave the throne to a
female instead of a man. The magical name
in Spain of " El Rey " ceased to exist, and
confusion has reigned paramount ever since
DON CARLOS was feeble in mind, and a bigot;
but he was, at least, a man who, in the rela-
tions of private life, preserved the strictest
proprieties. What ISABELLA is, let any
traveller walk in the streets of Madrid, in
Bayonne, and in Paris to learn. At twenty-
seven years of age, she has the appearance of
a middle-aged woman. Her days are passed
in bed, and her nights in orgies. The end of
this dissipation will come. The alteration in
the law of succession, achieved by CHRISTINA,
was for the purpose of securing Spain
"Liberal" institutions, and to save the country,
as it was alleged by the Pahnerstonians of the
day, from absolutism. As the Government of
the Barricades in Paris ceased to exist because
it departed from its legitimate source, so will
tie Isabella dynasty pass away because it has no
sympathy with its origin. For eighteen years
Loots PHILIPPE ruled, and after he had
destroyed the name and fame of every public
man whom ho called to power he fell himself.
A similar retribution is going on in Spain.
Every public man is becoming used up, and
eventually will arrive the real revolution—that
of the masses.
The corruption of the Orleans dynasty is
exceeded immeasurably by the Isabella func-
tionaries. The struggle for place in Spain is
chronic. When the office-holders have been
long enough in power to be entitled to their
pensions, they yield, sometimes quietly, some-
times with a little resistance, to the office-
seekers. The whole country is covered with
a set of locusts, and the resources are eaten
up. NARVAEZ has a certain amount of energy,
but lie has also the mano which is the curse of
'Spain. When he pursue(' the Carlist General
LOPEZ through Spain there were several occa-
sions when he could have overtaken and anni-
hilated the enemy ; tut it was not the policy
of NARVAEZ to put an end to his daily pursuits
'and to write flaming bulletins of an attack on
the fag-end of a rear guard. With NARVAEZ
Will return Queen CHRISTINA, despite of the
intense animosity with which the Queen Mother
and the Queen Daughter regard each other.
What next? Perhaps a Regency, after the
abdication, forced or voluntary, of ISABELLA.
Perhaps a Republic, with a Dictator, if a great
man should spring up. Perhaps—and this is
the most probable—a French intervention,
under the pretext of " settling " the affairs of
Spain.
It is alleged that the Emperor of the FRENCH
sees with displeasure the O'Donnell downfall,
and the return to power of NARVAEZ. This is
a mistake. O'DONNELL, who knew well that
the coming of the latter was certain if he
passed the frontier, opposed strenuously the
granting of the passport. It was French in•
fluence which obtained it, and NARVAEZ, on
his wsy to Madrid, in passing Bayonne, paid
a v;sit to Biarritz. The Emperor and
Empri as of the FRENCH kept open house
to the Spanish notabilities who were taking
their baths at Biarritz, and many of these per.
sonafes, as well as others in Madrid, have not
slrupled to give out openly their opinion that
NAPOLEON 111. is the man for Spain. La
Son Condesa del MONTIJO is equally hos-
pita' de to the French visitors in Madrid.
The French superior officers on the frontiers
are as gay as possible with the confirmed
notion that the next occupation of the French
army will be in Spain. The Carlists on their
aide are not altogether idle. Weak as they
always have been in the large towns, the
landed and mountainous populations remain
zi Mailed to the Absolutist cause, but the Car-
.- Vita lam) no leaders. Tho civil war produced

s.v•