The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-13 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the Bth of August eon-
tain nothing of much interest. The Gazette hie
the official appointment of General Serrano Domin-
g nes as the minister at Paris.
" We bare received a letter from Cadiz," says the
Gazette de .Frarsee. " which speaks of disturbances
having broken out in that part of Spain. It says
that at Machina the population rose and massacred
the alcaldes, four municipal councillors, and a clerk
in the employment of the town. It is said that an
order given by the alcalde to disarm the National
Guard was the origin of this sanguinary scene.
The same letter declares that the town of Rocca has
also been the theatre of similar disorders."

It was !hid that the 600 insurgents who had as-
sembled at ?Segni had dispersed, and that 400
of them had made their submission. At Gracia, in
Catalonia, a young man named Peig had been con-
demned to death for having been concerned in the
murder of the Queen's officers in that place.

The osptain-general of the Basque provinces an-
nounces that Cahoonla Goan sed nineteen indi-
viditals have presented themselves before him nd
made their submission.

It fa M. Joaquin Francisco Pacheco, the present
Spanish ambassador at Rome, who has been ap-
pointed minister plenipotentiary a:, the court of Lon-
don. The Patric, in making this announcement,

says M. Pacheco joins to the talents of a diploma-
tist, a lawyer, and a writer, • very conciliating and
sympathetic character, and that the choice made by
Marshal O'Donnell will command general appro-
I Wiest.

A letter from a semi-official source says:
rue policy of the goverantent will certainly be faithful to
the spirit which predominates in the preamble of the decree
proclaiming Spain in a state of title, published in the
Goats on the 14th July lest. Such is the veritable pro-
gramme of the government. The cabinet is determined
to speak by im acts, bat will not make a profession of kith.
All the ministers are animated with the best intoning., and
all are honourable men and good patriots. The state of siege
of Madrid will soon be raised.

In consequent,' of the
quality, recruiting for the free corps has been ear
pended.
It was not true that two deputies of the Cortes,
named Pons and Bono, had been arrested at Sara-
gossa, but If. Abuscal, a deputy of democratic
opinions, is in custody in that city.
The journal called the Ssparlerista, published at
Saragossa, has changed its title to that of the itti-
seer, and gives the following explanation of its
change:

of tran-

Beiartero, dewing several years, oretended on the liberal
rids. Espartero, whew he wee is mile, se well as whim at the
height of power, always held up the standard of the pre-
gremittes, ea behalf of their groat work of medal rippers-
dee. Heehawed himself always as a great man, a liberal,
and one devoted to ►is party. But now, when the people,
[evoking the name of the Dake of Victory, have, apes the
mession of his ministerial overthrow, meshed to the munbat
In the streets of bledrid, of Bareirleas, of Singes's,
end a *emend plasm beside, this maw has re-
mained, apparently, at least, quits apathetic, and
I not one word has macho' se from him caleulated
either to suspend the semi& or to determine its triumph.
To the clamours of the populace, to the thunder of the
artillery, and to rite groans of the victim■, this am bas, at
t►is erect critical mcnient, returned no answer bat asthma
whieh was oily too rignilleant. Thst is the reason why,
unless the time shoal acme whim eiresnutaness may he
'deleted to aspirin mid justify every particular of the mo-
dest of this man, we suet sew to regent his as the repro-
Natalie* of our putt, and diem from our knead a we
which we can ►suaforth nowise swept.

CONDITION OF SPAIN: THE SOUTH.

--4.-
ST AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.

The existing mists of government in Spain mint.
so °lowly to the imminent* of further changes in the
publio administration of that country that it may be
well to revert to the salient features of the national
condition, on which any comprehensive political re-
construction mast ultimately turn. The numerical
insignificance of the Spanish forces, and the sue-
oessive instances of their disaffection from nearly
every cause that they have at different periods 1
espoused, affords a wider scope to the political autos
of the people than under almost any other govern- I
ment of Europe. But since the phases of the national
character differ so widely in the different provinces of
Spain it is impossible to treat them otherwise than in
section! fare.

There exists, however, this common characteristic
of the Spanish people, that their social amelioration
is everywhere thwarted, with more or less force, by
the concurrence of five cardinal evils in the politioal
and the territorial system. These may be thee de.
scribed—First, the general absence of the landholders
from their property ; secondly, the total want of any
vigorous centralisation in the executive government;
thirdly, the absent* of local legislatures, which alone
will over be able to appreciate the idiosytcracies of
each province; fourthly, the glaring insecurity of
commercial traneactiocs, es arising from the anterior
insecurity of government itself ; and fifthly, a beggared
priesthood and a vicious religion. From the existence
of these evils it naturally follows, that agriculture is
everywhere at a steed for want of capital and intelli•
genes; that local reforms are postponed for want of
power and information in the executive; and that
commerce is crippled through the hazards entailed
upon speculation. Such are the leading results of fifty
years of alternate revolution and incision.
The southern provinces of Spain—more especially
those of Andalucia and Granada—illustrate this
continuous misgovernment in their own peculiar
way. The central territories of that kingdom seem
to form the boundary between northern and
southern Europe. While in Navarre, in Amami,
and in Catalonia, there is everywhere that dulness
of soul and that obvious "labour of life" which
forms a common chatacteristic of the northern
nations, in the provinces on the Mediterranean

coast, we find nothing bet the mental vivacity and
joyossuess of heart which are always associated with
the idea of "the south." Asa Mots' result of this
original difference of temperament, there is propor-
tionately lam industry in the territories of which I
am here speaking. Yet all the conditions of agri-
cultural life are there peculiarly light The
terms. in the first place, upon which lands
are let to the peasant clam ere more easy
than in the northern provinces; and a detail
of the ordinary burdens from which the Aoda
laciest MIDIS is exempted might tempt many of our
own agriculturists to a colonisation of the half-peopled
lands of Southern Spain. The relations of landlord
and tenant teem to partake more of • primal and
patriarchal charm's? than to be the result of mere
legal bargains. The simplest agreements every-
where take the place of our lessee, even in conditions
extending over the epees of a century. The farmer,
too, is practically altogether exempt from taxation,
whether in au ecclesiastical or a civil shape. On the
one hand, the whole system of tithes bas been abo-
limited since the establishment of Constitutional Go-
vernment, some twenty years ago. Oa the other, the
fiscal policy of the State, being in this respect the
reverse of our own, hes passed from direct to indi-
rect taxation. The peasant and the farmer of Ands-
lads and Granada, finding the capacities of their
own soil sufficient to satisfy their moderate wants,
thus at one* escape the cheeps which any other
system would impose upon their produce, and avoid
purchasing the goods of others.
Yet the agricultural condition of the south, with
all these natural advantages, affords a very indifferent
illustration of the doctrines of Protection. A large
part of the etesamption of these provinces, where
they are in proximity to the sea, is actually derived
from the sandy plains of Africa. The cultivators of
the soil are everywhere unable to supply the wants
of its inhabitants. In evidence of the neglect which
Me lately become more than ever apparent within the
sphere of agriculture, I may mention the complete
et:dallies of the sugar cane, which once formed ose
of the most profitable sources of domestic industry.
The southern wok although occasionally arid, is
upon the whole not less capable of yielding a east ex-

cess of produce over domestio consumption than that
of the north. All that is wanting to the cultivation
of these arid districts is the sinking of wells, and a
better supply of oxen for labour. Were these wants
supplied it would be found that the gay Spaniards of
the south were capable of competing with almost every
other nation.

The experience of every year makes the conviction
more clear that the landholders are themselves inca-
pable of ameliorating the national condition. They
are chiefly either poor and unintelligent, or rich, ab-
sent, and indifferent. And if we fall back in despair
on the central government, and call upon them to en.
fora the duties of territorial improvement, of which
the individual landholders are the natural guardians,
we are forced to confess that while they may bring
more general intelligence to bear, they will bring pro-
portionally less particular information. A solution of
the difficulty is only to be sought in the development
of the local legislative jurisdictions.
The unfortunate but well intended endeavours of
Reporter°, during his regency, some fifteen years ago,
are singular instances of the truth of this pzoition.
His legislation on this subject wu of a piece with the
measures by which Joseph 11. sought to govern
Austria. In 1841, the quarrels in reference to the
right of unappropriated lands had grown to a height
that necessitated the interference of the State. The
government then passed arbitrary edicts, the result
of which was partly to confound the lards of
the State with common pastures, and partly
to distribute them among the lower classes in smell
portions. A swarm of miserable landholders, after
the fashion of those in France, then took possession
of nearly all this doubtful territory. This is perhaps
nearly the only instance upon record of any violent
and illegal measures devised by Espartero with the
direct motive of keeping himself in power ; for all the
large landholders were then staunch in the Moderado
cause, and it was his aim to raise up a poor territorial
body in opposition to his enemies in the state. No
sooner, however, bad this confusion of rights and
interests taken place, than Espartero proceeded to
issue an ordinance to the Ayuntamientos, or local
municipal bodies, requiring them to plant all the
lands comprehended in this territorial revision, and
specifying the produce which each farm should bear,
without the remotest knowledge of the adaptation of
the different soils over which his edict extended.
The result of all the material change which has
taken place in the south of Spain during recent
years may be thus characterised. That which has
been the work of the government has ignored on.
tional interests and confounded isdividual rights;
and that which has been the work of the tenants,
or of the landholders themselves, has illustrated the
most total incapacity in its originators either to ap-
preciate the wants of agriculture, or to supply the
pecuniary means of reform. Until the union of ge.
neral intelligence and local knowledge can be com-
bined in the administration of single provinces, there
an be no real Improvement in Spain, nor could any
measure be better calculated to chick the violent
revolutions of the central power than the counter-
poise of subordinate local legislation.

ITALY.

THE TWO SICILIES.
DISTURBANCES AT PALERMO.
(raom oOlt OWN 001.1LISPONDRNT.)

NAPLES, Arocer 7.
Naples is so full of report., that I know not how
to detach the true from the false. It would seem u
if the public mind were too excited to weigh evi-
dence ; hence it catches at what is most pleasing to
its hopes, and imparts to it such a semblance of truth
that for the moment one is puzzled. The proclamation,
however, which I send you is an indisputable fact.

NZAPOLITAXII.

We ►ad counselled you to be peaceable and dignified is
the grave edits is which oar amen is intuited. You In-
oeived the counsel well. We szpected nothing different from
you. Eight years have passed, daring which you have lm
-
posed silence by your B•mnew end constancy on the wicked
bend who calumniated you by saying that you desired only
disorder, sod that you placed the goveroment under the
nacomiity of chaining and lashiog you. The prieons hold
the bravest and most virtuous citizens who form our dear
pride. And the government, to avenge itself, has been
obliged to orgenise fake conspiracies, and urge its satellites
to the remotest extremity of corruption. Thee by restraining
the holy eager of virtue herself, you have almost
completed that moral revolution, which, only initiated is
1848, ►as obtained a solemn European judgment between
the country and the government. Lot tot,however,prudenes
avid faith be mistaken for pusillanimity and torpidity. At
Illustrious mac, en far hack us the 23rd of May last, said to
the Itali n,, " Agitate, end agitate. Agitation is not en-
&any a revolution, but precedes it and prepares it. Agitation
in itemenifestatiouvreust be manifold, and of teeny foral.

—.emulate*" of time, of p'aee, of oppornagity,' ales
inspiration, en impulse, a physiognomy. It is a seharg
gyasuestic.which Is, educates, invigorates the moral end
intellectual force' of future combstanto, and especially theft
c tinge It does the duty of the toustereroll. and disp'sys on
our part the soldiers of the country, and briers forward the
most worthy, the most capable, the boldest. It molests the
ettomy with the punetaves of thousands of pins, before he
is plotted with the deep wounds of swords. It reminds
Berea, that she never can have peace, so lour as the gM
evhdtieble sepirations of I tel an natiosality ars Rot sanded.
All this 'gists, end it produses agitation. Agitation, seen&
lag es It is skilfully sad energetically directed, is always
mare er less valuable, and is injurious." Our opiaisa
is, that the facts of agitation according to the time ars is CM
opt tie meaner fees of reengage* to the Insurrections which
she authorities commit sgain't their own laws ; pressing fore
ward continually on the way of violence end of terror, they
least sueieutob at length. That which the law does not forbid,
the will of a functionary can never efficeciously forbid. W•
ate cot bound to respect the private attitudes and desires of
these who some ; much leas to know and to investigate
them. You have morally triumhphed by bringing out into the
broad light of public opinion those nohle eepiretions whidt
before struggled for renitence in the darkness of seats.
Well then': theta aspiration*, this participation in the
history now passing Defoee your eyes, let them become •
free and public feet. No longer suffer admonitions on the
arrangements of the person or of rirees Do not atonal yogi
eagerness to teed the journal', or your opinion' SS
them ; speak openly of the acts of the government in a bee
eoustme ss , spite, too, with this, and openly declare
it, your sympathies for those who have deserved well of the
goestry wb the occasion presents itself; show year
strong in your faith ; true is it that this will increase
hatred sad persecution against you, and will open to yogi
Mho edam door.; but besides that tho e sufferings will be
brief, we ought not to fear them, though they would
be oar deserts wire we to show cowardice or dirt.
lies. This we tell yoe, that you are • nation.
set a eat, for seats are the creation of our
enemies eel,. In the reetrration of our rights. of trim
order sad public morality, we specially invoke the assistants,
of the clergy and of the ertny—the chief nerves of the
' state; thecae, with the word, will give life to the spirit le
its sew direction ; the other, with its type of energy, of die.
airline, sad of airier, will prevent every deviation. And.
perhaps, at no distant time, this our army, having become
distrait expression of national strength, will be cur Wide,
and will acquire a noble page in living history. Faith,
helfitir nerseverenos !
To the tone of this the strictest observer of legality
sea object nothing, and the only fault that govern.
sent an possibly find with it is that it presents no
handle for oppression. The objects at which it aims
an however very clearly specified, and it in
not traequilisiog to any government to his
told that "agitation precedes revolution." Great
efforts are belt, a made to ascertain the
authors of theme proclamations, but as set all
wish efforts have been unsuos.essfol; meanwhile they
aeo distributed far and wide, almost under the noose
of the police.
The great event of the day, however, is the news
from Sicily—coloured most highly no doubt—and still
of
nob an uncertain character that I have hesitated
to say anything about it. From all I can gather of
what is probable the following statement appears to
appe3acb oar the truth. On Sunday, 27th, it had
been resolved by the Palermitans to make a demon.
siltation on the site where the band usually plays,
sod so well known was it that gemente were
made to put down any movement. Notwith•
standing, at the appointed time a °lowa assembled.
and cries were uttered of " Viva la Costitusioats"
During the Following night fin arrests were made.
On Monday morning General Pflissier arrived with
his @toff adding, of course, not a little fuel to the firo.
They were received wi'h great enthusiasm I am teal,
sod left after a visit of 24 hours. On the following
night 40 arrests were made. Their report adds to
this statement that, on the Sunday, some of the Ist
regiment of Swiss trying to put down the demon.
atration were get upon by the people, and a portion of
a Neapolitan regiment—either the 13th or the Regi-
swot della Morte, It is added that the Swiss were
esedilljamauled, and between 200 and 300 pot hors de
e . I receive these reports with great reserve,
but it cannot be concealed that there is
a very bed feeling existing on the part of
the Neapolitans, both civilians and military,
I towards the Swiss, and that Sicily is in a state

of great ferment. Again, we coins to the positive
when I inform you that within the last few days as
many as six steam frig►tes have been put in coma
minion, and a varitoy of distinctions assigned theta-
The report circulated by the authorities is, that they
are to be rent down to change the garrison of Pa-
lermo. This is evidently false, as so many would
not have been wanted. Others assert that his Ma-
jesty is contii,u‘lly haunted by the ghost of the Its,
Tian Legion ; but it is more probable perhaps that
they are held in readiness for any events in Sicily,
which is now heavingaud tossing is thethross of poll-
tics! agony.