The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-02 00:00:00

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION IN SPAIN.

We read in the Arena,. National of yesterday :
" Great protestant nations, such as England and
Prussia, having been constituted account must be
taken of them. The English, the greatest travel-
lers in the world, when refused the right of public
worship in Spain, lust patience and would no
longer consent to be buried there like dogs ; they
asked for a plot of ground for the burial of their
fellow-worshippers, liable to be flung into a ditch
if their families were not rich enough to pay for
a distant and onerous removal ; they claimed, they
insisted, they obtained a cemetery at Madrid.
The Jews, who are only individuals with neither
fleet nor army at their disposal, have
been compelled to wait longer for the same
satisfaction ; in these days of rifle cannons and
needle guns, a right, which is merely a right, runs
the risk of kicking its heels awhile at the door of
governments. This time, however, thanks to the
kindly intervention of France, only thirty-five
years have elapsed between the favour accorded to
the protestants and that which we announce to-day.
The text of the despatch in which the decision of
the Spanish government is notified to M. Mercier
de Lostende, ambassador of France at the Spanish
court, will be read with interest :
Palace of Madrid, Oct. 16.

Sir,—The Minister of the Interior, whom, as your
excellency knows, I have made acquainted with the
note of this embassy of the 2nd of last August,
and of the request accompanying it of the Cen-
tral Assembly of the Israelites of France. respecting
the grant of burial for their fellow-worshippers who may
die in Spain, has just apprised me that, although the
cemetery regulations to which your excellency refers in
the note above-mentioned are not yet settled, yet if the
French Israelites residing in this kingdom, nevertheless
wish to possess or acquire ground for burials, and to sur-
,
round it with walls, without building • chapel or any
kind of temple, without public or private worship, there is
no objection to authorise such oonstructions, provided
that the aforesaid Israelites do so at an appropriate time,
in conformity with the royal ordinance of Nov. 13, I`t3l,
in virtue of which a similar authorisation has
been accorded to the English protestant., and in con-
formity with the law of the 29th of August, 1855, which
allows the establishment of cemeteries; for receiving the
bodies of those who die out of the catholic religion. Such
are the facts I have the honour to bring to the knowledge
of your excellency for the purposes you may deem suitable,
and I am,

(Signed) K ng Catoom,
Yelinister of State for the Department of
Foreign Affairs.

".The abundance of precautions and formalities
with which a concession so natural and so elemen-
tary is accompanied, will be obvious of itself (adds
the A rensr), and yet the monastic regime has pressed
so long upon Spain that we must be grateful for
the smallest onward step. .In regard to religious
liberty, we ought to be modest, and content our-
selves with but little. Let us rejoice, and con-
gratulate the Spanish people, a brave and generous
people, that a modest enclosure will henceforth
preserve in peace the remains of persons who are
born, and who die, outside of Roman orthodoxy."