The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-24 00:00:00

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TM:I.R OLUTION IN SPAIN.
MADRID. Ocr. 21.

So far as Maria is concerned the conduct of the
Central Junta in dissolving itself has met with
universal approbation ; and if one may judge from
the telegrams which have already been received
from the provinces this fooling is shared by the
whole of the country. All the juntas which hal
been formed in different districts of the capital
have, following the example of their head and
centre, dissolved themselves ; a similar course has
been adopted by many of the provincial juntas,
and will no doubt eventually be pursued
by all. This is as it should be. These juntas
have rendered incalculable services to Spain, both
in organising and regulating the revolution, in
preserving order, and in preventing evil-disposed
persons from availing themselves of critical mo-
ments for purposes of plunder and destruction.
With very few exceptions, which, considering the
circumstances, are hardly worth notice, these pro-
ceedings have been characterised by extreme
moderation, prudence, and forbearance ; and now
that the necessity for their services has ceased, it
is well that they should melt quietly away, and
that their members should return to the discharge
of the ordinary duties of citizenship. In
the proper fulfilment of those ditties there
is and will for some time be ample scope for the
display of the abilities and patriotism of the most
honest and intelligent Spaniards. At present the
impending elections for the Constituent Cortes
will naturally engage the greatest attention. It
was expected that the date of the assembling of
that body would have been fixed to-day, but the
auzitte has appeared this morning without any
such notification, and we shall have to wait at
least another 24 hours for the knowledge which
we are all anxious to obtain. In the: meantime, so
far as I am aware, no public steps have been taken
in any part of the country in the way of the selec-
tion of candidates, or the pressing of their claims
upon the constituencies. No doubt in most of the
p,rinciiaal towns the leading men have made
up their minds as to whom among their fellow-
citizens they would choose to represent them, and
at Zaragoza I notice that the democratic party lias
appointed a committee to choose candidates. Even
whin the candidates are chosen a good deal will
remain to be done. The voting will be by univer-
sal suffrage ; but those of my friends who are best
acquainted with Spain awl Spaniards tell me that
great difficulty will be expert. uce.l in persmuling
the noses of the people, especially in the
country districts, that they have any right to a
voice in the matter—and even if they are consincel
of that, in inducing them to exercise their right of
deice. They have so long beer. practically de-
iittl of al sham in the selection of repreeenta-
fives, that it will be no easy task to p:rsu
them that in this instance it will roany .l. peed
ripen their decision what manner of men shall go
to Madrid to deride the great questions which
Luse been opened up by the revolution, awl upon
the prudent settlement of which must depend the
future tranquillity awl prosperity of the country.
Tlit• instruction of the people as to their rights ant
as to the character and principles of the various
candidates who may solicit their suffrages will
of erd ample occultation for the most active poli-
ticians, and is a task upon the proper fulfilment
of which must very largely depend the character
of the Constituent Assembly and the value of the
decisions at which it may arrive. Should
not these considerations be sufficient to
determine the existence of the Juntas and induce
the members to retire from the business of active
administration, they will find themselves compelled
to the adoption of that course by is decree of the
provisional government which is published in the
Urratie this morning. By that decree, the pre-
amble to which recites the dissolution of the
Central Junta and the cessation of all necessity
for this irregular form of administration, all these
bodies are from this time forth dissolved, and arts
directed to hand over all registers, documents,
in their possession to the regular local authorities.
Ido not anticipate that in many instances—
I would fain hope that in none—it will be
found necessary to enforce this decree against an
unwilling Junta ; but should the necessity arise, I
doubt not that the government will be found to
have sufficient authority to carry its point. The
only Juntas which are likely to resist their disso-
lution, as far as I know, are those of Malaga and
Barcelona, and even they will hardly, I imagine.
oppose themselves to the example of the Central
Junta, and the large majority of the provincial
committees to the will of the provisional govern-
ment, and to the public opinion of the whole of
the rest of Spain.
The circular addressed by Senor Lorenzen to
the representatives of the Spanish government at
foreign courts has excited a large amount of ad-
miration here. The elaborate, hazy, and almost
mystical phrases of which it largely consists seem
to have en incomprehensible fascination for the
Spanish mind, and you hear men speak of this
document with as fervent an admiration as though
it had settled for over the position of Spain among
the nations of the world, and given the most dis-
tinct assurances as to her future institutions and
her future policy. That it did not do so is not to
be charged as a fault against Senor Lorenzaua; it
is the natural result of the existing uncertain con-
dition of affairs. At present nothing is, nothing can
be decided, and the circular to the foreign repre-
sentative.' is not an inapt representation of such a
condition of things. Perhaps, under the circum-
stances, no man could have been found more com-
petent to draw up the necessary diplomatic docu-
ment than the Minister of State. He was for
some time editor of a newspaper in Madrid—if my
memory does not deceive me of the Dierio--and
it is reported of him that he so ingeniously con-
structed his articles, that even when the censor-
ship over the press was exercised with the greatest
severity, he never had a paper seized ; while at
the same time his utterances gave the greatest
satisfaction to the opponents of the govern-
ment. The sentences were so ingeniously turned
that to the mind of the censor they
conveyed no idea, while to the initiated or sym-
pathetic they were pregnant with the deepest and
moat important meaning. So it is with the
despatch which ho has addressed to the Spanish
Ministers abroad. Outsiders like myself see in it
but little that can conciliate unfriendly or stimu-
late the sympathies of well-disposed governments ;
and yet I hear Spaniards repeating its phrases to
each other with admiration, and congratulating
themselves upon the justice which has at last boon
done to Spain by the facile pen of the Minister of
State, and the influence which his despatch is
likely to have upon the estimation iu which the
revolution will be held by the peoples of Europe
and America.

The following item appears in the Mexican news
received by the last West India steamer:—" Ixtaceihuatl,
one of the held& volcanoes which has been so long silent,
woke up on the 21st of July last. A crater burst open,
from which there issued with great force a column of air
mingled with water, mud, and enormous masses of rock.
It may be supposed that, iipaasage being now opened up,
we shall soon have an eruption on a grand Mae." latac-
-6111101 (the white woman) has, from time immemorial,
preserved the silence in character with the shrouded tlguro
which its snowy outline represents.