The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, OCT. 19.

SPA IN.

THE leaders of the Spanish revolution are pro-
ceeding in their work with a dignity and circum-
spection which command the respect of all free
nations, and belong to the character of a
great people. They have, it is true, the bitter
warnings of their own later history to guide
them ; they have the lamentable example of a
neighbouring Empire to teach them how
liberty is lost. Although the Government of
Queen ISABELLA had attempted to suppress public
opinion in her dominions, to steep the popula-
tion in barbarous idolatries, and to make a corrupt
priesthood the sole dispensers of instruction, it
was impossible in these days to draw so absolute a
cordon round the frontier that the glimmering
lights of an age of science and inquiry should not
penetrate a darkness which could be felt. The high-
minded and enlightened men who had been driven
into exile were destined to come back as the
missionaries and propagators of the liberal ideas
for which they had suffered at home, and in their
constancy and courage was preserved the hope of
the better future of their country. It seems evi-
dent that the statesmen who are now charged with
the maintenance of public order and the establish-
ment of public liberty in the Peninsula have for-
gotten nothing but learnt much. Among the more
promising and favourable signs of the direction the
Revolution is taking is the fact that although the
chiefs of the movement are soldiers they are
anxious to associate themselves with civilian
and parliamentary statesmen, and even to give
the latter the precedence in the direction of the
councils from which the future government is to
spring. In his speech at Saragossa, Marshal
Lizaluxo expressly declared his wish for the
formation of a ministry under the leadership of
Senors °imams. and Rrvzno, as " best fitted to
" organise the administration of the country upon
" indestructible liberal ham. " Now Senor
OLO7AOA, it is known, is eminently a constitu-
tional and parliamentary statesman. Ile is one
of those men of law for whom the first NAPOLEON
professed so candid an abhorrence, and his attach-
ment to those institutions which are so repugnant
to the genius of imperialism has been made known
to Europe by his powerful eloquence in the
Chamber and by his long and honourable banish-
ment. No man in Spain is more capable of rendering
energetic and lasting services to the cause of the
national regeneration than this able and patriotic
Progressist. Senor Riven° belongs to a more
advanced, or what is called " democratic," section
of the Liberal party. in coupling those two
names together Marshal SEgitario shows that ho
understands the thoreughueas of the work that

has to ho done before Spain assn be made worthy
of a future destiny more glorious than her past.
Nor is it less noteworthy that in all the spoeohes
of the millitary chiefs of the Provisional Govern-
ment ono and the same key-note--" liberty of
" conscience "—is hoard: liberty of conscience,
and what we should call in England
" liberty of the subject." That distinguishoil
Spanish publicist Senor 0 A REIOO has struck
the true Omni in asserting that do present
Spanish revolution is above all a religious revolu-
tion. We do not mean to point to the expulsion
of the Jesuits as a sign of this—absoluto mo-
narchies have expellod the Fathers of that Society
—though in the country of LOYOLA the proscrip-
tion of the Order is sufficiently significant. Nor
do we suppose that Spain is likely to heroin°
Protestant all at once. It is even possible that
the new Constituent Assembly may declare the
Church of Rome to be still the Church of the State.
Yet it will be no small gain to civilisation and hu-
manity that in the native land of the Inquisition,
in the last European State whore the Roman
Church has presumed to insist on unity of
faith and to pursue heresy with fine and
imprisonment, religions liberty should at last
prevail. Even on the lowest grounds of
secular and material interests, thorn can be no
doubt that a policy of perfect religious toleration
is sound. Nothing can be better or mom directly
calculated to rovivo tho continue° and industry
of Spain. On the other hand, without at
least so much of a religious revolution
as liberty of conscience, the fruits of the poli-
tical and civil revolution would not be worth a
year's purchase. If the rumour of an attempt to
assassinate General Palm should bo confinuoil, it
would only show that the Jesuits have not taken all
their disciples sway with them into France, and
would seem to suggest that the fanatical monks upon
whose loyalty Queen ISA BELLA depended are be-
ginning to despair. Such crimes can only servo to
precipitate and to broaden the course of the Revo-
lution. PRIM'S life is a guarantee : his death
would be a consecration.