The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-28 00:00:00

LON DON, FRIIJA Y EVENING, OCTOBER 2ti, 1853.

ROYAL SPANISH PROFLIGACY.

(From the Timm )

The loyalty of the Spaniard is one of the great
national passions which has withstood the shocks
of time. With his bigotry, his bull fight, and his
paper cigar, it makes him amends for the absence
of much political knowledge and much political
ambition. There is in this passion of loyalty—for
feeling we must not call it—something that carries
us back to the East in earlier epochs of Oriental
history—to the climes where all save one were
slaves, and that one the master—the sovereign
ruler and dispenser of riches or poverty, life or
death. But, as if the Eastern notion of loyalty
had not been sufficient in its intensity, in the heart
of the Spaniard it has been commingled with the
burning enthusiasm of the crusader. Well nigh
eight centuries elapsed from the time the Goth
Roderick lost his kingdom to the Moor until, under
the walls of Granada, its restoration to the domi-
nion of the cross was completed by the arms and
policy of Isabella and Ferdinand. During all this
period there was acted on the very soil of Spain
the same drama which for other nations was played
out in Palestine. If, then, the spirit of the Cru-
sades has left indelible traces upon the genius of
the other western nations, each of which only en-
gaged in them a small contingent and dispatched
it to the world's end, what must be the case with
the Spaniard ? His great battles of religion were
fought upon his own soil ; his Bosworths, his
Nasebys, his Marston Moors, were in the Castiles
or in Andalusia. Hence the spirit of chivalry be-
come stereotyped in Spain, and exists even to the
present day, despite the corruption of the magis-
tracy and the pettifogging iniquities of the various
stock-jobbing associations which have succeeded each
other in the supreme direction of affairs. Misled as
they have been by their civil rulers, misguided by
their priests, trained to butchery by the partisan
leaders in the civil wars, the Spaniards are still
a noble race. They acquiesce in Royalty as the
inevitable guide and supreme authority of human
life, as Eastern warriors were wont to acquiesce in
it. They bow their heads submissively to Destiny
clothed in human form, and tricked in regal
attire. More than this, itis with them a devotion
—an affection. They love their queen—or did so
once. Time was when the Spaniard was as
Othello, without the Moor's capacity for jealousy ;
he would once have brooked no questioning of the
Royal Desdemona who was the incarnation of the
historic glories of his native land. Strike at her,
and you struck at the chastity of his wife, at the
good name of his daughter, and bespattered with
dirt the escocheon of a family which was an old
one in Castile in the days of Alonzo the Wise.
Let no son or daughter of a Constitutional Go-
vernment,—let no disciple of " balanced powers,"
—let no pupil of the ingenious Abbe Sieyes affect
to sneer at the intensity of a feeling which is be-
yond his comprehension. The imagination of the
Spaniard colours up objects to the tone of his own
glowing climate. He believes what he feels. It
would have been as useless a task six years back to
lead him to "a just estimate of the capacity and
character of his Sovereign, and of the general
effects of her administration," as it would have
been to reason with a dancing Dervish at Constan-
tinople upon the ultimate object of his contortions.
Nor can it be denied that in a political point of
view this exaggeration of loyalty has had its good
effect in binding together the various provinces of
the Spanish Monarchy, which would scarce have
acknowledged any other bond of union. It would
require another Sismondi to chronicle the jealousies
and reciprocal heartburninas of the Castiles, of
Arragon, of Catalonia, of Andalusia, of the other
Spanish provinces ; they have been held together
by two ties only—the one is religion concentrated
into bigotry—the other was loyalty, exaggerated
into an ardour of unquestioning devotion of spirit
and of soul.

We are now witnessing the spectacle of the
decay and extinction of Spanish loyalty. That
which the imbecility of the Fourth Charles and
the selfish brutality of Ferdinand V 11. could not
effect has been accomplished by a young woman
and a Queen. The task of extinguishing so
remarkable a feeling as that of the loyalty of the
Spanish name was no easy one. Misgovernment
would not have done it. Your Spaniard is as
accustomed to misgovernment as to his cigarito.
We question, indeed, if good government—that is,
government upon the London or Washington
model—would not have irritated him into rebellion
more quickly than any given number of acts of
rigour. Corrupt the constituencies—dissolve the
Cortes—censure the press—gag the Tribune—a
Spaniard can do very well without these institutions,
and would as soon have thought of rising against
the throne of Isabella the Catholic on account of
their absence as he would have done had his Royal
mistress denied him the enjoyment of souchong
and hung beef. Acts of cruelty and dragonnades
would not have done it. Queen Isabella might
have laid provinces waste, and massacred the inha-
bitants, and the bulk of her subjects would have
esteemed it right royally done. A Queen who
was ready to dismiss her loving subjects to the
repose of the garotte chair, or the amenities of a
shooting party, would have had all their sympa-
thies. Queen Isabella might have laughed at law
and order, justice and humanity, and her subjects
would not have hissed her in her opera-box, as
they did the other day. It was on the 18th of
present month that a Spanish Queen endured this
last indignity at the hands of her people. There
had not of late been more than the usual amount
of corruption in the various departments of Govern-
ment. What has happened in the course of the
last few weeks had happened twenty times before,
but at the bull-fight and the Opera, on the Ala-
meda and at the gates of her palace, the Queen had
enjoyed immunity from censure—for censure was
insult. So great had been her offence,—so deeply
had she wounded the punto d'onor of the Spanish
race,--that they had no alternative but to remain
silent, or to blow away the loyal traditions of eight
centuries with a breath. The Queen entered the
Royal box with her consort—with the consort of
Louis Philippe's finding. She stood prepared for
the usual loyal demonstrations. The splendour of
the scene was mechanically suspended that the
Royal March, according to custom, might give time
and harmony to the glad acclamation s of her sub-
jects. But from all sides of the hall—of a hall
crowded with the most illustrious personages of
Spain—a cry of aversion resounded. There should
be no march played. There should be no glad cry
of welcome. Where the Queen of Spain looked for
cheers her ear was greeted with hisses and expres-
sions of disgust : Basta, basta de eso !"—" We
have had enough of this !"—" Que continue la
opera
P'-" Let the opera proceed !" Was it in-
sensibility—was it scorn ? The Queen did not
change countenance. Not so the husband of the
Queen by registry and in name. Not so another
person in that house, who at the present moment
occupies a post at Madrid for which no name is
given in the hierarchy of Spanish dignities, al-
though a Spanish muleteer would be at little loss
to supply the requisite denomination. There stood
the successor of Charles V., glancing down upon
the people, who were cursing her iu their hearts,
and hissing at her with their lips, with no one to
rely upon save the person who for the moment had
succeeded to her favour. All this passed at
Madrid on the evening of Tuesday, the 18th of the
present month.
No single act of imprudence could have pro-
duced such a result. The loyalty of the Spaniard
was so deeply seated that it could not be oblite-
rated
apassing crime. It
was Spanish crown very long
passing folly o r
necessaryby a
through very miry spots indeed before the nation
would have risen against its wearer, as though treason
had been committed agains the repose of a private
family. This is not the first time that the nation
had witnessed the spectacle of notorious profligacy
in the highest station. But, bad as have been the
previous instances of such disregard of all obliga-
tions, no Spanish Queen has as yet loved to exhibit
the living proofs of her successive acts of shame
before the eyes of a nation. Now, there is no
poetry possible for the Heloise of many Abelards.
What wonder, then, that the loyalty of the
Spaniard, being such a passion as we have de-
scribed it to be, should have been converted into its
opposite by so shameful an exhibition ? As the
feeling was a personal one, so it is much to be
feared the retribution may one day be. We, who
regard Sovereigns with a more tempered feeling of
respect, and who most fortunately have never oc-
casion to think of our Sovereign but of a lady as
spotless in her life as she is eminent in station, can
scarcely comprehend what a revulsion of feeling
may lead to in such a case as this. The conduct of
the Sovereign is felt as a personal disgrace by every
Spaniard in the solitude of his own dwelling. Such
is not quite the end of the " Spanish marriages "
---of that politic scheme for the sake of which a
great Minister sacrificed his character for probity,
and a auble Monarch one of the first crowns in
Christendom.

hers of the Lutheran or Established Church of Sweden,
whilst others had formed associations amongst them-
selves for the due administration of religious ordinances.
In the latter case the law of the country was distinctly
violated, because no dissent was allowed in Sweden ;
Roman Catholics and Baptists, for example, were ex-
pelled from the country, and he knew instances in which
this had been recently done. With regard to the other
case, it was scarcely less a violation of Swedish law to
hold religious meetings out of the church, without the
presence of the pastor, and at uncanonical hours. The
people were doing this, and for doing this they were
subjected to confiscation of goods, imprisonment on a
diet of bread and water, and, for a third offence, banish.
ment for four or five years.
The Earl of CLARENDON—IS this for dissenting from
the Established Church ?
The Rev. Dr. STEANE said those of whom he spoke
were not dissenters—they did not baptise or dispense
the Lord's Supper. He spoke of those who still con-
tinued members of the Lutheran Church, but held vo-
luntary meetings for religious worship, which was con-
trary to the law, and for which they were subjected to
severe fines and imprisonment. In a single village not
less than fifty peasants had been fined 30s. each ; and it
must be observed that this was a heavier fine in Sweden
than in England. The doctrine of the Baptists was, that
no person should be baptised except on a personal pro-
fession of his faith ; and as the peasants refused to take
their children to be baptised, persons were sent who
seized the infants, and carried them off from their
mothers' arms to the Lutheran Church to be baptised,
the peasants being visited with severe fines for not
taking them voluntarily. Sometimes their goods or
cattle were taken to pay the fees of baptism and the
expenses of seizure, and the consequence was that in the
province of Norrland the whole community was plunged
into a state of apprehension and dismay. The religious
meetings to which he alluded were frequently held on
the Lord's-day, and in that case a double penalty was
incurred--first, for having met at all ; and next, for a
violation of the Sabbath ; and, in some cases, parties
had been prosecuted for, the double offence.

Sir C. EARDLEY—His lordship would allow them to
ask whether it would be legitimate for them directly to
present a petition or representation of facts to the Diet,
or if they must apply through the channel of his lordship
or the ambassador at Stockholm ?

The Earl of CLARENDON said this must depend upon
the regulations of the Diet—whether foreigners would
be allowed to come before it by petition. If the depu-
tation would allow him, he would make inquiry into the
circumstances, and give them the best advice he could
after ascertaining them. The facts were new to him,
but he had the means of making inquiry, and should
not fail to do so,

The Rev. Dr. STEANE observed that the facts were
certified to them by associates of the Evangelical Alli-
ance abroad, with names of persons and localities. With
his lordship's permission, he would submit a statement of
them in writing.

The Earl of CLARENDON said this would be a great
assistance. He might mention that he had been
waited upon by deputations with petitions from
Scotland, complaining' of acts of oppression com-
mitted in Denmark, Hanover, and he thought also in
Wurtemburg. lie took charge of those petitions,
which were directed in each case to the sovereign of
the country concerned. He sent them to her Majesty's
Ministers at the different Courts, with such instructions
as he thought likely to be useful, and ho had been in-
formed in each case by the British Minister that on
communicating with the Ministers of the sovereign to
whom he was accredited, the facts were invariably re-
pudiated, and be was informed that nothing of the kind
existed. The British Minister also stated that the facts
alleged took them by surprise, that no such complaints
had ever reached them, or had been heard of in society,
and that, consequently, the petitions were sent back as
not applicable. He thought it right to make this known,
in order that the persons who had communicated to him

the petitions of which he spoke might be aware of the

exact tenor of the information which had reached him ;
and without some specific facts being furnished, he
should, not think it right to. take any further .steps..
From none of the parties in question had he ever re-
ceived any additional informatton. The fact of the de-
putation being able to refer: to some authority in the
present case, as a guarantee for the authenticity of the
statements, was, therefore, of great importance.
Sir C. EARDLEY assured his lordship that circumstan-
tial details of the facts had been communicated to the

managers of the Alliance.
The deputation then retired.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, OCT. 27.

The Princess Royal, 91, got up her steam in the
basin to-day and tried her machinery, which has been
fitted by Maudslay and Field. It worked remarkably
well.

The Terrible, 21, Captain M'Cleverty, was coaled to_
day at Spithead, from the Orestes depot, and will pro
vision to-morrow for the Mediterranean.

PLYMOUTH, OCT. 27.
Her Majesty's brig Arab, 12, Commander Ogle, and
the Dolphin, 6, Lieutenant Commander Webber, put
into the Sound yesterday afternoon from Portsmouth,
both bound to the coast of Africa. The Arab is short
of hands ; the Dolphin has some defects to be made
good.

A fatal accident occurred yesterday afternoon in
Hamoaze. Mr. Sutton, engineer of the dockyard, was
assisting to refit the screw of the Agamemnon, 91, when
the fan unexpectedly turned over, and struck him on
the head and chest with so much force that he expired
in a few minutes. Mr. Sutton was in the millwright
department, and has left a widow and six children.
This morning, at 2 o'clock, a 60-gun screw steam-fri-
gate, under steam and single-reefed topsails, wind strong
from the southward, was observed close to Penice, going
up Channel. On her weather quarter was a bark-rigged
paddle-wheel vessel-of-war under steam and single-reefed
topsails, apparently in company.
At 5 30 this morning a paddle-wheel steamer, bark-
rigged, under steam and three topsails and topgallant-
sails, was seen going up Channel. She was rather short,
had painted ports, and a king figurehead. No name on
stern, and bore the American ensign at her peak.

WOOLWICH, OCT. 2G.

APPOINTMENTS,

Assistant-Surgeon George B. Newton (1852), acting
in the Bittern, 12, sloop, on the East India station, is
confirmed an assistant-surgeon to that vessel.

OCT. 27.
Surgeon James C. Walsh (1848), to the Frolic, 33,
sloop, at Portsmouth.

Assistant-Surgeons—Herbert H. Mackarsie (1339),
to the Rifleman steam-sloop, at Woolwich ; Charles B.
`Wood (1847), front the [loyal Hospital, Plymouth, to
the Juno, 2G, at Chatham ; and Charles E. Playfair
(1851), to the Royal Hospital, Plymouth, vice Wood.
Chief Engineer George K. Keeton, at present in charge
of the Firefly, paddle-wheel steam-vessel, at Woolwich,
to take charge of the machinery of the Dauntless, screw
steam-frigate, at Portsmouth.
Acting First Class Engineer Joseph Deal, to the Ritla-
man.

Third Class Assistant Engineers— G. F. Booth, to the
Rifleman ; and John Brettell, to the Terrible.