The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-06 00:00:00

" -02

LONDON,
SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6, 1836.

The affairs of Spain occupied, to no useful purpose,
a considerable portion of the time of the House of
Commons last night. Mr. MACLEAN, Mr. POULTER,
Dr. BOWRING, Mr. T. ATTwooD, Mr. GROVE
PRICE, and the Noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs se-
verally addressed the House on this important subject.
Mr. MACLEAN wished to know the strength of our
Marine force on the northern coast of Spain ; by what
authority General EVANS denounced all British sub-
jects found in the ranks of Don CARLOS liable to the
punishment of death ; and what correspondence had
passed between Lord PALMERSTON and the Spanish
Cabinet on the subject. Mr. POULTER confined him-
self to personal abuse of Don CARLOS, CABRERA,
and CORDOVA. Dr. BowRING attacked the Presi-
dents of the Spanish Council in succession, from the
death Of FERDINAND VII.—ZEA, BURGOS, MAR-
TINEZ DE LA ROSA, TORENO, MENDIZABAL, and
IsTumz—charging them all with incapacity to
save the country, and eulogizing the Constitution of
Cadiz. Mr. T. ATTWOOD thought the QUEEN'S
cause had hitherto been unsuccessful, because her Gene-
rals were treacherous. Were her MAJESTY to place
twenty thousand good troops under command of the
Hon. and Gallant Member for Westminster, she
might look to the pacification of the country as all but
effected. Mr. GROVE PRICE took Don CARLOS
and CORDOVA under his parliamentary protection.
The one was endowed with every quality suitable for a
King of Spain ; and the other was what FEARGUS
O'CONNOR would call " the broth of a boy"—the
living personification of every ingredient which is sup-
I posed necessary in the composition of a great General.
The House received this statement with a shout of
laughter. Lord PALMERSTON observed, in answer
to the questions of the Honourable Member for Ox-
ford, that we were, by the Quadruple Treaty, auxilia-
ries, not principals, in the war now carried on between
the Queen of SPAIN and Don CARLOS. He also
stated that the marine force on the coast of Biscay
were under the sole command of Lord JoirN HAY,
and in no way under the controul of the Spanish Go-
vernment. With regard to the general order issued by
EVANS, the Noble Lord was very vague in his expla-
nations, which ended in doing away with the order
altogether. As we are particularly anxious that his
Lordship's reputation may not suffer from any mis-
conception on our part, we shall quote his explanation
of this affair as reported in the columns of the
Chronicle :
" The Hon. Gentleman here made some general observa-
tions on the order issued by General Evans, which showed
that the Hon. Gentleman had not read' !the order, or if he
had, that lie
ofh iatd not sufficiently attended to the meaning of
the wording . the first place it must be observed, that
the order being one issued under the Spanish Government,
the English Government was not responsible for it. That
order stated that British subjects found serving- Don Carlos
would, in his opinion, be guilty of treason, and would, in his
opinion, be liable to the punishment of treason, as prescribed
by the laws of the country. Now, he was not so much of a 1
lawyer as to say what was the precise offence of which British
subjects so situated were guilty. He thought, however, that
no body would contend that when the King of England was
by treaty allied with the Queen of Spain, it was fitting that
Don Carlos should have amongst his adherents British sub-
jects, and that this country should be said to have thereby
adhered to its true and obvious engagements. The very men-
tion of appealing to English law showed that General Evans
did not contemplate doing anything with reference to those
persons to whom his remarks applied in Spain. Indeed, the