The Sun.
London, England, 1823-07-18 00:00:00

SPAIN'.

The folloning letter from Madrid is not of a
very recent date, but it is important from the de-
tails into which it enters of the horrors commit-
ted in that city since the rabble and the French
obtained the mastery:—
" 31 Ann ID, JUNE is.—The state of this country is the same
as when you left it, or rather worse, because the atrocities com-
mitted by the unbridled` populace, in the first days, have be-
come the system of the Government and the Police, who do not
disdain Imitating ih ewers thing the rabble of Madrid. MI the
promises of the Duke, all Proclamations, have been com-
pletely violated ; for you must know that, as soon as he entered
Madrid, he forgot all that he offered and wrote from Yrun,
toria, Tolosa, Burgos, and Aleobentias. You will remember
that, in all the Proclamations published in those places, he
declared himself the Protector of the Militiamen, Whoni he
said it was the object of his army to shield from the ven-
geance and the resentments of the Spanish Royalists. By
these means he succeeded in persuading a multitude of men,
who were compromised, not to abandon their abodes; but
to follow the peaceable exercises of their professions and in►
dustry, as they had been recommended to do in in insidi-
ous Proclamations. This was a snare laid for good faith
and credulity • for as soon as the Government and the French
troops saw, 1 will not say with indifference, but with a
pleasure they could not dissemble, the persecution of the
Militiamen, and the sacking, of their houses, the Govern-
ment itself undertook the continuance of the work commenced
by the rabble. To legalise this atrocious persecution, a con-
siderable number of men of the most desperate diameter have
been taken into pay, at the rate of ten reels a day, to search
out and discover the habitations of the deceased roihtiamen—
of the miserable mother, sister, or wife. of any militiaman who
is in Seville—the father, the son, the brother, of any militiaman
who is missing, &c. The moment one of them is discovered,
an account is given to the Government, and a French detath.
ment is sent to seize the criminal or criminals minty of so
great a crinti as' the having had a son, a husband, or brother, or
relative, a militiaman, and they are imprisoned in dungeons,
or in a number of houses watch, for want of prisons, have been
converted alto them. IVhen any of' these poor Victims of
French perfidy are seised, that moment flock froth all parts
groups of rabble who assail the prisoner with the foulest op.
prebriummireading every where terror and alarm, ailing out,
strangle the negro, off with his head, kill him, In the
mean time the French, with a ferocious laugh, applaud and ads
ululate the rabble, going even so far as permitting them to
strike with staves, and swords, and knives, the unfortunate in-
dividuals with whose custody and security they are entrusted.
" A single day does not pass which is not stained by many
of these disasters and violences. Thus there have been
dragged to the dungeons a number of mechanics whose only
crone, as I have said, consisted in having a son, or a relation,
a militiaman, or perhaps a grandson, who with other boys
might a year ago have sung the a Tragala ' or the "
The first night I was informed of many of these imprisonments
made in the preceding day, and I saw that of the Marquis de
Escalona, whom they seized in his house, Calle del Pcz, and
who was conducted to the prison amidst an immense crowd,
behaving with great dignity, for when they loaded him with
the grossest insults, he endeavoured to shew them that he would
not be insulted with impunity. The ferocity of our people goes
even the length of becoming ridiculous, as the following in,
stance will shew. The famous Trappist was, four days ago,
parading the streets with his habit—his ceps eapucha, mounted
on a proud courser, which accused worth more than the whole
Trappist establishment. Passing through the Calle Mayor,
the same day he entered, many people went to meet him,
when a poor man, who was passing, said to another whom he
met, and who was his friend, ' See, there's u Friar in his habit
on horseback.' One of the tigers, who were mixed with the
rabble as spies, called out instantly • down with him till a
French detachment relieved the unfortunate man, who did not
worship the Trappist.
" In the mean time the Regency proceed fearlessly itt their
course, committing such havoc with their decrees, that the
very French are astonished at so much ignorance and stupidity.
The Marshal Duke de Reggio said to en acquaintance of
yout's tuul mine, that it was necessary to send the Regency 'a
packing, for Its existence only served to disgrace them, to create
enemies, and to paralyie the operationm,of the war—thathither.
it had been only occupied with re-organizing the Monks end
reinstalling the Inquiaition.
" A Decree his been adopted, declaring that the national
estates should return to the credit() public°, from the wants of
the Treasury:" , Thus both the ancient proprietors and the new
purchasers will' be. losers. What wisdom I They have con.
verted Into enemies of the so called Legitimacy, not only the
Monks and the old possessors, but also the new. In short, I
should never end, were I to relate all the absurdities committed
every day by this ominous Regency, which seems determined to
!thew all Europe that all Its acts correspond to the nullity of its
origin.
" It is given mit es certain here, that the Cabinet of Saint
James's, in a most energetic note, has demanded from the
Thuillenes an explanation respecting the erection of a Re-
gency, protesting that it would recognize no other Government
than that of Ferdinand VII."
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