The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-12 00:00:00

trinnt Int
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LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1847.

A Legislative Assembly has never opened more
ominously than the Spanish Cortes for the session of
1847. With a reckless audacity altogether without
any parallel in the records of constitutional monarchy,
the Isturitz Administration has wantonly violated
one of the fundamental principles of the national code.
In causing Senor OLOZAGA to be arrested on his way
to assume his place as leader of the Opposition in the
House of the Legislature. the (overnment of Queen
ISABELLA has offered a heinous insult to all the
most sacred and eminent institutions of the Peninsula.
By thus violently seizing the representative of the
electors of Albacete, the Ministers have committed an
unpardonable offence to the electors throughout the
Spanish dominions ; they have bearded the Opposition
beyond forgiveness by thus incarcerating its avowed
chieftain ; they have contemned the supreme autho-
rity of the Cortes in regard to one of its most dis-
tinguished members ; they have exceeded the autho-
rity allowed them by the moderate regulations of the
Constitution ; they have trampled upon the privileges,
and the prerogati►es, and the holiest rights of every
citizen in the empire. It is now absolutely impossible
that any other reparation can be made to the Penin-
sula for this enormous political offence saving the
retirement of the present Administration from the
offices which its members have so shamefully abused.
Even supposing the most treasonous and fla-
gitious acts were " brought home" to the im-
prisoned Deputy, even supposing that Senor
OLOZAGA were proved to be guilty of some pro-
digious treachery, whereby the very existence of the
Constitution was endangered, the Ministers of her
Catholic MAJESTY have shown themselves too liable
to exceed the administrative authority reposed in their
hands, they have shown themselves too capable of in-
vading the powers solely intrusted to the representa-
tives of the sovereign people, they have shoWn them-
selves too capable of obeying the mast arbitrary plea-
sures of royalty, to be permitted to continue with
impunity their course of shameless and contemptible
obsequiousness.

So many acts of oppression have recently been
sustained by the population of the Peninsula, either
from the Cabinet of the Tuileries or from the osten-
sible agents of that Cabinet, that it is a comparative
satisfaction to discover, in the arrest of Senor OLO••
ZAGA no single evidence that that proceeding has
occurred either with the connivance or approval of
the French Government. Indeed, the Parisian press,
Ministerial as well as Opposition, has been unani-
mous, almost without a solitary exception, in its indig-
nation at this daring violation of the popular preroga-
tives of the Spanish peninsula. Beyond this, it would
appear that the Count DE BRESSON has expressed his
displeasure at an act so calculated to destroy the cha-
racter of the Ministry under Senor Isxuarrz, and
thereby to militate against the interests of France in
those territories. It is manifest from this, if from
nothing else, that the occurrence to which we are re-
ferring cannot possibly have originated in the council-
chambers of his Majesty King Louis PuiurrE. We
appreciate the sagacity of that extraordinary man too
thoroughly to concf;ive for a single moment that he
could have been so preposterously short-sighted as to
instigate Senor ISTURITZ and his colleagues to the
commission of a crime little less than the crime of
Ministerial suicide. We are consequently disposed to
acquit those Gallic politicians who have hitherto
striven to jeopardise the independence of Spain from
any participation whatever in the seizure of Senor
OLOZAGA—a seizure which is more likely than the
most flagrant pandering to the ambitious avarice of
the French Monarch to arouse the Iberian people to
a consciousness of their own perilous and degraded
condition, and simultaneously to rekindle in their
hearts the smouldering fire of patriotism.
Before the Cabinet of Madrid had taken, or had
probably even conceived this most hazardous experi-
ment upon the patience and.forbearance of the Spanish
community, we looked with curiosity and interest
for the commencement of the sessional labours of the
Cortes. That interest is enhanced, that curiosity is
redoubled. It now remains to be seen whether there
is still sufficient dignity in the new assembly of re-
presentatives to prompt them to vindicate their cha-
racter thus perilled, their authority thus thwarted,
their individual and corporate prerogatives thus con-
temned and usurped. It remains to be seen whether
the electoral inhabitants of the Peninsula are still
sufficiently impressed with the responsibilities accu-
mulated upon their shoulders, and the solemn immu-
nities ensured to them by the decrees of the Consti-
tution, to incite them to the publication of some
spirited protest against the official robbers of those
responsibilities and the official violators of those
immunities.

Either Senor OLOZAGA must be convicted of some
extraordinary offence against the law, or against
the sovereign Lady regarded as the representative of
the law, or against the fabricators of the law--the
Spanish people ; or the Government themselves will
ipso facto stand convicted of an extraordinary and
treasonous offence—namely, the causeless assumption
of despotic power. Among the various living states-
men of Spain who have attained any degree of emi-
nence, the name of OLOZAGA has acquired a conspi-
cuous position. With a mind enlightened beyond
the average enlightenment of his class—with a heart
prone to cherish all the attributes most calculated to
reflect creditably upon the social condition of his
countrymen—with an ardent loyalty, and a patriotic
enthusiasm, and an immaculate character, and an in-
dependent disposition, and an eloquent tongue, OLo-
ZAGA has ensured to himself the affection, and com-
manded the respect of a very considerable majority
of the Spaniards. His influence in the Cortes may be
at once recognised in the fact of his having been
chosen leader of the Opposition. In attacking
such a man, therefore, and in attacking him moreover
in 3 manner so peculiarly contumelious and insolent,
the Ministers have assailed the entire community
upon a point the most certain to arouse all their
sentiments of indignation and all their passions of
revenge. The colouring of the whole transaction is
so peculiarly villanous as to enhance rather than to
mitigate the wrath of the population.
After an interval of three entire years the enmity
of the Court faction towards Senor OLOZAGA is
gratified by this unconstitutional proceeding. On
applying to the Ambassador in Paris for passports to
enable him to revisit his native country, he is, at the
instigation of the Afrancesado Cabinet, positively re-
fused.
Ultimately he obtains the requisite passports
from the Spanish Consul at. Bayonne, but then, only
after first forproducinghis inspection the certificate
of his election as Deputy for Albacete, and,
secondly, after referringlB6,
whereby to the enactment (of
the 25th of April,
the impeding
any functionary
of Any popular representatives by
whatever is rendered punishable by
eathi : Never-
theless, in spite of that stringent and d
explicit
enact-
ment, Senor OLOZAGA is arrested
on h
Madrid, and immured in the citadel of Pa mpe"alyuntao
It actually becomes a question whether in violating the