The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-14 00:00:00

THE SPANISH MARRIAGES

We have received from Paris copies of the docu-
ments respecting the marriages of the Queen of Spain
with Don Francisco d'Assis and the Infanta with the
Duke de Montpensier, presented to the Chamber of De-
puties by M. Guizot on Tuesday last.
The following are translations of the most important
dispatches:— _ _

LORD PALMERSTON TO LORD NORMANBY.
Foreign-office, September 22, 1846.
My Lord,—l have had several communications with
the Count de Jarnac, and a conversation of some length
with Monsieur Demon, on the subject of the intended
marriages which have been announced for the Queen of
Spain and for her sister the Infanta ; and in these com-
munications and conversations I have explained fully
and without disguise the sentiments entertained by the
British Government upon the Queen's marriage, and the
strong objection felt by them to the proposed marriage
of the Infanta, and I have now to instruct your Excel-
lency to bring those opinions and objections in a more
formal manner under the consideration of the Govern-
ment of France.
And first, with respect to the marriage of the Queen
Isabella, her Majesty's Government have good reason
to believe, and it appears, indeed, by the avowal of the
French Government, that this marriage was brought
about by French influence at Madrid. Her Majesty's
Government rejoice to think that the British Govern-
ment was no party to that arrangement.
Her Majesty's Government might indeed remark that
the steps then taken at Madrid, by France singly, to
bring about this marriage, were hardly consistent with
the proposal which that Government states itself to have
made to her Majesty's Government, that the two Go-
vernments should act in unison in regard to the advice
to be given to the Court of Madrid upon the subject of
the marriage of Queen Isabella ; because it appears that
at the time when the French Chargé d'Affaires in Lon-
don was asking the opinion of the British Government
upon this matter, in order, as he stated, that if the two
Governments could come to an agreement about it, they
should each give the same recommendation, the French
Ambassador at Madrid was already in possession of in-
structions from his own Government to endeavour to
bring about the Queen's marriage with one particular
candidate ; and that consequently the question about
which the French Charge d'Affaires was offering to de-
liberate in London had been already decided by the in-
structions which had been sent to the French Ambas-
sador at Madrid.
It is true, indeed, that no proposal on this subject was
formally or distinctly made to her Majesty's Government
by the Government of France ; but what passed was
nearly as follows:
The day after I had sent off my dispatch (No. 6) of
the 19th of July, to Mr. Bulwer, I showed a copy of
that dispatch to the Count de Jarnac, as an explana-
tion of the views which her Majesty's Government, in
the short time during which they had been in office,
had taken of the question of the Queen Isabella's mar-
riage, and of the existing state of things in Spain ; and
I gave him the dispatch to take home with him, that he
might confidentially send a copy of it to his Government.
Count Jarnac made several remarks on the dispatch,
and objected both to that part which related to the
marriage of the Queen of Spain, and to that part which
related to the political condition of Spain.
Upon the latter part, he expressed apprehension that
the observation made upon the system of rule which
has of late years prevailed in Spain might, if made
known in that country, produce bad and inconvenient
effects ; but it is to be presumed that the French Go-
vernment did not share those apprehensions, because a
copy of that dispatch, though it had been communi-
cated in confidence to the French Government, was sent
by them to M. Bresson, and was by him made known to
several persons at Madrid.
But upon the first part of my dispatch, Count Jarnac
observed, that it seemed to him to put forward the Prince
Leopold of Saxe Coburg as a candidate for the hand of
the Queen of Spain, while it excluded Count Trapani
from the list. That this was inconsistent with what had
passed between the French Government and the late
British Ministry, between whom it had been agreed that
while, on the one hand, the French Government should
withdraw the Duke of Montpensier, or any son of the
King of the French, from the list of candidates, the
British Government, on the other hand, should withdraw
the Prince of Coburg, and that some descendant of
Philip V. should be recommended as consort for the
Queen of Spain.
I said, that I found no trace in the Foreign-office of
any such agreement.
That what I understood to have been the ground taken
by her Majesty's late Government was, that unless the
Queen of Spain were likely to marry a French Prince,
to which -the British Government would, upon political
grounds, have an unquestionable right to object, the
marriage of the Queen of Spain was a Spanish question,
with which no foreign Government was entitled to inter-
fere so as to control Queen Isabella's choice, whether
that choice might fall upon a Bourbon or upon any other
Prince. That the British Government would make no
objection, therefore, to her selecting a descendant of
Philip V., although it did not join in endeavouring to
impose any such restriction upon her; that Prince Leo-
pold of Saxe Coburg was not a candidate put forward
or supported by the British Government, and that, on
the contrary, the British Government thought for many
weighty reasons that a Spanish Prince would be a
fitter husband for the Queen, and that among Spanish
Princes Don Enrique seemed to be the best suited to be
her consort.
I said that these views had been made known to Mr.
Bulwer by my predecessor in office, and that Count
Jarnac would see that, in the beginning of my dispatch,
I referred to and adopted the instructions which had
been given on these points by her Majesty's late Govern-
ment. That, consequently, it was impossible that Mr.
Bulwer should suppose that the mere circumstance of
the Prince of Coburg being mentioned by me as one of
the candidates for the Queen's hand, was to be construed
by him as an intimation that the British Government in-
tended to support or to recommend that :Prince. But
that, moreover, my private communication to Mr. Bulwer
would prevent the possibility of any such mistake.
But I denied that there is any such parity between the
relation of the Prince of Coburg to the Royal Family of
England, and the relation of the Duke of Montpensier to
the Royal Family of France, as would afford any ground
for such a bargain as that which Count Jarnac claimed
as having been made.
The Duke of Montpensier is a Frenchman, and son of
the King of the French ; the Prince of Coburg is not an
Englishman, and is only cousin to the Queen of Eng-
land, while his brother is married to a daughter, and his
sister to a son, of the King of the French. That his
connexion with the Royal Family of France is therefore
fully as close as his connexion with the Royal Family of
England, if not more so ; and that it is impossible, in
any point of view, to look upon him as an English can-
didate, or to make his withdrawal by England a condi-
tion of the withdrawal of the Duke of Montpensier by
France.
That if indeed the question had been as to Prince
George of Cambridge, there might have been some parity
established between him and the Duke of Montpensier.
But I said that in point of fact I had always understood
that when about three years ago, and before the Prince
of Coburg was talked of as a candidate, the French Go-
vernment had proposed, and had laid down for its own
guidance the principle that the choice of the Queen of
Spain should be confined to a descendant of Philip V.,
the French Government itself had pointed out that by
so doing it excluded any son of the King of the French;
and therefore the decision of the King of the French that
the Duke of Montpensier should not be a candidate for
the hand of the Queen of Spain was not part of any bar-
gain about the Prince of Coburg, who had not at that
time been mentioned as a candidate, but was the result
of the sense which the King of the French spontaneously
entertained of what was due by France to the faith of
the transactions of the Treaty of Utrecht, and to the just
value attached by other States to the maintenance of the
balance of power in Europe.
I said, moreover, that in using the word " candidate "
to designate Prince Leo-pold as one of the Princes who
had been publicly talked of as a possible consort for the
Queen of Spain, I employed that word in its ordinary
and colloquial sense ; and that it did not imply that the
Prince of Coburg was put forward by the British Go-
vernment, or even that the Prince had himself taken any
steps in the matter. But, at the same time, I distinctly
told Count Jarnac, and I afterwards repeated the same
thing to him several times on other occasions, that the
opinion of Lord John Russell, of myself, and those of
our colleagues who had had time to give their attention
to Spanish affairs, was the same as that which had been
entertained by her Majesty's late Government--namely,
that a Spanish Prince would be the most prudent choice
for the Queen of Spain, and that Don Enrique seemed
to be the Spanish Prince who was the fittest for the
high position of being Queen Isabella's consort.
It is impossible, therefore, that either Count Jarnac
or the French Minister could, from the first moment,
wken any communication took place between the two
Governments on these matters, have had any doubt as
to what the opinions of the British Government were
'with regard to the best choice to be made by the Queen
'of Spain.
The Count do Jarnac stated upon that and upon other
'occasions that it would afford the French Government
.Measure if her Majesty's Government should instruct
r. Bulwer to give effect to those opinions by recom-
zaending a Prince who should fulfil the French condition
40f being a descendant of Philip V., while at the same
Itait_llle he possessed the qualification of being a Spanish
-1-riece, to which we appeared to attach importance.
He'd, also, on a subsequent occasion, that if the
British Government should determine to recommend
Don Enrique, he was sure that the French Government
they hoped
'would be withatlling us,Liite in giving that advice ; but
objections to that if
w iT need
turn out that at Madrid the
British Government uele were insurmountable, the
,phoice of Don Franciscood not afterwards oppose the
. -
I said that her Majesty's firighetrtonment did not con-
tol themselves to have any Government
an opposition
for reasons
, Don Francisco in such a case, although, hnot bake upon
whik --'ll I had explained to him, they cella
then tselves the responsibility of recommending that
Frint
It ,seems, however, that about the time when these
COMMglnications with a view to an united course between
the t% ID Governments were passing in London, the
French Ambassador at Madrid, in pursuance of instrue-
i
Cons wh eh must have been sent to him some time be-
fore, was co-operating in the: employment of moral co-
ercion to c 'ompel the Queen of Spain to accept a Prince
who was m st the candidate whom the British Govern-

went was willing to concur with the Government of

France in re, lommenchng.
iferiMajest 'w's Government are quite ready to admit
that there w, le no engagement on this matter between

the tlvo Goya Th-nents, and that each was at liberty to
give to the Spfinia h court such advice about the marriage
of the (21 teen us It might.think fit. But her Majesty's Go-
vernmeut ' tic, not: exactly see why such anxiety should

M. GUIZOT TO M. LE COMTE DE JARNAC.
Paris, Oct. 5, 1846.
Monsieur le Comte,—The English Ambassador called
on me some days ago (23th of September) to communi-
cate a dispatch, dated the 22d of September, addressed
to him by Lord Palmerston, on the subject of the mar-
riages of the Queen of Spain with the Infante Don Fran-
cisco d'Assis and of the Infanta Don Luisa Fernando,
with the Duke de Montpensier. You will find a copy
annexed. I have laid it before the King in Council ;
and I send you the answer of the King's Government
to this communication, begging you to lay it before the
Principal Secretary of State of her Britannic Majesty.
At the conclusion of his dispatch, Lord Palmerston says,
that" the Government of her Britannic Majesty is de-
sirous of giving to this communication the most friendly
form which is consistent with a full and authentic ex-
the rightss
pression of its sentiments." Yon will assure Lord Pal-
merston that the King's Government also entertains feel-
ings
of the motsincere
duty friendship towards England
and
its Government, though it feels it its to
maintain
and interests of France against
complaints and representations , t
ow hfrieceh
maypspelefa rfrotmo it a
unfounded.
I am anxious, in the fi
charge which Lord Palmerston the beginning of his
dispatch, brought against the'King'smesomGeovsernm.ent, and
which has, I confess, occasioned
remarks that we, not long ago, proposed toutrriTn.g&
Government to come to an agreement and to act in
unison as to the advice to be given to tile court of