The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-27 00:00:00

THE S PANISH MARRIAGES.
The fourth number of the Revue Retrospective,
published .at ris. by Al. Taschereau, contains the
-following iripu.:tant and interesting correspondence
respecting the Spanish marriages :
• " 3
TTEa ygom QUEEN CHRISTINA TO LOUIS PHILIPPE.
Madrid, this 15th December, 1844.
' To 11. M. the King of the French, my beloved uncle.
Sire,—The kindness which your Majesty has always
manifested towards me encourages me to present to you
• my respects and my congratulations on the occasion of
blae marriage of the Lake d'Aumale. I hope that this
union may prove a source of happiness for all the royal
family, but more especially for your Majesty and my
dear aunt.
We are approaching also the holy festivals of Christ.
mas and the New Year, and I now pay you my respects
for tlaose days. I can never forget the pleasure I felt in
• spen ding them near you, near aso estimable family! I
trust one day to see that happiness renewed. If my
duties retain me at present near my beloved daughters,
I hope that, as soon as our wishes are accomplished, I
may be able to fly to you, personally to renew the ex-
pression of my sentiments. What those sentiments are
is no secret to you; you may therefore believe in the
sincerity, and accept of the wishes I offer up for you,
especially'on the occasion of the coming holy festivals.
I have another act of ditty to fulfil towards you, my
dear uncle; it is to inform you of my marriage with the
Duke of Rianzares. I believe that you know of it al-
• ready, espeeially through my excellent aunt the Queen;
but I should feel wanting in my duty if I omitted to take
this step myself towards you. My dear aunt regarded
this resolution of mine with that maternal goodness na-
tural to her, and which gave me infinite joy. I doubt
ot but this step will be equally well received by you,
whose kindness towards me is so long standing. The
Duke of Rianzares has come in for his share of this
kindness; and believe me, my beloved uncle, that the
gratitude and respect he feels for you are profound.
You may always rely upon his sentiments as upon
mine. _ _

I hope that your health is as good as I wish it to be
for many a long year to eome. We enjoy, thanks be to
the Almighty, this blessing, and I have the gratification
to behold my daughters happy. They send you their
homage and congratulations, uniting their wishes to
those offered to God for your Majesty's welfare, by her
who kisses a thousand times the hand of your Majesty,
and is happy to be your Majesty's most affectionate, re-
spectful, and obedient niece,
MARIA CHRISTINA.

[To the original of the above letter a note is added in
the handwriting of the secretary of the ex-King, M.
Fain, as follows :—'The King replied by an auto-
graph complimentary letter on the 2d of February,
' 1845." The following translation was also found in the
portfolio] :
TO THE SUITORS OF THE HERALD°.
Madrid, June 6, 1546.
Gentletnen,—As the words pronounced in the Cham-
ber of .Deputies of France, on the 27th of }lay, by M.
Thiers, one of its most illustrious members, may give rise
to a renewal of ancient and unjust accusations against
the Queen-Mother—accusations which never had any
other foundation than the ignorance of facts incompatible
by their nature from publicity—it is impossible to re-
main silent any longer ; for, besides the danger of seeing
public opinion led astray in the field of conjecture, the
• Queen-Mother finds herself attacked in her personal sen-
timents before a respectable body, whose discussions
certainly deserve an echo in Europe.
M. Thiers affirmed without hesitation, and without
expressing that courteous doubt which the subject and
the circumstances seemingly commanded, " that the
Queen-Mother nourished in her heart an unqualified
hatred against the son ut her sister; and that, domi-
nated by that melancholy sentiment, she turned towards
Naples, to seek for Count Trapani as husband for her
daughter."
Whilst the blindness of party spirit has attributed to
the Queen-Mother, in this serious affair, views based en
political calculations, more or less prudent, or on family
affections, more or less excusable (avouable.c), to allow
time to reply in presence of the profound silence of those
who might so easily defend this august Princess, would
be aMended with the serious inconvenience of infallibly
misleading public opinion on a subject which touches so
nearly the royal dignity. To-day, however, when speak-
ing before a French Chamber of the marriage of the
Queen of Spain—of a question which, though diploma-
tic, is not the less essentially a national one—M. Thiers
has asserted that its most serious (funeste) complication
arose from the hatred nourished in the heart of the
Queen-Mother; the honour of that Princess, and of those
who flatter themselves to have always loyally served her,
demand that this unjust accusation, arising from a petty
and vulgar sentiment, launched against a person who so
little deserves it, either as a queen or a mother, should
be refuted.
Snrely, as a queen and as a mother, she ought to be
allowed to form a -free judgment of the concenance or
the impossibility of each of the candidates fur the hand
of her daughter; but she has not, nor ever will have,
any other object in view than the welfare of the people
whom she once governed, and it is the highest conside-
rations of the public interest alone which can make her
reject certain candidates. But, thank Heaven, those
diplomatic and political difficulties will not be increased
by those implacable hatreds, which are not entertained
by this illustrious princess,:whose illustrious misfortunes
have not caused her to repent of her clemency: the rea-
ado is as simple as it is honourable—it is that the Queen-
' Arothei does not know what hatred is.
Instructed by a long and painful experience, beholding
from the height of her greatness the spectacle of our
misfortunes, in communication with the leading men
which, in each contingency, every shade of opinion sent
to the Throne as the faithful expression of their views,
it could not escape her observation that in every faction
there are men and doctrines deserving of approbation ;
that each has had his day of triumph, of error and mis-
fortune ; that sincerity is to be found amongst them all,
and that where sincerity exists party spite is only an
additional error which the vulgar regard as a political
creed which becomes the haunt of low and vulgar ambi-
tions. And when such is the opinion of this august
Princess on all these opposed factions who have caused
so much disorder in the kingdom, and of whom there is,
perhaps, not one who has not offended her, at least by
distrusting her intentions, is it credible that she should
have consulted those hatreds and angers, and not the
moat high interests of the Government, to guide her in
the grave question which is to ensure the personal hap-
piness of her daughter, and to which the country has
attached so many hopes of glory ? The reply cannot
be doubtful, especially as it is expected from the judg-
ment of Spaniards, and not from that of the French
deputy.
It is truly astonishing that the man who endeavoured
to explain in a manner so little honourable the aversion
of her Nlkajesty to th© candidateship in question, should
not have been more exact in his positive affirmations
that the Queen-Mother ardently desired a Neapolitan
candidate for the hand of her daughter. It is astonish-
ing that the sage historian, so well versed in the policy
of the day, should have gone so far back to find the
origin and the support given to the candidate which he
deplores so much. A solemn light will, however, soon
be thrown upon this serious affair, which has shaken the
union so necessary to the moderate opinion, and has de-
prived it of the name of a party, so useful in the hour
of struggle, and the singular martyrdom of this august
Princess will cease—a martyrdom which can only be en-
dured on the steps of a threne—to sutler calumny without
being able to reply to it.
It is true that the distance between the illustrious
French deputy and the modest writer of these lines is
immense; but with truth on my side, and e nen my
heart tells me that the cause I defend ienobl e and gene-
rous, I never hesitate before the quality of my ad
Ternaries.—l am, &c.,
(Signed)

AN. M. RUBIO.

QUEEN MARIA CURISTINA.
Neuilly, June 16, 1846.
TO lIER MAJESTY
'ethdfi:ienciship
My dearest Sister and Niece,_iL -
astonish-
ment, mingled with & sentiment whicllismmwuryl
for you prevents me from expressing
that I have read the letter which the private distinctly,
of the Duke of Itianzares has inserted in the Madrid
journals, signed by himself. Nobody:has been able todrll
dis-
cover the end of the insinuations contained in that docu-
ment upon the origin of what is called the candidate.
ship of your brother, the Count ce Trapani, for the
hand of the Queen, your august daughter. In fact, the
discussions which the publication of this letter
hits occesioned in the public journals prove that
no one mild have been mistaken that the design or
these inspuations was, aot only to attribute it to myself
personal v, as well as to my Government, but also to
have it believed that it was imposed by ua against your
opinion and contrary to your will. These assertions are
eo totally false that I am unable to tolerate them, and I
now demand justice for them.
I thiak I ought, my dear niece, to notice hore some
facts, upon the accuracy, of which
bear your testimony. .. " you will
and even
not refuse to
• ' At the time you were here in the midst of us,
before we had with you-those frequent conversations,
those interchanges of confidence which our mutual feel-
InCs Adered so pleasing to us, you did not cease- .to
epress your desire that it was one of my gons
s :ho
uould become the husband of Queen Isabella 11. You
told m©'
pthaantilliis union was the wish of a great majority
of the
those desires,
huoa.tion. You know how I was touched by
for whom Iliae. e whal_appreciated the suffrages of a nation
regard, when 1
explained
all my life, so much esteem and
reasons which interposnee,t to you, at much length, the
wish. and which obliged to prevent me acceding to that
and full egression of yorau: to
demand from you a clear
maotnion. I cannot forget the
difficulty which I had to perceive them; how-
evil. I succeeded in convincinge You
that it would be
eobin'Zion,and that which
. necessary to seek some other
princes,descend-
was preferable might be found among; the
IL,li?wes,t; to the number of
of themhaving been
been reduced
ants of Philip V. These
eight, were then marriageable.
the law,
Carlos), being in
since married, that number has thereby
V) six, of whom three (the sons of Don
anticipated
the political
the deplorable position of being attai'nted by
ipated from the
cannot be thought of; Spain is deprived
h Thus, in order
ntated.
advantages which might have baegei
fusion of parties so unhappily
that the husband of the Queen might o chosen from
among the princes of the Spanish race, whom en lawre
.
nunciation, or. treaty had deprived of their ultimate
-
rights of succession to the throne of Spain, the choice
of the-Queen (at least as far as the exclusion Of.the three
sons of Don -Carlos was in operation and force) came
to lie between the Duke of Cadiz, the Duke of Seville,
and the Ceunt Trapani. You know, ley dear niece, that
far from-seeking to induence your choice, and that of the.
Quieen your- daughter, I have. constantly told you
athat.
with segaia to the first two I thought their qualitY- '
' ' parcla, born and educated in Spain, gave scare
them s
rtia
advirntage ;. .further;.- that haying myself often seen
V .
SPAYStS th°B6 'Teithr-illeiniee ,!dartiagr 'We-, ‘:;• 0.,„/
-eurne. ...nliini
f.„....4c --N us, I believed them A "thy Queen's and
5....,_,\
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