The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-26 00:00:00

SPANISH AFFAIRS.

The following diplomatic correspondence has taken
place between the Duke of Sotomayor and Mr. Bul-
wer, her Majesty's Ambassador at Madrid :
" TO THE RIGHT HON. HENRY LYTTON BIILWER.
" Foreign-office, March 16, 1848.
" have to recommend you to advise-the Span-
ish Government to adopt a legal and constitutional
system. The recent downfal of the King of the French,
and of his family, and the expulsion of his Ministers,
ought to indicate to the Spanish Court and Government
the danger to which they expose themselves, in endea-
vouring to govern a country in a manner opposed to the
sentiments and opinions of the nation; and the catas-
trophe which has just occurred in France is sufficient to
show that even a numerous and well disciplined army
offers only an insufficient defence to the Crown, when
the system followed by the Crown is not in harmony
with the general system of the country.
" The Queen of Spain would act wisely in the present
critical state of affairs, if she were to strengthen her
Executive Government, by widening the bases on which
the administration reposes, and in calling to her councils
seine of the men in whom the liberal party plaees
confidence. " I have the honour to be, &c.
" PALM.ERSTON."
" TO HIS EXCELEENCT THE DUKE DE SOTOMAYOR.
"English Embassy in Spain, Madrid, April 7,1848.
" Sir,—l inclose for your Excellency the copy of some
remarks which Lord Palmerston has lately addressed to
me; and I cannot but express to you all the desire which
I feel, that the Government of her Catholic Majesty
should deem it fit to return without delay to the ordi-
nary forms of,the Government established in Spain, by
convoking the Cortes, and by giving them explanations
calculated to efface the impressions occasioned, both in
the kingdom and abroad, by the arrest and apparent
intention to banish several citizens (amongst whom are
to be found some of the most distinguished members of
the Cortes), who up to the present moment have neither
been tried nor accused of any offence. .
" Your Excellency will, I am sure, permit me to re-
mind you that what especially distinguished the cause of
Queen Isabella from that of her royal competitor, was
the promise of constitutional liberty inscribed on the
banner of her Catholic Majesty.
" It is certain that that circumstance powerfully con-
tributed to obtain the syreyathy and support of Great
Britain in favour of her Majesty, and consequently your
Excellency cannot be surprised at the sentiments which
I express here, supposing even that the general situation
of Europe, and the universal tendency of public opinion
did not prove most clearly, that at present the firmest
guarantees of a throne arc to be found in the national
liberty, and in the enlightened justice which are dispensed
under its authority.
" I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your
Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
"H. L. BULWER."
THL DUKE DE SOTOMAYOR TO MR. BIILWER.
" Ist Bureau of the Foreign Office, April 10, 1848.
" Sir,—l yesterday.received, after two day's delay, a
note from your Excellency, dated 7th instant, and en-
closing a copy of a dispatch from Lord Palmerston, dated
the 16th ult., relative to the internal affairs of this coun-
try. That note was already known to the Government
of her AlisjestY, because it had appeared in substance and
by anticipation in an opposition journal, published at
Madrid under the title of the Clamor Public°, which,
judging from this fact, has the advantage of being made
acquainted with the diplomatic dispatches which your
Excellency addresses to the Spanish Government before
they reach their destination. Setting aside the ulterior
commentaries and the inductions which such a grave and
significative circumstance might present to me, I shall
content myself with telling you what my duty prescribes
to me on the subject of the communications which you
transmit to me.
" At the date of 16th of March last, when Lord Pal-
merston sent you his dispatch, the Spanish Cortes were
sitting; the press was completely free, and the Govern-
ment of her Majesty had adopted a line of conduct full
of kindness and conciliation, which its enemies and its
adversaries themselves were compelled to admit. What
motive can therefore have induced the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of her Britannic Majesty to make him-
self the interpreter of the feelings and the opinions of
this country, and that in an unfitting tone, when speak-
ing of the Government of an independent nation; to
recommend to its adoption legal and constitutional
measures, as if such was not the conduct followed in
Spain; to allow himself to advise it to modify the bases
of the administration, and to admit into the councils of
the Crown men belonging to such or such a political
opinion? - •

- "Certainly the Minister of her Britannia Majesty is
not, in such a work, the best possible judge of the cha-
racter and habits of Spain, whence order and institutions
arise, since foreigners take no active part in the manage-
ment of public affairs, and have to support no particular
party.

"The present Cabinet, which has merited, and which
still merits the entire confidence of the Queen and the
Cortes, and which since its accession to power has
governed conformably to the constitution and to the laws;
this Cabinet, I say, cannot see without the most extreme
surprise the extraordinary pretensions of Lord Pal-
merston, which leads him to interfere in this manner
with the internal affairs of Spain, and to support him-
self on inexact and equivocal data, the qualification and
appreciation of which cannot in any case come within
his province.
" The Government would have much to say to com-
pletely justify its past and present conduct ; but it does
not consider itself. called pn to do so unless at the wish
of its Sovereign and the Cortes, and in no way at the in-
stigation of a foreign influence, which by that alone
would commit an offence against the dignity of the Go-
vernment and the independence of the nation. All the
legal parties in Spain unanimously reject such a humi-
liating undoubtedly the legitimate represents-
hating pretension ; and ti.e Spanish Government, in
erston —would your Excellency yourself say—
ittiofiivot
oSatiphinmaeg it,
Government were to interfere and pass
of the country. What would
representa-
tive
Lord doing
general opinion
an opinion on the administrative acts of the British
Cabinet, and recommend a modification in • the regime of
the state ; or if it were to advise
it to adopt more effi-
cacious or more liberal measures to alleviate
the fright-
ful condition of Inland.
" What would he say if the representative of her Ca-
tholic Majesty in London were to qualify, so harshly as
your Excellency has done, the exceptional measures of
repression which the English Government prepares
against the aggression which threatens it in the midst
of its own states? What would he say if the Spanish
Government were to demand, in the name of humanity,
more consideration and more justiee on behalf of the un-
fortunate people of Asia? What, in fine, would he say if
we were to remind him that the late events on the conti-
nent give a salutary lesson to all Governments, without
excepting Great Britain, and that consequently the ad-
ministration of the State should be given up to the illus-
trious Peel—to the skilful man, who, after having con-
ciliated the general opinion of his country, has known
how to merit the sympathies and the esteem of all the
Governments of Europe? He would say—what the
Spanish Government has a right now to say—that he
does not recognise the right of any power to offer obser-
vations, which rejects as offen.ive to the dignity of a
free and independent nation.
" Animated by sentiments suitable to Spanish dignity,
and to every Government which respects itself, the
Cabinet of her Catholic Majesty cannot avoid protesting
in the most energetic manner against the contents of the
dispatches of Lord Palmerston and of your Excellency;
and considering that it cannot retain them without being
wanting is dignity, it returns them inclosed, and at the