The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-16 00:00:00

rates.

.-Ti

02_

THE DOUBLE MARRIAGE.
(From the Times.)
With all our affection and admiration for the Spanish,
we must say that they are a rnost_provokin e
They are always a day too late for action, ey quietly
allow themselves to be circumvented, and then affect
the utmost indignation and surprise when they find them-
selves at the mercy of a stranger. To be sure, they do
more than affect indignation ; they are apt to give it
even a too genuine and actual expression. He who en-
traps a Spaniard, to use a proverb which Sancho Panza
would doubtless have expressed in the idiom of La
Mancha, has only succeeded in " catching a Tartar."
His work is to come. The most furious and practical
vengeance, however, makes but poor amends for an evil
which might have been prevented. Spain knows too
well whom it has to thank for the unfortunate lapse it
now so vehemently deplores. It knows how little satis-
faction the progress of Spanish affairs can possibly have
given to England for several years. What encourage-
ment was there for us to interfere ? Nay, what possibi-
lity? What right had we to step in and dictate to Spain an
utter renunciation of the blood royal of France ? Spain is
not like the Celestial Empire, secluded from "barbarian "
intercourse, and restricted to the immediate kindred of the -
moon fur its imperial alliances. It is one of the European
family, and, like the other members of that family, it
has good reason to desire for its princes foreign, rather
than domestic, intermarriage. The question then re-
mains, " Who are the Infantas of Spain to marry?"
Spain is a nation, and the Spaniards are men. It is for
them to answer the question. Spain will soon or late
assert and maintain its independence of action. Woe to
the nation that attempts to interfere! Had we volun-
teered ever so judicious advice at this juncture, had we
seconded that advice with the necessary amount of im-
portunity, intrigue, and intimidation, and had the result
ever so thoroughly justified our wisdom and honesty, we
should still have inflicted an incurable wound on jealous
Castilian pride. Where nations are concerned, the
greater the kindness the less the obligation. At the
very moment that this question came on Spain was in
the attitude of a marked and energetic indspendence, as
far as this country was concerned. We positively have
had no more to do with the present state of affairs at
Madrid than with those mysterious revolutions
which the palaces of St. Petersim, gh will sometimes
accomplish with so much celerity and effect. We were
invited when our services were required, and dismissed,
with scarcely the civility of a bow, the moment that
Spanish liberty thought it could do without us. So far
from taking umbrage at this cavalier treatment—not•
withstanding the serious cost and scandal of the supposi
we rendered to the throne of Labella—notwithstanding
the fact that Spanish liberty is a defaulter to a prods-.
gious amount on the British Exchange, we can still con-
sole ourselves by remembering that, at all events, Spain
is governing her: elf. Self-government is a sacred prin-
ciple in England. We forget all sacrifices, we endure all
ingratitude, when we hear that a nation is free and inde-
pendent. To diffuse over the world the constitutional
liberty we enjoy is the height of our simple ambition. We
had once the consolation of believing that we had im-
parted that liberty to Spain. Fuit Ilium. That consolation
is no more. Have we no right to feel aggrieved? Had
we no claim to be consulted? The King of the French -
and his own Ambassador shall answer this question.
If his Majesty has not done us an injury, why
does he adopt so gratuitously the appearance of an il-
licit transaction? The man whose hour is the midnight,
whose entrance is the back lane, and whose implements
are the dark-lantern and the bar, we may be well
assured is conscious of some impropriety in his errand.
oaaLgunotaeuieonissfs
in
hteuh Philipprepoapwleaee.cr
palace
dsG
at i
f the very worst consulter of
hasappear-
osteovhaeeniadr not
Madrid.
o'clock.
hcoot committed mie
this
morning, te d
that a cr
sslipsoe
early for business, so late for festivities? What orgies
have been celebrated in the domicile of two royal •
maidens for whose safety the chivalry of Europe is en-
gaged? There are gentlemen in the French metropolis
who derive the distinctive name of their peculiar indus-
try from the unembarrassed air with which they walk
out of a house early in the morning, after speeding the
night in appropriating the flower of its contents.
This man is a Frenchman. Is he one of the class ?
The chevalier d'iudustrie who is practising on the sim-
plicity of the natives of Spain is no less a person than
the accredited and most confidential agent of a great
King. He carries off an Infanta in his sack. Couriers
and telegraphs, and the still speedier movements of that
infallible sympathy which plays between the soul of am-
bition and its instruments, inform Louis Philippe of his
prize. The fact thus far accomplished, the Spanish
people is at liberty to know what Christina and the
French Ambassador have done with its Sovereign and
the presumptive heir to the throne. If it has the
curiosity, al o, to inquire into the means, it may learn a
few particulars which possess now no more than a merely
historical interest. But between Louis Philippe and
Christina the matter is settled. That is enough for
Spain. We are not unreasonable in questioning that
which invites suspicion. Does the etiquette of royal
marriages in Spain enjoin the formalities of a bur-
glary ? Unfortunately everything that one hears
fills out the character which the authors themselves
have impressed on the act. Two little girls in the
heart of a palace, importuned, cajoled, beleagured,
menaced, and no mortal man can say what besides,
by a Christina and a M. Bresson, for days and for
nights, till they should surrender, present a drama
which would not be attempted in any other country than
Spain, and which no other than Spain would endure.
We, indeed, are accustonicid to midnight consultations,
but it is when hundreds are .7krrayed against hundreds,
men against men, in the manly ar'na of a popular senate.
No British statesman can pretend td
parallel with the
nocturnal triumphs of this diplomatic I,nthario, nor say
with him—
" Once, in a lone and secret hour of night,
When ev'ry eye was closed, and the pale moon
And stars alone shone conscious of the theft,
Haply I stole unheeded to her chamber.
That minute sure was lucky.'
But the same colour of artifice, and something even
worse, extends to every circumstance of the affair. The
time of the year was happily chosen, when neither the
British nor the French Parliament was sittLig. The
former had almost that very day clo-ed its long Lonna'
labour. The whole representative system of Europe
was in abeyance. Cabinets were dispersed. Public men
of every class, worn out with the busiest year that the
chronicles of peace ever showed, were off to rustications
and tours. The world was from home. There was one
who surveyed the political solitude, as other men, not
more ingenious in their line, will survey at rhisiiiourettg
one of our west-end mansions. That was his time.
The work might then be done and digested by Parlia-
ments, Chambers, and Cortes at their leisure. The
British Legislature would have been formidable; but, in
February, how many other affairs will have overlaid a
marriage in Spain! As for the British Cabinet, so long
as they had no absolute right:to forbid the banns, what
mattered their dumb, or at least inefficacious disgust ?
It is out of the question to mention another party, whose
acquiescence, if not approbation, might have been desi-
derated. The name of Queen Victoria belongs to a very
different order of thingb than the clandestine affair at
Madrid. The Spanish have put themselves almost last in
the question. Volenti non fit injuria. If they really in-
tend to receive the blow, they almost disarm their
foreign protectors. Still, friendship, unavailing and un-
appreciated as it may be, requires us to mention how
Spain has been treated. Is there the least, the hollowest
pretence, that this alliance is tolerable to the nation?
We say not the employes, but the nation. The Cortes
will soon be convoked. The harangues of that debating
society, so respectable if it bad only something to do,
will be duly recorded, under Ministerial correction, in
the journals of Madrid. With these harangues the mat-
ter will end. Louis Philippe knows with whom he has
to deal in that quarter. They do not excite very lively
apprehensions. It there is an error in the policy of
France it is that its estimate of Spain is too clearly re-
vealed. But perhaps this is superfluous criticism. An
indignity which is swallowed cannot be considered very
impolitic. Other nations may feel for Spain, but what
is that when Spain does not feel for herself? Should
her sensibilities be excited to an inconvenient pitch,
situation
iasr vaat recalledehzand.T
h to his
French knows
The
and how to resume a weapon. Tney can adapt the
Thhoew man
t o lay of tbhy,
e
il
thtehescpoanesisohlid:aaitiihoinsteorf
tmi
oena.n s
ct oh tr hi
set i endha
w.
IT
return
übully t
ow irl la br
iasc,k
anduf the
vaabedz ute;
iwliShuiwechhaitis the new phase of
thathas
dt
rLdicroei Minreachg:pPtaeorntsbyi
oe'
ar' sot w.f
Spanish affairs.

ALARMING ACCIDENT ON THE BRANDLING JUNC-
TION RAILWAY.—SUNDERLAND, MONDAY NIGHT.—This
morning an accident of a very serious nature occurred
on the above railway, which is a branch line of the York
and Newcastle (late Newcastle and Darlington) com-
pany. A variety of reports, most of them grossly exag-
gerating the occurrence, are afloat, but the following
particulars may be relied upon, having been collected --
from parties who witnessed the accident, and other
authentic sources :—The half-past five down train
from Newcastle left Gateshead station for Sunderland
as usual. It proceeded safely, and without the least
danger being indicated, until it arrived between Ful-
well and Cleadon, about two mi!es froo the Monk-
wearmouth terminus, and near a farm-house palled the
Blue-house. Here the connecting rod of the locoi.lotive
engine snapped in two; one of the pieces was forced ;OW
the ground, and the engine and tender were thrown.
off the rails, on the west side of the road, a short dis-
tance from the way. The chain by which the carriages
were fastened instantly broke, and by the violence of
the jerk these were forced off the line, on the east side
of the road, and two of them fell completely over. The
carriages fell on some stone blocks or sleepers, which
had been taken out to have wood sleepers substituted,
and were smashed to pieces. In the train altogether
there were eight carriages, six of which did not receive
any damage. The guard was seated on the top of the
latter, and he retained his seat until the train was
brought to rest. When he got off he saw the fireman,
a young man named Joseph Henderson, lying on a.
stone block, having been thrown from the tender.
He was severely bruised about his shoulder and
neck. The engineman, Richard Hall, was next found
lying at the end of the engine, in a state of insensi-
bility, with his head seriously cut, and his body scalded.
The passengers fortunately were few, owing to the
early hour at which the train started—not numbering
more than eight altogether, and of these only two, a boy
and an old woman, were in the broken carriages. They
were found lying in the bottom of the carriages in a state
of great terror, but, happily, beyond the shock they had
nut received any injury. The two poor fellows, Hall
and Henderson, were removed to Sunderland in a cart,
and taken to a house in Thomas-street, where medical
assistance was provided for them. Hall is so severely
injured that he is not expected to recover; Henderson
was doing well when the latest inquiries were made,
although by no means out of danger. Had this accident
happened to any train on Sunday, in all probability
many lives would have been sacrificed.
To STAR GAZERS.—The planet Saturn is now
visible on clear nights, in the south-eastern quarter .ot
the ineayouti, between, and eleven 0'0194.

7 wit_