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

briening. ,Allt

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1848•

Everywhere throughout the European continent
have been made to Democracy, excepting
only in the Spanish and Portuguese penin,ula. Sar
Sovereign dinia has found in her little else than
a crowned propagandist. Tuscany,
r c l
Parma, and
Princes Modena have either awed their
ninto ob
obe-
dience, or those Princes have volunte'rilsya
ameliorated
their political institutions. Even F
Naples has been tortured into a policy of illibe"rati"p of
and his grasp has been relaxed in Palermo by'
the
daring independence of the Sicilians. Rome has
re-
cognised the Apostle of Freedom and the Vindicator
of Italian nationality in the person of the Supreme
PONTIM and the Venetians and the Lombards have
emulated each other in their struggle against despotism.
Of France it is unnecessary to say more than that a
third and consummating revolution has permanently
rooted Republicanism in the capital city of the Carlo-
apoleonian empires. Switzerland
vingian and the N
has cemented her Federal Constitution by the blood
spilt in internecine strife, and has planted far ever
the symbols of her unity upon the ruins of the Son-
dittrad- lz,w3g tit* barge: us of BruselA tks cot.

TIIE

viction of Belgian liberty has acquired a lasting
guarantee from the generous sentiments recently ex-
pressed before his senators by tke truthful lips of
LEOPOLD. Denmark from FIUME/LICK, Sweden

from OSCAR, Austria from FERDINAND, and Hanover
from ERNEST, have severally obtained the sureties of
a gradual and comprehensive emancipation. Bohe-
mia is rising again in the beautiful loveliness
of her nationality. Hungary the same : Gallicia the
same : Posen the same : and even upon the outskirts
of the barbarian dominions of the AUTOCRAT the flag
of hope has been unfurled. Elsewhere among
the minor princedoms and subordinate sovereignties
of Giarnany, the triple dogma of democracy—
liberty, equality, and fraternity—has acquired an
extraordinary number of votaries ; and at last
a royal knight has risen for the people in the
ambitious monarch of Prussia. Everywhere through-
out continental Europe the spirit of liberality has
diffused itself, everywhere—excepting only in the

Spanish and Portuguese peninsula!
It would be impossible to expect that the English
Government should regard with indifference the
apathy evinced by the population of Spain and Por-
tugal in the sublime movement which has convulsed
the realms of Christendom, which has shaken crowns
into the dust like acorns, and which, above all, has
revealed in the human race the shadow► of a new
resemblance to the Divinity in the attributes of its
political Omnipotence. The Government of the
United Kingdom could not, even if it were so dis-
posed, remain a passive spectator of the retrogressive
policy adopted in the Cabinets of Lisbon and Madrid.
Remonstrance in that event bad long since become an
historical necessity. It had become a necessity on this
account; because the reigning Princess of the
Spaniards, and the reigning Princess also of the
Portuguese had been conditionally elevated to their
thrones by the arms, the diplomacy, the friendship,
and the heart's blood of England. Yes, it is because
the virgin brows of 111•11Eiall and of MAIL DA

GLORIA were girdled with the diadems of the Bra

ganeas and of the Spanish Bourbons by England ; it
was because England had crowned those claimants

of Spanish and Portuguese royalty, on the simple
condition that their sway should be identical with
the national happiness and the constitutional
freedom of their people ; it was because
that condition has been flagrantly violated
ever since the intriguing DIETZ planted foot
upon the quays of Lisbon, and ever since the un-

principled and profligate CHRISTINA returned to the
orange avenues of Madrid—that remonstrance be-
came a solemn duty with the English Government,
and that the preservation of silence by our Minister
for Foreign Aflairs would have rankled like a per-
petual remorse in the conscience of Great Britain.
Ia defiance, therefore, of the vulgar insolence of the
language recently addressed to Mr. BULWER by the
Duke of SOTOMAYOR, despite the petulance of par-
tizanship and the vociferous vituperations
of our contemporaries, we maintain (what
we have already distinctly maintained) that England
had a right to suggest the adoption of " a legal and
constitutional policy" to one of those sovereigns she
had been principally instrumental in raising to the
throne—in raising to the throne (let this word be
well weighed in the judgments of the dispassionate
multitude) conditionally 1 With the most profound
deliberation we say conditionally, for ISARSLLA
alone gained the ascendancy over her opponents
through the generous co-operation of England—a
co-operation given to her champions by England, on
the understanding that the success of ISABELLA should
be the security of the constitutional rights of the
Spaniards. Is there a doubt that such was the
stipulation of the British Government ? No; for an
influential writer has recently remarked, in allu-
sion to the blood and treasures lavished in the cause
of Queen ISABELLA by England—" it was for that
(namely, for the fulfilment of that sacred and consti-
tutional condition), that the heights which crown San
Sebastian and the valley of Hernani have been
bleached with the bones of her children !" It was not
only, we maintain, the right of England to interfere
by her advice with the mad proceedings of the
Narvaea Administration, it was a duty which pressed
heavily and imperatively upon the soul of the British
Government. Lord PALMERSTON has vindicated that
right and satisfied that duty. Boldly, bravely,
:imply, honourably, he has cast aside all considera-
tions of mere expediency. He has proved himself
:rue to the memory of those valiant men who shed
their blood in the rivers of Andalusia, and on the
mountains of N avarre, and who perished in strug-
gling against the brigands of Zumalacaregui and
the other leaders of the Carlist buccaneers.
Happy were it for the fame of England, if the pre-
lecessor of this illustrious statesman had evinced a
-imilar devotion to the cause of patriotism, of
amenity, of nationality, and of justice I Happy
for the credit of the Earl of ABERDEEN, if but one
-,ingle communication, such as the one addressed, on
the 16th of March, to her Britannic MAJESTY'S re-
presentative at the Court of Madrid, could be
chronicled among his Ministerial effusions! In the
event of Senor 'slim= requiring the recal of
qr. BULWER, that able and distinguished am-
bassador will return homewards in all the
prestige of an act creditable to him, alike
as a diplomatist and as representative of
British Sovereignty. However much his official
character may have been depreciated by the deception
practised upon him so successfully in reference to
the Montpeusier marriage, the dignity and decision
of his conduct towards the Duke DE SOTOMATOE
oust elevate the reputation of his Excellency beyond
.ven that which he has hitherto deserved and enjoyed.
Of Lord PALMERSTON, from whose genius as a
statesman the whole transaction has emanated, we
need only observe that the position he has assumed in
relation to the dictators of Spain is eminently worthy
of his brilliant and prolonged career ; it is worthy of
one whose name has been identified during the last
thirty years with the glory and the greatness of
England ! _

There is every reason to hope that the judicious
slid temperate course adopted by Lord Ceaneepoi
:rid his colleagues in the Irish Government will
-ventually succeed in calming the excitement that
now unhappily prevails in Ireland, in restoring
tranquillity to that ill-fated country, and preserving
its inhabitants from the horrors and bloodshed that
must inevitably attend outbreak, however speedily
And completely it might be suppressed. It is impos-
sible to calculate the amount of danger that would
be effected to all the best interests of the nation
during the raging of an internecine war, brief as
might be its duration. Of course the insurgents
themselves and the participators in their atrocious
designs, would be the chief sufferers. They would
perish by thousands and tens of thousands, far
those who escaped death by the sword,
or on the scaffold, would be expised to
the most fearful privations from the famine that
.could inevitably be the consequence of hostile pro-
-1 ceedings, leading to a total neglect of the agricultural
•perations necessary for the production of food for
the many, and also to the probable destruction of the
;rowing crops in the districts where the conflict or
conflicts might take place. But the loyal and peace-
able inhabitants would also suffer in no small degree.
Many would have to lament not merely the loss of
of fields laid bare, and desolated homesteads,
from comparative comfort and
andpropeart
and destitution ; but they would.
affluence to poverty . f .
property,
deaths could not be recom-
pensed to mourn for cherished members o their
by any
.
t be encountered are of so
f3milies' whose
eamount of pecuniary compensation,
owing a character, how ear-
heartrending and harhr
the counsels of those evil -
[f the scenes that mus
nestly ought all to esc e
lwd
recklessly involve their
minded men who woo
country therein, and wher.e,
la temporary success; and
nothing more, could pos-ioy be attained; would, if
possible, be more fatal to the parties themselves than
If order is
the most speedy and sanguinary defeat.
restored, and the people return to their ordinary
habits of peaceful industry, everything that can
reasonably be demanded will be conceded—measures
the sulsatantial evils of Inland, full security will be
given to the
through the Legislature to remedy
occupiers of land that they themselves,
or their families, shall enjoy the improvements
effected by their own industry ; or that if
by any means removed from the possession
of their holdings, they shall receive full
and adequate compensation therefor, and thus
the best descriptiou ,f, sucoursgeta,ut will be