The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-12 00:00:00

THE REVD RETROSPECTIVE.
The following letters throw considerable light on
the intrigue of Le Spanish marriages :

TO THE KING.
Val Richer, Wednesday Evening, Aug. 13, 1845.
Sire—Colonel Damns, whom I saw this morning, will
relate to the King what my thoughts are upon the dif-
ferent questions on which the King charged him to
speak to me. I presume to hope that my opinions will
receive the approbation of the King.
Ererewith I send private letters from Bresson, Mon-
tebello, Rossi, and Jarnac; they contain nothing new..
All these men are able, and perfectly comprehend and
execute what is good policy. In their hands the most.
delicate affairs inspire in me only that degree of in-
quietude which it is impossible not to feel in matters of
that sort.
I perceive that the cause of the Count de Trapani
flags a little. ;Even those who I believe really de-
sire his success, Queen Christina and the King of
Naples, would appear not to rely much upon it. We
have done reach for that cause, and it seems to me that
it will be will not to engage ourselves much further in
it, and to remain in a good position with the Duke de
Seville, who outwardly will rise to no difficulties, and
who maybe, perhaps, the candidate who will meet with
the least opposition internally, if Queen Christina can
be led, I do not say to desire it actively, but to accept.
of him.

I have said a good deal to Bresson in this sense, and
have taken care to impress it upon him. The conver-
sation of M. le Duc de Nemours will be important. Per-
haps the King would not consider it mal a propos to
remind him to show that nearly equal shade of good
feeling to both parties which it is desirable he should
elibit alike to Trapani and to Seville.
Bois-le-Comte wishes to be soon sent to Rome; but I
consider that it is absolutely necessary that M. Rossi.
should remain there until the serious and real execution
of the promised measures, as regards the Jesuits, is car-.
ried out. Nobody can carry that measure to a termina-
tion so well as him. I urge it upon him by every
packet, in order that he may, in his turn, urge the Holy
See.

Definite success in this matter will still cost us
much trouble; but we shall, we must, manage to obtain
it. Nothing in my opinion will tend more to serve and
honour the King's Government than the termination of
these sorts of disputes without exciting scandal or open
rupture.
I beg of the King to be so good as to affix his signa-
ture to the ordonnance hereunto annexed. The Minister
of Public Works requests it of me. AI. Mosca has
rendered us many service in Sardinia, and upon our
frontier.
Lord and Lady Palmerston will very probably come
to Paris towards the close of October.
I am, with tiie most profound respect, Sire,
Your Majesty's very humble and very faithful
servant and subject,
GUIZOT.
P.S. The King will perhaps have the goodness to re-
turn me those letters after he has read them: there are
many of them to which I may have occasion to refer.
A St. GUIZOT, MINISTRE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES.
Eu, Thursday, August 14, 1845.
My dear Minister,—Your express reached me be-
tween eleven o'clock and noon, and I send you anther
in order that you may return, as soon as possible, t e
letters which I send you hereunto annexed.
I perceive that, as usual, your opinion agrees with
mine upon all the points which now occupy. us. I
ectl oby
-
serve also that the four agents you mention perf
comprehend our affairs, and are doing everything for
until
everything best as regards them. Rossi must remain at Rome _ _
everything is finished and is browelat to a close here.
Not only do I see nobody but him
-wse lf'who could succeed,
but I know nobody but himself who inspires sufficient
confidence to cover responsibility, in case we should have
to contend against some check at Rome. Bois-le-Comte
must absolutely not go there before all is completely
finished. I hope that then he will do well there; but
until then, his being sent there would encourage our ad-
versaries, and be a source of irritation here. As you
say, he must persevere and finish it altogether, for with-
out that be done it is in vain to hope for religious peace
in France, and nobody could do more to attain that than
Rossi has done.
I remit you also herewith your ordonnance, and the
translations of two letters from Narvaez and Martinez
de la Rosa to Bresson, precisely as they have been
transmitted me by Nemours. I did not get the origi-
nals. When I received your packet I was about writing
todyou to say £hat I intended to write this evening to
the Due de Nemours precisely in the sense which you
point oat, and even more explicitely; for I at last begin
to believe that they have not done better than we have
iu the first place, and Bresson and Montebello subse •
quently, in bringing about the marriage between the
Count Trapani and the Queen of Spain. It was difficult
to have done more towards the failure of the project than
has been done by my august relations. And what is
still worse, I believe as you do, that the marriage has
become so unpopular that it is possible that it may be
impossible, or rather that it cannot be effected
without braving, or doing violence to the feelings
of the Spaniards, or without drawing upon us the most
serious dangers for the future. I am even persuaded
that Queen Christina is alarmed, and only now
led to entertain a desire for it (and I believe this wish is
only a feeble one) by two motives; the one arises (and
this before all other motives) from her profound anti-
pathy for everything which comes from her sister; the
other, that with her fear of us, she dares not to under-
take to support the Coburgs. I believe at the same time
that Queen Christina has lost her popularity in Spain to
such an extent (and I regret it, because she deserves a
better lot) that she feels that ker presence there is more
prejudicial than useful to the Government of her daugh-
ter, and that she in fact only wishes to hasten the mar-
riage of Queen Isabella in order that she may be enabled
to quit Spain, and come and bury herself in the Rue do
Courceiles with her husband. if so, then let at be so (so
in tie original). But our political interest, no less than
our consciefitous duties, demand that we should prevent
her, as far as in us lies, from making her departure a
sort of adieu de Medee, as regards Spain and her daugh-
ter, the which would set everything in combustion, and
which would as certainly be as contrary to the real
wishes of her heart, as it would be to the calculations of
leer mind.

The principal point, then, appears to me to be, to
ascertain whether or not the marriage of the Count de
Trapani would be this adieu de illedee ; and it seems to
me to be exceedingly difficult, placed as we are, to form
any positive opinion upon this point. We should leave
this to the Spaniards themselves, nor trouble ourselves
either about their opinion or their choice, provided they
exercise them in the person of some member of the
family for which we have declared ourselves. We shall
then see if the marriage of Trapani can be carried out
freely, but we must not mix ourselves up in anything
like what the Italians call la prepotenza. Such is, in my
opinion, the language and line of action which you should
prescribe to Bresson. If this marriage can be carried into
effect with free will, and without prepotexaa, we cannot,
nor ought we to oppose it. But if we see before us—
and I fear it much—such a mass of resistances cad op-
positions, that it would be folly to brave em, then we
ought to join ourselves with those who will strive to
mace Queen Christina feel these dangers, and we should
make an appeal to the elevation of her patriotic and ma-
ternal sentiments, to induce her nobly to sacrifice her
antipathy towards the issue of her sister, by consenting
to the marriage of the Queen, her daughter, with the
Duc de Seville (Enriquito). For if once the marriage of
the Count de Trapani goes off, I do not see the possi-
bility of any other, since that of the son of Don Carlos
appears to be impossible in the actual state of public
opinion in Spain. In the meanwhile—and it is very
possible that it may do so—the abandonment of the pro-
ject of Trapani may, more or less, retard the conclusion
of any marriage whatever of the Queen of Spain. I
think that we should altogether abstain from ever
pro-
nouncing the name of that Prince. Nevertheless, we
ought, by being silent on the subject, to reserve to our-
selves the right of future action, and should, further,
keep in our hands full liberty to follow that line of con-
duct which circumstances might require.
Such, my dear Minister, is my way of viewing this
grave affair; and in order that he may the better know
what I mean, I have had my letter to you transcribed as
I have written it (it is now two o'clock in the morning),
and to-day I shall send this copy, which he will still
have time to receive at Bordeaux, since, as the telegraph
has already told you, he is detained there by indisposi-
tion of no great consequence, but which is the result of
the fatigues of his voyage. Happily this journey is only
one of many that have been equally useful and brilliant,
and I am quite sure that you will share with us in the
satisfaction which the success of this dear and precious
child has caused us.
As regards that of which Jarnac spoke to you upon
the subject of another project of marriage, you know
as well as any one, that at bottom, I am not favourable
to a combination which in the actual state of things ap-
pears to me "pregnant with peril" (so in original) and that
all that I have ever been able to say in its favour has
been, " Let us wait for the future." But if the dangers
of the present time should not disappear, then you know
that I should say at once, " Don't think of it." This is
also the disposition of the Queen, and of my family, and
particularly that of my youngest son. In the meantime,
if the chances which I dread should shortly happen to be
widely removed, then this combination would possibly
become desirable.
As regards the rest, the letter of Jarnac has given me
the greatest pleasure, and I can say in all sincerity, that
I have no doubt whatever that the dispositions of Lord
Aberdeen are really those which he has manifested.
Bon soir, my dear Ministre,
LOUIS PHILIPPE.
• St. °maw, MINISTRE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES.
Eu, Thursday Evening, Aug. 21,1845.
Mon cher Miaistre,—As if I had asked Duchatel, he
is arrived this evening, and has started again ; so that
he vrill'be found at his post to-morrow morning at Paris.
This slight trip has been very useful to us. In the first
place, it has arranged to our entire and mutual satisfac-
tion the affair of the Peers ; and in the next place it has
enabled us to agree as to what was best to be dl:leneditso
avoid the serious embarrassments, and which
patches from Africa and Soult Berg, received heret
yes-
terday evening, seasonably enough, put us in a condition
to discuss together.
As regards the Peers, I have sent to the Keeper of
the Seals (who returns tomorrow to Paris) the nine
ordonnances for the nomination of the nine deputies,
which were settled, signed, and countersigned in our last
council at Paris; they are dated from this on the 14th
.August, anti will be published in the Moniteur on Sunday,
the 24th Augast. As regards those of the eight non-
deputies, settled, sinned, and countersigned at the same
council, it is agreed as Duchatel desired, that they shall
be published without alterations or additions at the
moment when the election of the nine new deputies will
be terminated, that is to say in about a month. We are
all three perfectly of one mind upon this arrangement,
which leaves the door open to make or not to make new
peers, according as circumstances may require, between