The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-07 00:00:00

•
C:‘.:7"143-Iff

MORNING EDITION.

LONDON, 7 UESDAY, JUNE 7. 1870.

THE fall of Spain is as appalling as CIESAR'S.
" But yesterday her word might," one would have
said—

" Have stood against the world : now lies he there,
And none so poor to do her reverence."
During a whole twelvemonth her Crown has gone
a-begging. Candidate aft candidate has been
besought -in vain to assume the bauble and the robe,
of royalty. one among them-could be induced
to regard the racant throne proffered for his accept-
ancOa ae in any way a " coign of 'vantage." Upon
the morrow of the Revolution, by which IsABELLA
was driven beyond the Pyrenees, it was said, and
with perfect truth, that the establishment of a
Republic at Madrid, in lieu of a Monarchy, was
impracticable, it might almost be said impossible—
for the simple reason that in all Spain there were no
Republicans. Progressistas and Moderados there
were, Monarchists and Constitutionalists, but no
Republicans. Thrust back upon the Regent
SERRANO, and upon his Prime Minister FRIA, by
every one to whom the diadem of the Bourbon
dynasty has been profferred, that symbol of sove-
reignty is still left upon the hands of the succes.ful
revolutionists, who yet preside over the Spanish
Government, as a thing no less obsolete of its kind
than an arquebuss or a catapult if proffered as an
implement of Aar to an. arsenal rich in arms of pre-
, cision, bristling with breach-loaders and with rifled
cannon, with needle-guns and ARMSTRONGS. Spain,
foiled in her efforts to discover a king, is beginning
to think i❑ earnest of founding a Republic which once
founded will create Republicans. The t' unkindest
cut of all " yet received by the indefatigable seekers
of some now Sovereig❑ for the Spanish nation, is the
one administered, and repeated more than once since
then, by the son of a cartwright. Such, in point of
fsct, in his origin, was the some-time absolute ruler
of the once haughtiest nation in Christendom, one
of the bravest of her soldiers, one of the purest of her
statesmen, the gallant oil Marshal JOACHIM BALDO-
MERO ESPARTEIIO, Duke of Victoi y, Conqueror of
Bilboa, Viceroy of Navarre, Spanish Prime Minister
in 1840, Spanish Regent in 1841, in the room of QUEEN
"CHRISTINA, but long since rttired from public life,
and reposingunder laurelswon by no sinister intrigue,
but in the face of day, at the edge of the sword, upon
the open battth -field. ESPARTERO having been
born on the 27th of February, 1793, is now in the
seventy-eighth year of his age, and having no son to
succeed him, m ould, if crowned King of SPAIN, in
his green old age, be merely at the best a stop-
gap for the time being. In declining the
supreme honour now thrust upon his acceptance,
' the brave old Marshal best consults his own
dignity, while he certainly acts in a manner
consistently with the whole tenour of his
noble an& historical career. The incident,
though it has come to nothing, is one eminently
worthy of remembrance. It is an evidence of homage
and of gratitude on the part of Spain towards her
venerable and stainless hew Marshal the Duke of
VICTORY--a mark of homage and of gratitude in
every way magnificent.