The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We shall look with considerable impatience
for the next intelligence from Spain. That un-
happy country (as we formerly intimated) can
scarcely be expected to settle down into tran-
quillity without a struggle of parties and dynas-
ties, but it seems to us most probable that there
will be no immediate movement in favour of
Don Carlos—no insurrection—no revolt—no
civil war—though the French Carlist papers
assure us that the apostolical vassals of his Royal
Highness are prepared in every province to pro-
claim his accession. The title of the young
Queen, on the other hand, has already been pro-
claimed, and a large body of the nobility and
clergy have sworn to maintain her rights. The
Regency acting in her name is in possession of
the Treasury—is placed in the seat of dominion
—is served by a well-organized Administration,
which has for a year been obeyed, while the
King was incapable of holding the reins of
power in his own hands—has a numerous army
at its command—and is supported by the most
active and enlightened portion of the people.
These are immense advantages, even though the
principles of the Regency, and the rights of
the Infant Queen, had been more equivocal
or disputable than any apostolical logic can
prove them to be. When we add to these
advantages the instant recognition and cordial
encouragement of the two most enlightened
and most powerful nations on the face of
the earth, we shall bring such a mass of re-
sources, and of influence in favour of the new
dynasty, that all the hosts of rebel fanaticism
can scarcely be expected to shake it. Let us
turn the medal, and we everywhere see disor-

ganization, want of leaders, want of arms, wan
of resources, and want of unity. Don Carlos
is in Portugal, and cannot even correspond with
his partisans except through the authorities of
his rival. Calomarde, who with other official
conspirators last year, when they believed Ferdi-
nand in his dying agonies, or rather dead, had
traitorously prepared to rob his daughter of her
crown, and to place it on the brow of her uncle,
has been banished to France, where he still
resides, while his accomplices are in different
fortresses, or at large under strict surveillance.
The faction of Don Carlos in the monasteries,
in the convents, in the chapters, among the
Bishops and the secular clergy, though powerful
to aid a military force, or to maintain by their
contributions a war already commenced, cannot
alone erect the standard of revolt over the cru-
cifix. We know how feeble they appeared in the
Army of the Faith, and with what facility Mina
swept their grotesque cohorts from the Spanish
soil into the neighbouring departments of
France in 1822. At that time it was known that
Ferdinand was hostile to the constitution which
he had sworn to maintain—that he had dis-
patched messengers to all the Holy Alliance Courts
to preach a crusade against the Cortes for the
rescue of royalty,—that at Verona the conspiracy
of crowned heads against the popular rights of
Spain had been consummated,—and that 100,000
French troops were to pour down at the approach
of spring from the Pyrenees on the ill-starred
defenders of the new order of things in the Pe-
ninsula ; and yet nothing effectual was done by
the priests, no success was gained against the
cause of Spanish freedom, till the French actually
passed the Bidassoa, and in their triumphant
march dispersed the inferior military force of the
patriots. Here was treachery in the chief of the
Government against the cause of his people—
here were a clergy more fanatically adverse to
existing and projected reforms, because more
alarmed for their effect on their own interests,
than at present, when conservative doctrines are
proclaimed in the first accents of the new Re-
gency,—here were parties even with arms in their
hands, with chiefs accustomed to lead them, with
foreign encouragement, with a military chest
supplied from abroad, and with a sure asylum
in a neighbouring country on the contingency
of a defeat, and yet no progress was made in
the anti-revolutionary cause till the white flag
of France waved on Spanish ground. In the
present crisis, it is plain that circumstances
are not so favourable to the success of Don
Carlos as they were then to the success of his
treacherous brother. The Apostolicals are not
menaced with such ruin, nor are they supported
by such aid. France is now entirely changed in
her political attitude towards the Peninsula, and
though the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian
Ministers may dislike the principles of the new
Regency as much as those of the Cortes, yet
neither they nor their Sovereigns can give direct
encouragement to the rebellion of Don Carlos.
The new Government should, however, learn
that it can only maintain the disputed title of a
minor and a female against the claims of a prince
of mature age, whose rights to the throne were
never doubted till within the last three years ;
who was only cons'dered as running his life
against his elder brother, and not against that of
two infant nieces, and who has since tried to
gain by popular flattery what he lost by a Court
decree—that it can only maintain, we say, such a
title by interesting the great body of the nation
in favour of the new reign by popular reforms
and liberal alliances. It should immediately re-
solve to march with the spirit of the age—to
make common cause with the popular party in
Portugal, and to court a more intimate con-
nexion with France and England. One other
important act it might perform, without in-
curring any loss, and even with the contingency
of considerable profit. For ten years past Spain
has not had a corporal's guard in the whole of
her former American colonies. These colonies
have sprung up into independent states, recog-
nized as such by all Europe, with the exception
of their ancient Spanish masters. No idea of
a re-conquest could now enter the brain of
anybody but a maniac. Let the new Regency
and the new reign, then, be signalized by a dis-
play of justice and generosity, which will at once
raise the character of the Spanish Government,
and procure it grateful allies, having congenial
sentiments, instead of bitter enemies, with old
rancours, on the west of the Atlantic. Though a
recognition could cost nothing to the young
Queen, because it takes away from her, it would
be of considerable benefit to the internal quiet
of the new states, one faction of which some-
times persecutes another, under the vain pretext
of punishing or eradicating prejudices in favour
of the mother country and of colonial bondage.
But Spain would herself be the greatest gainer
by the too-long delayed recognitio.n. She woulde
open new markets to her increasing trade,—sh
would present a wider range for the enterprise of
her impoverished citizens,—and she would
acquire an additional title to the confidence and
the friendship of England, which only took the
lead in acknowledging the new independent re-