The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-17 00:00:00

game to play in order that the young QUEEN might
be induced to abandon altogether to his individual
keeping the powers of the general Administration.
Provided her voluptuous festivities were not inter-
fered with, provided she were not compelled to
live in her palace after the manner of a model wife,
like our own good Queen VICTORIA ; provided, in
short, her MAJESTY were permitted to treat the KING-
CONSORT with a capricious and whimsical indifference,
instead of maintaining even a decent semblance of
domesticity, the soldier-statesman might gratify
all his political whims and intrigues without
incurring punishment, and almost without encoun-
tering opposition. During most of these dark and
sinister months of Ministerial despotism, the ally of
NARVAEZ was no other than the QUEEN-MOTHER
herself, one of the most terrible, because one of the
most successful, accomplices in conspiracies of this
particular character. Aided by CHRISTINA and
tolerated by ISABELLA, the Prime,Minister, NARVAEZ,
contrived to preserve his balance at the head of
affairs in the Peninsula, even throughout the whole
of that tremendous epoch when statesmen and princes
werel toppled down by the " mind-quake" of revo-
lution. Soldier after soldier was prostrated in the
various countries of the European Continent, hurled
down from power by the fury of popular excitement.
WINDISCHGRATZ was disgraced in Austria ; WRAN•
GEL was reduced to insignificance in Prussia ; SAL-
DANHA was worsted in Portugal ; BUGEAUD was
deprived of his potential influence in France ; PEPE
was compelled at last, after a gallant struggle, to fling
by his sword within sight of the domes and bridges Of
Venice ; DEMBINSKI was necessitated to lower his
standard before the innumerable Cossacks under
PASKEWITCH ; while in the classic island of Theo-
cratus the heroic followers of MIEROWSLAWSKI were
massacred, after a desperate resistance, by the Nea-
politan cut-throats commanded by FILANGIERI.
Since those memorable events transpired other
changes of a like character have occurred
in the neighbouring Republic—where we have
witnessed the succesive descent from power of such
men as CAVAIGNAC and CHANGARNIER. Meanwhile
NARVAEZ still kept himself uppermost in the Govern-
ment of the Spanish Monarchy, in spite of insur-
rectionary movements in Madrid, and of the appear-
ance of the redoubtable CABRERA in Catalonia. An
uninterrupted series of successes seemed to assure
to him the undisputed possession of command over
the political affairs of Spain. The temporary
estrangement from England, formidable as that cir-
cumstance was in favouring the views of his
open enemies and_secret antagonists, failed to shake
even for a time the strong foundations of his
Dictatorship.
As an additional marvel in the remembrance of the
career recently completed by .NARVAEZ, we should
not omit to observe that he himself and the Queen-
Mother, CHRISTINA, were the only personages
involved in the carrying out of the ever-
detestable Spanish marriages, who escaped
with impunity from the vengeance wreaked
elsewhere by subsequent events on their accomplices.
LOUIS PHILIPPE, the arch-offender, was hurled down
from the Throne of the Barricades at the very moment
when he foolishly imagined himself to hold most se-
curely in his grasp the obedience of thirty-five
millions of Frenchmen. GuizoT was com-
pelled to escape in the disguise of a
footman from that capital in which but a
few hours before his word was in the fullest sense of
the phrase most authoritative. The whole fabric of
the ORLEANS dynasty crumbled away like sand before
the Nemesis conjured up by the very crime which
had been perpetrated with a view to its aggrandise-
ments. And still in the midst of these gigantic
mutations of fortune, in the very thick of these fast
coming and iresistible occurrences, NARVAEZ pre-
served an unconquerable attitude, while GulzoT
was residing at Brompton, and LOUIS PHILIPPE
at Claremont. At length, however, the bitter
draught of expiation has been required from
the " rough and ready" soldier of Madrid. The
fact of his recent downfall, though long delayed, had
been long anticipated. The retribution of the origi-
nators of the Spanish marriages has only now to
destroy one other victim, and that the most heinous
and despicable of aII—CHRISTINA.

A short time since we announced that the usual
circulars had been dispatched, urgently requesting the
attendance of those Members who give a general sup-
port to the Government on the 4th of February, the
day of the opening of the approaching Parliamentary
session. There are indeed many questions of intense
interest to be submitted for the consideration of the
hereditary Legislators and of the chosen representa-
tives of the people on that occasion. The remands
standing over from last year alone constitute a formi-
dable mass of business to be disposed of, and they un-
questionably have a prior claim to the attention of both
Houses. The Ministers can, of course, insure a full
discussion and a decision on the merits for all mea-
sures brought forward under their own auspices ; but
there are matters of great importance introduced by
private Members for which there is no such security,
and which may be lost, or held over, for yet another
year, if their friends do not exhibit the utmost zeal
and activity in passing them through the earlier stages
of their progress.

There is, perhaps, no other measure, the result of
which is looked for with such deep aad painful
anxiety by many " families of religious and moral
character," as the Marriages Bill, to which we have
repeatedly directed the public attention. They feel
the happiness of their future lives to be involved in
the issue ; they believe themselves to be the victims
of a partial, oppressive, and intolerant law, by which
the civil and religious liberty of the subject is re•
stricted in a matter of the most vital importance, re-
lating to the most sacred and endearing relationship
of their entire lives. Deeply aggrieved at this odious
enactment, and knowing that it is not based on any
scriptural warrant or foundation, but that it is a merely
human device, to which it is as unreasonable to expect
general obedience and concurrence as it would be to
look for perfect conformity in religious tenets, they
respectfully and temperately demand redress from
the British. Parliament, asking that the obnoxious
statute may be repealed, and that all who may have
contracted such marriages since its enactment may
be placed in the same situation as if it had never
existed, but that all such nuptials may be declared
binding and valid ab initio.
_ _ _

This is no new proposition, taking the Parliament
or the country by surprise. It has already been fully
discussed, both within and outside the walls of Sc.
Stephen's, and the verdict of the grand inquest of the
nation has been delivered, acknowledging, in unequi-
vocal and indisputable terms, the justice and equity of
the demand. In June, 1847, the question was brought
before the House of Commons, and, in consequence of
an address then carried by a decisive majority,
a Royal Commission was appointed "to inquire into
the state and operation of the law of marriage, as re-
lating to the prohibited degrees of affinity, and to
marriages celebrated abroad or in the British colonies."
1 The Commissioners, whose names and well-known
qualifications afforded the most satisfactory evidence
of their competence for the efficient discharge of the
important trust confided to their care, having ex
mid many respectable and intelligent witnesses,
and made every inquiry which the nature of the sub-
ject demanded, published their report, which was
unequivocally condemnatory of the present law; they
showed that "marriages of the kind are permitted, by
dispensation or otherwise, in nearly all the conti-
nental states of Europe," the "in many, indeed most
of the American states, marriages between a man
and the sister of his former deceased wife are not
only deemed, in a civil sense, lawful, but
are deemed, in a moral, religious,
and Christian
sense, lawful and exceedingly praiseworthy." Indeed,
the late eminent and distinguished Judge STORY, who
had acquired the highest reputation not only through-
out the entire New World, but also throughout the
whole of Europe, in discussing the subject said,
" Nothing is more common in almost all the States of
America than second marriages of this sort, and
so far from being doubtful as to their moral tendency,
they are among us deemed the very best of sort mar-
riages. In my whole life I never heard the slightest
suggestion against them, founded on moral or domestic
considerations."

The Commissioners also declared that " the various
bodies of Dissenters in England do not appear to enter.
tain the opinion that these marriages are interdicted by
Holy Writ, or that they are in themselves reprehensible,"
and that "families of a religious and moral character