The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The French
_..Rapers of Sunday, which we
received yeiVid`a.yrmorning, and to the contents
of which we alluded in our second impression,
int:rition•,under the head of a Madrid article of
the 8d instant, that a kind of insurrection, in
favour of Don Carlos, had broken out at Toledo
on the 31st ult., or the last day of the year.
The affair would appear to have been of small
importance in itself', though calculated, no doubt,
to excite alarm in Madrid, from the vicinity of
that ancient city to the capital, from the great
influence of the priest party in such a strong-
hold of superstition, from the generally fanatical
temper of the Carlists, and the unsettled state of
the Regent's Government. It would seem that
about 1,500 insurgents had collected in the
neighbourhood of Toledo,—that they attempted
to force its gates in the interest of their Royal
isation,—that they were repulsed,—and that,
after having in vain summoned the commander
of the place to surrender, they dispersed into
the mountains at the rumour of the arrival of
succours from Madrid. This rising was proba-
bly concerted with some traitors in the capital,
who testified their sympathy with their brethren,
and happily evinced the weakness of their re-
sources by a seditious tumult two days after-
wards in two of the public places of the city.
The movement-was marked by a similar preci-
pitation of attack, and a similar facility of dis-
comfiture. In the mean time, it is evident
that a considerable degree of uneasiness and
anxiety prevails among the friends of order and
of the existing, Government in Spain. Several
arrests had taken place, and the troops were kept
in readiness to act against the disturbers, should
they attempt to renew their criminal proceedings.
As apprehensions were entertained of the impres-
sion which might be produced in the provinces by
exaggerated reports of what had occurred in the
capital, despatches had been sent off to all the
Captains-General, to assure them that the insur-
gents had been put down, and that perfect tran-
quillity had been restored. Most of these Cap-
tains-General have been changed since the esta-
blishment of the Regency in the person of the
Queen, and consequently their zealous co-ope•
ration may be expected in soothing irritation or
overwhelming revolt. In almost all cases the
change has been hailed with gratitude or satis•
faction, the new Captains-General being more
popular than the old. In one instance—that of
the Count d'Espagne, in Catalonia—the people
would have avenged their wrongs by rrisassinat•
ing their oppressor, had he not been conducted to
his place of exile under a strong guard. That
there might be no mistake on the cause of the
sudden risings at Toledo and Madrid, it requires
only to be recollected, that they occurred simul-
taneously with the formal revocation of Fer-
dinand's decree in favour of his brother. While
these things are going on in Madrid, and these
little official revolutions are taking place in the
provinces, we are informed by the French papers
that our Ambassador, Sir S. Canning, is stopped
on the quarantine ground on the Spanish fron-
tiers, and much speculation is hazarded by Paris
politicians on the subject of his mission. Some
of them assure us that he goes to induce the
Court of Spain to join France and England in
nettling the affairs of the Braganza family, and
others that he has instructions to support the
liberal party in Spain, as a means of ultimately
establishing Don Pedro and English influence
in Portugal. NA ithout adopting either hypothesis
or considering them in any other light than
as mere speculations, we may observe that the
whole of the Peninsula is at present in so ex-
traordinary and critical a condition with respect
to administrations, factions, and dynasties, that
the presence of an able English Minister is
more than ever necessary to observe the course of
events, and to keep .his Government informed of
their nature and bearing, even though he ma;
not be able to direct their course or to control
their result. In the western division of it, with
which we have been more directly connected for
the last two centuries, two brothers are contend-
ing for a crown, which, by the resignation of the
elder, belongs to his daughter ; and in the more
important kingdom which occupies the east and
north, we likewise find the partisans of two
brothers at war about a succession which, ac
cording to the strength of their respective num-
bers, property, or influence, must be decided in
favour of a female infant, or be transferred to a
fanatical Prince, in advanced life, who, till within
the last three years, would have been its lawful
heir on the demise of Ferdinand, and who,
therefore, can never forget the dangers to which
the law has exposed his title. In both countries,
on the apprehended death of Ferdinand, we must
find for rulers hardened usurpers or infant
Queens ; while in both, from the want of an
organ for expressing public opinion, either by
the press or by popular assemblies, a whole poli-
tical system may be personified in a particular
member of a dynasty, a national alliance may
depend upon a Court intrigue, and the birth
or overthrow of constitutional freedom may be
occasioned by a Royal confessor or a Court
physician. It is not, therefore, presuming,
too much to suppose that a British Mi-
nister at Madrid may be instructed to attend
to the state of affairs in both divisions of
the Peninsula, as we can have no Ambassador at
Lisbon or Oporto, and as the fate of the Por-
tuguese throne must in a considerable degree
depend on the temper, principles, or active in-
terference of the dominant party in Spain. On
the affairs of Spain itself, our influence, though
resisted by Ferdinand in 1822, in 1823, and
up to tle French revolution of July, 1830,
while his Catholic Majesty was supported by
absolutism on both sides of the Pyrenees—while
Bourbon fanaticism occupied the Tuileries and
commanded the armies of France, as well as
the palace of Madrid, and the monks of the
Peninsula, may now be sensibly felt when as-
sisted by liberal principles beyond his northern
frontier, and by a change of party in the very
heart of his kingdom. That most extraordinary
document which he and the Queen Regent
commanded to be published on the last day of
the year, and which by this time has reached
every convent and cottage of his dominions,
has broken off all confidence or commerce be-
tween the present Government and the old ab-
solutist, anti-liberal, end fanatical faction by
whom the State was formerly ruled. The
Queen Regent has committed a sin that is never
to be forgiven. She has called together the
great officers of State, the heads of the great
Councils, the grandees of the kingdom,
and the commanders of the different Orders
of Knighthood, to announce that the faction
of the King's brother, are conspirators
and rebels ;—that they " perfidiously sur-
rounded " the King's bed in the moments which
were believed to be his last, to make him sign a
deed disinheriting his daughter ; that " perfidy
accomplished the plot which began in seduc-
tion," and that, had he not survived to recall
the instrument, an " atrocious" treason would