The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1856.

There is a story respecting an ignorant judge
in the olden time, who had been pitchforked into
a situation for which he was wholly incompetent.
When asking the advice of an acute friend as to
the course he should adopt to conceal his defi-
ciencies, he was told to pronounce his judgment
boldly, but carefully to abstain from assign-
ing reasons. There was at least a probability
that the decisions might be right, and there
would be interested parties anxious to sustain
them, but it was a positive certainty that his
reasons and arguments would be wrong. It is
reported that the party adopted the prudent
counsel, and that he passed through life with the
reputation of a sound, if not a brilliant, lawyer.
It would have been wall for the Spanish
Ministry if they had preserved a similar course,
and been contented with dissolving the National
Guard, without attempting an elaborate exposi-
tion of motives, and seeking to justify themselves,
by a document in which it is difficult to say
whether the statements are more mendacious, or
the reasoning untenable. The gross and, we re-
gret to be obliged to add, wilful falsehoods, are
interspersed with virulent abuse of a constitu-
tional body, so as to render it palpable that the
national militia were wholly and unanimously
opposed to the reckless policy of the conspirators
against the rights and liberties of the people.
Out of their own mouths have the new ministers
condemned themselves. It needs nothing mere
than a deliberate consideration of the document
to con.vince any dispassionate aul unprejudiced
person, that the parties from whom it emanated
are wrong, and know themselves to be so.

The opening sentence. is sufficient to indicate
its nature. It declares that " the initiative of the
aggression on the 14th July was not commenced
by the Government of her MAJESTY ;" that
" the Citizen Militia of Madrid, and the
greater part of the Militia in the kingdom imitat-
ing its example, simultaneously rose against the
Royal authority, solely because her MAJESTY had
deigned to accept the resignation repeatedly ten-
dered by the President of the former Cabinet, and
on this occasion with every symptom of an irrevo-
cable resolution." Never was there a viler
or more unblushing fabrication than the above. It
is not merely the distortion or suppression of facts,
but it is the positive declaration of that which is
without the slightest foundation of truth.
Is it not too painfully notorious that the first
step taken on the nomination of the new Ministry
was placing the entire kingdom under mar.
tial law ? This extreme measure was not
vunded on any insurrectionary demonstration,
The Proclamation, which was published simul-
taneously with the announcement of the change of
Ministry, was prepared by tho arch-deceiver, and
ready to be made available even while he was
'still pretending to act with good faith and loyalty
towards the colleagues whom he had determined
t° betray. A large body of troops-18,000 sol-
diers—were concentrated on the capital in order
to suppress the outbreaks that were stimulated by
o:DoziNzu himself and his fellowoonspirators for
their own nefarious purposes. There was an elabo-
rate organisation that must have taken a consider-
able time in arranging, on the part of O'DONNELL
and his associates, while the intended victims were
wholly unsuspicious of approaching danger.
What, then, becomes of the atrocious lie, that
the initiative of the aggression was not taken by
the Government ?

The Manifesto further speaks of " the Throne
being attacked in one of its essential prerogatives,
and peaceable discussion converted into open and
►vowed rebellion." Was the proclamation of