The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-22 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 22., 1856.

A large majority of the adult population of
Great Britain will recollect the time when a fierce
civil war was waged in Spain between the adhe-
rent• of QUEEN ISasELLA and of the late DON
CARLOS. It was a case of disputed succession
like our own Wars of the Roses. There was,
however, no civil tribunal before which the im-
portant question could be decided. It was con-
sequently remittel to the arbitrament of the
sword, which eventually ruled in favour of the
female claimant. It was chiefly by the aid of
British valour that this result was accomplished,
and there can be but little doubt that if the
matter had rested with Spaniards only, the young
QUEBN and her amiable mother would have been
expelled from the country.

There was, however, at the time much appa-
rent reason for the sympathy so freely awarded
to the successful claimant. " Liberty and the
Constitution" were the watchwords invoked on
behalf of the youthful QUEEN, while " Prieitcraft
and Despotism" were the Carlist war cries. There
was also a natural feeling operating in favour of
a young and innocent claimant. All will remem-
ber the efficient assistance bestowed by the Bri-
tish Legion, and the ingratitude with which they
were subsequently treated. Something, how-
ever, was gained by the supposed triumph of
constitutional principles, that induced the nation
to forget the injustice inflicted on their own
countrymen, and to acquiesce in the success of
the Christinos ; and there is no doubt that if the
promises so lavishly tendered had been as faith-
fully redeemed, the English blood F o freely shed in
cementing the foundation of the Spanish Throne
would scarcely have been regretted, save by the
immediate relations and friends of those who fell
in the internecine conflict.

But Queen ISABELLA now considers herself
strong, enough to kick down, by the aid of an
unscrupulous Minister, the convenient ladder to
which she owed her elevation. She has substi-
tuted the Carlist cries of "Despotism and Priest-
craft" for "Liberty aril the Constitution," and,
without conciliating the party by whom she was
previously opposed, has completely disgusted and
alienated the better elms of her own supporters.
The ingratitude displayed towards the British auzili-

aries has been followed up by even more decided
misconduct against her own most faithful and
loyal subjects, and there is but too much reason
to fear that she has joi:ied in the conspiracy which
has deprived the nation of the services of the
Duke of VICTORY. He was the head of the
Liberal Government, the representative of Pro-
gress and Reform, and, as such, eminently dis-
tasteful to the Court faction. A coup d'etat was,
therefore, resolved on ; and it was cunningly
carried into execution.

As we yesterday pointed out, there was a Pro-
clamation ready cut and dry—placing the whole
of Spain under martial law—before any attempt
at resistance was made, even before the arch-
deceiver O'Doxbrzra, had thrown aside the mask
with whioh be concealed his intentions from his
betrayed colleagues. And it now appears that a
force of 18,000 men was concentrate) on Madrid,
ready to suppress any einetae into which the
people might be driven, and which, there can
be little doubt, was stimulated by O'DONNELL and
his fellow-conspirators fir their own purposes.
But it is dangerous playing with edgo-too!s, or
flinging firebrands in the neighbourhood of com-
bustible materials. O'DoNNELL has for the mo-
ment succeededin the capital ; but in the provinces
the soldiLrF, under the gallant GUERREA, have
fraternise with the people, and no less than 83
members of the Cortes have seceded from Madrid to
Saragossa, where the sandard of the Constitution
has been elevated under what may safely be regarded
as the Spanish Parliament. A fierce contest may
therefore be anticipated, and ISABELLA and her

advisers may find that a very dangerous experi-
ment has been attempted. When Crown and
Parliament aro in direct opposition—when the
one raises the standard of despotic authority and
the other of constitutional law, we may readily con-
ceive that an easy victory cannot be achieved over
those who have the sympathies of the nation in
their favour.

At present we must be contented to watch the
contest in silence, neither interfering ourselves nor
allowing others to interfere. The Spanish people

have a right to select their own form of govern-
ment. That is a•privilege which NAPOLEON can-
not refuse, inasmuch as it is the basis on which
his own. title to the Imperial Throne entirely rests.
It must also be borne in mind that there has been
no attempt on the part of the People against the
existing state of affairs. It is the QUEEN that has
assailed the Constitution to which she owes her
power, and the Cortes and the nation are fully
justified in resisting to the utmost the unjustifiable
and impolitic attempt.

Notwithstanding the opposition with which he
was greeted from all sides of the House, the
country will sympathise with the Hon. Gentle-
man the member for Bridport in the just indig-
nation which he manifested with respect to the
unglue favouritism manifested towards the Ger-
man mercenaries. In every instance those who
did not behold a single shot fired in anger, who
only shed the blood of those by whom they have
been fed and supported, have been preferred
before our own most, gallant troops. The ftirni-

tare supplied to the German officers at shorn-
cliffe and Aldershot, but denied to British officers,
mly, per se, be a matter of comparatively trivial

importance ; but it is part of a highly-objection-
able system. Like the straw flung up, it indi-
cates the direction of the wind ; and when we
couple it with the free passage to, and
grants of land in the colonies, while the
English and Irish militiamen are stripped of their
clothes, deprived of the bounty to which they
were fairly entitled, and turned loose on the
world to beg or plunder, we cannot feel sur-
prised that a deep feeling of indignation should
be excited against those through, whose presumed
influence this untoward state of affairs is pro-
duced.

Nor can we be astonished that the parties
thus petted should presume on the indulgence, and
think that they too can display hauteur and in-
solence towards the mere English, whom they are
taught to regard as an inferior race, unable to
govern or protect themselves without German
assistance. We may easily judge of the blessing
we have lost in so steadily refusing to accept a
Standing German Legion for garrison and active
duty within the United Kingdom. There can ba

no doubt that such a consummation was contem-

plated at the time that the Foreign Enlistment
Bill was so recklessly hurried through both
Houses, and it was only from the tone adopted
in Parliament, and by the Press generally, of
all shades and varieties of political opinion,
that the full development of the project was
averted. Had it been carried out as originally
intended, we should have been justified in in-
quiring " Quis custodiet ipsos custodes," in de-
manding additional protection against the vaga-
ries of these quasi conservators of the public
peace. As it is, we cordially concur with Mr.
MIIRROUGIi in thinking that the retention of a
large body of foreign troops during a time of
peace is disgraceful to the Government. We
are convinced that we are speaking the almost
unanimous opinion of the country in de-
manding that they should be despatched
to their place or places of destination
with all possible expedition ; and we venture
also to assert that the departure of other Germans
from our shores would be hailed with unequivo-
cal delight throughout the country. We may,
therefore, paraphrase a toast once proposed at the
Beef Steak Club in Ireland, and which created a
considerable sensation at the time, " The Exports
•! England, and may those who would subvert its
Constitution be the first."

SUBSIDIES really seem to be understood much
better by England than INDEMNITIES. The expe-
rience accruing to us from the last war affords
unhappily anything rather than an exceptional
illustration of the remarkable and deplorable fact
here particularised. It is a national characteristic,
or let us call it at once more correctly a criminal
weakness on the part of the Government—of the
existence of which almost every successive conflict
in which the United Kingdom has become involved
has yielded during reign after reign, during cen-
tury after century, the same wearisome and
monotonous demonstration. It constitutes in
point of fact the key to the annals of our taxa-
tion. It furnisles us with a clue through the
labyrinthine mysteries of that wearily woven and
warily involving Net in which the British Liou
has gradually become entangled—the National
Debt of 800,000,0001.—the Net vainly expected
to be nibbled through, one of these line days, by
some keen-toothed mouse of a Financier

England, again wo say, understands subsidies
much better than indemnities. Her history
proves it. The monetary records of the United
Kingdom demonstrate this more clearly, perhaps,
than they demonstrate anything. They show,
in unmistakeable characters, how readily we can
disburse, but how very unwillingly we contrive
at rarest intervals, in any instance whatever, to
be in the smallest degree reimbursed. The Sycee
silver is a rarer metal in its way, we take it, than
platinum or all uminiutn, or any other of the strange
materiel known either to the practised metallurgist
or to those most skilled in the science of numis-
matics. It has been very seldom, indeed, that
we have extotted compensation from the van-
quished as in the instance of the conquered
Chinese. Instead of indemnifying ourselves, we
have subsidised others : and then so prodigilly
and systematically, that it. becomes no subject
fur marvel to those in any way familiar with the
financial statistics of the groat war against NAPO-
LEON to find how frequent and enormous were
the loans and subsidies lavished upon Foreign
Powers by the British Government. Sub-
sidies and loans so enormous, that in
1801 they amounted to 690,1141., in 1802 to
285,4511., in 1803 to 212,275/., iu 1804 to
103,4231., in 1805 to 35,3411., in 1806 to
595,8471., in 1807 to 859,0821., and in 1808 to
as much as 2,897,873. Increasing so immensely
and rapidly after the opening up of the Peninsular
struggle, that w..; find these amounting in 1809
to 2,579,0391., in 1810 to 2,110,543/., in 1811
to 2,367,4131., in 1812 to 3,908,5211., in 1813
to 6,786,0221., in 1814 to 8,442,5781., in
1815 to 10,024,6241., and finally in 1816 to
11,035,248 ! Perfectly in keeping with which
extravagant loans and subsidies during the Euro-
pean war of 1800.1815, we now note at the close
of the European war of 1854-1856 a total ab-
sence of anything like the merest semblance of
indemnification. Insomuch that the Crimea is
given up once more unconditionally to the aggres-
sive Government of the CZAR. Not a single
stronghold is retained by the Allies as a security
for the future good behaviour of the Musco-
vite. England and France, and what is still .