The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-20 00:00:00

The Insurrection in Spain.

(From the Correspondent of
MA the Times)
DRID, Jan. 16.
As it happens in countries a prey to strong poli-
tical agitation, we have here daily to listen to
prophecies, more or less plausible, as to the event-
ful denouement of the drama which is being played
almost before our eyes. Agreeably to most of these
wise men, the 17th—that is, to-morrow—is the
critical day big with the fate of Prim and his band
.—the day, according to some, in which, Iby a
manoeuvre which they are at no trouble to explain,
the rebel chief is to give the slip to his pursuers,
double upon them, and by stealing a march or two
appear suddenly before Madrid, gaining a complete
victory over all his enemies ; the day, if we believe
others, in which his campaign is to terminate,
either by his capture and death, or else by his flight
across the Portuguese frontier.
The calculation of the latter set of these sooth- '
sayers is the more likely to turn out correct. The
territory of Estremadura, to the west of the kingdom
of Toledo, is divided into two parts, which are called
by the Spaniards Alta and Baja, but should pro-
perly bear the names of Northern and Southern
Estremadura ; they consist of the two broad valleys
formed by the Tagus and the Guadiana, and form
the two provinces bearing the modern appellations
of Caceres and Badajoz. Across the whole length
of these two valleys, and separating them from east
to west, runs the long ridge which bears the name
of Sierra de Toledo, and beyond the gorge of El
Horcajo, that of Sierra de Guadalupe. Prim, if we
may believe the last accounts, had run down the
whole province of Caceres as if making straight for
Portugal by the Valley of the Tagus, but apparently
finding the roads before him beset by enemies he
has now thrown himself into the mountains of
Guadalupe—some say at Logrosan, some at Mon-
tanches, with a view to descend into the Valley of
the Guadiana, and gain the Portuguese frontier by
Badajoz. We have heard of the helpless, hopeless,
breathless condition of these long-hunted insurgents
till we are heartily sick of it, especially as there is
every reason to believe that even the most official
reports are a pack of lies. There is little doubt,
however, that Prim's small band must have been
exposed to severe hardships, and must have suffered
grievous losses, especially as to horses. One or two
days' march across any of the Spanish Sierras ought
to be sufficient to disable the best charger, and it is
difficult to resist the conviction that by far the
greater number of Prim's troopers must by this time
be dismounted. Two days ago, at Campillo, we are
told that the insurgents demanded 615 rations for
men, and 762 fodder for cattle. These numbers
would imply no very very great army, and although
but few of the fugitives have fallen into the hands
of the loyal troops there seems to have been no very
considerable accession to Prim's original force from
any of the provinces he has gone through. I hardly
know to what extent I may give credit to a rumour
which circulated about Madrid all yesterday, but I
think I ought, at any rate, to give it for what it is
worth. The report is, that Major D. Teodoro Ca-
mino,who, at the head of mounted civil guards, was
marching in the van of Zabala's column and pressed
very hotly upon Prim, taking seven prisoners from
him the other day, has now fallen into the hands of
the insurgent leader, who had him shot. If there
were any truth in the news—which I could never
bring myself to believe—this should have happened
yesterday, the 15th, at Logrosan, as Prim is said to
have been on the previous night at that place, and to
have left in the morning, when the town was imme-
diately occupied by Camino. It is just possible,
barely possible, that venturing too boldly into
the place the Major may have fallen in with
some of Prim's stragglers, and may have been
delivered by these to their chief, who, in that
event, would have been guilty of a dead of blood-
shed that—were it really don e--Lneither his foes
nor his friends could forgive. The very latest bul-
letins describe Prim as having crossed the Guadiana
at Villanueva delaSerena, and continuing hismarch
upon Hava, on his way to Portugal. A glance at
the map will convince the reader that those two
places are still a long way from the frontier, and
that Prim might have some trouble in baffling the
garrison of Merida and Badajoz, should these be
inclined to dispute his passage.

From all we can make out of the Government's
disposition, however, there is little doubt but
" golden bridges" will be thrown everywhere on the
way of the fugitives, if these latter will only take
themselves off. It has been said here that Marshal.
O'Donnell sent " his eomplitnents " to Madame
Prim, and assured her that " if he caught her hus-
band, he would, to his great regret, be under the
necessity of shooting him ;" which was obviously
meant as a warning to be conveyed to the rebel
chief, so that he should contrive not to be caught.
O'Donnell's Government can certainly have nowish
to have such a man as Prim on their hands. Espar-
tero shot, though not without great reluctance, the
unfortune Diego Leon in 1841, and has good cause
to regret it- as a " blunder worse than a crime " at
the present day. The execution of Prim for high
treason would, under present circumstances, be no
less unpopular a measure, unless indeed Prim had
been so mad as to murder Major Camino in cold
blood, agreeably to the report of yesterday, which
I feel inclined utterly to disbelieve.
Should Prim take refuge in Portugal, as he is
most likely to be allowed to do, if not to-morrow,
in a very days, the stir in men's minds, which has
already considerably abated, would soon cease
altogether. The Spaniards, as a nation, have no
hope in a revolution, and never tried their hand at
one. This is, perhaps, the first instance in which a
military revolt relied to some extent on popular sup-
port, and an egregious disappointment has been the
result. I have been assured that before Prim set
out for his " shooting party" at Aranjuez, the Pro-
gresistas in league with him secretly sounded the
lowest classes, the Proletaires,who have their abode
in those Barrios de Bajo,which are the Faubourgs St.
Antoine and St. Martin of Madrid, and they thought
they could have as much help in those quarters as
they wanted ; indeed much more than they wanted,
for, upon seeing the disposition of the men they had
to deal with, they became afraid of letting loose a
pack of demons, which it would not be in their
power to restrain, and it was resolved that there
should be no popular rising in Madrid ; but that
either the movement should be limited altogether to
" a military pronunciamiento,like so many others Spain
has had before, or that the experiment of a popular
demonstration should be made where the population
exhibited traces of a less desperate character than
that which is plunged in misery, vice, and crime in
the -worst purlieus of the capital. It is probably to
these circumstances that Prim alluded by those
words in his proclamation where he appealed to
good Spanish citizens to " help him in accomplish-
ing a political revolution which should preclude the
necessity of a social revolution." But whatever
truth there may be in these sayings, there remains
the undeniable fact that Prim has risen, and I had
almost said, fallen, without being seconded by any
effort on the part of the leaders of the Pro-
gresista Retraimiento. These men, who professed
to withdraw from legal Opposition because they
saw no way of safety except in a violent
struggle, are .no so inaudible and
invisible that
well
one might
doubt their existence. If Prim be
peacefully
removed, days of internal calmness and
security are probably
at hand for Spain. Reassured
by the general look of things, the Government
put forth in the Correspondencia of the evening
before last, by way of a feeler, an article in which
they engage to continue in the same liberal, econo-
mical, and provident path they have hitherto trod-
den, as if no Prim conspiracy and rebellion bad
ever troubled the surface of society. This article,
which has created greater sensation than it is
actually worth, is far, however, from satisfying men
of all parties. The moderate and Conservative
Epoca, thanking the O'Donnell Ministry for the
energy displayed in the suppression of the military
revolt, throws out very palpable hints that a Govern-
ment which has achieved so much is entitled to
rest, and proposes for imitation the example of Sir
Robert Peel, who deemed it expedient to make his
bow and retire behind the scenes as soon as the
act which won him immortality was fairly played
out.

The news to-day is that Prim, by crossing Noon over

to the valley of the Guadiana at Villanueva de la
Serena and La Hava, intends not to make his escape
into Portugal, but to coast the frontier by Me-
rida and Zafra, and to proceed across the Sierra
Morena into Andalusia. If this were so, as it is
probable, the disturbances would b 3 prolonged far
beyond the 17th. We hear this morning that there
is some interruption in the telegraph communication
with Aragon and Catalonia ; rumours are afloat of
insurrectionary movements at Rem, Lerida, Tarra-
gona, and other places. The ferment through
Catalonia is described 'as very strong and general.
Similar news, however, has been spread often before,
and proved to be unfounded.