The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-27 00:00:00

THE CANON RIEGO AND QUEEN

ROYAL OF SPAIN.

To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE.
SIR,—I shall be most thankful to you for the prompt in-
sertion of the inclosed translation of my letter, addressed to
her Catholic Majesty, the Queen Regent of Spain, expres-
sive of my grateful acknowledgements for her Majesty's
most gracious Decree of the 31st of October, sustaining
the memory of my ever-to-be-lamented brother, General
Riego, and sympathising with his surviving family.
As I am indebted solely to the public Press for my
knowledge of this generous exercise of her Majesty's Royal
favour, I desire to make known, through the same channel,
the sentiments with which I am impressed upon its consi-
deration. I owe this obligation to my countrymen, to Eu-
rope, and particularly to England—the asylum of exiles of
every clime, and to me, especially the land of hospitable
refuge and soothing condolence ; which I estimate the more
highly, because I know that I am indebted for the favours
which I thus most gratefully proclaim, not to any merits or
claims of own, but to my near connexion with General

Riego.
I am engaged in preparing a translation of the documents
referred to in my letter to her Majesty, and hope to be en-
abled to hand to you copies thereof very soon, accompanied
with my request that you will gratify my desires to submit
them to public consideration.
I have the honour to be, Sir;
. Your very obedient servant,
MIGUEL DEL RIEGO, Canon of Oviedo.
57, Seymour-street, Euston-square, Nov. 25.
" TO HER CATHOLIC MAJESTY THE QUEEN
REGENT OF SPAIN.
MADAM—My heart never ceases to be deeply affected
with the misfortunes of my country ; my mind has never
admitted a thought which did not accord with the liberty
and glory of Spain ; my lips never dishonoured the dying
eloquence of the generous martyr, in the desperate strug-
gle on the plains of Jodar—General Riego. I have al-
ways kept an anxious look towards my expected return to
my home ; I have bailed with rapturous joy the dawn of
Spanish liberty, on seeing the throne of Spain occupied by
that hopeful angel of our national salvation, your Majesty's
daughter—nay, the daughter of Spain. I have joined my'
grateful accents to the chorus of those truly•unfortunate
martyrs to principles, woo, from their knowledge of your
Majesty's liberal disposition and maternal anxiety for your
beloved daughter, have anticipated the oblivion of all the
horrid events which, for so long a period, lia%':l impeded
the progress of those reforms required for the improvement
of Spanish civilization, national independence, and the pros-
perity of my country.
" Notwithstanding my vehement desire of revisiting my
native country, the appalling sight of desolation and the
yells of civil war have alarmed my sacred character, as one
of the Ministers of the God of Peace, and I have preferred
the protracted sufferings -Of exile to the soul-stirring bliss of
returning to Spain. Methought the ghost of my murdered
brother stood in my way, warning me not to return to a
land still polluted with the sordid interest of faction, and
agitated by foreign theories of uncongenial policy.
" I was long wavering between the thoughts of prompt
return to my country, and a still protracted exile, when
your Majesty's decree of the 31st of October fell under my
eye. That noble document .of your Majesty's devotion to
justice ; that eloquent appeal to the anxious feelings of
Europe ; those noble sentiments, alike breathing the tender
sympathy of a feminine heart, and the stern decision of a
judge ; that frank expression of patriotism which we thought
for ever blotted from the pages of Royal records, struck
forcibly home to my heart. Nor have those allusions to the
desolate family of the patriotic victim, clothed in the fas-
cinating garb of a truly maternal anxiety, produced a less
vigorous effect upon the almost exhausted resignation of
my tortured mind. For this munificent act I have nothing
to offer in return but my respectful gratitude.
" After giving vent to my feelings for this unexpected
happineis, I might have thought the moment for again
setting my foot on my native land had arrived ; but I
ap-
prehend that it would not be consistent with the respect
which I owe to the memory of my brother, who fell a sacri-
fice in attempting to uphold the interests of his country,
and still less with the dignity of an heir to his principles and
the head of his scattered relations, to accept of a boon which,
however generous,,however flattering, however consoling to
my distressed feelings, still does not emanate from the coa-
lesced deliberation of the people ; and is not offered to the
memory of my brother as an expiatory act of the nation,
but is the individual offering of your Majesty's generous
heart.

into which, he said, he would not at present enter at length, '
but observed that they all tended to repudiate the notion of
the Lord Mayor's assumed separate power being founded on
prescription, as that power was neither uninterrupted and
uniform from the period of legal memory, nor reasonable and
consistent with other lights ; but, on the contrary, the exer-
cise of it had never been attempted without resistance from
this Court, and such attempts had been as invariably fol-
lowed by a vote of censure on the individual practising
them.—( Hear, hear.) The general right of the Court was
also sustained, and the separate power of their president.
repudiated by the analOgy between the proceedings of
this Court and those of the House of Commons, which,
however, it was also unnecessary to examine at any
length. Having thus, as he conceived, established on the
highest grounds the right for which he contended, he
called upon the members of the Court not to shrink
from maintaining it with the boldness that became them
as the representatives of their fellow-citizens, and which
bad ever been shown by their predecessors. The praise
bestowed by the Learned Recorder on Alderman Win-
chester for preserving, as be stated to the Barons of the'
Exchequer, the rights of the city, rendered the ex-
pression of a contrary opinion, when fairly entertained,
doubly necessary at this time—(Hear, hear)—and the lan-
guage of the resolution was not stronger than was war-
ranted ; for it merely stated conclusions founded in reason,
and did not impute criminal motives. To negative the re-
solution would be to repudiate the obligations of public
duty, and an act of injustice not only to the individual who
had so well merited censure, but to all those who had in
past times been censured for offences of a much less de-
scription. It would also degrade votes of approbation to
the level of mere unmeaning compliments, discreditable
both to the giver and receiver, and would derogate from the
value of all those testimonials of hone3t admiration, won by
the manly and constitutional conduct of high-spirited public
men, as the most valuable and highly-prized recompense of
their exertions, when bestowed by a discriminating and
high-minded public body.—(Hear.)
After some further discussion a division took place, when
.there appeared for the previous question, 30 ; against it,
100 ; majority, 70. Another division took place upon the
question whether the Court should agree to the resolution,
and there appeared for the resolution, 99 ; against it, 35 ;
majority in favour of the resolution, 54.
Mr. lIErrEL then moved that the resolution_be inscribed
on a tablet of brass, and affixed in a conspicuous situation
in or about the Guildhall, under the direction of the Com-
mittee of City Lands.
The resolution was, however, after considerable dis-
cussion, negatived by a large majority.
The Court, after transacting some business of no public
interest, adjourned.
The following, are the members of the Common Council
who voted in favour of Alderman Winchester :—Alderman
Marshall, Alderman Hunter, Henry Butterworth, John
Brigge, William Collingwood, Jacob George Cope, William
Curling (Deputy), Thomas Corney (Deputy), Josh. Carter
(Deputy), Samuel Dixon, John Dixon, John Evans, Eu-
genius Fenning, T. Q. Finnis, M. Gibbs (Deputy), Thomas
Green, J. W. Goss, R. Hicks (Deputy), Robert Haswell,
Ford Hall, J. P. Hayward, G. Jarman, R. Jewesson,
R. L. Jones, Charles Ingall, George Stewart, John Saunders,
V. Rutter, John Roberts, Henry Verinder, T. Whitby
(Deputy), W. D. White, Thos. Warne, and T. G.Williams.