The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-03 00:00:00

SPAIN.

We have received the Madrid journals of the
25th and 26th. A return in the Gazette shows
that the real estates t' be sold in virtue of the law
of desmitortizacion, of the Ist May, 1855, amounted
to 243,109, of which 12,711 belonged to the regular
clergy, 129,372 to the secular clergy, and tho rest
to communes, military, charitable, and educational
establishments, and to the late Don Carlos ; and
that of that total 52,162 were really sold. The
total sum realised was 944,407,412 reals. The
Epoca, says that the Government was about to in-
crease largely the force of the marines. The Go-
vernment had ordered the provincial authorities to
observe holidays. The Minister of Public Works
had directed the surveys of the railways to Portugal
and Andalus'a to be carried on as rapidly as pos-
Sible. M. de Cueto, ex-m:nister plenipotentiary,
and several other gentlemen had been nominated
members of the Royal Council. Preparations for the
elections were being made in all the provinces, but
the Progressists, it was said, were taking no part
in them. Wheat had declined a real the bushel at
Madrid, and in most of the provinces it had declined
considerably. Accounts from the Havannah, to the
24th January, say that a small squadron had al-
ready left from Vera Cruz, and that General de la
Concha was making'active preparations fora more
important expedition. If the Spaniards should
capture Vera Cruz, Mexico, it is alleged, would be
dTrived of her most important branch of revenue,
the Customs being principally levied there. • The
same letters say that at the reception held by the
President of the Republic of Mexico on Now Year's
day, a speech was delivered to the president by
one of the members of the diplomatic body (it is not
said by whom) in the name of Guatemala, France,
the United States, the Equator, and England, ex-
pressing, in a marked manner, the hope that he
would "faithfully discharge his high duties by
seeing order and the reign of justice re-established,
and by preventing for the future a repetition of the
sad scenes which had unhappily taken place in a
part of the republic." It is stated that this
,speech
had created a great sensation in Mexico.

The Neuchatel journals lately announced the
return of the councillors of- stato, MM. Paget and
Humbert, from Paris, and added that these gen-
tlemen brought back with them the most satifac-
tory impressions. M. Paget Ins, however, pub-
lished a statements in which he declares that, so far
as he is concerned, his impressions have been most
unfaithfully described by the said journals.

The Chamber of Deputies of Hanover adopted
on the 26th ult. the bill relating to the establish-
ment of decimal weights. The government has
likewise submitted to the chamber a bill fo,r a deci-
mal coinage.
The King of the Belgians, the Duke an d
Duchess de Brabant, the Count de FJandre, and
the Princess Charlotte left Laeken on Saturday at
half-past 11 o'clock, by express train for Ghent, to
be present at the opening of the quinquennial ex-
hibition of the Botanical Society. The King and
Royal family wero accompanied by the Minister of
the Interior and the brilliant suite.

A letter from Belgrade of the 20th ult., in the
Augsburg Gazette, s lys :—" We have received let-
ters from Bulgaria and Roumelia. A church has
been destroyed by fire at Phillippopel, but it is n.-A
known whether or not the Turks were the cause of
it. The pacha of Sophia has been going over the
whole of his district at the head of 40 men, levying a
kind of forced loan of 120 to 140 piastres from each
family, for which he gives a rcceipt in the name of
the Turkish Government. They will be, doubtless,
repaid in the same way as were the sums collected
during the war, that is to say, by the persons giving
the money being made to sign a petition to the Sul-
tan, praying him to accept the money as a voluntary
contribution."

The Cattolico of Genoa publishes a letter from
Naples of the 21st, mentioning another explosion
which took place three days before in the fort of
Vigliena, on the sea-side between Naples and Por-
tici, but caused little damage. The letter adds
that upon examination it was found that both this
explosion and that of the Carlo 111. were owing
to the spontaneous ignition of a peculiar com-
pound invented for military purposes by one of the
officers who perished on board the above men-
tioned vessel. This compound had been made
up into various kinds of projectiles, which were
kept in small quantities in various places. Expe-
rience now shows that it has the serious defect of
igniting spontaneously, which renders it unfit for
service.