The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS, . I THE COUNTESS OF DERIVENTWATER'S
ESTATES.
_ -

The Post says the national accounts for the quarter
which ended yesterday are calculated to shew that the
produce of taxation is not sufficiently elastic to enable us
to disregard the question which has.now attained so much
prorninency, of the necessity for greater economy in the
public expenditure. There is, on the whole, an increase
in the receipts of the year, as compared with the
last, of £537,091, but this has not been sufficient to
meet the increased items of expenditure, and the net
result is that there is in the cash account a deficiency
upon the charge of the Consolidated Fund, as compared
with the current receipts to meet it, of no less than
3,007,408. This does not represent the actual state of
the case to be reached when all the accounts are closed,
but it is apparent that on the 31st March, 1869, there
will be again, as has been the rule of late, a deficit to be
met, instead of a surplus to be appropriated to the reduc.
tion of public burdens. Coming to the items, we find some
peculiar features about the accounts. The Customs receipts
have, as usual, since the reduction of duties and dutiable
articles to a minimum, increased for the year by £98,000,
although, as compared with the corresponding quarter,
they have diminished by £14,000, and for the
corresponding six months by as much as £60,000. This
would seem to shew that trade is in an increasingly bad
state, and if it goes on at the same rate we may find not
only the whole present augmentation eaten away, but a
decrease left at the end of the year. The other chief
item shewing an increase—viz., the Property Tax—
displays, however, a steady advance of £412,000 for the
corresponding quarter, £1,104,000 for the corresponding
six months, and £1,586,000 for the year. On the
other hand, the Excise bas decreased by £459,000.
the Stamps by £359,000, and the Taxes by £lB,OOO, without
its being possible to assign any apparent reason for the
fact ; for no burdens coming under those heads have been
taken off, while some small additions have actually been
put on. We can only hope that the forthcoming half-year
may make up for the shortcomings of that which is past,
and that the deficit which cannot be avoided may at least
be reduced.

The Standard finds that there is going to be a "flank
movement " after all ; but, strangely enough, the people
who have charged such an intention on their adversaries
are the very ones that now propose to perform it: The
phrase, we believe, was originally applied to the current
conflict concerning the Church in Ireland by the London
correspondent of the Scotsman ; and the particular
politician who was about to venture on the delicate
operation was, of course, that tricky strategist, Mr.
Disraeli. We have no doubt whatsoever that if
any Liberal journal were only to assert that the present
Premier had robbed the national till or pawned the Crown
jewels, every other Liberal journal would copy the state-
ment ; and we are quite sure that the First Lord, if he
happened to see the report, would not contradict it. But,
as we have said, we are threatened with a " flank move-
ment," notwithstanding. Only the authors of it, if we
are to believe themselves, are to he the Liberals. The
skirmishers of the operation have already been thrown out ;
and we must confess that they have commenced with
much boldness and admirable audacity. " The vexed
question" is the cover under which the "flank move-
ment" is to be performed. What do our readers suppose
is this " vexed question?" It refers to the Church in
Ireland, about which they have heard and read enough
during the last few months ; but we would willingly give
them quite as many more to solve the riddle we have put.
We had better, therefore, solve it for them at once.
They will be much surprised to hear that, according to an
authority in the foremost and most influential of all
Liberal journals and supporters of Mr. Gladstone,
there is actually a vexed question as to whether
the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland shall be endowed
or not. •We imagined, and we fancied that the whole
world imagined, that g there was one question which was
not vexed and never could be vexed again, but which was
for ever set at rest, it was this one. All that we can say
is, what we have said before ; Conservatism will never
freely consent to the disestablishment of the Protestant
Church in Ireland and the appropriation of two-fifths, or
indeed, of any portion of its property, to Roman Catho-
licism. Further than that we have no remark to make,
except that this is what Liberalism is now proposing by
way of a " flank movement," its charge against the centre
having failed.

The Times holds that the fall of a throne, and such a
throne as that of Spain, is an event of solemn imporb. It
is7riot difficult to foresee that it will stand out in future
days as one of the most terrible judgments and warnings
of history. The greatness of the reigning family, the sex
of the dethroned sovereign, the pride, the chivalry which
are associated with the name of the Spaniards, the past
grandeur of the country, its revived aspirations and still
restless ambition --all tend to impress the imagination and
make the Spanish Revolution the most notable event of
the kind, even in this age of political change. Since
the first fall of the Fiench monarchy in 1792 there
has been no revolution so indicative of a transformation
in the popular character of the nation that has effected it.
The fall of Charles X. or of Louis Philippe, of the Italian
Princes or of King Otho, were events at which we could
feel no surprise ; but, taking into consideration the cir-
cumstances under which Isabella came to the throne, the
great traditions of her house, and the hopes which all
Spain conceived of her government, it is impossible
not to be conscious that the national heart must have
been slowly chilled and hardened by tyranny before
such a retribution could have fallen on the Royal head.
The Times pities the Queen, but cannot exonerate her.
Amid the gross political profligacy that was around her it
was difficult to grow up pure, and Isabella has shewn her-
self on many occasions a crafty and unscrupulous sove-
reign. Her domestic life has been sullied by misbehaviour.
Immorality might have been pardoned, not so indecency;
and the Queen has not had the wisdom to hide her
offences behind the veil of decorum. The scandal she
has given has been even intolerable even to the most
easy-tempered people in her dominions, and it will
have been noticed that even within the last few days
the presence of one person at the Court has beeri
made a political question. But even here the recollec-
tions of our readers will suggest extenuating circum-
stances. The example she found in her own home was
none of the best, and at the early age of 16 she was
married, if report speak truly, without any regard being
paid to her own wishes. Though it must be allowed that
Isabella is not by character or education fitted to govern a
great nation, yet we must think that to be placed in such
circumstances from earliest infancy was a trial from which
few would have emerged blameless.

The Herald remarks that the latest news from Spain
leaves us no room to doubt that the revolution has been
accomplished. The Government of Isabella Segunda has
fallen, and with it ends the dynasty of the Bourbons. So
unanimous was the feeling of the Spaniards against the
person no less than the policy of their Queen, that the
success of the insurrection never really was in any periL
For the first time almost in the history of Spain, there
has been a pronuneiamento of the whole people, of a
character so decided and energetic that it is impossible
for other nations to discredit its genuineness. Hitherto
we have had isolated risings of single provinces,
military revolts, and conflicts of rival general with
general without number. On the present occasion
there has been a general, and apparently spontaneous,
outburst of the national will, before which the throne of
the Bourbons has gone down with a precipitancy and corn-
pleteness only to be matched in the history of that unlucky
family. Within a fortnight after the landing of the exiled
generals at Cadiz the whole of their design has been
carried out, the Government has been overthrown, and the
Queen is a fugitive with her family in French territory.
And even in the presence of a calamity so sudden
and overwhelming there are none to utter a single
word of regret at the downfall of Isabella.
Not a voice cries " God bless her ! " as the late
darling of Spanish chivalry, the centre of a
people's hope, and the object of a thousand liberal
aspirations, is dismissed from the throne with a cold indif-
ference more bitter than the worst contumely. She, in
defence of whose youth brave men have shed their blood
without stint—who was to have been the bright particular
star of regenerate Spain, has been quitted as though she
were a pollution. She has gone, and her going has been a
relief such as her coming never-was. The nation has
resumed the sovereignty, and so ends the last chapter in
the long and laborious attempt at constitutional govern-
went in Spain.

The Daily News says Isabella the Second of Spain, and
the last of the Bourbon monarchs, is still young when she
goes forth to share the exile of the family to which she
belongs. She has not yet completed the 38th year of
her age, and is in the 25th of her reign. That reign
began in circumstances of considerable difficulty, yet
of much hope on the part of the Spanish people. Her
majority was advanced eleven month( by a vote of
the Cortes, and she came to the throne as a girl
Queen at an age at which she would have been
better at school. At 16 she was married by
a French intrigue to her maternal cousin, Don
Francisco d'Assis—a match which has proved to
be the bane of her life. From that time all the hopes that
were formed about her have gradually disappeared. _The
Court of the Spanish Queen has been in every respect the
antithesis of • one she would have clone so well to imitate.
Her government has been a series of insurrections, pro-
nuncimnentos, and J intrigues, though through them all
Spain has shewn a-most vigorous front to the outer world.
Meanwhile the influences of the nineteenth century have
been gradually permeating Spanish society. Liberal
ideas have been kept from expression to propa•
gate themselves in silence. Under the external appearance
of a boasted Catholic Unity, religious Liberalism has
made prodigious advances among the educated classes ;
while the arLisans of the large towns and the middle
classes generally have been alienated from the throne by
a repressive policy, and driven to desire change in the
Liberal direction. But all these influences might have
been reckoned with if the Queen and her advisers had not
been smitten with the blindness which precedes destruc-
tion. The least revolutionary of all the Latin races,
the Spanish nation might have been one of the
easiest to rule, had the Queen been desirous of
acting the part of a really constitutional • monarch.
But Bourbons, like Stuarts, must be wilful. They cannot
learn to rule by obedience. They cannot even conciliate a
people by acquiescence in its will. Even their code of
morals must be their own, and not that which common
mortals obey. It is the family folly which leads to the
family doom. The natural end of a Bourbon throne is for
its occupant to fly, and for the record of the flight to be
accompanied with such signs of popular rejoicing as we
now hear of from Madrid--" Everywhere music is heard,
The streets are illuminated."

Some stir has been occasioned in the neighbourhood of
Dilston by the appearance of Amelia, Countess of Der-
wentwater, with a retinue of servants, at the old baronial
castle of her ancestors, Dilston Old Castle, and at once
taking possession of the old ruin. Her ladyship, who is a
fine-looking, elderly lady, was dressed in an Austrian
military uniform, and wore a sword by her side in the
most approved fashion. She was accompanied, as we
have said, by several retainers, who were not long in
unloading the waggon load of furniture which they had
brought with them, and quickly deposited the various
goods and chattles in the old castle, the rooms of which,
as most of our readers are aware, are without roofs, but a
plentiful supply of stout tarpaulings, which are provided
for that purpose, will soon make the apartments habitable,
if not quite so comfortable as those which the countess has
just left. In the course of Tuesday morning her ladyship
was visited by Mr. C. G. Grey, the receiver to the Green-
wich Hospital estates, who informed her she was tres-
passing upon the property of the commissioners, and
that he would be obliged to report the circumstance
to their lordships. Her ladyship received Mr. Grey
with great courtesy. She informed that gentleman she
was acting under the advice of her legal advisers, and was
quite prepared to defend the legality of her proceedings.
The sides of the principal room have already been hung
with the Derwentwater family pictures, to some of which
the countess bears a marked resemblance, and the old
baronial flag of the unfortunate family already floats
proudly from the summit of the fine, though old and
dilapidated tower. These energetic proceedings of the
countess will no doubt soon be questioned by the
authorities in London, and we shall soon have their
legality tried in a court of law. One, however, cannot
but express a hope that the countess will have every fair
play, and that if she has been illegally kept out of posses.
sion of what is properly her own, reparation will be at
once made, and thus end one of the darkest chapters in
the history of our country by a becoming act both of equity
and justice.—Northern Daily Express.