The Sun.
London, England, 1821-10-09 00:00:00

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EPROM TI.IE STAFFaRDSHIIIIC Apt-Efrrisrn, OCT. 6.)
Spain at this Moment presents many deplorable claims upon
the attention of Etirope. The anarchy in the capital has readied
a point at which it must be speedily decided, whether Spain it
longer to continue among the number of Monarchical States, or,
assuming the name Of a Republic, she is to run the couraz...
which France has tracked with blood dUring the last
thirty years, to settle like France into a military deepotism,
from which she can be rescued only by another miracle.—
The crisis 'seems now to have passed beyond the influence of
the nominal Government ; and Ferdinand, who, in 1814 and
1815, answered his truly patriotic advisers with hains, the gal-
lies, and the gibbet ; and in 1820 stooped to flatter and conci-
liate mutineers and traitors, must now await the issue of the
' struggle, m which he can scarcely interfere with any prospect
of success, though the disposal of his head is probably involved
in the result.
But it is not by political calamity alone that Spain is at pre-
sent afflicted. The pestilence which has been for some time
known to exist at Barcelona, has appeared also in the South, at
Malaga, at Cadiz, at Xeres, and Fort -St. Mary's; and from
each of the points at which it has appeared, it has extended its
sphere with a rapidity not to be repressed. The taint has ex-
tended along the Ebro, and has infected a great_ portion of Ar-
ragon and Catalonia. The measures-adopted to arrest the pro-
gress of the disease, are such as /might have been expected from
the present government of Spain. A string_ military force was
by surprise thrown around the infected districts ; and the effect
of this savage proceeding was to dissolve all the relations of go-
vernment-within the confined-country, and of course to expose
the peaceable inhabitants to all the horrors of anarchy, in addi-
tion to the dreadful affliction of the disease. But the measures
of despotism, whether the despotism of a mob, an army, or a
single tyrant, are always unwise in the end. The notion of
converting provinces into iirisbris, and of chaining hundreds of
thousands to disease and death, is as blind as it is brutal.—M en
flying with their wives and children from certain destruction by
the pestilence, will feel little apprehension of the bayonet which
they may hope to elude, and which thousands will elude. The
poison will be borne by fugitives from Arragon and Catalonia into
every part of Spain ; and its dangers will be multiplied an
hundred fold by its being carried in secret—the consequence of
this measure. The safest Medical Police, that which was
happily employed-with complete success a few years ago in Ire-
land, is to give a bounty for the discovery of the disease, and
to promote a free intercourse between the families of the sick and
those who possess the power of relieving their wants. To make
war upon th'e disease, not to proscribe the diseased, is the most
effectual as well as the most humane mode of meeting such a
visitation. The proximity 6f Catalonia to France has caused a
strict prohibition of all intercourse on the part of the French
Authorities, except by one route, which is subjected to qua-
rantine.