The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-29 00:00:00

THE STIN, LONDON, FR 1 if, EVENING'

STATE OF SPAIN.

[We willingly publish the following letter, because
it is only fair that an advocate of Spain should be
heard. But, after all, does he not confirm our state-
ment ?—]
TO 7'IIE EDITOR 01, TIIE SG
Sia,—Your leading article this evening on Spain
and its people is calumnious and unjust—unworthy,
besides, of the politics advocated by your paper. You
compare Spain, inhabited by fifteen millions of people,
to France, with a population of thirty. You say
that France, in the midst of its civil dissensions, re-
pelled its foreign aggressors, put down a vile aris-
tocracy, and made itself a name, before the era of
Napoleon. You say that Spain has produced nothing
but adventurers in civil war, butchers, men who re-
cognise nothing but the law of force, with whom,
with the single exception of Eapartero, no generors
man can sympathise. You take no account of the
circumstances of the two nations ; you show no side
but the bright side of the French Revolution; you
write half a century after it ; you forget the murders,
drownings, hangings, imprisonments, denunciations,
fines, confiscations of property, assignat bank-
ruptcies, and all the atrocities that characterised that
Revolution ; and you blame the Spaniards for not
following quite so actively in this exterminating
career. You forget that the Spanish Revolution was
early checked by the infamous interference of its
powerful neighbour, under the Duke d'Angouleme.
You forget the previous career of a greater army
than that of the Duke d'Angouleme—the Imperial
Army of the great Napoleon in Spain ? Did the
Spaniards show no vigour, then, in resisting foreign
aggression ? Is the nature of their country, too, such
that they are capable of acting together ? Are they
not separated from each other, cut up by mountains,
thinly assembled together, and incapable for this
reason of largely combined movements ? Have the
Spaniards had the advantage that France had before
her revolution, of a widely-diffused literature, a phi-
losophic spirit of inquiry, generated by free
intercourse with the rest of the nations ?
Had she not, on the contrary, the misfortune to be go-
verned by a Monarch deriving his revenue from ad-
ventitious sources of supply, and therefore able to fix
his despotic rule without the consent of his people ?
Had she not a Church absorbing all the property and
stifling the intellect of the people, for reasons peculiar
to the geographical structure of the country, and
others, which it would be too long now to enter into ?
It would be too long, indeed, to describe the great
disadvantages under which she laboured, as compared
with either England or France, from which she
started into revolution. Her career, a rough one
naturally, has been interrupted by the unlawful med-
dlings of other nations. If she is so unfortunate as
not to have elements in the higher order of society
with which to regenerate herself, she must begin from
the lower. She must take brave and loyal men like
Zurbano, if men of better breeding are corrupt and
venial. The upper order of society has produced no-
thing. The Queen, infamous, and more degraded still,
avaracious ; Narvaez, a plunderer, a cut-throat, an in-
triguer, a man loading himself with honours without
deserving them, inventing plots against his friends
who become powerful, and loading with favours mean
people who flatter him; the Finance Ministers stock-
jobbers; a Cortes sold to the highest bidder; officers
who make great parade in ball-rooms, and are cowards
in the field. This is the state of things that you would
uphold against the revolution. Spain will never be
either happy or honoured with such blood-suckers at
the helm. Delenda est Carthago. They must be got
rid of, and by rough hands. Zurbano, a man of the
people, is one of them. I wish him success. To say,
as you have said, that he is ready to sell himself to any
party, is contrary to all experience of his history to
the present time. He has ever been faithful to the
Constitution. In addition to his fidelity, he has the
rarest of all qualities, heroic bravery. Though it may
cost Spain another struggle, any struggle is better
than degradation.—Your obedient servant,
A SPANISH TRAVELLER.
London, Oct. 27.

. ....---,...,.....-.,...-......--..,...........
POLICE JUSTICE--THE LUXURY
OF WE A L TH.
(Prom Punch.)
Yesterday, the Bon. Au- John Briggs was ehargel
gu,stus Toppin9ltam, a per- before 1;r. Honeycomb,:
son of geutletnanly exte- with Eaving e,mmitted an
rior, was brought before assault upon Mr. Jessamy
Mr. Honeycombe, charged Bloom, a person of some
with a very gross and vio- what genteel appearance.
lent assault on Grace Mit- It appeared that the pri-
tens, a most respectable soner and his wife were pro-
and -moelc-looking young ceeding home on Thursday
woman, whose face, how- night, They had a few
ever, retained marks of a words; in fact, the prisoner
severe blow, she having lost was a little the worse fox
four of her front teeth by liquor, and his wife was
the violence of the accused. walking a few paces in ad-
Police-constable Lynx lance of him. The complain-
deposed that he was, on ant meeting the w °man, ad-
Monday night, on his beat dressed her in a very rude
in Coventry-street, when and unseemly w ay, ut the
he heard the screams of a same time th rowing hisarrns
woman. He ran, and dis- round her. Whereupon the
covered the complainant prisoner, rushing forward,
lying on the pavement, and struck thecemplainant, snit
the accused at the bar knocked him Cato the road.
shouting and hallooing, and Charlotte Briggs deposed
swearing he was a gentle- to the above facts. She had
man, and no mistake. been very grossly assaulted
Whereupon, after much by the complainant, before
difficulty, the constable he was struck by her hus.
took the prisoner into cue- band.
Lodz-. Mr. honeycombs said he
Grace Mittens (the com- had no doubt that an as-
plainant) deposed that she sault had been committed; a
was employed in a dress- very gross assault; never-
maker's establishment. She theless, people oust not
had been kept late at work take the law in their owu
on Monday night, and was hands : there wauld be an
returning home, when the end to all things if people at the bar accosted took the law in their ow n
her, placing his arm round hands. He wished to know
her waist. She told him what the prisoner had to
to go about his business, say for himself ?
when, with his clenched The prisoner said that,
fist, ho struck her so vio- seeing his wife assaulted,
leutly on the mouth, that he could not help doing
he dislodged four of her- what he had done; he was
front teeth. not sure that he should not
Mr. Honeycombe asked do the like again, under the
the prisoner what he had like circumstances.
to say for himself.? Mr. Honeycombe oh-
The prisoner said he had served, that he had no doubt
been out dining. that the complainant had
Mr. Honeycombe ob- very grossly misconducted
served that that could be himself ; neverttieless, the
no excuse for such unmanly prisoner had committed an
atrocity. It was a most assault, and the sentence
shameful and cowardly as-. was that he must pay a
sault upon a defenceless, fine of 2L, or undergo six
virtuous girl, and he cer- weeks' imprisonment.
tainly vt ould fine the pri- The prisoner had not a
loner in the sum of 51., or farthing, and was— RE-
two months' imprisonment. MOVED IN THE PRISoN VAN.
THE FINE WAS IMmF••

DIATELY PAID, and the
gentleman drove from the
office in his cab.

DREADFUL CASE OF STABBING
A LIVERPOOL CAPTAIN ON THE lIIGU
SEAS.