The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 1842.

is at least a difficulty in reconciling the present with
some former opinions expressed in Parliament on the
political character of that Monarch.
But the portrait drawn of Espartero involves soma-
thing more than a difficulty ; for who that ever saw or
know the original will discover in it the remotest fea-
ture of resemblance ? " Vile, wicked, base, bitter,
treacherous, tyrannical, jacobinical, &c., one who has
seized, without virtue or merit, by artifice, bribery, and
intrigue, on the whole civil and military power of his
country," against whom all voices and all hands should
be raised, against whom a crusade of the civilized
world should be directed ! Such are the char3cteris-

tics, such the pith of the epithets, bestowed on this
occasion! .

Mr. O'Connell has been miraculously imposed on,
and should he extend his inquiries, not confining them
to parties, perhaps unavoidably aggrieved by the mere
course of events, I am convinced he will be disposed,
with the candour and manliness that belong to him, to
acknowledge that he has been deceived.
I should think there is not an individual in existence
more conspicuously the opposite of the above descrip-
tion than him to whom it is appiied. 0.. e who, what-
ever may be objected to him, possesses, by general noto
riety, a frankness, kindness, and generosity of disposition
—which have, in fact, been important elements of his
success. Equally is it known, that if his earnest ad-
vice and entreaties had been listened to, the necessity
for calling him to the station he so well fills, but never
sought or thought of, could not have arisen, and his
predecessor must have been still at the head of her
daughter's Government. He was lately received
by a procession of the population of a city
through which be passed with this brief inscription
on their banners—that, " Above all others he had the
honesty to obey and the courage to execute the laws."
This is the description of tyranny of which he is sup-
posed by Spaniards to be guilty. He has checked
licentiousness and vindicated discipline with unswerving
sternness, and yet his generous, affectionate personal
conduct, and brilliant soldiership, won for him the
hearts of the army. He has shown none of the infatu-
ated egotism which shipwrecked the power of the
greatest of modern warriors. Nor has he the poor am-
bition, because placed in the ducal rank, of giving to
an aristocracy that prestige and consequent influence
which the general interests of the nation may claim at
his hands. His prudence, fortitude, and constancy—
the example of his undaunted courage and endurance,
were the means by which he happily terminated (amidst
obstacles that no commander of these times has encoun-
tered), a cruel and devastating civil war. And no man
ever rose to eminence through the different gradations
of his fortune by a straighter or more honourable
path. These are the actions, the virtues, and
merits which, with the public conviction of his sin-
cerity, elevation, and goodness of purpose, have pointed
him out as capable and worthy of the greatest trust
that can be reposed in man—the protection of the in-
I fent liberties of his country !

The destruction of the Constitution which embodies
those liberties will not be desired by any Liberal who
informs himself on the subject. Austria is the gaoler
of Italy—Russia brandishes her sword over the man
`led corpse of Poland ; is France to be invited to the
same odious office in Spain ? Fortunately, however,
to this extent, at least for a permanency, it is impossi-
ble. But the scheme of dismembering her territory
was avowed ; and of the pretension of peculiar access
to her Sovereign, of swaying her measures, of over-
throwing her present Regency and Government, the
evidence is not less morally conclusive. The last vain
effort of foreign influence in Spanish counsels was to
destroy the municipal rights, on the basis of which the
new institutions rest. This, and this alone, was the
cause of the change of the Regency. The extinction
of these local rights, so long enjoyed and cherished,
must, it is well known, immediately follow the resump-
tion of that influence. Thus may probably be afforded
an antidote to the distractions of party, and new bonds
of union between every village, town, and city of the
kingdom against the unwise interference and hated do-
mination with which they are cnnstantly threatened
from the Tuileries. It is true that Spaniards, for the
most part, look on the British people, including the
Irish, with the most friendly feelings, and on the Bri-
tish Government, be it Whig, Tory, or Radical, as
as their truest, safest, and most powerful ally. Of this
one of the causes is our abstinence from all improper
meddling. It furnishes no Just ground of umbrage, and
with us, at all events, should insure reciprocal disposi-
tions. Thy form of Government they have adopted,
after so many conflicts, carries out the representative
principle, perhaps, more consistently than any other
which exists. And what is, above all, indispensable,
it appears to harmonise with the manners, customs, and
wishes of the people. In its stability and the prosperity
it promises to Spain, the true interests of France and of
all other countries, are materially interested. But
it guarantees a greater degree of freedom than is per-
mitted to their neighbours. Herein appears a cause of
hostility ; and whence it seems conjectured that a quar-
rel is sought as a pretext for the renewal of the policy
of Napoleon and the elder Bourbons, in 1808 and 1823.
The disclosures' on the Syrian question ; the delu-
sions successfully practised in regard to it, on the
French people ; the vast warlike preparations (not by
any means yet wholly abated), while not a Power of Eu-
rope had a thought of curtailing the due influence of
France ; the enormous fortress constructing, whether
as a Parisian prison or the basis of foreign conquest, or
as both, remaining to be shown ; the Cabinet design
admitted to have been entertained of seizing the Ba-
learic Isles—to say nothing of the events of last Octo-
ber—render anything from that quarter possible.
The jealousies and suspicions of Europe have been
again awakened. Is it certain that the great Powers
would now view with confidence an important enter.
prise beyond the Pyrenees, or would all stand by with
folded arms? The French factions, too, of which we
hear so much, are they for ever subjued ? At all events
the covert system of hostility will no longer avail, and
if the overt be resorted to, it will not this time be a
march to the Trocadero. Spain is tolerably fore-
warned ; she has now a national army, one worthy of
that name. The national spirit bas gained new force—
the national intellect new development ; and amongst
the consequences, it seems far from improbable, would
be that which awaited the two last. Frenck dynasties
who undertook the same unprincipled project.
Having spent some years of my life in that country
in the former and late ward, the associations ad-
verted to occasion the interest I have expressed and
the observations I have offered on this topic, which I
trust my opponent in those opinions will receive as they
are meant, in the feeling of just appreciation to which
his transcendent services to our common country so
richly entitle him—l am, Sir, obediently yours,
Bryanston-square, Jan. 4. DE LACY EVANS.

WOOLWICH.-FRIDAY.
ROYAL ARTILLERY.

Captain Griffiths proceeds to Ipswich, to relieve Cap-
tain Burnaby, as recruiting officer at that station, the
latter officer having nee' appointed Assistant Fire-
master at Plymouth.
The Master-General has been pleased to approve of
Second Captain Taylor being posted to the first battalion,
and Second Captain Young to the third battalion.
The Master • General has been pleased to make the
following appointments, viz.:—
Brevet Major Sandilands to be Deputy Assistant
Quartermaster-General, vice Romer, promoted to Lieute-
nant-Colonel.

Captain John Bloomfield to succeed Major Sandilands
as Captain in the Brigade of Horse Artillery. Major
Sandilands is, therefore, posted to the fifth battalion;
Lieutenant-Colonel Gray is posted to the sixth battalion,
on Lieutenant-Colonel's pay, vice Sinclair; and Lieute-
nant-Colonel Romer to the eighth battalion, on Major's
pay, vice Gray.
JAN.- 6.—The detachment at the Tower was relieved
by Major Vaughan's company, 6th battalion. Major
Vaughan and Lieutenant Crofton accompanied the de-
tachment. _ _

Captain Lethbridge takes charge of Captain Drew's
company, 9th battalion. at present in battery, in place of
Captain Mitchell, appointed Adjutant to the 3d battalion.
Major Eyre's company, 7th battalion, has commenced a
course of Repository instruction:,
The Master-General has been pleased to approve of
Second Captain Mitchell being appointed Adjutant to
the 3d battalion, provisionally under the regulations con-
tained in the general order of Feb. 5, 1826„vice Griffith,
promoted.
Second Captain Innes is, therefore, posted to the 6th
battalion, vice Mitchell.
NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
The Monkey steam-vessel, Second Master William
Saunders (acting), is ordered from Chatham to Wool-
wich, to proceed to Pembroke, in place of the Alban
steam-vessel, as the latter steamer will have to remain
longer in Dock at Deptford, to have her defects made
good, than was at first anticipated.
Ships in Woolwich Harbour.—William and Mary
yacht ; Mastiff surveying vessel ; Woodlark and Violet
tenders ; Firebrand, 'hearwater, Lightning, Meteor, and
Kite steam vessels.
In Woolwich Basin.—Salamander, Confiance, Colum-
bia, and Acheron steam-vessels.
Woolwich Dock-yard.—Yesterday afternoon the heads
of the various departments were introduced to Captain
Sir Francis A. Collier, C.B. and K.C.H., on his entering
upon the office of Superintendent of the Woolwich Dock
mustered,
employed
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takes place.

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA.—
We learn from a source on which unquestionable reli-
ance can he placed, that the arrival of his Majesty the
King of Prussia may not be expected before the 20th
instant, and as that potentate is the especial guest of' her
Majesty, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle will be
the abodes of that Sovereign during his Majesty's visit
in this country. On his Majesty landing at Woolwich he
will be escorted by a troop of the Royal horse Guards to
Buckingham Palace, where apartments are already or-
dered for the reception of his Majesty and Suite. His
Excellency Chevalier Bunsen has, in consequence of' his
Royal Master's visit, taken the elegant mansion of Lord
Stuart de Rothesay on Carlton House-terrace, the same
which Count Stroganoff, the Ambassador Extraordinary
from Russia, engaged during the Coronation of her Ma-
jesty in 183 S. His Excellency intends giving a series of
sumptuous entertainments in honour of the King of
Prussia's visit.