The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-02-17 00:00:00

ITALY.

MILAN, FEB. 4.—We are happy to be able to commu-
nicate that Field-Marshal Count Radetsky has granted
permission to the resident Protestants to have the free
exercise of their religious services for the present, and un-
til the determination of the Minister for Religious Affairs
shall have been made known on this subject. The noble
veteran has received the heartfelt thanks of numerous
Protestant families.
Accounts from Florence of the 4th inst. state that the
Grand Duke of Tuscany had decreed a military levy of
1,400 men.

----

SPAIN.

THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE QUEEN.
This attempt, recounted in our last, took place at mid-
day, on the 2nd inst., when her Majesty was retiring from
the Royal Chapel in the Palace, where she had been at-
tending a preparatory mass, previous to setting out for
the Church of Atocha, situated at the other extremity of
Madrid, where she was to make her more public acknow-
ledgments. Great preparations had been made by the
inhabitants of Madrid to afford their Queen an enthu-
siastic reception along the whole line of procession.
Crowds thronged the street, waiting in expectation her
momentary appearance, when they learnt that the hand
of the assassin had succeeded sufficiently for present dis-
appointment, and, in the first moments of alarm, the
troops that had lined the streets on the way to the church
were withdrawn, and fell back on the Palace, and some
pieces of artillery were planted at the Puerto del Sol—the
central point of Madrid. The Queen, holding the Princess
Royal in her arms, and accompanied by the King and all
the royal family, was returning through a long gallery at
a quarter to one, when an aged man, dressed as an eccle-
siastic, named Martin Merino, advanced from the crowd
ana neat nis knee before her. Her Majesty, believing he
wished to present a memorial or petition, said to those
near her—" Whatever petition this poor cura brings shall
be granted for the sake of the day." She held out her
hand to take it, while she held her infant with the other ;
but, instead of a paper, he suddenly drew forth a knife
from the folds of his robe, and made a stab at her imme-
diately above the hip. From the position of her arm, the
deed was fortunately but half done ; the arm was wounded
and the knife entered under the rib about an inch. The
assassin attempted to repeat the blow, but was prevented,
and one of the attendants, the Count de Pino Hermoso,
was wounded in the hand. The weapon struck her on the
front part of the right side, penetrating through several
folds of her mantle of velvet and gold, and cutting through
the stays, the whalebone of which diminished the effect of
the blow, which it is now hoped has not injured any vital
organ ; the fear was that the liver had been wounded. The
assassin, at the moment of striking, exclaimed—" Toma,
ya tienes bastante"—(take it; you have now got enough !)
The Queen's first thought was for her child. " Mi nina,"
she exclaimed, " quo cuiden Isabel"—(my child ; let
them take care of Isabel !) There was a moment of con-
fusion. The King Consort drew his sword, one of the
royal halberdiers struck down the assassin, who let fall
the dagger, and was secured by the Duke of Tamames,
and other members of the royal suite. The Marchioness
of Povar fainted at the moment the Queen cried out ; but
an officer of the halberdiers took the child, and raised it
up high for the Queen to see it. The Queen was able to
walk to her own chamber, where she was immediately at-
tended to, and at first swooned away, and remained insen-
sible for nearly twenty minutes. Her first words, when
she recovered, were to call for her child. The infant
Princess was brought to her bedside by one of the ladies
in waiting, the Marchioness de Povar, and she clasped the
baby in her arms and wept. She then expressed her hope
that no harm should be done to the assassin. " Que no
le matan ; que no le matan per mi causa"—(don't kill
him ; don't kill him on my account." It is stated that
the point of the knife, which is one of Albacete fabric,
was turned by the whalebone of her Majesty's stays, as
well as by her arm. The blade of the knife was very
pointed, and the edges sharp, set in a common white horn
handle and an iron sheath. It is said that after his arrest
Merino first attempted to deny that he was the criminal ;
but, when searched, and the sheath found under his robe,
he said, with great tranquillity—" Esta bueno ; soy yo'—
(it is well ; lam the man.) Of course, all festivity was
at an end, levees and illuminations were necessarily post-
poned, the theatres closed, and the Ministers, who had all
been in attendance on the Queen. met in Council at the
Foreign-office, which is also in the Palace; the whole of
the diplomatic corps, the members of the royal family
and of the nobility in Madrid hastened to pay their re-
spects at the Palace.
A succession of bulletins was subsequently issued,
announcing that the Queen was not dangerously wounded,
and notifying her gradual recovery. Nevertheless, the
ministers themselves appear to have treated the affair as
one of the utmost gravity, as it was suspected that the
would-be murderer had used a poisoned dagger. This,
however, has now been ascertained not to h'uve been the
case. A long consultation ensued as to what course should
be pursued with the assassin, and, it would appear, ulti-
mately ordered his immediate trial, which speedily ter-
minated in an order for his strangulation. This was not
long in being carried into execution. The following par-
ticulars relative to Merino are related by the correspondent
of the Morning Chronicle :—" Martin Merino, who com-
testable crime, is a native of Arnedo, pro-
mo, 63 years of age, an ex-friar of the
teiscan 'Drier, but secularised in 1821 on his own
ication. He was removed in a coach to the Saladero
)n, and the cavalry escort which accompanied him
some difficulty in preventing the crowd round the
palace from doing summary justice on him. He was per-
fectly cool, and evinced not the least compunction for his
act ; his only inquiry was, Is the Queen dead ?' and
when told she was not, he expressed his surprise, and said
I enough. At other times he was
Ace to him, but his general manner
sneer ; he had performed mass
There are very contradictory
Espana says that he was always
3ary ideas, and w

mitted this de

vince o

that morning,
cil-inrif him The%

of ultra-revol

the life of Ferdinand VII

le the Gaceta Militar descr

n a conspiracy
iigrated in 1823;

r that

rated as a

that he

)iied as captain in the C

gars. He h
curate in the parishes of San

been actir

a Carlist, say:

me tunE

1820 to

assistant-

;ian and San MillE

He is said to h-ave been engaged in an attempt against the
life of Queen Christina during her regency, but to have

the Queen by the

failed in an opportunity for carrying it out '
The following letter was addressed
regicide Merino previous to his death
" Madame,—Martin Merino, unworthy of being counted in
the number of your Majesty's subjects, for the purpose of
tranquillising his conscience, humbly approaches and prays

your Majesty to condescend, is a Christian, to pardon him the
atrocious injury which, in a moment of deplorable madness, he
had the misfortune to commit on the person of your Majesty
The infinite mercy of the King of Kings induces him to hope
that he will have obtained his pardon ; and to die in peace, he
to obt-:- +lt least, if he is unworthy of obtaining,

wishes .ain, ruin,
of imploring that of your Majesty. 4 MERINO."
Merino also declared, in the presence of the governor
of the prison and of several persons, that he had no
accomplices.

The'Queen has made a present to Our Lady of Atocha
of the mantle she wore on the day she was stabbed, and
which was pierced by the knife of the assassin.