The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-15 00:00:00

SPAIN

Intelligence from Madrid states that the " armed
people" were opposing the departure of Queen Christina,
but falls short of the real state of the case. According to
very respectable private accounts, the barricades are up
again. O'Donnell, it is said, declares that having risked
his head mainly against the iniquities of the Queen
Mother, he will not lay down his sword till she is brought
to justice, and made to refund, at least, some of the money
of which she has robbed the nation. The difference be-
tween him and Espartero turns mainly, it is reported,
upon this point. Espartero had arranged that Christina
should be safely conducted to the frontier by a military
escort; but O'Donnell, in his capacity of minister-at-war,
refused to furnish the troops. It appears by a recent
letter that the disturbances at Barcelona, which there is
reason to hope General Concha succeeded in putting an
end to, were very serious. The Presse says—" Letters
written by credible persons, received at Madrid on Mon-
day evening week, say that for the space of ten hours a
desperate fight went on between the troops and the
manufacturing operatives." The Bank of St. Ferdinand
has lent five millions of reals to the treasury for the pay-
ment of the current obligations. The finance minister
has, it is said, received from this bank the largest faci-
lities for the negotiation of the floating debt—a measure
to which he has been compelled to have recourse.
The accounts from Madrid to the 6th are not pleasant.
The situation of the Queen Christina is very critical, as
the mob demand to have her put on her trial for sundry
offences, of which evil advice to her daughter forms an
item. She is also accused of peculation and corrupt prac-
tices. The Junta has given its sanction to the popular
clamour by waiting on Espartero and declaring their
opposition to Christina's departure, until the Cortes shall
have pronounced. Ministers sat in council throughout
the night of the sth ; one of their plagues is, to be haras-
sed by place-hunters, no less than 3,000 applications from
patriots having been made for situations. The mob had
surrounded and searched a house in which it was thought
Sartorius had taken refuge. Lord Howden had been
well received at Madrid. The band of the Corps of
Engineers had given his excellency a serenade. The fol-
lowing letter appears in the Paris Presse of Thursday
evening, describing graphically, and we fear ominously,
the proceedings of the mob against the Queen mother :
" Queen Christina has not yet been able to leave. During
the last two days two attempts to do so have failed. There
is existing in the minds of the people a violent hatred
against her. A report of her departure became current
yesterday, and immediately a battalion of the National
Guard, and a great number of the combatants on the bar-
ricades, assembled and occupied all the roads. This is
not all. Three subterranean passages, which lead from
the Palace into the country, have been stopped up. All
the carriages were in readiness, and the Queen mother
was ready to step into her caleche, when, as a measure of
prudence, two aides-de-camp were sent to see whether the
coast was clear. They were arrested, and taken before
the minister of war. The carriage of the Queen mother
was then unharnAssed. This was at the second attempt ;
at the first the people cut the traces. Several chiefs of
the barricades then went as a deputation to Espartero,
telling him that the Queen mother must not leave, and
that the people must have the satisfaction of seeing her
brought to trial. Espartero, who has been indisposed for
some days, received the deputation while in bed, and de-
clared that he would examine as to what was to be done.
The difficult position of Espartero may be conceived. He
is truly attached to the young Queen, who has grown up-
under his eyes, and he is anxious to spare her the pain of
seeing her mother given up to the revolutionists. On the
other hand, the people are pressing, and the chiefs of the
barricades have put their demand in a very formal way.
They call for the trial of Queen Christina, because, they
say, she has given bad advice to her daughter, which has
compromised royalty, because she has injured the fluids
of the state, and because she has obtained from the weak-
ness of ministers exorbitant concessions of public works.
Such are the charges brought against her."