The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-07-31 00:00:00

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The Mai which has arrived from ranee t da ints
brought a longlletter from Madrid, dated July 17th. This
article contains heavy complaints of the bad effects of the
temper, and conduct of the Royalists. Intolerance, per-
secution, imprisonments, misunderstandings between the
Spanish authority and the French military authority, it
is said, are the order of the day. In consequence of this,
the Constitutional armies acquire a great accession of
strength and spirit. There bad been no mails, it appears,
from Andalusia for several days, which is attributed to the
movements of the Constitutional troops In the Sierra Mo-
rena and La Mancha. The Government has not publisned
any news from those provinces for this fortnight, which in-
creases the uneasiness of the public, and gives consistency
to the reports of the advantages said to have been obtained
by the Constitutionalists before Cadiz and Seville. The
only news they have is what the partisans of the Constitu-
tionalists clandestinely circulate in bulletins, which say
that General Ballasteros has raised the blockade of Cadiz ;
the garrison of which, at the same time, made a sallyorhicli
was very disastrous to the French army ; the position of
which, they say, is Um same as that of Dupont at Bay-
les ; and the carriers who arrive from Andalusia, con_
Ann the attack and the advantages of the Constitutional
Inc who repulsed their adversaries at first to Seville,
bit they added that they could soon make a second
movement on Cadiz. The Constitutional division which
traverses the Province of Cuenca,end the band of Chalecu,
which prowls about La Mancha, and which slim them-
selves almost at the gates of Madrid, intercept, they
say, the communications with Valencia, Andalusia,
and Estremadura, and avoid coming to action with the Al-
lied troops that are 'esti° pursuit of them. The Constitu-
tional corps in Bstremadura are not idle, and still less those
in Old Castile, whose head-quarters are at Cuidad Rodrigo.
The few troops of Don Carlos O'Donnell have been by
turns beaten and driven from Zamora, Salamanca and
Toro, and the Constitutional guerillas appeared even
before the gates of Valladolid, where the Roya!-
Ists were in alarm, and have asked for reinforcements.—
The war ie Catalonia, it is admitted, has assumed a
serious character. The name of Mina has tended to ren•
der it popular,and the French Soldiers are so discouraged
and dresdfully baxassed, that there has been a great
desertion among the troops of &ones; and some corps
having been ordered .to snake a movement after
the troops of Mina, whole companies refused to march.
The Constitutionalists have been greatly alarmed for the
life of Mina, but the efforts of his Physicians have not
been in vain, and he is now mach better. But fur the
prohibition of the Physicians and of the people
he would, when he heard the tire of musketry
have gone to the field of battle, on the kith.—
Among the Genii tu time] guerillas that infect Catalonia, that
of Antos Erodes deserves autention. This partisan, who
enjoys the favour of Mina, and has continually re-
victualled the Sea, has at present eight hundred Ml-
quelots divided into several bands, who make frequent
incursions into Auragon, where they have raised the
blockade of Mamma, and thrown provisions into it, not-
withstanding all the eforts of Ladron. There are other
small guerillas in Armpits, and the 26,000 men left by
Ballasteros, near Murviedro. act at guerillas in the rear
of Molitor.

A 6te has ocentred at a chapel in Madrid ; and the
Fleoch papers afford room to believe " that it was the
" work of an incendiary, and part of a plot fur the
" murder" of the Duke d'Aogoolenve. Of course this
news affects our Ultras with great horror; because, al-
though they are quite willing that the Duke and his
Banditti should MURDER the SPANIARDS by thousand!,
or tens of thousands; yet their nerves are so very sensi-
tive, that the least danger to the Chief of the French
horde affects them almost as ranch as it does the great
Prince himself. Having no such regard for him, we
rare not whether the fire were designed, or accidental;
fur, certainly, any Spaniard bad a far greater right to
destroy a Spanish oak*, than this Duke has to pollute
a Spanish Chapel by his sanguinary presence. The very
idea of such a man as the leader of a band of ruffians to
acts of unprovoked murder, and unauthorised desolation
on the false pretence of War—going to hear mass, and
to raise his bloody hands in mockery of the GOD of peace
and good-will towards his creatures, appears to us se
monstrous, as almost (but that the age of re-
ligious miracles has passed away) to warrant
the idea that the OMNIPOTENT would blast
such hypocrisy with his own lightning ! The Em-
pecinado is accused of being a party to this plot; bat it
appears to us that it is far too trifling for his ambition,
If, indeed, instead of burning a chapel, he had given the
polluted capital of his country to a general conflagration,
as the Russians gave Moscow to the gaunt genius of
Destruction, it might have borne some traces of the mas-
ter-spirit of this leader ;—and the invaders, with
the traitors who welcomed them into the heart
of Spain, would have met a common and de-
served fate. We are not partial to blood-
shed ; but examples of MMENAL TENGEANCI are inn/
site to check the advocates of the abominable principles;
under the profession of which, the French advance to
destroy the liberties and the happiness of Spain. We
have been rather more serious than the occasion required ,
because it is necessary to unmask the hypocrisy, which
affects to deem MINA and the En:peel:tad° blood-thirsty
because they naturally and justifiably seek by all means
the destruction of the barbarous invaders of their wile
land; u bile this precious humanity sees nothing blame-
able in the thousands of murders, which the French in
wagon has cansed ; and for which its leaders are accoont
able. The affair of the fire, as far as we can gather,
seems to have been contrived by some wag, who enter-
tained the idea that Prince Hilt might be frightened to
death, and the Capital of Spain be thus easily delivered
from his presence. A French editor concludes his ac-
count of the matter thus ludicrously :--" If his Roya I
" Highness had been fire minutes later in leaving his
Whotel, or if the Priest, in saying Mass • • • •
inn a horror! What a catastrophe' The :magita
tion shudders at the idea—the pen refuses to trace it.'
Bravo! bravo! very well said! why, if his Roy&
Highness hod been delayed long esough—to snarl 01
fire —be might have fainted area y ; and the Priest
might have had to take him on his shoulders to his hotel.
This is all that could have bspp used, on an a'sein ' Lira