The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-09-14

| ont qutes facade ct qui feront trouves dan
lie Canada, includant les frontieres du Cauad
on les cotes de Facade, auront lie meme traits
| ment ct jouiront des memes privileges que lie
Canadiens."* This was designed to protec
all those who had escaped to Canada five year
before, when Winslow ravaged Acadie, as vel
as those who had escaped after their remoYa
to the other Provinces.
n All the people who have Quilted Acadie, an,
| who shall be found in Canada, including the from
tiers of Canada or the shores Of Acadie shall hav
the same treatment and enjoy the same privileges
| the Canadians.
OUR MONTHLY LONDON CORRESPONDENCE
THE REVOLUTION IN SPAIN.
No. |.
| The close of the eighteenth century exhibit
| ed to the world the first scene in the panorams
| of European revolutions. For quarter of q
| century before the political volcano exploded
in France, and threw forth from its crater
| those streams of lava which undermined and
ultimately carried away the ancient throne Of
| the Bourb ons, men of studious habits and fore
| sight had observed the small black cloud, nc
bigger than a mans hand," on the verge Of the
social horizon. While the merchant and the
manufacturer, absorbed in the pursuit Of
wealth, and rejoicing in the title of practical
men, because they daily noted the rise and fall
of consols and of markets, reposed a blind
faith in the stability of antique institutions
the sagacious Earl Of Chesterfield predicted
the very year in which Louis XVI would cease
to reign. Of course, he was despised as a the
orist by the leading men on the Royal Elk
change-after the event. he was reverenced az
a prophet. Now, since that revolution we have
bod ,odo ne
servatism hoped would be permanent, but they
have all been followed at intervals more or less
remote by periods of convulsion. On the
shores of the Tagus and on the banks of the
Manzanares, the streets of Lisbon and Madrid
have streamed with blood. Tho soil of France
has never ceased to rock under the revolution
airy volcano, and rocks still Belgium and Hol-
land have been separated by the sharp stroke
of the sword. The shell and the congreve
rocket alone maintain q gloomy submission in
Italy, which statesmen foolishly and falsely
call state Of order. In 1925, we saw the
Emperor Nicholas ascend the throne of the
Cars, its steps slippery with the blood Of those
military conspiretors who denied his title, and
had vninly attempted to establish republic
Greece has emancipated herself from Turkey,
but only to acquire nominal independence,
since Russia has marked her for its prey when
ever the convenient opportunity may arise.
The house of Hapsburg exists by virtue OF
Muscoyite steel for, had it not interposed, the
Emperor of Austria would now enjoy no other
title than that of Count of the Tyrol. What
lesson does such a retrospect teach? That the
close of the eighteenth century was but the
commencement of a revolutionary epoch which
has not yet arrived at maturity or reached its
termination. AS yet, we have only beheld its
throes and agonies, its transitions, its advances
and retrogressons, its alternate triumphs and
reyerses. However common among superficial
observers, it is strange Illusion to regard
revolution as finished when it is only suspend
cd, or to mistake the casual success Of faction
for the guarantee of permanent settlement
There ia no final anchorage but in the harbor
of truth and, though the recognition of great
principles may be postponed their vitality re-
mains perhaps to be bhghted but never to be
eradicated.
"Exoriaro aliquis nostris ossibus ultor"
in ell times aud in all ages has been the ex-
piring cry of the martyr and the patriot; nor
has the avenger ever failed to appear in the
appointed fitness of time.
The latest revolution has appeared in Spain
and the preceding remarks are Introductory to
series of articles on that portion Of the old
Iberisn peninsula. The topic appears to be
opportune; nor can it fail to interest the peo-
pie of the United Statos, as it assuredly does
the people Of Europe, albRt the attention Of
the latter is almost absorbed in the Turco-Rus-
sian war. AS the mouths of mighty rivers are
distant from their source so, it has already
been intimated, the fret seeds of revolution are
sown long before they give signs of germipa-
ton. The events now occurring in Spain,
though the connection is only apparent to the
student of history, are at least clearly trace
able to Napoleon's uni ust invasion of that
country, which, among other things, gave rise
to the Cadz Constitution of 1912, subverted at
the restoration of Ferdinand VII in 1914, re-
vivod in 1920 by the mutiny at Isla de Leon,
and again suppressed in 1929 by the French
troops under the Duke dAngouleme. Then
follows, in 1880, the fourth marriage of Ferdi-
nand VII, with Queen Christina, mother of the
reigning Queen, Isabella, which marriage al
tered the fundamental laws of the monarchy
in reference to the succession TO the throne, by
which Don Carlos was excluded on the death
of his brother, whence arose the Carlist civil
war, only terminated in 1897. During the
whole of this period, and down to the hour
this is written, tho revolutionary watchTord,
"Cortes and Constitution" has ever been loud
ly uttered or family whispered; never has it
been silenced, except in dungeons or on scsf-
intended to be more political commentary
than an historical narrative; for the object Of
an essayist should rather be the presentation
of the temple with its proportions well defined,
than the display of the scafolding which
should be removed after the temple is COM
pleted.
Modern Spain, priost-ridden and king-rid-
den, trodden under the hoof by foreign despots,
or torn asunder by the mad fury of her own
sons, is apt to excite the contempt Of the scorn-
full, though she enlists the sympathies of the
generous and wise. Once she stood in the fore
most rank of nations, great in arms by sea and
land and we gaze upon her with the same
emotions as we contemplate some venerable
ruin mantled with ivy, and whose decaying
walls reveal to the eye of imagination its pris-
tine yigor. But if we would judge Spain
Alright, we must enter that Wondering fabric,
and search among the moss grown stones for
some record of her antique institutions nor
will that search be unrewarded. The nen of
1912 who framed the Cadiz Constitution, were
cognizant of the Cortes Of CASTLE and Aragon,
when no other country in Europe had made
any approaches to representative institutions.
The old fame of liberty was not burnt out,
though it but family fickered; they raised the
torch in the air, and the free wind kindled it
into a blaze. ! must describe those ancient
Cortes, so little known; for remote though they
be- they are the first links in the chain pro-
pose to weld.
DIR. Robertson, the celebrated historian of
the Emperor, Charles V, was of opinion that
Europe, during the middle ages was indebted
to the commercial cities of Italy for the efforts
made for the enfranchisement of towns. This
remark, in general sense, is true; but Spain
is an exception. Its commercial habits were
older than those of Italy, and, almost from
time immemorial, its vessels visited Byzantium
and the Euxine. The following curious pas
sage is taken from the work of Marina, the