New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-02-07
THE SPANISH REVOLUTION.

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION. |
For some DAYS past the European kilograms |
have contained announcements of the failure OF
the Spanish revolution In an ofhand sort OF
way it was asserted that the insurgents were de-
moralized and retreating; that they were trying
to make their way to Portugal; that they were
wandering. decimated and discouraged, in the
mountains of Toledo; that they were surrounded
in the desert of La Mancha; that they had come
n grief on the plains of Andalusia. And yet, it
annears from the last accounts, that the rebels
under General prim. still defy the government
troous. and that, in fact, fear and trembling pervade
the whole country. The capital itself, which
the daily official kilograms announced as.
decorousy and deccntly quiet is at last confessed
to he in state of agitation and, it is with diff
Guilty that the troops are prevented from breaking
out into open Instruction. In short the progress
Of the present revolt very much resembles the his
tory offhose previous movements which have so
often changed the destinies of the Spanish govern
ment. The two leaders who have, thus far, been
sent against Prim, Generals Concha and Serrano,
both of them owing their rise and their fortunes to
the party of which Prim is now the acknowledged
leader, scarcely fail to recognize the analogy
between the actual situation, and the great revolt
of 1854, by which they, exiles, fugtives, and de-
clared traitors, were brought into power, and
placed at the head of the nation
And vet the present movement may have
deeper meaning, or at least, more important
purpose than those previous Instructions, which
only illustrated the feuds of military leaders or
expressed the antagonists of political factions.
It is quite possible that Prim and his party ann not
only at the overthrow of the treacherous o'Don-
. A. an nj
dynasty. and the expulsion from the Spanish
throne of the last unhappy representative Oh .he
Bourbon race. 1t may not be without reason ',ia'
the design of overturning the Bourbon MONARCHY
and of uniting the-whole Celtiberian peninsula IN
one monarchy, under the house OF bfaganza' IS
attributed to tile progresistd party.
The fact is that the hopes and expectations Of
the Spanish liberals have been sorely disappointed
bv the conrse of events since the accession of
isabel III. This Queen, the last of the European
Raurbops now occupying throne, stands in about
the same relation to Spain that Louis PHILIPPE occu-
pied towards France. The elevation of each one,
to the exclusion Of the direct legitimate heir was
nrotest against the old fiction Of the divine right
of kings and a triumph of the new idea of popu-
lar and national rights But here was an end OF
the advantage derived from their victory by the
cation of the church property, by dimin-
ishing the power of the sacerdotal hierarchy,
gave some scope for the play Of opinion, the ten
denotes of the government became retrogressive,
and at least four times since 1910 the popular
party has been driven to revolt by the onerous
and reaetionary measures of the various minis
tries O'Donnell himself, the present head of the
government, came into power as the chief of
> az, lol hr,r md Cor.
rano, once prominent favorites and trusted leaders
of the Liberal party. Yet within the last three
wears the Liberals have actually been driven to
the point of refusing participate in the elections
The outbreak Of the present revolt may be attri-
butable to the feud between o'Donnell and Prim,
consequent on Prim's sudden withdrawal, without
orders, from the Mexican intervention; but al
though it may be in keeping with our idea OF the
course of Spanish affairs to say that civil conflict
is due simply to an alteration between two mill
tary chieftains in this case there s clearly some
thing more at issue than mere personal differences
1t is stated among the official reports, as an en-
couraging circumstance, that the troops at Madrid,
when reviewed by Marshal O'Donnell, uttered the
shout Of Viua la reina. Why, however, the official
journals should attach so much consequence to an
exhibition of loyalty quite superfuous on the sup
position that the revolt embraces no dynastic pur
poses, it is very hard to conceive. But, it is unde
niably true that the Queen has for some time been
growing very unpopular with her people. Her re-
cent prolonged absence from the capital has given
great offense to the Madrilenos. 1t may be said,
in fact that had man, and not woman, filled the
Spanish throne, and given as good cause for dis
content as the Spaniards imagine of Isabel H., the
Bourbon dynasty would long ago have come to an
end. 1t is hard to speak harshly of an unhappy
lady like the Queen of Spain, and much harder to
act harshly towards her. Many excuses may be
urged in paIation of the shortcomings of this last
monarch of race which has touched the heights
of glory and sounded the depths of misery.
Isabel ii comes of an unlucky stock. She was
reared by mother whose vices were notorious to
the whole world--a mother whom her own daugh-
ter could never respect or trust. Her marriage
was sacrifice upon the altar OF selfish ambition,
and yet it brought neither to her, nor to its con-
trvers, any of the worldly advantages which they
expected to derive from it. With such surround
ings, and under such circumstances, few women,
perhaps could have done better than poor Isabel
II. But, unhappily, few even with the worst in
tentions could have succeeded in doing worse.
The most odious thing that in this age of the world
can be said of the ruler of nation, can
be said of her-that she has been the
tool of priests and parasites and courtiers
Under such circumstances, the failing affection Of
even nation so proverbally, and perhaps ludi-
crousy, "loyal" as the Spaniards, is Ineligible
enough 1t mayb be that the present revolt, headed
as it is by man of thought as well as of energy,
is the expression of this feeling of disloyalty,"
and Of a general but perhaps hitherto suppressed
and even unconfessed desire for change of dy-
nasty. At all events, we have it on good au-
thority that honest and thoughtful men in Spain
have long declared that mo regeneration is pos
sble for the country while the court remains what
it is" +
Fenianlsm.
THE IRISH COUNCIL TO THEIR FRIENDS IN AMERICA
| HEAD CENTER o'MAHoNEY's EXPLANATION AND
ENDORSEMENT. 49,