The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-21
CHI ES TON.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 81, 1866
The Spanish Revolution.

The Spanish people who, few months
ago, were, according to the American press,
on the point of establishing q republic, il
not as powerful, at least as glorious and
free, as that in which we live, seem to have
become less ardent in their zeal for liberty.
and propose to- content themselves with
constitutional monarchy, hedged around
and guarded by paper constitution.
According to this constitution, the King
will, as in England, rule by his ministers,
who, not the King, are to be responsible for
all executive acts. The power Of nomina-
ting and dismissing ministers rests with the
monarch. Ministers may or may not be
members of either of the legislative bodies;
but if they are not members Of the one
body or the other, they have no right to
take part in the debates in the Cortes. The
two bodies which constitute the Cortes are
to be named, respectively, Senate and Con-
gress. The Congress is to be totally re-
newed every three years. The Senate is
to be renewed by fourth parts every three
years. The functions of the two bodies
resemble those exercised by the Lords and
Commons in England and by the Senate
and House of Representatives in this coun-
try. The right to vote in the election Of
senator's, deputies to the Cortes, provincial
deputies and councillors, is to belong to
every Span;ard in full possession of his
civil rights. Oivilliberty generally is guar
anteed by the projected constitution. The
religion of the nation is to be Roman
Catholic, the nation obligating itself to
maintain the worship and the ministers of
the Cath olic faith. Spaniards and foreign
ers preferring any other religion are to be
guaranteed the right to worship "without
ssother limitations than the universal rules
''of morals and of right" The monarchy
is to be hereditary; and the succession to
the throne will follow the regular rules Of
primogenisure, "always preferring the
'snearest lines, in the same line always pre-
"ferring the male to the female, and in the
"same sex the oldest to the youngest" "
Trial by jury is established for all political
and common offences.
The constitution is, under the circum-
stances, the hest that could have beon
framed, and if it is reduced 10 practice will
give the spaniards as much freedom as
they can use to good purpose. 1t will not
be forgotten that similar constitutions were
manufactured in 1872, in 1920 and in 1886
Spain then had the form Of liberty without
it's spirit, and the form, promising as it
was, soon died away. To endure, the spirit
must precede the form; for no one consti-
tuition, nor hundred constitutions, csl
secure the liberties of the people, if the
people themselves are not weaned from the
blindness and ignorance which predeter-
mine the nation to be slaves at heart and
are fatal to the spirit Of ofliberty. TheSpan-
iards have not founded republic, because
the nation is not ripe for republican insti-
tutions. It was impossible, by decree or
by successful revolution, to make every
Spaniard republican in feeling, and it is
greatly to be feared that even the constitu-
tional monarchy, which is now chosen, will,
as before, change to grinding despotism.
And yet Spain will be the gamer. With
each change her people acquire something
new of knowledge and reliance and moral
strength, all preparing them for the day
when their republic or their monarchy
shall be founded, not on the army and navy,
not. on parchment scroll, but upon the
awakened intelligence and reason Of the
people. sFor," as Buckle in his History
Of Civilization says, sit is to knowledge
ssof the laws and relations of things that
european civilization is owing; but it is
s'precisely this in which Spain has always
.been deficient. And until that deficiency
"is remedied, until science with her bold
"and inquisitive spirit has established her
"right to investigate all subjects, after her
"own fashion and according to her own
ssmethod, we may be assured that, in Spain,
ssneither literature, nor universities, nor
Legislators, nor reformers of any kind,
evil ever be able to rescue the people
s.from that helpless and benighted condi-
sstion into which the course of affairs has
''plunged them"