Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-08-27
Madrid Letter August to the Times. ]
The Carlist Outbreak i'm
@ Spain.

cies frightened everybody out of theil
wits. The government, who ought te
have been the calmest, with their i'm
mense majority in the Cortes and theil
$4,000 soldiers out of it, were the mos
alarmed of all, and without loss of a
moment adopted what they themselves
must now be convinced was, to say tho
least, an unnecessary and cruel expe-
dent. Going back nearly fifty years
| in search land, it may also be ad
/ ded, in spir!t,) they found an old and
obsolete martial law, dated the 18th Of
April, 1921, which was framed spe-
cially to meet highway robberies eff,
fected with violence and armed cor
spiracies against the powers OF the day.
This was just the very thing they want
ed. Were there not conspiracies Yes.
Were they armed ? Yes. Very well;
here is just the enactment we require to
crush this movement. Accordingly,
striking out some of the clauses of that
old martial law as being altogether too
musty for the present age, and altering
others little, they re-established the
long-forgotten statutes. The mai n
feature of the whole is the trial, not by
the ordinary judicial tribunals, but by
council of war on the spot, of all con-
spirators taken with arms in hand, and
the execution of the sentence within
the summary period of twenty-four
hours. Already this cruel tribunal has
had its victims. Two poor wretches
were shot a few days ago at Islesula,
near Cindad heal, who belonged to the
Carlist party commanded by tha cure
Of Alcedon. The cure, presume, will
himself be sharing the same fate to-day,
as he was captured at Casar de Esca-
ora, and taken yesterday to Toledo,
owing to the insecurity of the jail at the
former place. The third poor wretch
was shot yesterday, at Pinar de Villas
de Guardo. He Belonged to the party
of the Carlist chief Balanzategui. The
fourth has been Balanzategui himself,
who was captured, after gallant resis-
lance, on Thursday. The coup de
grace was given to his party by a deputy
to the Cortes, Senior Acebedo, who asked
and obtained permission to head some
Volunteers of Liberty, and take the
field against the Carlists. Falling in
with Balanzategui's party, which was
called the "P artido Sagrado," from its
having no fewer than thirteen or four
teen priests enrolled in it's ranks, they
defeated them. With three or four at
tached followers, the chief fled towards
Reinoso. Here they were noticed by a
sergeant of the civil guard named Gen.
teno, who, with four of his men, was on
the look -out for strangers" Suspect
ng them to be Carlists, but not know
ng who they were, the civil guard
challenged them. A fight ensued, in
which Balanzategui was captured, but
not till he had discharged every shot in
his revolver and had the weapon itself
knocked out of his hand by sword
cut Of one Of the civil guard. As soon
as the government had news of the ar
rest of this rebel leader they telegraphed
for him to be removed to Leon, but the
order arrived at Valdecoveros (where
he had been conveyed for trial) too late
He was shot at the latter place We'd
nesday morning. With the exception
OF few struggling parties or remains of
parties here and there the Carlist move.
ment may be said to have died out. That
it was extensive and dangerous there is
no question. The vast number of places
in which conspiracies were discovered
from Madrid itself to the remotest quar-
ter of Nayarre-gives US ground to be-
Eeve that still greater number were
undiscovered, and the unquestionable
implication of the clergy in these con.
lspiracies was alone an element of ex-
treme danger. 1t may be safely sale
that without the clergy Don Carlos
could have secured scarcely single ad
herent. Their F 2werful inauer ce alone
iraised the few hundreds who have
| launched into actual rebellion.
In the province of Leon alone Sc
priests are known to have actually
changed the sotana for the sword, AMI
entered the ranks of the various Carlis
parties who have appeared there. Il
Navarro, in Ciudad Real, in La Manche
and all the other places where Carlis
bands have been encountered, priests BY
the dozen have been seen fighting ii
the ranks. In fact, the whole move
nent may be said to have been more 0
a clerical than Carlist, in the vail
hope of restoring Spain to that blin'
adherence to the church which the rev
Iolution has upset. So patent is thi