New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-02

| though victory tnen would have been worth half
| victory IN the COrtes elections this
week. There is no canvass, no distribution of docu-
ments-ndeed as eight out of ten cannot read docu-
ments would not always serve yet they could not be
wholly in acity Of $50 mantainngeO
daily journals most of them less than three months
old No effort is made to bring out votes, commit
tee working all through the three daysof the election
would double the Republican vote. The simplest ma
chinery of American politics would at this moment be
Invaluable to eRepublican causein Spain But what
can you do with this strange people Wait till they
are beaten or desperate stung by act of the
Government worse than nine-tenths of all it does
and the Madrid popuace will rise with suddenness
and fury Once risen it is just to them to say that
they viii fight till all is bue-only that is not poll
tics.
Bit by bit we get the details of the bloody scene at
Malaga. 1t is no new thing that Spanish soldiers
should delight an cruelties, but at Malaga they
passed themselves. The Lgualdad has printed num-
Der of letters all written by citizens of Malaga and
mostly by workingmen. They confirm each others
testimony in remarkable way. On one thing they
all agree: The battalions on whose courage Gen.
Cabalero dc Rodas bestows so many eulogies ad-
vanced to the attack of the bacades under of
line of old men. women, and children, whom they
forced to march before them as a screen from the
Republican bullets. have heard of this delicate
stratagem in Indian warfare Perhaps this is the
first time of its use by regular troops of civilized
people. Equally is it proved by the concurrent evil
dence of independent witnesses that after the barr
cades had been carried the maddened troops bayou
| eted, indiscrimnately sick men, flying women, and
children too helpless to fly. Tho soldiers piled their
\ trade with hideous merriment, and murdered by
way of giving point to their jokes They
shot one old man OF co, charcoal dealer,
| because his hands were black. Some citizens had
the courage to demonstrate The soldiers replied they
had full license from their officers The officers did
| something more than give general orders. In one
the soldiers took eight old men to their COM
mander, explaining that they had captured them in
| a house from which shot had been fired, but that
| the men themselves had no arms. Shoot them"
responded the Brigader, and they were shot accord
ngly. Apparently these brutaties were pursued on
systems Gen. Caballero de Rodas sought to inspire
wholesome terror in city which had dared to de-
fend its liberties. Some silly woman has written
letter to The Times in London, praising the manli-
ness honesty. and what she calls the bOntS of the
soldiers. Very likely they kept in order in the
presence Of an English woman, but they divided the
plumber Of sacked houses in the public square, and
in one instance two quarreled their booty, and
| came to blows.
1 We wero told Mt first by the Government organs
| and was told by an officer of high rank-that the
affair was trifing one not moro than 200 killed
! and wounded on both sides. This morning is pub
fishes the official report of Gen. Caballero de Rodas
wherein he gives the total Of casualties on the
Royalist side only as 9 and arms that the losses Of
the Republicans were greater. He claims LOCO pris
oners of whom he retains than 100 TO be tried
by courtmartial. His testimony was not needed to
convince us that the Republicans fought CALAMITY
but it is emphatic Romero, the Catholic priest who
led the insurgents escaped to Gibraltar, whence he
publishes letter filed with the same spirit which
animated his proclamation before the fight He
declares that the conflict deliberately sought by
Rodas-and believe 1t was. for he has never dared
TO publish the terms on which the deputation from
the Republicans, who visited him before shot was
fired, proposed to capitulate. They knew the con-
| test was hopeless. {" We had no hope of triumph
says Romero" we sought sure death" He tells the
same story which oil the witnesses tell of that
shameful bulwark Of women and old men erected By
| the soldiers who advanced the barricades. Yet
the Republican defenders of Malaga were but 800
and against them were 5000 infantry two battalions
of engineers, eight field batteries, the Castle OF
Gibrafaro. and six ships of war. The heroic 500 de-
Tended their baTicades in the face of this Overwhelm
ing force for more than seven hours of actual con-
| nict.