New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-06
TILE SPANISH THRONE.


thing at least seems nearly certain. Gen.
Prim has found a foreign prince willing to
take the throne of Spain. Whether he has
also found prince whom the Spanish people
will consent to accept or the great powers OF
Europe permit to be elected, is another
question altogether. The candidature OF the
proposed king is not very well received, and
can hardly fail to encounter serious opposition
so that we shall not he surprised If, after all,
the crown of Charles V. and Philip H. is des-
tined to be for some time longer the foot
ball of Europe The person who now
processes his willingness to pick it
up, if he can get it, is Prince
Charles of MISUNDERSTANDING Prince
Charles is now in his 18th year. The
little principally of which he is the titular
head has been, since the revolutionary days of
1882 an integral part of the Kingdom of
Prussia. Abdicating his sovereign rights when
he lost the power TO maintain them he has
been for twenty years dependent upon the
roval house of Prussia, the ruler of a Prussian
province, and a high officer in the Prusslan
army On the fathers side he claims relation
ship with the reigning dynasty of Prussia, and
there is good reason consequently for the
popular Outcry in Spain which attributes
his nomination to an intrigue OF the
bfte noir of continental political COM
plications, Count Bismarck Yet IN the
female line he is allied to another and rival
power upon which Spain might be supposed
to look with quite as much dread az
upon the astute Minister of King William.
His mother was the Princess Marie Antoinette
Murat; his sister is the wife of the Marquis
Pepoli, grandson Of the great Murat, NapoleOn's
brilliant marshal, who rose from the position
of garc0n at a Paris eating-house to be King
of the Two Sicilics, married Caroline Bona
parte, the sister of the first emperor, and was
shot at last by the Austrians as a traitor
The Murats have never been faith
full family. The dashing marshal di-
vided his time between the most brilliant
exploits in the field and the most shameful
intrigues in the Cabinet; yet Napoleon l.,
with better reason for shooting him than the
Austrians ever had, honOred him with especial
favor and friendship, and Napoleon Ill. has
treated his descendants with even more con-
sideration than their blood and relationship
gave them any reason to expect. Lucen, the
son of the marshal, long an exile in the United
States (where his wife, an Englishwoman, sup
ported him by teaching SCHOOL,, is now a Sen
ator of France and Prince of the Imperial
family. A son of Lucien, Prince Joachim Ma
poleOn, is married to the daughter of Marshal
Berthier, and that daughter was niece both
of Bernadotte, King of Sweden, and of Joseph
Bonaparte, King of Spain. But this is not all.
The Princess Josephine, wife of the Prince of
Hohenzolern-S igmaringen, is a daughter of
Stephanie Beauharnais, the adopted daughter
of Napoleon l.
The intricate relationships established by
the intermarriages we have mentioned are
pulling enough to arrange; but it must be
clear that ties of blood and associations with
the glory of the first empire give the present
Emperor of the French peculiar interest in
the fortunes of the family which now offers
itself for the throne of Spain. Ties of blood,
however, and historical associations have
little strength in continental politics,
and the Emperor is doubtless in earn
est when he declares that no Hohen-
zollern prince shall with his consent ascend
the Spanish throne. The relations of the
principally with the threatening Confederation
of North Germany are too intimate to be broken
by a sentimental connection with France, and
so far as the Murat line is concerned, Napoleon
has every reason to infer from the analogies
of the past that the influence of Berlin would
easily outweigh the memories of BorOdino.
The old Marshal repeatedly betrayed the First
Emperor; his son has at times been a thorn
in the side of the Third. Prince Charles
could not be trusted as an ally of the Tuileries,
while he might be very dangerous as an in
strument of the Prussians. OF his personal
character contemporary history unfortunately
tells us little. One of his sons is the regning
Prince of ROumania another (the eldest is
married to the Princess Antonio, sister of the
King of Portugal. This alliance, however,
could hardly affect the project of Iberian union,
to which Prim is 50 ardently devoted and
Napoleon so resOlutely averse, for the chances
of the Princess Antonio or her descendants
entering into the Portuguese line of succession
are extremely remote.
1t is well understood that Napoleon looks for
solution of the Spanish difficulty with much
more zeal than the Spaniards themselves, and
it would surprise no one to hear that an an
swer to the problem of Madrid had been found
after all at Paris. We cannot believe, how
ever, that tho project of a joint protectorate,
such as that which has mismanaged Greece, is a
serious proposal. Spain isin no need ofprotection
from any foreign nation, and it is of course
that the author of the plebsci-
tum should undertake to protect the regency
from the Spaiiiards themselves! 1t is more
likely that the proposal is meant as menace
to the dilatOry COrtes and "A means of precpi
tating Il choice in favor of sone Candidate for