New-York tribune., 1870-01-05
CROWN JEU ELS.

| King Victor of Italy is prudent man. lie
| has forbidden the Duke of Genoa to accep
that dangerous piece of jewelry the Spanish
crown. Though forestalled in this action by
the stripping Dukes mother and her husband
| the Marquis Rapallo, the Gentleman king
| claims the supreme right to dispose CT Italian
| princes. All of them are now agreed, IL the
cable reports unerringly, not to touch the 1aa
crown. Consequently there is another Crisis In
| the desperate fortunes of Spain, and Marsha
Prim, with his Ministry, is said to have
resigned from the Government, which is to
say in other words that the Government has
| resigned from itself. This happens when the
treasury of Spain is in an exhausted condition,
and while Democratic papers in Madrid can
afford to complain Of the horrors of the Cuban
war. and ask for the cessation of o vain cru
SADIE. Meanwhile, the inevitable Montpensier
is announced on hand as always, like that
sempiternal blacking Of which we have more
than once read The crown of Spain, of which
Isabella is charged with having stolen the
Jewels, is once more rejected in the market,
and is about to be set aside by the auctioneer.
Who bids7 Can MOntpensier buy it, or Will
Marshal Prim accept the Republic in It's steadf
1t is a grevious and disreputable crown.
Most of its jewels are gone, so that it would
be real saving to Spain not to have king,
and so avoid the expense of getting
new one. Minister Figuerola, who takes
care of treasury which Democratic
newspaper of Madrid declares is al
most bankrupt, has been provoked
to charge upon the ex-Queens Christina and
Isabella the robbery of about S4,OOO,OOO worth
of Jewels belonging to the Crown. EX-Queen
Christina implOres the Minister of Finance to
consent to become private citizen in order
that she may prosecute him. Ex-Queen Isabella
also rejects and we presume Indignantly, the
application to her of what 'her eX-MlnSter
Canovas calls the ignOminious epithet OF Thief;
and her daughters recent distresses, which
have been brought to the notice of the French
public through Court, show that the want OF
these Jewels is more apparent than the pos
session of them. Minister Figuerola promises,
however, convincing proof of the high crime
of Crown robbery; and as the jewel reputation
has been lost by one or both of the ex-Queens,
many Spaniards will venture to believe that
they have stolen others.
This theft a royal one in every respect, sug-
gests curious reflections upon the state of
public virtue in Spain. Queen Isabella may
have stolen Jewels DuJ lHdJ WIS HOl d 'iCuhl-
stance to her habit of squanderng Spanish
money. Her ministers were not guilty of vio-
lent theft. but it is notorious that they robbed
their country of revenues Her generals were
not bandits, but somehow Spain has suffered
from them. Then, too, if the Queen could
pilfer in Madrid, what might not her favOrites
have done III CubaY These inquiries have
very wide ramifcatiOns and would tend newt
ably to raise up doubts not only of the mOdesty
with which Spanish officials steal in Cuba, but
of the honesty with which they bleed their
country in Spain.
There is kind of possession which is as bad
as robbery. This was the case when Isabella
wore the crown, with all its jewels, and gam
bled away ono by one those fine gems of
public credit and integrity, and that public
honor whose price is above rubes This was
the case, too, when the Spanards insisted on
retaining the island which they poetcally call
" the gem of the Antilles" and zone of the
brightest jewels in the Crown of SPAIN"
The Cuban gem is fatal one to Spain, and
more safely belongs to its natural owners.
But thei gipsy of nations, who cries out for
her missing baubles, and clutches at this one,
will not, cannot see that greater theft than
Isabea's is the stealing Of liberty from millions
of whites and blacks.