New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-02


ever held in the United States. Our time
and space forbid more at the present writing
s~-->~~~~>~~~.~.-~~--~-z.
The InsurrectiOn in Spain.
Again we see Spain engaged in one of
those civil strifes which are almost chronic
in that country, and can very distinctly be
traced back to monarchical misrule 1t will
be remembered that some months ago the
Liberal Union-in fact the reactionary party
into whose arms the King has thrown him
sef--suiered a crushing defeat in the Cortes
through the combined opposition of the Re-
publicans, Progressistas, and Carlists. If
honestly intent on carrying out the principle of
popular sovereignty, tho King had no choice
left but to accept the resignation of the
justly unpopular Sagasta Ministers and to
appoint men of the advanced liberal majority
in their place. With the-as it seems-n-
stinctive leaning of kings toward reaction
ism, AMADEUS, however, in open defiance OF
the unequivocally expressed verdict of the
people, in defiance of constitutional usage
and fairness, kept the obnoxious SAaAsTA
and his colleagues in office and dissolved the
Cortes. The new elections have Just taken
place, and tell story strongly illustrative OF
the corruption and Generalization of the
Government. Fraud, coercion, intimidation,
stutiing of the ballot-box, and whatever
means employed by Tammany in 1868 to
carry New York for the Democrats were
resorted to, if possible even in more shame
less and barefaced manner; all the high
handed outrages as well as the petty legerde-
main, in one word, the whole machinery
devised by NAPOLEON for the mise-en-scene
of the farce called plebiscitc was set in motion,
and with such result the Ministerial party
will have clear majority of 81 members, and
thus are enabled to carry or defeat any
measure according to their own and to the
royal pleasure with a show of legality. How
long this pleasure will last is another aues-
ton, The people are not ignorant of the
means through which they were cheated out
of theirmajority, and though not yet educated
up to our standard of popular sovereignty,
they are well aware of their rights, and by
no means to be trihed with. CHRISTINA
and ISABELLA furnish evidence that although
the Constitution does not provide for any
legal means for the removal of a bad mon
arch, the Spaniards know how to avail them
selves of their natural right of setting him
adritt in case Of need.
Another complication is arising just now
from the opposite direction. Don CARLOS DE
BOURBON, the hereditary pretender, the rep
resentative of absolute monarchy and of the
church, has once more raised the banner of
insurectlon. This young man who never in
his life had to apply himself to any useful oc-
cupation and seems to be at loss how to
spend his large income, has made it point
to go regularly once year on an inslurection
trip, just as other people will go to a water
ing place or some other summer resort.
Narrow, ignorant, and utterly uniformed
about the tendencies of the age, he sincerely
and fanatically believes in his divine right,
and i'll his mission to reestablish the Bourbon
dynasty and the power of the church. He is
thus the true representative of a cause, which,
Notwithstanding the support given it by the
Ultramontanes and part of the peasantry,
is dead beyond resurrection among the ma
jority of the Spaniards. His instructions
consequently have never amounted to any,
thing serious they merely caused some
trouble to the Government and offered
chance to its Generals to increase their in
tluence and Importance by putting them down.
This year, probably aided by the general dis
satisfaction, he has succeeded in gathering a
larger force than usual, and the nsurrection
has grown formidable enough to cause the
Government to declare martial law in the
infested provinces. Nevertheless, this in
surrection will fail like its predecessors, as it
ought to fail, but it is not quite improbable
that the Republicans and Radicals will avail
themselves of it to overthrow the Liberal
Union and the shaky throne of AMADEUS at
one blow. In some quarters the opinion is
even entertained that they will form tenn
porary alliance with the Carists, or at least
give them indirect aid, in order to accomplish
that object. They must have come to the
conclusion that at heart AMADEUS is almost
as hostile to liberty as Don CARLOS himself,
and VIII not shrink from any treachery or
violation OF the Constitution in pursuit Of his
schemes. lie is, at all events, the stronger
Oh the two, and it might therefore be good
polcy to dispose of him first. We cannot
venture to determine how much foundation
there Is Tor these conjectues, yet we hope
and wish that the day is not distant when
AMADEUS will realize the criminal folly he
commltted IN alternating the majority of the
nation and the very party to which he owes
his throne, by defying and derauding them
with an audacity worthy of NAPOLEON of
Chiselhurst.