Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-17
THE RUTLAND HERALD
WEDNESDAY. JULY IS, 1878.
DON CARLOS.

DUN
A dispatch from Bayonne says that
five thousand peasants at Alpena have
been driven by the excuses of the Span
ish Republicans to join the Carlists. The
history of Spain for more than forty
years has given prominent place to the
name of the leader who is now waging
guerrilla warfare against the constituted
authorities of the Spanish Republic
During the time embraced in the life OF
Isabella II, the war waged on the part of
the Carlists with the ostensible purpose
of vfndicating and upholding the Salic
law, that Maria Christina, the fifth and
last queen of Ferdinand VII, procured
that unhappy monarch to abrogate IN
behalf of her daughter, the late Queer
Isabella. The restrictions of the Salic
law, which confined the succession to
the throne in the male line, was no part
of the written law of Spain, but it was
supposed to have become part OF the
common law of the kingdom by reason
of it's being the law of France at the
time that the French Bourbon Philip
assembled the Spanish throne, and upon
this supposition Christina, in 1880,
through complaint of the Cortes, caus-
ed Ferdinand to amend the rule and de-
clare Isabella, who was his only child,
heir to the throne.
Ferdinand and Carlos were brothers,
sons of Charles w., and in default of
male issue of Ferdinand, Don Carlos was
by the traditional Salic law heir to the
throne therefore he looked upon the
action Of Ferdinand, in the abrogation
of that rule of succession, as hostile to
his rights, and an interference with the
will of God, as revealed in the fact of
no sons being born to the King. This
brother of Ferdinand nor none of his
successors have ever acknowledged, in
any way, allegiance to Isabella. He at
once courted the favor Of the common
people by an affected simplicity, even
going to the extent of having his carnage
drawn by mules, and upon his brothers
death he raised the standard of revolt,
collected an army of 100000 men, es-
tablished his headquarters at Ornate, in
the Basque mountains, and for six years
he fought, with varied success; but the
energy of Christmas government, as re-
gent during the minority of Isabella, rem
dered his cause hopeless, and at last he
was driven into France in exile.
In 1916 Don Carlos, Count of Molina,
as he was called, abdicated his claim to
the Spanish throne to his son, the second
Don Carlos, the Count of Montmoulin.
In 1861 this second pretender died child
less, and his sLadowy authority fell upon
his younger brother, Don Juan. This
luxurious and easy-tempered Don had
married Maria Beatrice, Archduchess of
Este, and of this marriage there was
born, in 1849, a third Don Carlos, who is
the chieftain that now figures in north
ern Spain as the lawful heir to the Span
ish throne under the Sale law.
The present Don Carlos is now twen-
ty-four years of age, and is an energetic
fiery Spaniard, full of enthusiasm and
devotedly loved and followed by his adj
herents among the peasants and shep-
herds of the Basque Mountains and Cat
alonian towns. His wife, the handsome
and accomplished Duchess of Madrid,
is an inspiration to him in his arduous
and rowing life, and together they are
fighting the battle which they believe is
to restore the old regime of Spanish
kings with all its absolutism, and reha-
bilitate in the person of Don Carlos, as
Charles ", the divinely anointed house
of Bourbon upon the Castilian throne.
We deeply sympathize with the Repub-
lican cause in Spain, but the situation is
a grave one and will require more than
the craftsmanship of Castalar and FL
gueras to harmonic the discordant ele-
ments of Spanish society into a demo-
cratic government of sufficient stability
to withstand the prejudice of the leaders
of Spanish politics. The army of Spain
has hitherto been the ladder to political
preferment, and we may expect that its
leaders will not sympathize with gov
eminent that must diminish its import
ance. The Catholic church is also ar
raYed in deadly hostility to the Repub-
lie, and can support earnestly the pre-
tensions of Don Carlos, who is devout
Catholic, and although it is reported that
the Carlist chief cannot command over
ten cannon and that his troops are I'M
disciplined and simple mountaineers,
and our hopes would lead us to largely
discount reports of Carlist victories, it
would not be surprising to any day hear
that the church and the army had ar
ranged and carried out little plan by
which the throne left vacant by Anna
deus had been filled by the youthful and
ambitious young leader of mountaineers
and peasants.