New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-31
TOLEP1TION IN SPAIN.

L
being talked about, Spain would be the most
fortunate of nations. In all the cbbng AMI
flowing of political events upon the continent
of Europe, in times of dizziness as well as
those of activity, the Ibcrian peninsula is
always sure of its paragraph in the cable dis
patches. There is triling monotony about
them, 1t is true. There is not much scope for
permutation in the two or three items OF
Spanish intelligence with which we are famil-
lar. The Carlist rebellion is nearing its end,
and the cabecillas are making their submission
in large numbers; the Carlists have entered
Catalonia and have defeated the Government
troops i'm Navarro; and Don Carlos and kinS
Alfonso have issued proclamations in the name
of God and liberty; these arc the time
honored fashions IN Spanish tccgraIns,
and they still hold their own with viSor
and energy which promise long life. We
sometimes grow impatient at this state OF
things, and ask If il is never to end, forget
ting that it has now lasted more than forty
years, and bids fair to Outlast orr lifetime.
We ought to accept it as a matter OF course,
like the weather reports of the lake region,
which promise clear, partially cloudy, or rainy
weather. alternating with weather which shall
be partially cloudy, clearing, or clear. If we
should once settle down into this tranquil and
resigned frame we would have much to he
thankful for in occasional flashes OF real news
and readable incidents of the Carlist war; for
Dorregaray came very near being caught by
Jovelar the other day, and Don Carlos issued
a proclamation against his royal cousin, accus-
ing him sharply of being an accidental king
and as such not entitled to make rigorous war
on the followers OF a sincere monarch of un-
broken masculine Bourbon descent.
If we can get away from the fatigue OF
these mOnotonOus dispatches, and treat Spain
as Justly as we would treat other powers whose
names are not so often in the papers, we could
not deny that in some things u little progress,
has really been made in the last half dozen
years. One of the real conqucsts of the revO-
luton of 1865 was the incorporation in the
Constitution of religious liberation. OF course
it was far from that absolute equality of reli-
gious sects before the law which exists in this
country, and which we consider the only form
of true religious freedom. But this exists no.
where in Europe and the shy and evasiye
permission of hcresy in the Spanish Con-
stitutOn gave in effect about as much
freedom to ProtcstGnts in Spain "a they
have anywhere else on the continent
and rather more than the Catholics have in
Germany. 1t was furiousy opposed by the
ecclesiastical and Carlist elements in the Con-
stituent Cortes, bat the cloquenoe of CASTELAR,
was too strong for the passionate pleading of
Father MantcrOa and Don Cruz Ochoa, and
the goddess clause" was placed in the organic
instrument of government, by virtue of which
ga foreigner not Catholic" had the prlvi-
lege of placticing his own religion in Spain,
and in case of there arising any abnormal
Spaniard who should not be Catholic he
should have the same privileges as foreigner
Lame as this provision was, it was hailed by
the freethinkers as the dawn of IA new era,
and denounced by the Church rs the beginning
of the end of the world. All the calamities of
the next few years were attributed to this
sacriIegious act, and the cause of Don Carlos
unquestonably received great aid and en-
enlargement on account of it. The clergy,
feeling that nothing but disaster could come
to the Church from the triumph of the national
cause threw their influence strongly on the
side of the instruction.
When Don Alfonso came back to Spain, over
the ruins OF the shOrt-liyed Republic, it was
generally thought that his accession would
close the experiment of religious liberation,
and would rocstablsb that shameful predomi-
nance of the Camalilla which disgraced the
reign of his mother. The regency under Ser-
rano, the monarchy under Amadeus of Savoy,
and the republic under its swiftly succeeding
chiefs, were all more or less unfiandly to
the Church or inaccessible TO priestly
influences. But Alfonso was by tradition,
by breeding, aud it was thought by nat
ural inclination, child of the Church.
He came to Madrid with the blessings of the
Pope and The general accamations of good