New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-08-18

emnly ratified by the Cortes; ana the
decision of the Spanish Legislature must
conse quently be held as valid as our own
act of settlement, which set aside the
Stuarts and fixed the succession in the de-
scendants of the EIectress Sophia. Re
the lawful sovereign of Spain, whose
decheance was only justified by exception
ally personal reasons, but whose dynassic
claims are yet recognized by the acclama-
ton with which her eldest son was called
to the throne, there was much that was
melancholy, and not little that was scan
dalous, in the circumstance that Don Al
fonso should be ct the PalaciO Real at
Madrid while his mother was wanderer in
q foreign land. In the earlier days OF the
Young monarch's reign the banishment Of
the ex-Queen from Spanish soil might per
haps find some warrant ON the ground of
expediency. The restoration Of consti-
tutional monarchy under . native and leg.
ally legitimate prince was, without doubt,
an event intensely gratifying to the
great body of tho Spanish people. who
scarcely knew which they hated the more
. democratic republic with sv0wedly secu-
larist tendencies, or foreign King, the son
Of the accommodated Victor Emmanuel.
But those Who had watched the disastrous
career Of Queen Isabella, and who had seen
with sorrow how IN essentially kind hearted
and inoffensive lady, whose deploFsble
faults might be ascrihed chiefly to tmpuE
siveness Of temperament and shsmefnlly
and, perhaps, designedly neglected educa-
ton, had been for moro than thirty years
the tool and the victim Of intriguers and
rascals, were not unnaturally apPrehenelve
in the outset that Alfensoism might mean
Issbellism, or rather ChristAinism, writ
email, and that either might culminate be-
fore long in . return to the brutal abeolut-
ism by means Of which Gonxales Bravo
gained temporary impunity for IN immoral
regime while undermining the very founda-
tions Of the Iberian throne. Had Queen 1ea-
bella ct once followed her son from Marseillee
to Valencia, and thence in his triumphal
progress to the capital, tho worst might
have been feared from her majesty's prema-
ture appearance in MadrilenO society. The
restoration of her dynasty, although. - we
have said, cordially desired by the majority
of the nation, was Immediately tho outcome
of an audacious conspiracy. 1t was to all
intents and purposes . pronunciamento.
but one which was happily accomplished by
means of gold instead Of blood. Old Span
ish politicians, indeed, lauRhiD gly spoke OF
it a. "Revolucion de Tertullia'-a club
and drawingroom plot; yet considerable
proportion Of the successful plotters,
deemed, perchance, that only half their
work was accomplished when Don Alfonso
had come prancing on his high, ,mettled
charger, amid the cheers of 1OO, 900 loyal
iste, from the Gale de Alcals into the
Puerta del Sol. To many intriguing minds
the youthful King was only . harbinger
strewing flowers in the path Of the "Reina
Huerfana," that ''orphan" whose father
died three and thirty years ago, and whose
mother is yet alive.
The entire family of the ex-Queen have
accompanied her back to Spain; and the re-
spectful and, it may be, enthusiastic recep-
ton Of the illustrious party ON Spanish ter
ritOry, contrasts strongly with the dark
and dismal circumstances which attended
the Door gentlewomans fight from her dis
tracted dominions ct the end Of September.
1868. There was NO great reason why she
should have run away; for although re-
volt had broken out in the aeet at Cadiz,
Madrid was, comparatively speaking, tran
quil; and when the Puerta del Sol is quiet
Things in Spain can never be positively
said to have come to their worst. But in
this unfortunate conjecture the unhappy
Queen did not, to all appearance, know
whittier to turn in quest of honest counsel.
She could place NO faith in Serrano. She
had mortslly offended Prim. The estima-
ton in which her inept spouse was held
credit which, through her own f0llies, had
fallen on herself. There was none to aid
her. The adventurers whom she had loaded
with favors held aloof, or meanly conspired
against her; and at length she seemed i'm
PEELED to fly - much from herself - from
her enemies. Itwas sorry sight to behold
her with her family Of poor little infantes
and infantas shiveriDg in their waterproofs
in the railway station 1T La Hendsye in the
midst of dfizzling autumnal rain. 1t was
sorrier thing to know that the lucklees
Queen was for the moment utterly friend
less and abandoned; that, in her case, the
age of chivalry was indeed extinct, and that
not one Spanish rapier would ''leap from
its scabbard" in her behalf.
Brighter days have come for D0na
Isabel do Bourbon; nor 10 her majesty g
unopposed return to the realm she once
governed to be wholly ascribed to . feeling
Of contemptuous indifference among her
quondam subjects. That which the chroni'
reason, have had to say in by.gone times
concerning the ex-Queen does not now
trouble Spaniards to any appreciable ex-
tent. The Latin races, and especially the
Iberian, are apt to regard moral peccadil-
loes from q totally different standpoint to
our own. The vast body Of Spaniards are
content with the certitude that Queen 1sa-
bella is . good Catholic, and, II she haa
made her peace with the Church, who
should there be among laymen to make hel
afraid. She has done, it may be argued,
the bitterest Of penance for her errors; and,
after all, her alterations from the mathe-
matical line Of propriety took place . long
time ago. Society is n0t-0n the continent
at Fundamentally vindictive in matters
of ethics, and, in 6ne, there is the com.
Portable Spanish proverb which tells N
that life would be impossible without q
great deal OF forgetting.
Perhaps the best friends of Queen Isabella
may be those who whisper to her that, until
Champs Elysees, the briefer 10 her sojourr
in disagreeabls Madrid, and tho longer hel
stay in charming Seville, tho more comfort
able she will be. The metropolis Of Spain
during nine months out of twelve, 10 viz
tually uninhabitable; whereas there 10 NJ
moro salubrious and fascinating residence
in Europe than the capital of Andalusia
There is Q perennial growth Of oranges u
the gardens Of San Telmo; the Alcasar, il
probably be Installed, is the coolest, tn
shadiest and the most sumptuous of Span
ish royal abodes; and, finally, while o.
| thodoxy Of the most edifying kind reign
on the banks Of the Guadalquivir, politic
do not certainly run 20 high there % on tn
shores Of tho 4Ancanares.-L0Ndon Tel
graph.
The most ''telling" arguments in favor Q
Mr.. Hayes candidacy for the presidency ar
furnished by Southern Journals that pr0fea
/ to favor the election Of Mr.. Tilden. Whel
| for instance, tho Mercury, Of Meridian, l
Mississippi, declares that ''there IL quite
margin for 'intimidationA between us an
the boundaries Of the law, and We o.
govern ourselves sccordingly," II strikes
blow for Hayes which there u no parryin(
Reform Is necessary in tho tone and Cha
acter Of Southern Journalism, and is CO