The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-02-15
THE SPANISH BoURBoNs.
A mighty Intsre sting 0h.ptsr of HI.to,

says the Chicago Tribune, closes, prob
| ably, one of the most sensational and
singular chapters of modern political
history. Inasmuch as il throws some
hight on subjects yet of interest, though
less familiar to this generation than they
were to former one, it may not be space
lost that is devoted to a brief recital.
Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, dying in
Isabel Luisa, the throne and crown, hay-
ing three years before repealed the Sale
law, thus cutting off Don Carlos, his
brother, the regular heir under the sys-
tenn in force since the time of Philip v.
This brought about at Ferdinands death
the bloody, civil war of the Carlists and
Christinists, partisans respectively OF
Don Carlos and of Queen Maria Chris
tina, the baby Queens mother and Re-
gent. Finally the Carlists were defeated
and made peace, the Cortes having mean
while supported Queen Isabella, and ex-
cluded in perpetuity the Carlist line
from the throne. In 1843 Isabella's ma
jority was proclaimed, and she assembled
the throne. Two years later the question
of her marriage was agitated. -Four can
didates for her hand apreared-Don
Carlos son, the Count de Montemolin,
backed by Russia; Prince Leopold of
Cobourg, backed by England; the Count
de Trapani, son of the King of the two
Sicilies, and Don Francisco de Assis, her
cousin. Louis Philippe supported this
last candidate, and with his adroit Minis
ter, Guizot, brought about the famous
"Spanish marriages" of Oct. 10, 1916,
when the Queen married Don Francisco
and her sister Maria Tulsa married Louis
Philippe's fifth son, the Duke de Mont
pensier. England had viewed this pro-
ject with decided disfavor, for, as Don
Francisco was physically impotent, no
children could be expected to result from
the union, and the succession would de-
volve upon the heirs of Isabella's sister,
Louis Philippe's grandchildren. So
close an alliance of France and Spain
was unpopular, and, when the old King
brought it about after having pledged
his word to Lord Aberdeen that he had
abandoned the project, the feeling en-
gen6ered in England threatened rup-
tlre of the peaceful relations between
the two countries SO fondly nursed by
both.
But two factors had not been taken
into account. Barely year after the
marriages the Orleanist dynasty in
France came to an end forever, and in
1851 the Queen of Spain gave birth to
a child, followed later by four others, so
that Louis Phiippe's house lost the
throne of France and had five lives be-
tween it and that of Spain. 1t was GER
tainly not moral course of action, but
if anything could excuse Queen Isabel
las conduct it was the conduct of Louis
Philippe. Against mock-marriage
there was no effective weapon but that
which she took. "i'
Meanwhile Montpensier had become
a Spanish subject, and was prosecuting
his campaign for the crown cautiously
and perseveringly. On the eve of the
revolution of 1868, Isabella, doubling
his loyalty, "invited" him to quit Spain,
and he left the country-not, however,
it is shrewdly suspected, till he had fur
nished Prim and Topete with the means
to overthrow the Queen. He obtained
permission from the Provisional Gov
eminent to return to Seville, and set to
work to obtain his own election to the
vacant throne. Backed by the Liberal
element, which was almost solid in his
support, his success at one time seemed
reasonably certain, but early in 1870 his
hopes were forever dashed. His cousin,
Don Enrique de Bourbon, had, in let
ter published in January, displayed such
hatred in his words that duel was
thought inevitable in Letter to the
Montpensieristes," dated March 7, he re-
doubled the insult. The Duke was not
o fighting man. but he was forced into
fighting, and on the 10Th of March Don
Enrique fell by the hand of the relative
he had driven to resent repeated Insults.
In homely phrase, Don Enrique had
got what he deserved" but the Span
ish people are distinguished by nothing
so much as their dislike for foreigners,
and, as the Frenchman had killed the
Spaniard, Montpensier's perpetual I'M
popularity was assured. At the election
of King in November he only obtained
% of 81 votes, Amadeus, Duke of
Aosta, being the successful candidate.
The Montpensiers, meanwhile, had re-
turned to Paris, where the Duchess had
striven assiduously to prevent her sister,
Queen Isabella, from resigning her pre-
tensions to the throne in favor of young
Alphonso. Vainly, however, for on the
25th of June the Queen abdicated the
throne she could never hope to regain
in favor of her son, to whom, in the in
terval between the abdication and his
proclamation by Martinez Campos,
rallied almost all the friends of Mont
pensier.
At this precise moment, with himself
profoundly hated, and Isabella's son
firmly seated on the throne and beloved
by the people, the son of Louis Philippe
was 70 experience this last revenge
brought on by the whirligig OF time; his
daughter became Queen of Spain. The
object of Louis Philippe and Guizot was
in a measure accomplished, though in
way how unlike that which they had
planned and under circumstances how
different Not because OF Isabella Be-
gnnda's childishness, but through her
son. was grandchild of the old bourgeois
King elevated to the throne, and France
was not an Orleanist kingdom, but re-
public.