The Daily Times. — 1860-12-07 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MATA-IIOROS was arrested on a charge laid against him in Grenada, and consigned to the prison of Barcelona, Ills house Was vigorously searched, and in his possession Were found papers tOntaining correspondetiee with his co-religionists in Seville, Grenada; Malaga; Gibraltar, and other towns of Spain, as well as in foreign countries, which have furnished the Spanish government with the names and addresses of the Protestant converts throughout the country. After several weeks' solitary confinements he was a few days ago summoned by the Council of Grenada to appear there; and it is expected he will be forced to travel about seven hundred miles on foot, bound to a gang of crintinals, and associated with murderers and all sorts of felons, lodged on his way in the most loathsome prisons of the smaller villages through which he must pass. Moreover, the delicate state of his health renders such a wretched journey highly dangerous to his life. According to another statement, there is a conflict now going on between the three tribunals at Barcelona, Malaga, and Grenada, as to which of them should try him. The other victim, ALHAMA, who is now a prisoner in Grenada, was. the President of the Protestant community of that town. These cases have spread terror among the Protestants throughout the kingdom, who now live in constant fear of the vengeance of the priests, or have taken to flight, as their only means of safety. Ruin. and misery are the consequences to many; and the new-born cause of religious liberty staggers under the heavy blow and great discouragement.  Any direst interference on the part of our. Government in behalf of those suffering Protestants is, perhaps, not to be advised. But the people of England can make their influence felt through other than official channels. We can warn the Government of Spain that such an intolerable system of persecution may in their case, as it has done before in other lands, presage their downfall and extinction. As was remarked by one of the deputation to the Foreign Secretary the other day, our remonstrances against these acts of injustice are in the true interests of Spain itself. "If the Grand Duke of Tuscany," added the same speaker, by way of illustration, " had followed the course which his lordship had sketched out for him, he might not now have been a fugitive from his country. It was worthy of remark that the MADIAI were now living peacefully in the city from which the Sovereign who had persecuted them had been driven." The priests who blindly promoted this short-sighted policy ought also to take warning by the fate of their ecclesiastical brethren in Italy. The tide of Protestantism, which has set in in Spain, is not to be stemmed by physical force. Obstinacy in their present course can only hasten the day when in their turn the priests shall become fugitives from the indignation of the now oppressed people. The Spanish Press, which lends itself to the abuse of the Protestants, and the vindication and encouragement of their persecutors, must be dead indeed to the first principles of freedom, the acknowledgment of which can alone consecrate its agency in the cause of truth and justice, and render it worthy of the high position it occupies elsewhere in the van of civilisation and progress. Let the people of England speak out loudly and unequivocally in this cause, from pulpit and platform, and through the press, and never rest satisfied with their efforts until they have succeeded in obtaining the release of MATAMOROS and ALIIAMA, and in staying the persecution which now so grievously affects, and still further threatens, the Protestant Church in Spain. This appeal is made not in the interests of this or that church or sect—but on behalf of heaven-born freedom and toleration, civil and religions, to all nations and peoples—be they Protestant or Roman Catholic.