Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1873-07-24 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CIVILISED BRUTALITY IN SPAIN. SPAIN is far too humane—she looks with horrorm: Capital ide upond f punishmento r l iotherfe at countriesths h a a hands w been eoefu thheer abolished, x o fceu tiiosnsedore murder is becoming to be regarded as a virtue more than a crime. Thert4 is no country in Elt u a lr iop ane— Kinoogw domthat Naples —wher is Kingdom—where ismheerldgesd into o cheaply ly is ss in o ;:‘,'opftaeino, oasnlldedwhinerteo op the assassin'se stiletto o letato operation to g to opponent speedily out of the way. It was ardently anticipated that the dethronement of Queen Isabella, and the establishment of religious. and political freedom, would be followed by other enlightened e m asures which would inaugurate a new era in Spain, and solidify the Government. These hopes have been far from realised, and instead of protection to life and freedom of individual action, lawlessness, rapine, bloodshed, and disorder everywhere prevail. Spain was not destitute of a nobility which in the hour of need would have rallied to the salvation of the country; but with the assassination of Prim the last vestiges of nobility seemed to disappear— some to forced, and others to voluntary exile. Mobility now reigns everywhere. In the south, the most outrageous atrocities have been committed by lawless mobs, which the Government seem utterly incapable of repelling. The country which would sicken at the sight of a man dangling at a rope's end as an example of retributive justice, looks on with stolid indifference while-human ingenuity is being taxed to find out the most excruciating means of putting men and women to death. At Malaga bull fight, the mob set upon the town councillors who were present, and put them to death in various ways. At Alcoy, scenes were enacted as revolting asthose of St. Bartholomew, the massacre of the Hugenots, and the Middle Age atrocities, which make the blood still curdle at their rehearsal. Alcoy is a manufacturing town in Alicante. The mayor was a staunch and Liberal Republican, and on his refusal to resign his office and give the town up to a disorganised and infuriated mob, he had to take refuge along with others in the ',town hall. Here they were overpowered by the mob, their bodies stripped naked, and the savage rioters were asked whether they would have them dead or alive. If the reply was " Alive," the naked body was thrown from the balcony, and impaled du the points of bayonets held up to. receive them. If the cry arose for the body to be thrown out dead, the victims were killed in the most brutal manner, and , then tossed out in the street, where it was dragged about and torn to pieces. Women and men shared the same fate, and it is said that among the crowd the women were more infuriated than the men. One of the most respectable in. habitants was laid hold of in the streets; his clothes were saturated with petroleum, and then set on fire, while shots were fired at him. All along the south-east seaboard atrocities of a similar kind are being perpetrated. At Nurcia a railway tunnel has been destroyed; at Carthagena, 10,000 miners levied 10,000 dollars upon the inhabitants. The most remarkable circumstance is that these diabolical deeds are not perpetrated by Monarchists upon Republicans, but one sect of Republicans upon another. No political party is strong enough to carry on an energetic government, and to repress these disorders. Through the interregnum from the dethroneraent of Isabella to the crowning of King Amadeus, it was one continual "Ministerial crisis." It was a ministerial crisis which eventually compelled Amadeus to look to his own safety, and the crisis has been perpetual ever since. While all this throatcutting and petroleum-burning is going on, the GOVernlnellt is " resolving " to adopt vigorous means for restoring order, but somehow before it gets the length of carrying out its good intentions, a " crisis" brings itself to stand-still. Unfortunate Spain is no, suffering in full measure the worst meaning of the Republioan motto—" Libert% Equality, Fraternity." While Republica?* are doing all they can to burn, flay, and shoot each other in the southern provinces, Don Carlos (Charles