Year: 1869




Position aud Prospects of tbe Revoiutiou-r7te
People Disqaieted-Thc New Constitution and
Religious federation.


A correspondent long familiar with Spain
writes as follows from Madrid March S7:-


'"Ihere is decided majority in the committee
10 draft a constitution which insists on COM
Ilete separation of Church aud State unlimited
freedom of religious worship, and no sect 10 be
maintained at the expense OF the Government.
Olozaga has come to reinforce the minority, aud
Las been upon the point of carrying his plan, by
which the Roman Catholic religion is recognized
as the religion of the State, and maintained at
tie expense of the Government, while only u
Quasi tOleration Is to be extended to other taiths
10 long as they use no external signs or man1fes-
tatons repugnant to Catholics. such tolera-
ton would soon be no liberation at all in prac-
tee The Cabinet has declared for It, The
bishops are admitted to the committee room. 1t
las been ON the point OF appearing triumphant
as the committees article on that matter. All
week the struggle has been gong on. lnere
have been sessions of the committee all night till
5 o'clock in the morning. The report ON the
Constitution has been announced over and over
again as being about to be presented TO the
Chamber They are not agreed yet But the
reaction has been gaining ground in the commit
tee. VIII il in the Assembly?


THE people are getting very uneasy The
question of the conscrpton of soldiers for the
army has moved them all over Spain. Ihey
begin to see that every one of the promises made
TO them ut the outset of the revolution are being
broken by the men now in power, and who have





Deputies The Republican minority works hard
works manfully, and the honors OF every de-
bate are theirs. They gain something by their
outspoken boldness and loyalty to the revolution.
jority shake. They shake ministers,
and are gradually wearing them
away--destroying their prestige-getting
the upper hand morally. But public
opinion is not an organized entity. 1t has no
machinery by which to make itself felt and
oteyed. ] think the course of things is not al
together bad think this glorious campaign of
the Republican minority in this Assembly is not
lost upon the country. In one way or another
its effects win appear, notwithstanding the
present appearance of the votes in the Assem-
bly,. do not exactly say that this minority will
eventually defeat minister's convert half the
majority, and make itself supreme in the AS
sembly, though that result would not
at all surprise me, and / should consider it
logical and in order But do say
that already, notwithstanding the immense
numerical majority, there is no monarchy. Don
Fernando of Portugal is the coming man, buthi
coming is already impossible. There is no
throne in Spain. Perhaps not more than sixty men
in that Assembly of three hundred and twenty
are fully aware of the fact But it is fact
nevertheless, and controlling one. The thing
will come to an armed struggle perhaps; indeed
ii may be looked upon as almost inevitable. But
Lo man. not an angel in heaven, could be seated
on throne as King in Spain to-day. Meantime,
while things 20 halting and frettiDg along,
great lesson is being learned. Every month
which passes thus opens the eyes OF u multitude
of robust Spaniards to the fact that the sun
will rise and set, and that women in the
PROVINCES and in remote villages give birth
TO child without there being n king on throne
at Madrid. That practical teaching is worth more
and is doing more for the Spaniards than all the
philosophical theories and oil the wise constitu-
lions which were ever written. But the clerical
Iarty are waking up to u comprehension of that
iact-the Monarchists are getting desperate.
Nobody attacks them. Everything is tranquil,
and the nation full of hope. Well tranquility
must be troubled, and hope dashed, or they are
lost.


.'The Republicans have made great effort to
reduce the force of the army by denying the
conscription of the $4,000 men asked for by
Prim. But the conduct of Prim and his fol-
lowers, | am afraid will turn out TO have been
suicidal. | believe the army officers by great
majority to-day are retrograde-farther back
than Prim-and on the first occasion would throw
him overheard in favor of O restoration in the
name of the Prince of Asturias or, perhaps, Don
Carlos. Why cannot these men see that their own
preservation commands them to throw them
selves fairly and squarely upon the people-to
reek popular support and rely upon it, and lie
tie army go the wall But PTlm was bred q
soldier, and bred in country where it has
always been recognized that soldier was born
to command and a civilian was born to obey.


'The partisans of Don Carlos are sangune
and are getting ready to put in the field an army
of $4,000 men in the northern provinces to de-
fend the rights of the legitimate branch, and the
priests, and the holy hold of Rome over her
Hitherto most ignorant and submissive vassals."