Year: 1873




nications from Madrid to T.. is have been in
terrupted for more than week. 1t is reported
that the Carlist lines extend directly across tho
kingdom from Cape Creux to Corunna' Kodas'
on the extreme right, has charge OF the move
ment in the Asturias, and is said To be pre-
paring a demonstration against Leon, anu
possibly CASTLE Gen. Wales has penetrated
into ArragOn, The forces in Navarro are un-
der the charge of 0llO, a name new IN
Carlist warfare. In Catalonia, Don Alfonso,
the. younger brother of the Pretender,
the generalissimo of the insuuection, com
mands in person. He is very young, only
%, but he is said to possess all his brothers
strength and audacity, with greater ability.
The instruction has already reached stage
where it may be considered serious Not the
least omnous incident of the situation is the
fact that the Ministry have just declared that
the affair has no Importance and VIII be I'M
mediately crushed out These words usually
preiigure long life to the thing thus condemned.


Nothing shows more clearly than these re-
bellions the virulent nature OF the poison
which centuries of despotism and superstition
instilled into Spanish veins. The Cariist
cause in the north of Spain is unquestlonably
a popular cause 1t does not enlist in its sup
port a majority of the population, for these
vote steadily for the Republican and Radical
candidates. But it does appear to possess the
warm devotion of the young and Ignorant
peasantry. 1t is cause unlike any other In
the world sustained by the people. 1t repre-
sents no real or tancied wrongs to person or
property. 1t is in no respect struggle for
popular rights, or against unjust admin
istration 1t is blind devotion to church
and king which recruits the ranks OF the Car
lists The young men who are wasting their
own fields and risking their own lives are
fighting not for themselves but for the Pope
and Carlos of Bourbon. They have an indei-
mite idea that the head of the Church is suf-
fering persecution, and that the young Italian
who has usurped the throne of their king is a
marty to this wckedness. 1t is probable that
nowhere in the world does this blind loyalty
and faith exist to such an extent as among the
hills of Northern Spain. While the rest OF
mankind have forgotten it, it still tlOurishes as
strong as ever in Navarro and Gulpuzcoa,
shielded by the Pyrenees from contact with the
ANALYTICAL and unbelieving air of Europe. 10
the true Carlist, there is no wrong which
can re done in the interest OF the
Church. There is no truth but That
which has received the proper ecclesiastical
seal. No citizen, in his opinion, is bound to
receive orders from any authority but that
emanating from Don Carlos This rather dull
Young man, who has nothing but name and
a tradition, great physical strength and the
unreasoning instinct of shot bullet, is to his
followers King of Spain, the only earthly rep
resentative of legal authority, the only vice
gerent of the Almighty. He finds them always
ready to his hands, just as his uncle ana grand
father did There has never been moment since
Ferdinand VII ended his useless existence, now
forty years ago. that the banner of his brothers
family displayed anywhere between San Sebas-
tian and Barcelona has not instantly attracted
bands of hardy young moBntaineers ready to
defend it with their lives. No amount of folly
or perversity in leaders or pretenders has any
effect upon the devotion of their adherents.
They would follow mailman or an idiot as
readily as the bravest cavalier ii he had the
proper baptism.


This. it must be confessed is an element
terribly difficult to handle, and one which
promises for years to come the most serious





Bourbons are not sterile race and it will be
long before they disappear from the earth.
While they live, Spain, as well as the rest OF
Europe, will be plagued by their conspiracies.
II is in the highest degree improbable that
they will ever regain the throne. 1t may cost
n good deal of treasure and blood to crush the
present insurrecton, but it will no doubt
eventually be done. Even in the northern
provinces, the Carlsts are not majority. In
the large cities they scarcely exist, and III the
center and the south they are weak in num-
bers. The Radical Government now in power
has an honest majority of the country with it,
and the Republicans who form the most
important element of the opposition, are much
more faYorably disposed to the Government
of King Amadeus than to the medieval the
ocracy which would come in with Don Carlos.
So that the ultimate defeat of the insuTrectiOn
seems inevitable. But even when Don Alfonso
is driven again over the border, when his bands
are scattered and his flags taken back to Ge-
neva, the last refuge alike of heretcs and
bigots the work of uprooting Carlism will
still confront the statesmaDship OF Spain.
No general can accomplish this. 1t Is
the task of the administrator and the school
master. Good government and universal edu-
cation-these alone will make Carlism impOssi-
BILE in the Peninsula Nothing is easier to say,
and nothing harder to accomplish. The men
now in the Ministry of Madrid we believe,
earnestly desire to gain these results in this
way. and we think their efforts are by no
means hopeless.