Year: 1873




in the struggle between reacionism and the
Republic. AT ten o'clock on the morning Of
the 10th instant the Carist Pretender, as
suming the title of King. crossed the Pyrenees
from France. Among the party Of five that
made the new venture was a HERALD cor
respondent Don Carlos went in, we are
informed in plain clothes but soon
donned uniform of blue and scar
let and gold, and was shortly after
receiving the allegiance Of the soldiers at
Zurngamurdy amid general rejoicing. Guns
doomed, bells rang. a 7s De,rm was sung in
church, and the Carlist leaders and the little
border town made the most OF the occasion.
Thus auspiciously passed of an event which
may be the first scene Of royal farce a
royal tragedy, or, remotely enough, royal
triumph. Pretenders with titles "by the grace
of God" every whit rs clear as Don Carlos,
have donned brilliant uniforms before now and
mounted on bay chargers donated by sympa-
thizers only to find that plain clothes had been
q safer investment.


The entry of the Pretender draws attention
to the state of the country which he aims to
rule, according to the old absolute method,
with some modern improvements. The out
look is not bright. The flight Of Amadeus
gave Spain bloodlessly to the Republic but
it soon became evident that the powers Of evil
were too many to allow peaceful consumma-
ton of free government. Despite tho i'm
mense strides made towards popular gov
ernment by the masses in the towns,
no country in Europe could boast of q
more ingrained class of devotees to
old monarchical ideas To the mobiles and
clergy the monarchy held out visions of the
old time caste privileges, emouments and
power, and to the ignorant peasants, par
ticularly OF the Basque Provinces the mon
archy was q sacred dream, because the clergy
and the mobiles said it was. Left to them
selves the Carlist party would have reached
the point of extinction long since. Circum-
stances, not altogether to be unforeseen, came
to their assistance. So long as Carlism had
before it an army fighting in the name Of
a king, although an Italian born boy it
possessed no strength ON Spanish soil, and
seemed as hopeless as it had at any time since





help, and the Don Carlos of the period was
driven into the exile from which his grandson
has now returned in high feather. So long,
in fact as it was king against king, outside
governments looked on indifferently, and o
constitutional King, ifany, was more acceptable
to the general thought of Spain. When the
throne of Amadeus toppled one of the most
hopeful signs for the young Republic was this
division among the royalists. The Alfonsists,
or those who upheld the claims of the son Of
the ex-Queen, betook themselves to ''mas-
terly inactivity" marked by the sullen protest
of abstention from all share in the elections.
To an able and resolute ministry this would
have been from recognized foes a most well
come attitude; as it was, it tended greatly to un
nerve the men, who whatever their patriotism,
were new to the responsibility of government.
The absence of strong royalst opposition in
the Cortes allowed the extreme reds almost
free head, and hence, when the sweeping
away of the Carlists in the North should have
been the first task, the Republic was being
weakened by the dissensions of its leaders.
While, therefore, the Alfonsists were folding
their hidalgoism within their mantles and
looking from beneath lowering brows at the
state of affairs, Carlism, with the King-loving
clergy and the hardy, superstitious peasantry
Of the North ON its side, was carrying on a
guerilla war in the mountains, not very bril-
liant in itself, but without any whole-souled
armed opposition from the republican
army. Its position at present, taken at its
own word, is that it possesses ten thousand
nearly sixteen millions. What its chances
would be with q Cromwell in the field against
it can with this light be estimated.


From viewing the dsordered state of Spain,
with Carlism rampant in mountain passes and
descending ON small towns in the North; from
repletion, republican government vigorous
only in word, and a half-hearted army badly
led, we may turn to the influences at work
without against the Republic. The much
dreaded influence of Rome we do not count
as much in the exterior forces bear
ing down on the Republic; for
whatever its desires, it can but stimulate the
ardor of the clerical party in Spain ITSELF
which clings, like all human parties, to the
side promising it most spoils and most power.
In the gagged and fettered Republic of France
it has, governmentally, no friend. The mon
archists, who, with the timd republicans,
form the majority in the Assembly are, "like
the poor cat i tn adage," letting their dis
cretion overawe their will, and can only offer
facilities furtively to their Spanish fellow
monarchsts who plot in the south of France
and find the roads across the Pyreneean bor-
der mysteriously free from gendarme or sol
dier as did Don Carlos on his late ride with
his French legltimist friends and HERALD
correspondent


The attitude of England in the case is one
we'll worth tha strdu of Americans That