Year: 1870

On the Enthusiastically Spanish principle of
never doing to-day what can be put off till
tomorrow, the solution of the monarchy
problem seems to have been indefinitely post
poned by the choice of the veteran Espartero-
a choice which really settles nothing, and leaves
| the numerous factions who have distracted Span
ish politics ever since the overthrow of the Bour
bon dynasty to continue their battle under the
advantage of having plenty of time to fight
| it out at leisure. A man in his 10th year,
EsparterO cannot expect to wear the crown
very long, and he has no descendant to be-
queath it to. BY dragging the weary old
marshal from his retirement, and putting
the scepter into his withered hand, Prim
is enabled to prolOng the interregnum
which had almost become intolerable, and
cloud for the present the prospects of Mont
pensier, which had so rapidly improved within
the last few weeks. The dynasty still remains
prize for royal plotters, venal statesmen, and
purchasable generals, and Prim retains the
virtual mastery of the situation, with the hope
of reaching in time the sovereign hOnOrs.


Meanwhile, EsparterO wearing the crown will
be curious commentary on the prOverbial
inconsistency of that land of contradictions,
where two and two make five, and the rule of
vice versa prevails universally. In that alb
surd court where reverence for monarchy has
been carried to an excess almost incredible,
and the blood of the sovereign family has
been respected as a celestial ichor essentially
different from the gross fluid which fills the
veins of ordinary mOrtals, the don of ancient
lineage will PROSTATE himself before the son
of wheelwright, the descendant of
the proud knights Of CASTLE do reverence
to the soldier who has risen from the ranks
Espartero's origin was of the humblest, and
his abilities in youth seemed modest enough
but having won promotion fighting against
the revolted Spanish colonies in South Amer
lea, and after an experience of Imprisonment
returned home with large fortune, acquired
no one knew how, he married rich wife and
became in year or two one of the most i'm
portant subjects in the kingdom. To him
more than anybody else Isabella II. owed her
throne. He was one of the first to declare in
her favor; he was the victor of the Carlist
war; he was the cOnquerOr of more than one
alarming insurrectiOn. AS regent during part
of the Queens minority, as prime minister
after the reins passed Ostensibly into
the royal hands, his rule was troubled one,
vexed with rebelliOns, broken by battles with
the Queen Mother Christina, with O'DOnnell,
with COncha, with Narvaez, disturbed by quar-
rels with the clergy and a chronic crisis in the
treasury. Spain, indeed, under Espartero, Pro-
gressista though he was, Jared worse than it
has Jared during the mild anarchy of the Prim-
Serrano regency; but perhaps nobody at that
time could have kept the kingdom in peace
and comfort, and the marshal proved himself
at any rate a man of ability and courage, be-
sides doing more for the material prosperity
of the people than it had ever occurred to any
other Spanish statesman of this generation
to attempt.


If the Bourbons had been driven out fifteen
years ago, Espartero would then have been by
far the most available candidate for the throne.
But after the destruction in 1856 of the hybrid
ministry formed by his alliance with O'Don-
nell, he Withdrew to his luxurious retirement at
LogronO, and seemed resolved To mingle no
more in the confusion of public life The
storm of Spanish politics has passed by him
unheeded. Instructions, to which he might
have assured success or failure at his pleasure,
military risings which threatened to cOnvulse
the peninsula, even the revolution which at
last swept away the dynasty he had done so
much TO establish, failed to tempt him from