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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ml ^ NOTICES TO COflttBJESPONDENTS . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . No notice can be takea ot anonymous communioationR . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated bv the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith .
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TKE CONSTITUTIONAL WAR IN SPAIN . We are unable as yet to trace with any distinctness the origin of the conspiracy which has worked with such effect in Spain . But there are circumstances , beyond the mere similarity of methods , which appear to connect it with Louis Napoieon , and which confirm the idea of a deeply-laid plot , to subvert , one by one , the remaining constitutions of Europe . The suspicions attaching to the French Court are not merely surmises
after the fact . They floated in the air months ago , exactly as the warnings of Imperialism floated through Paris early in 1852 . It was said—and in some quarters openly said—that political instigations were passing from the Tuileries to the Court of Madrid , and we ourselves know that the disgraced Christina has been , at the same time , the confidential correspondent of the French Emperor and of the Spanish Queen—O'Donnixi / s instrument
of treason . The coup d ' etat had been elaborately prepared upon the December plan ; the Cabinet crisis was forced on by identical measures ; the same alarms were invented ; the secret concentration of troops was preceded by the bribes of Satory ; and Madrid , at dawn of day , stood suddenly in the presence of avast pra > torian guard , with artillery pointed down the streets and across the squares . That lesson , at least , was learned at Paris . But this is not all . No sooner was
O'Doknelx ' s success confirmed , than a paragraph appeared in the Moniteur vaguely approving his acts , and almost simultaneously the French organ in London bestowed its benediction on the saviours of Spain . Whether or not there had been a previous concert between the French and Spanish Governments , it is certain that , after the event , they were immediately at one , and that , strangely enough , a French army was ready at an hour ' s notice to march upon the Spanish frontierto " observe " To observe what ? Thoro is no attempt to show that the success of a liberal reaction
m Spam would create a danger on the irontier . Spanish intervention is not feared ia Franco . Then with what view can Loins Napoleon have placed that army of observation at Bayoivno , unless with a vjow to contingencies that might induce him to intervene actively in tho affairs of the Peninsula ? Or is it only a net spread for refugeeu who may seek , by crossing tho mountains , to escnpo tho military courts established by O'Dontcetx ? Tho mystery incroasea as wo investigate tho statements of tho official and aoiniofficial press in Paris . For Bovornl days no conuacnta on the Madrid coup d ' etat were
published , and , when the cowp d ' etat appeared to have succeeded , only an equivocal paragraph appeared in the Moniteur . A forced reserve was ntaintained by the other journals . Then , when public discussion had become more safe , the imperial paper issued its manifesto , praising O'Donneii ,, and reviving all the repulsive cant of December about bad passions , the chances of anarchy , overruling state necessities , the impossibility of governing amid the conflict of parties , and the imperious necessity of establishing confidence and order . Armed with the approval of France , O'Donnell struggles with the remaining defenders of the constitution .
Those defenders at present seem few and feeble . Though the Cortes was transferred to Aragon , though from Madrid to the Pyrenees the friends of law and liberty combined to resist the treachery of the Court , though , in other inland districts the constitutional chiefs rallied round them masses of vigorous supporters , the conspiracy seems to have been too extensive , too systematic , to be immediately suppressed . O'Dojtnell reigns for the day ; but , if there be little immediate hope that his crimes will be punished , thea * e is still less probability that he will be enabled to establish himself permanently , and alone , as master of the Spanish Court and nation .
It is important , then , to consider under what circumstances the French Emperor might be tempted to intervene in the affairs of the Peninsula . " We cannot tell how far our own Government is inclined to collude with that of France , so that Xiord Palmeeston ' s declaration of confidence is not of much value . What is infinitely more suggestive is the circumstance already referred to , —that an army is already stationed on the line of the Pyrenees , that it cannot have been sent thither for defensive purposes , and that , therefore , it is impossible to doubt that a partial occupation of the Peninsula is among the contingent calculations of the French Cabinet .
converted her into the-accomplice in apublib crime . This miserable creature , wad scarcely possesses the attributes of a * woinftn , haff- been the scandal of the European monarchies ever since the fall of her priestridden predecessor Hissod in the Opera by her o \ ra subjectSj treated as a child by her ministers , degraded , with her husband , in the sight of the whole population , she has passed through every stage of infamy , and is now a fitting mistress for the coarse and brutal soldier who has prospered by imitating Louis Napomeon at Madrid . But the lame is not attributable
to her or to O'DonnelIi alone . In a country possessed of a constitution , a coup d ' etat is impossible unless through the connivance of some , and the stupidity and cowardice of others . Of the army and of the national guard we need not speak . A standing army has no morality . And the national guard had gradually abdicated its functions by neglecting them , and allowed itself , in dreamy the
indifference , to be disarmed . But members of the Cortez knew , or might have known , that a plot was in preparation . They had heard what was said by public runiour . They had been warned of the councils that are said to have been held in the Tuileries . They understood the character of O'Donnelk . Then how was it that they were surprised and were overwhelmed by a coup d ' etat when they expected only a change of ministers ?
How was it that the National Assembly in Paris was surprised , and that , in spite of suspicion and fear , XiOTJis Natoleok became , in one night , dictator of France ? The truth is , that few nations have as yet invented safeguards against the perfidy of their rulers . England ^ we suppose , possesses such safeguards , though it w ~ oilld . be uawise to trust to self-acting securities -were S . Marshal O ' DojSriTEiiL to rear his head among us . "•
Should O'DoNTTELii overpower the constitutionalists at all points and establish a dictatorship , disguised in the form of a monarchy , the French Government will probably be satisfied . But if , after a lull , the liberal reaction should revive , and givo to the conflict the scope of a civil war—if the throne be destroyed and O'Donnei / l pursued as a public criminal—if , in a word , the law triumph over violence and usurpation , will it be tho policy of Louis Napoleon to accept that solution of tho late events , or to bring the forces of one coup d ' etat in aid of another ? If it be his policy , it cannot bo the policy of England
The story of the Spanish affair is so simple that it is scarcely dramatic . Insurrections had been forced in various provinces , in Castile especially , by the agents of O ' Don-NEiiL . These were made a pretext for keeping the troo 2 ) s under arms , and the Minister of the Interior was commissioned to inquire into the origin of the outbreaks . He had been Minister of the Interior long enough to bo able to detect , immediately , the sources of trouble , but not long enough to dissimulate . Affirming , therefore , that the reactionary party , headed by O'Donnell , was at the bottom of such outbreaks as that of
Palencia , he laid his views before a Cabinet Council , and advised that some check should be put upon the Carlisfc and Moderado conspiracy . This advice was met by a counterproposition , to the effect that he should resign his portfolio—a proposition which at once separated O'Donnkjll from the rest of the Government . This he had probably foreseen , for , pretending to appeal to the Queen ,
to abet him . This question is the more serious when it is considered that all tho elements of a protracted civil war are rifo in Spain—that each party has its acknowledged leader , and that the Cortes is composed of proud men not likely to brook the permanent ascendancy of such an adventurer as O'Donnkll ,, who has not tho same means of suppressing the political life of the Spaniards as Louis Napoleon had of extinguishing the political life of France . Centralization docs not govern beyond tho Pyrenees . When tho capital is in an invader ' s power , tho provinces resist him . O'DoKNJil . i- cannot dictate from Madrid
he went to the palace , after some altercation , and gave in his resignation , with that of his colleagues ) . Being immediately xeappointed alone , he was master of the situation ; Madrid was awed by a display of military power , and , to complete bin mimicry of the Nor poleonic coup d ' etat , O ' Donnem decreed that the Ladrones , or Isles of Thieves , in the Indian Archipelago , . should bo a , placo of deportation for political offenders . has not concealed
to Barcelona , or to Saragossa . They , too , must bo placed in a state of siege , and where in the military force that can keep them in subjection P It was not a simple insurrection that broko out when tho National Guard was disbanded , the Constitution abolished , tho press gagged , tho Parliament dispersed , the capital menacod with artillery . Eighty-live members of the Cortes flying to SavngoHna , hold there a Holemn Hesaion , and pronounced against tho traitor who hud enslaved the Queen , aad
Tho French Government its ill-will towards tho Spaniah constitutionalists , haa blamed the liconco of tho Spanish press , has more than once alluded indirectly to the feebleness of tho Cabinet of Madrid , and to tho confused state of tho provinces . It supplied , by anticipation , arguments to justify O'Donwisll . But whore Avill tho next coup ( Vdtat take place—ia Belgium , or iu , ( Surdiuia ? Would
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EbbATTJM—The concluding . words of a review were omitted last week , accidentally . The lost line , however , was not of oritical importance , as it in no way qualified tlie opinion expressed of Mr . Wilson ' s book on Western Africa .
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y - ^ v ^ y t SATURDAY , AUGUST 2 , 1856 .
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public Mara . —^
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the -world is by the very law of its creationi-n eternal progress . —Dr . Abnoid .
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Ah « iist 2 ; . 1886 . 1 THE LEABBK . 7 S 1
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1856, page 731, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2152/page/11/
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