“Ne touchez pas a la Reine” (Touch not the Queen) is an old 
Castilian maxim, but the adventurous Madame Munoz? and her 
daughter Isabella have too long overstepped the rights of even 
Castilian Queens not to have outworn the loyal prejudices of the 
Spanish people. 

The pronunciamentos of 18437" lasted three months; those of 
1854 have scarcely lasted as many weeks. The Ministry is 
dissolved, Count San Luis has fled, Queen Cristina is trying to 
reach the French frontier, and at Madrid both troops and citizens 
have declared against the Government. 

The revolutionary movements of Spain since the commence- 
ment of the century offer a remarkably uniform aspect, with the 
exception of the movements in favor of provincial and _ local 
privileges which periodically agitate the northern provinces, every 
palace-plot being attended by military insurrections, and these 
invariably dragging municipal pronunciamentos in their train. 
There are two causes for this phenomenon. In the first place, we 
find that what we call the State in a modern sense has, from the 
exclusively provincial life of the people, no national embodiment 
iN Opposition to the Court, except in the army. In the second 
place, the peculiar position of Spain and the Peninsular war*”’ 
created conditions under which it was only in the army that 
everything vital in the Spanish nationality was permitted to 
concentrate. Thus it happens that the only national demonstra- 
tions (those of 1812 and of 1822%**°) proceeded from the army; 

and thus the movable part of the nation has been accustomed to 
regard the army as the natural instrument of every national rising. 
During the troublesome epoch from 1830 to 1854, however, the 
cities of Spain came to know. that the army, instead of continuing 
to uphold the cause of the nation, was changed into an instrument 
for the rivalries of the ambitious pretenders to the military 
guardianship of the Court. Consequently, we find the movement 
of 1854 very different even from that of 1843. The émeute of 
General O’Donnell was looked upon by the peoples as anything 
but a conspiracy against the leading influence at the Court, 
especially as it was supported by the ex-favorite Serrano. The 
towns and country accordingly demurred to giving any response 
to the appeal made by the cavalry of Madrid. It was thus that 
General O’Donnell was forced to alter entirely the character of his 
operations, in order not to remain isolated and exposed to failure. 
He was forced to insert in his proclamation three points* equally 
opposed to the supremacy of the army: the convocation of the 
Cortes, an economical Government, and the formation of a 
national militia—the last demand originating in the desire of the 
towns to recover their independence of the army. It is a fact, then, 
that the military insurrection has obtained the support of a 
popular insurrection only by submitting to the conditions of the 
latter. It remains to be seen whether it will be constrained to 
adhere to them and to execute these promises. 

With the exception of the Carlists,””’ all parties have raised their 
cry—Progresistas, partisans of the Constitution of 1837,??* parti- 
sans of the Constitution of 1812, Unionists (demanding the 
annexation of Portugal), and Republicans. The news concerning 
the latter party is to be received with caution, since it has to pass 
the censure of the Paris police. Beside these party struggles, the 
rival pretensions of the military leaders are in full development. 
Espartero had no sooner heard of the success of O’Donnell than 
he left his retreat at Leganes and declared himself the chief of the 
movement. But as soon as Caesar Narvaez learned of the 
appearance of his old Pompey in the field, he forthwith offered 
his services to the Queen, which were accepted, and he is to form 
a new Ministry. From the: details I am about to give you, it will be 
seen that the military has by no means taken the initiative in all 
places, but that in some they have had to yield to the 
overpowering pressure of the population. 

Besides the pronunciamentos in Valencia, reported in my last,’ 
there has been one at Alicante. In Andalusia, pronunciamentos 
have taken place at Granada, Seville and Jaen. In Old Castile, 
there has been a pronunciamento at Burgos; in Leon, at 
Valladolid; in Biscay, at San Sebastian and Vitoria; in Navarre, at 
Tolosa, Pamplona and Guipuzcoa; in Aragon, at Saragossa; in 
Catalonia, at Barcelona, Tarragona, Lerida and Gerona; there is 
said, also, to have been a pronunciamento in the Islas Baleares. In 
Murcia, pronunciamentos were expected to take place, according 
to a letter from Cartagena, dated July 12, which says: 

“In consequence of a bando” published by the Military Governor of the place, 
all the inhabitants of Cartagena possessed of muskets and other arms, have been 
ordered to depose them with the civil authorities within twenty-four hours. On the 

demand of the Consul of France,© the Government has allowed the French 
residents to depose their arms, as in 1848, at the Consulate.” 

Of all these pronunciamentos, four only deserve particular 
mention, viz.: those of San Sebastian in Biscay, Barcelona the 
capital of Catalonia, Saragossa the capital of Aragon, and Madrid. 

In Biscay the pronunciamentos’ originated with the 
Municipalities, in Aragon with the military. The Municipality of 
San Sebastian was pronouncing in favor of the insurrection, when 
the demand for the armament of the people was raised. The city 
was immediately covered with arms. Not till the 17th could the two 
battalions garrisoning the town be induced to join. The fusion 
between the citizens and the military having been completed, 
1,000 armed citizens accompanied by some troops set out for 
Pamplona, and organized the insurrection in Navarre. It was only 
the appearance of the armed citizens from San Sebastian which 
facilitated the rising of the Navarrese capital. General Zabala 
joined the movement afterward and went to Bayonne, inviting the 
soldiers and officers of the Cordova regiment, who had fled there 
upon their late defeat at Saragossa, immediately to return to their 
country and to meet him at San Sebastian. According to some 
reports he subsequently marched upon Madrid to place himself 
under the orders of Espartero, while other reports state that he 
was on the march to Saragossa to join the Aragonese insurgents.° 

4 Le Moniteur universel, No. 201, July 20, 1854.— Ed. 

General Mazarredo, the commander of the Basque provinces, 
refusing to take part in the pronunciamento of Vitoria, was 
obliged to retire to France. The troops under orders of General 
Zabala are two battalions of the regiment of Bourbon, a battalion 
of carabiniers, and a detachment of cavalry. Before dismissing the 
subject of the Basque provinces I may state as something 
characteristic, that the Brigadier Barrastegui, who has been named 
Governor of Guipuzcoa, is one of Espartero’s former aides-de- 
camp. 

At Barcelona the initiative was apparently taken by the military, 
but the spontaneity of their act becomes very doubtful from the 
additional information we have received. On the 13th of July, at 7 
o'clock P.M., the soldiers occupying the barracks of San Pablo, and 
of the Buen Suceso, yielded to the demonstrations of the populace 
and declared their pronunciamento, under the cry of Vive la 
Reine; Vive la Constitution; death to the Ministers; away with 
Cristina! After having fraternized with the mass, and marched 
along with them over the Rambla, they halted at the Plaza of the 
Constitution. The cavalry, kept indoors at the Barceloneta* for the 
previous six days, because of the distrust it inspired to the 
Captain-General, made a pronunciamento in its turn. From this 
moment the whole garrison passed over to the people, and all 
resistance on the part of the authorities became impossible. At 10 
o’clock General Marchesi, the Military Governor, yielded to the 
general pressure, and at midnight the Captain-General of 
Catalonia? announced his resolution to side with the movement. 
He went to the place of the Ayuntamiento where he harangued the | 
people, filling the place. On the 18th, a junta was formed * 
composed of the Captain-General and other eminent persons, with 
the cry of the Constitution, the Queen and Morality. Further news 
from Barcelona states that some workmen had been shot on the 
order of the new authorities, because they had destroyed 
machinery and violated property; also, that a Republican Commit- 
tee convened in a neighboring town, had been arrested‘; but it 
should be recollected that this news passes through the hands of 
the Second of December whose special vocation it is to 
calumniate republicans and workmen. 

des Débats, July 21, 1854.— Ed. 

At Saragossa it is said that the initiative proceeded from the 
military—a statement which becomes invalidated, however, by the 
additional remark that the formation of a militia corps was 
immediately resolved upon. So much is certain, and is confirmed 
by the Madrid Gaceta itself,* that before the pronunciamento of 
Saragossa 150 soldiers of the Montesa regiment (cavalry) on the 
march to Madrid and quartered at Torrejon (five leagues” from 
Madrid) revolted and abandoned their chiefs, who arrived at 
Madrid on the evening of the 13th with the regimental chest. The 
soldiers, under command of Captain Baraiban, mounted horse 
and took the road to Huete, being supposed to intend joining the 
force under Colonel Buceta at Cuenca. As for Madrid, against 
which Espartero is said to be marching with the “army of the 
- center,” and General Zabala, with the army of the north, it was 
natural that a town which subsists upon the Court should be the 
last to join in the insurrectionary movement. The Gaceta of the 
15th inst. still published a bulletin from the Minister of War‘ 
asserting the factions to be in flight, and the enthusiastic loyalty of 
the troops increasing. Count San Luis, who seems to have very 
correctly judged of the situation at Madrid, announced to the 
workmen that General O’Donnell and the anarchists would 
deprive them of all employment, while if the Government 
succeeded, it would employ all workingmen on the public works 
for six reals (75 cents) a day. By this stratagem San Luis hoped to 
enroll the most excitable portion of the Madrilenos under his 
banner. His success, however, was like that of the party of the 
National at Paris in 1848.”° The allies he had thus gained soon 
became his most dangerous enemies—the funds for their support 
being exhausted on the sixth day. How much the Government 
dreaded a pronunciamento in the capital is evident from General 
Lara’s (the Governor’s) proclamation forbidding the circulation of 
any news respecting the progress of the insurrection.’ It appears, 
further, that the tactics of General Blaser were restricted to the 
care of avoiding any contact with the insurgents, lest his troops 
should catch the infection. It is said that the first plan of General 
O’Donnell was to meet the Ministerial troops on the plains of La 

© Blaser y San Martin. Bulletin of July 15, 1854, Le Moniteur universel, 
No. 201, July 20, 1854.— Ed. 
July 4, 1854.— Ed. 

Mancha, so favorable to cavalry operations. This plan, however, 
was abandoned in consequence of the arrival of ex-favorite 
Serrano, who was in connection with several of the principal towns 
of Andalusia. The Constitutional army thereupon determined, 
instead of remaining in La Mancha, to march upon Jaen and 
Seville. 

It may be observed, en passant, that the boletines* of General 
Blaser bear a wonderful resemblance to the orders of the day of 
the Spanish generals of the sixteenth century, which gave such 
occasion for hilarity to Francis I, and of the eighteenth century, 
which Frederick the Great turned into ridicule. 

It is plain that this Spanish insurrection must become a source 
of dissension between the Governments of France and England, 
and the report given by a French paper that General O’Donnell 
was concealed previous to the outbreak, in the palace of the 
British Embassador,” is not likely to lessen the misgivings of 
Bonaparte on its account. There exists already some commence- 
ment of irritation between Bonaparte and Victoria; Bonaparte 
expected to meet the Queen at the embarkation of his troops from 
Calais, but Her Majesty answered his desire by a visit to the 
ex-Queen Amélie on the same day. Again, the English Ministers 
when interpellated about the non-blockade of the White Sea, the 
Black Sea, and the sea of Azov, alleged as their excuse the alliance 
with France. Bonaparte retorted by an announcement of those 
very blockades in the Moniteur, without waiting for the formal 
consent of England.‘ Lastly, a bad effect having been produced in 
France by the embarkation of French troops in British vessels 
only, Bonaparte published a list of French vessels destined for the 
same use and applied to it. 

The Porte has communicated to the representatives of the four 
allied powers a note concerning the authority given to the Greek 
merchant ships again to enter Turkish ports. This authorization is 
to be valid for two months, on condition that the Greek 
Government does not render itself guilty of any act justifying its 
suspension. If, at the expiration of this term, the Greek 
Government shall have failed to give satisfactory reparation to the 

Débats on July 28, 1854.— Ed. 

Porte, the latter reserves to itself the right of reestablishing the 
actual status quo. Greek ships in the Turkish ports will be subject to 
the local authorities, and deprived of any appeal to other 
protection. Within the two months the basis of an arrangement 
and of a commercial treaty will be negotiated. The indemnity 
claimed by the Porte for the immense damage done by the Greek 
insurrection is to be regulated by arbitration, on the report of a 
committee of inquiry, to be sent to the proper places, and 
composed of Frenchmen, Englishmen, Turks and Greeks. 

Shamyl has been officially invested by the Porte with the title of 
Generalissimo of the army of Circassia and Georgia. 

Three dragomans in the service of the French army have been 
shot at Varna, all of them having been found to correspond with 
the Russians. Two of them were Greeks and one Armenian. At the 
moment of his execution, one of them swallowed a paper of a 
compromising character. 

We are informed from Hermannstadt, on the 16th inst., that no 
engagement has yet taken place in the vicinity of Frateshti.* 

The arrival of the allied forces at Rustchuk was, of course, a lie,» 
and their whole aim, in the present instance, will be to keep under 
restraint—as The Times calls it—the barbarous fury of the 
victorious Turks.‘ 

Written on July 21, 1854 Reproduced from the New-York