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COLBURN'S

UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.

SPAIN AND ESPARTERO.

In the turmoil of Eastern warfare, the affairs of Spain had almost been forgotten. The French Revolution of 1848, followed closely by the death of Louis Philippe, contributed to throw a veil of oblivion over the famous "Spanish marriages." Isabella the Second presented Spain with an heir, and the pretensions of the descendants of the house of Orleans were no longer spoken of. A military revolution has suddenly, like an earthquake, upheaved the dormant passions of party, and shaken, to its very foundations, the throne of Isabella the Second. The star of Luchana is once more in the ascendant; Espartero is de facto regent of Spain.

We have witnessed, within the last ten years, so many, such extraordinary changes, that the vocation of the political prophet is gone. The recent revolution in Spain has been as successful as it was rapid. Its ultimate results cannot be foretold. The tottering throne is upheld by the strong hand that chiefly contributed to place Isabella upon it; but should that hand fail, woe to Spain !

The moment is not an unfavourable one for examining the actual state of parties, and the character of the Spanish Wallenstein.

Don Baldamero Espartero, ex-regent and actual prime minister of Spain, Count of Luchana, Duke of Victory, and Grandee of Spain of the first class, is in his sixty-third year. His father was a man of humble means in La Mancha, following the trade of cartwright in the town of Granatula. The youngest of nine children, of a very delicate constitution, the young Espartero was destined for the Church. At the period of the French Invasion, in 1808, he exchanged his priest's garments for a soldier's uniform, and entered the so-called "holy legion," formed chiefly of students. In 1811, we find him as lieutenant of engineers at Cadiz. Fortune threw him in the way of Don Pablo Morillo, who was appointed to the command of an expeditionary corps

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By a second will, Charles II. of Spain appointed a grandson of his elder sister, wife of Louis XIV., Philip of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin, sole heir to all his territories. This led to the Spanish War of Succession, 1701-1713, which terminated with the peace of Utrecht,

U. S. MAG., No. 310. SEPTEMBER, 1854.

A

ordered to act against the insurgent colonies of South America. He received his captaincy, and sailed with the expedition in 1815. During the passage out, the young officer so ingratiated himself in the good opinion of his commander, that on their arrival in America, Don Pablo appointed him, at once, chief of his staff. The duties of this office appear to have been too much for him. At his own request, he joined an infantry regiment in Peru, with the rank of major. În Peru, Espartero greatly distinguished himself. His personal valour, combined with the higher quality of decision, tempered by prudence, earned for him the respect of both officers and men. In 1822 he received the rank of colonel. After the capitulation of Ayacucho in 1824, from which dates the termination of Spanish rule on the American Continent, Colonel Espartero and his brother officers returned to Spain. Espartero was ordered to Logrono, for which place he has ever afterwards entertained a predilection. Whilst in garrison there, he won the affections of the daughter of a rich banker, Santa Cruz, whom he married, despite the objections of her father, who did not foresee the future greatness of his son-in-law, in the dashing and somewhat dissipated young colonel.

It was not till the year 1832 that Espartero took a prominent part as a political leader. He then openly declared himself a supporter of the daughter of Ferdinand VII., and volunteered to march with his regiment to the northern provinces.*

The rise of Espartero was now rapid. In 1836 his presence at Madrid saved the city from the Carlists. The Queen-regent (Christina) appointed him Commander-in-chief, Viceroy of Navarre, and CaptainGeneral of the Basque provinces.

On the 12th September, 1837, Don Carlos appeared with an army before Madrid. Espartero defeated him, and drove him beyond the Ebro. In December, the same year, he stormed the heights of Luchana, for which feat of arms the title of Count of Luchana was conferred upon him. He successively defeated the best Carlist generals brought against him. In 1839 he was created a Grandee of Spain, first class, with the title of Duke of Victory.

Queen Christina began to fear a rival in the popular hero. She pitted Narvaez against him. Espartero demanded and obtained the ejection of that celebrated man from the ministry. In 1840, Queen Christina announced her intention of resigning the reins of government, and sought a refuge at the court of France.

On the 8th May, 1841, Espartero, by a decree of the Cortes, was declared Regent of Spain.

The new Regent displayed the highest qualities as a ruler. With a firm hand he put down an attempt at a republican movement at

* Ferdinand VII. was married four times. By his three first wives he had no issue. His fourth wife, Maria Christina, bore him two daughters: Isabella, actual queen, born on the 10th October, 1830, and Louisa, Duchess of Montpensier, born on the 30th January, 1832.

The decree of 29th March, 1830, abolishing the Salic law in Spain, and which was passed through the influence of Maria Christina, led, on the death of Ferdinand, to that terrible civil war, which still smoulders; Don Carlos, the king's brother, having laid claim to the crown on the death of Ferdinand.

Valencia; he frustrated an attempt made by General O'Donnell (his actual colleague) to raise the standard of Maria Christina at Pampeluna, and defeated a plan concocted by Generals Diego Leon and Concha, to carry off the young Queen.*

On the 15th November, he put down a republican movement at Barcelona, and on the 30th November, held a triumphant entrance into Madrid, surpassed only in enthusiasm by his triumphant entrance on the 29th July, 1854.

As head of the Progressista party, and a firm adherent to the Constitution of 1837, Espartero maintained his own position, and kept political factions in check. The intrigues of Maria Christina at the court of Louis Philippe led to his downfall. In 1842, Barcelona rose in insurrection. He bombarded the town, an act for which he has been severely censured, and quelled the movement. In 1843, the Lopez ministry proposed a general amnesty. Espartero reluctantly consented. By the return of the numerous exiles, Spain became again the theatre of every species of intrigue. The Christinos gradually acquired a stand. The ministry having demanded the dismissal of General Lenage, his secretary, who, like Espartero himself, was a warm advocate for a close alliance with England, Espartero dissolved the Cortes.

This was the signal for a military revolution. A revolutionary Junta was formed at Barcelona. The disgrace of Espartero was resolved upon. A provisional government, consisting of Lopez, Caballero, and Serrano, declared him a traitor to his country, and deprived him of the regency. His old rival, Narvaez, headed the revolution in Valencia, and marched on Madrid, which capital he entered on the 22nd July, 1843. Fickle fortune abandoned the cause of the Regent, and the Spanish hero embarked on the 30th July at Cadiz, and on the 19th August landed at Falmouth.

In England, Espartero was received and treated with every honour and distinction.

The Duke of Baylen was appointed guardian of the young Queen, who, by a decree of the Cortes of the 8th November, 1843, was declared to have attained her majority.

The accession of the Queen turned intrigue into a new channel.

We now come to the celebrated episode of the "Spanish marriages." It is not our intention here to enter into a detailed history of that memorable intrigue. It is sufficiently known to the world, from the correspondence of Louis Philippe with his ministers and relations, found at the Tuileries, and published shortly after the Revolution of 1848; but it is necessary to advert to it with a view to eventualities.

The partial success of the conclaves held at the Chateau d'Eu, by obtaining the hand of the Queen's sister, and a simultaneous marriage, for the Duke of Montpensier, has been greatly annulled by the recent changes in France, and by the fact that the Queen has issue. But like one of Monti's admirable statues, Spain is wrapped up in a veil of

* Diego Leon was tried by court-martial, and shot. Concha escaped, and has recently returned to Spain.

mystery. Should Queen Isabella and her sickly offspring die, the next heir to the throne is the Duchess of Montpensier.

The hopes of the Montpensiers are, however, nugatory.

As soon as the marriage of the Duchess of Montpensier transpired, Lord Palmerston sent a despatch to Sir Henry Bulwer, then our ambassador at Madrid, with instructions to read it to the Spanish minister, in which England protests beforehand against the possible accession of the descendants of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier to the throne of Spain, in default of issue by the Queen. That note declares that England reserves to herself full liberty to take such part in the contestations which may ultimately arise, and expresses that reserve at once, to avoid being one day reproached with having concealed her

views.

A сору of this note was sent to the French government. M. Guizot's reply to that protest, is a masterpiece of special pleading; but in no way affects the protest entered by England.

"This protest on the part of England," says M. Guizot," "presented in virtue of the Treaty of Utrecht, and of the renunciations thereto annexed, or more especially in virtue of the renunciation of the Duke of Orleans (1712) to his eventual rights to the throne of Spain, is, in our opinion, devoid of all foundation. In a former despatch,† I explained to you the real character of the Treaty of Utrecht, and the double object its authors had in view when they drew up the clauses relative to the Spanish succession. It was wished, on the one hand, to assure the throne to the descendants of Philip V.; on the other, to prevent the union, on the same head, of the crowns of France and Spain. That was the object of the renunciations demanded on the one hand from Philip V., and on the other from the Dukes of Berry and of Orleans. And it is this, consequently, which determinates the true sense and the legitimate bearing of those renunciations; they contain what is necessary to achieve the object of the Treaty of Utrecht; but they cannot, and do not, in fact, extend beyond that object.

"According to this principle, incontestible in itself, and which, moreover, is in perfect keeping with the text of the document in question, the renunciation of the Duke of Orleans signifies that, in the case that the throne of Spain should become vacant by the extinction of the descendants of Philip V., to which it is assured by the Treaty of Utrecht, the descendants of the Duke of Orleans could not, in any manner, claim the throne; for, in exchange for the renunciation made by Philip V., for himself and for his descendants, of his eventual rights to the crown of France, the Duke of Orleans abandoned his eventual rights to the crown of Spain, wishing to maintain his rights, equally eventual, which his birth gave him also, to the crown of France, and which, in a European interest, was held incompatible with the first. This, says M. Guizot, is the real and reasonable sense of the renunciation.

"Does it follow, then," continues M. Guizot, "that the descendants of

Vide M. Guizot's Despatch to Count Jarnac, dated Paris, Foreign Office, 11th Oct. 1846.

Dated 5th Oct. 1846.

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