The Campaign of the Spanish Constitutionalists. QDEC. 



With regard to different other points in the Peninsula, no event of 

 importance has hitherto taken place. The progress of General Torrijos 

 is involved in mystery ; sometimes he is represented as a solitary and 

 helpless fugitive, and at others as having made a successful descent on 

 the southern coast of Spain. As he is totally bereaved of resources, 

 the probability is that he has met yet with nothing but disappointment. 

 In Gacilia the fire of revolution has emitted some sparks. The curate 

 of Valdeorras and Rodriguez, called Bordas, have organized guerril- 

 las, which for some time excited deep anxiety among the constituted 

 authorities. But the forces of those chiefs were not sufficiently strong 

 to cope against the enemy opposed to them. Many of the party have 

 been killed, others executed, and the rest dispersed. The leaders and 

 principal men have escaped, and will yet reappear in the field, when 

 it is least expected. The long time, which forlorn as they are, has 

 passed without their being taken, is a strong evidence that they have 

 protection in the territory. Much is expected from Catalonia the 

 spirit of that province is liberal, and the atrocities of Count d'Espagna 

 will add the stimulus of revenge to the desire of freedom. The en- 

 trance of winter will probably retard the operations of the consti- 

 tutionalists. The Junta has been dissolved, but another with a more 

 authoritative character will be named in its place. Meantime, as if the 

 poor refugees had not trials and difficulties enough to encounter, the 

 liberal French government has given peremptory orders for their dis- 

 persion, and they are ordered into Bourges and other places in the 

 interior. It is something singular, forsooth, that France should now 

 shew such conscientious scruples France ! that blushed not in 1823 

 not merely to aid and abet the serviles, but even carry on a most atro- 

 cious and unjustifiable invasion against all the laws of justice and the 

 rights of nations. By what strange fatality is it, that unfortunate 

 Spain is ever doomed to suffer from the government of her neighbour 

 France, whether this government be imperial or republican, ultra-royalist 

 or liberal ? 



But the radical impediment to the political regeneration of Spain is, 

 we trust, for ever removed. France is no longer under the dominion of 

 a family reared in secret hatred of freedom, and ready to support the 

 views of despotism in the Peninsula. The fatal counsellors of Ferdi- 

 nand are thrown entirely on their sole resources and strength : those 

 resources and that strength must at last be exhausted. A shuffling, dis- 

 creditable, and pernicious system of finance cannot be continued for ever ; 

 even the most blind, the most inveterate of dupes must ultimately open 

 his eyes to the picture of his own ruin. 



The Spaniards have now no cause of alarm from the anticipation of 

 foreign interference. The governments of Europe have business enough 

 to mind at home, without taking upon themselves the task of meddling 

 with the affairs of other nations. The first interests of France are con- 

 nected with the dissemination of liberal principles throughout Europe. 

 Let this truth be deeply impressed on the minds of those who hold the 

 reins of government. Should a foolish confidence in its own power, or 

 the adoption of half-measures, founded on fallacious and fatal theories, 

 induce the French ministry to shew hostility towards their brother- 

 liberals of the Peninsula, let it be remembered that the baneful results 

 of such weak, cruel policy will ultimately rebound against France itself. 

 The policy which England will adopt in the progress of the momentous 



