SPAIN. 



ST. JOHN, ISAAC M. 



673 



take place on the 15th, and assistance was ex- 

 pected from expeditions of filibusters. Arrests 

 were made in eleven towns, 350 colored men 

 being implicated in Santiago de Cuba alone. 



The activity of the Carlists and Ultramon- 

 tanes, under the impunity accorded to them 

 by the Government, began to attract attention 

 in August. The press of the party openly pro- 

 claimed Carlist views, discussed the prospects 

 of the cause, and published letters from the 

 Pretender; and the Carlist candidates in the 

 elections of the Councils-General were canvass- 

 ing with confidence, for the first time in thirty 

 years, that they would be able to secure a ma- 

 jority. The Council of Ministers finally decided 

 to take preventive measures against the further 

 development of the strength of the party. It 

 was determined to institute proceedings against 

 all priests who should introduce political sub- 

 jects into their sermons, and to dismiss from 

 their posts all mayors who were notorious Car- 

 lists. Directions were given by the Minister 

 of the Interior to the governors of the Basque 

 provinces to observe the sermons of the local 

 clergy, and immediately report the name of 

 any priest who should use the pulpit to preach 

 against the Government. 



The Government, having received many pe- 

 titions from religious orders about to be ex- 

 pelled from France with reference to establish- 

 ing themselves in northern Spain, issued a cir- 

 cular to the civil authorities, in June, giving 

 instructions that no order, college, or estab- 

 lishment belonging to religious houses leaving 

 France, should be permitted in any province 

 near the French frontier, or in the rest of the 

 Peninsula, except after having received due 

 authorization from the Government. 



The anniversary of St. Ignatius Loyola, the 

 founder of the order of Jesuits, was celebrated, 

 August 3d, at the monastery of Loyola, in the 

 province of Guipuzcoa, with great ceremony. 

 More than fifty thousand Basque peasants and 

 mariners, and several hundred members of aris- 

 tocratic families in the neighborhood, assem- 

 bled to witness the festivals and religious cere- 

 monies. About three hundred Jesuit fathers 

 were present, and many visitors attended from 

 France. The " Correspondencia de Espafla," 

 semi-official, announced in November that the 

 members of religious orders expelled from 

 France, who had taken refuge in Spain, were 

 at liberty to establish themselves separately in 

 any part of the country they might see fit, but 

 that they would not be allowed to form them- 

 selves into religious associations or wear pub- 

 licly the habit of their order. 



The trial of Otero for the attempt to assas- 

 sinate the King on December 30, 1879, was 

 concluded in the Court of First Instance, Feb- 

 ruary 9th. It was urged for the defense that 

 the accused was of weak intellect and not re- 

 sponsible for his actions. The prisoner was 

 sentenced to death. An appeal was taken to 

 the Court of Cassation, and denied by it. The 

 counsel of the prisoner then appealed to the 

 VOL. xx. 43 A 



King to exercise his clemency toward the regi- 

 cide, and asked the Queen and the Princess of 

 the Asturias to intercede in his behalf. The 

 King replied, '* As King I have pardoned Ote- 

 ro, but I must submit the question to my re- 

 sponsible Ministers." The sentence was finally 

 confirmed by the Council of Ministers, and Ote- 

 ro was executed April 14th. A paper pur- 

 porting to be a confession of the regicide was 

 afterward published in a newspaper of Mad- 

 rid, which represented that Otero had been 

 ordered at a secret meeting of masked men to 

 kill Seflor Canovas del Castillo, and was paid 

 for the work and supplied with a weapon for 

 the purpose, but that afterward the order 

 was changed, and he was told to kill the 

 King, under pain of being killed himself if 

 he refused. 



SPRAGUE, PELEG, was born in Duxbury, 

 Massachusetts, April 27, 1793, and died in Bos- 

 ton, October 13, 1880, in the eighty-eighth year 

 of his age. He graduated at Harvard College in 

 1812, studied law at the Litchfield Law-School, 

 was admitted to the Plymouth County bar in 

 August, 1815, practiced two years in Augusta, 

 Maine, and then settled in Hallovvell, where 

 he speedily acquired distinction. He was a 

 member of the Maine Legislature in 1820-'21 * 

 member of Congress, 1825-'29 ; United States 

 Senator, 1829-'35 ; and United States District 

 Judge from 1841 to 1865. In 1835 he became 

 a resident of Boston; in 1858 he published 

 " Speeches and Addresses," and " Decisions " 

 in 1841-'68. He began public life as a Whig, 

 and, though never an extreme partisan, was 

 always identified with the Republican party. 

 In 1840 he was Presidential elector on the Har- 

 rison and Tyler ticket ; in 1847 he received the 

 degree of LL. D. from Harvard College. He 

 was the last surviving member of the memora- 

 ble United States Senate of 1830-'32, in which 

 the illustrious names of Webster, Clay, Cal- 

 houn, Benton, Hayne, and others were enrolled. 

 As a lawyer and judge he was greatly esteemed 

 by clientage and bar, and in the National As- 

 sembly he was regarded as a fine debater. 



ST. JOHN, ISAAC MUNROE, was born in 

 Georgia, and died on the 7th of April, 1880, 

 at Greenbrier, Sulphur Springs, in West Vir- 

 ginia. He graduated at Yale College, and en- 

 tered his professional life as civil engineer on 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where he 

 soon attracted the attention of eminent engi- 

 neers. At the breaking out of the civil war 

 he was living in South Carolina, and joined 

 fortunes with the Confederacy. Soon after 

 his enlistment as a soldier in the army at Rich- 

 mond, he was placed in the engineer corps, 

 and assigned to duty under General Magruder 

 on the Peninsula, where he rendered valuable 

 service in the construction of fortifications 

 during McClellan's first campaign. The ability 

 which St. John displayed in the arduous duties 

 of the field, decided the War Department at 

 Richmond to place him at the head of a bu- 

 reau even more important than that of engi- 



