718 



SPAIN. 



bardment of Almeria the house of the German 

 consul, on which the German flag was flying, 

 had been destroyed. Captain Werner, whose 

 action did not meet with the approval of the 

 German Government, transferred the captured 

 frigates to the English admiral, Yelverton. 

 The captured steamer Vigilante had previously 

 been transferred by him to the Spanish consul 

 of Gibraltar. Oontreras, who had been kept as 

 a prisoner on board the Frederick Charles, was 

 set at liberty, on August 10th, and landed at 

 .jena. On August 23d the Spanish fleet, 

 under the command of Admiral Lobos, !> 

 the bombardment of Cartagena, but as the in- 

 surgents had better cannon than Lobos, the 

 attacking fleet, which consisted of only one 

 iron clad and several wooden frigates, had to 

 withdraw. On August 23d the Oortes author- 

 i/. I the prosecution and the arrest of nine of 

 their members who had taken part in these 

 attempts to establish the Commune. 



The war against the Carlists at this time 

 offered no special interest. On August lUth 

 the Carlists under Olio were completely routed 

 near Estella, and, although they were imme- 

 diately reenforced by Lizarroga, they were 

 on the next day again defeated. From Berga, 

 which had been captured by them, they had 

 also to withdraw. 



On August 25th Emilio Castelar was elected 

 President of the Cortes. In an impressive 

 speech ho called attention to the critical situa- 

 tion of the country. Though sincerely attached 

 to the plan of a federal republic, he believed it 

 necessary, first to save the unity and the very 

 existence of the country. The Government, 

 for carrying on the administration of the coun- 

 try, must strengthen the principles of authority 

 and order. If order could nol bo recstai* 

 on a firm basis, the republic was in danger of 

 perishing; for any country, placed between the 

 alternative of anarchy and dictatorship, would 

 choose the latter. Castelar soon fell out with 

 the President of the Republic, Salmeron. The 

 latter declared that having been for twenty 

 yean an uncompromising opponent of the 

 death-penalty, he could not now order it to be 

 applied to the insurgents. Castelar regard "1 

 it as indispensable to use for the overthrow 

 of the insurrection the same weapons "war 

 against war, fire against fire, blood against 

 blood, death against death ; " otherwise, he de- 

 clared we should be monks, not men. The 

 Cortes sympathized with him, an 1 on Sep- 

 tember 7th, Castelar was elected in place of 

 Salmeron President of the Spanish Republic. 

 He received 133 votes against 67 whirh were 

 cast for Pi y Margall. He accepted the presi- 

 dency only on condition that the constitution- 

 al guarantees should be suspended, and tint 

 he should he invested with unlimited power 

 to employ the entire military strength of the 

 nation azainst the Carlists, and for the termi- 

 nation of the civil war. The cabinet formed 

 by him consit-d of decided Republican*. 

 Cirvajil became Minister of Foreign Affairs ; 



Maisonnavc, Minister of the Interior ; Debrio, 

 Minister of Justice ; Solcr. Minister of the Col- 

 onies; Herges, Minister ot 'Public Works. Alter 

 authorizing the President to call out 150,000 

 ves. and to arm 500,000 militia, and to 

 contract a new loan of 100,000,000 pesetas, the 

 Cortes were adjourned to January _'. Is74. In 

 accordance with the power* ront'orred upon 

 him, President Castelar suspended the con-ti- 

 tutional guarantee*, and begun to prepare the. 

 most energetic measures for the speediest ter- 

 mination of the civil war. lie declared his 

 readiness to employ the services of any gen- 

 eral to whatever political party he might for- 

 merly have belonged, who was willing to en- 

 operate for the restoration of order, and the 

 suppression of the civil broils. One of the 

 first to make use of this invitation, and to 

 offer his services for the defense of the exist- 

 ing order of things, was Marshal Serrano. 



The Carlists, whose numbers were estimated 

 by Castelar at about 50,000, made no [jr. 

 during the remainder of the year. The dissen- 

 sions among* the officers increased in .strength. 

 Several of their generals resigned and retired 

 to Bayonne, in France, and in the province of 

 Lerida, largo bands of dr-rrt. rs from the Car- 

 lists, reported to the leaders of the Republican 

 troops. When the now generalissimo of the, 

 Government forces, Moriones, offered to the. 

 Carlists a battle near Estella, the latter liastily 

 retreated, and Estella was occupied by the 

 Government troops. A dispatch of Moriones, 

 dated October 7th. claimed a great victory 

 over the Carlists near Agaczaza, in Navarre. 



The English admiral. Yelverton, on Septem- 

 ber 1st, sent the rebel steamers Alman/.a ami 

 Yittoria to Gibraltar. The intransigentes of 

 Cartagena made repeatedly desperate sor- 

 ties, and undertook several plundering expedi- 

 tions, without, however, meeting with any suc- 

 cess, "n October llth there was a naval 

 battle between the vessels of the intransigen- 

 tes and the national fleet under Admiral 1 

 After a fiirht lasting for two hours, the vessels 

 of the insurgents were compelled to put book 

 to Cartagena. Admiral Lobos, without receiv- 

 ing permission from the (Jovcrnment. sailed to 

 Gibraltar in order to take in coal, and was 

 relieved from his command. 



In December a remarkable episode occurred 

 in the Carlist war. General Moriones, after 

 endeavoring in vain to force the Carlists out 

 of Estella, suddenly marched, nt the head of 

 9,000 men, via Pamplona, into the northern- 

 i't districts of Navarre, leaving! ieiieral I'rimo 

 de Rivera behind for the protection of the 

 country between F.-tella and the Kbro. After 

 being reenforced by !!. ("ill men, under com- 

 mand of General Loinn, he entered the north- 

 ern part of the maritime province of (iuipi: 

 Marching southward, he raised the siege of 

 Tol'isx the capital of the province, which had 

 been hard pressed by the Carlists, imd routed 

 the Carlist general. I.i/arragn. From Tolosa 

 he advanced westward to the coast, with the 



