FBAHOE. 



outbreak of the Carlist war, suspected tho 

 h authorities of favoring and encouraging 

 < arli-ts. r-pain n-peat-dly remonstrated 

 -t this conduct, and Franco replied Unit 

 , i ions which could be required by in- 

 :1 usage had been taken. Those as- 

 Mirai. , however, not regarded as satis- 



factory in Mail rid, and in October the Spanish 

 -sailor in Paris presented totheirench 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs an elaborate diplo- 

 matic note, which is in fact a pointed and de- 

 1 indictment of tho conduct pursued by 



^i o toward Spain since the outbreak of the 

 Oarlist war. That some such formal accusa- 

 tion was pending had been conjectured from 

 the cold and guarded language used on one side 

 and the other by the French embassador at 

 Madrid and by Marshal Serrano when the em- 



; lor presented his credentials. The re- 

 monstrance which the Marquis Vega di Armijo 

 was instructed, after full consideration, to bring 

 under tho notice of the Duke Decazes, is neither 

 cold nor guarded. Tho note is couched in lan- 

 guage which is much more direct and concise 

 than is commonly met with in diplomatic litera- 

 ture. It does not confine itself to vagne appeals 

 and complaints, but challenges direct issues, spe- 



- 1 hues and places and persons, attacks indi- 

 vidual servants of the French Government, and 

 demands redress of a specific kind in the most 

 uncompromising tone. The Marquis Vega di 

 Armijo, in protesting against the failure of the 

 French Government to observe the obligations 

 of neutrality toward Spain, retains a sufficient 

 remnant of official courtesy to assume that his 

 renewed remonstrance is rendered necessary by 

 the default of the subordinate officers of the 

 French Government. lie reminds the Duke 

 Decazes of the repeated engagements which had 

 been entered into for regulating the relations 

 of Franco toward the Spanish Government and 

 tho Carlists, and insists that these engagements 

 have been broken by the direct acts or the su- 

 pine and studied indifference of the prefects 

 and lesser officials of the frontier departments 

 of Southern France. The traffic in contraband 

 of war goes on, it is alleged, as merrily as ever ; 

 the Carlist conspiracy is actively and openly at 

 work in Bayonne, Perpignan, Pau, Oleran, and 

 other populous places of the southern depart- 

 ments ; and Carlist leaders and soldiers, with 

 scarcely an attempt at disguise, parade streets 

 of French towns as freely as they might the 

 headquarters of the Pretender at Estella. Tho 

 Prefect of tho Lower Pyrenees is distinctly 

 charged with permitting the passage of Carlist 

 leaders and partisans to and fro between the 

 headquarters of Don Carlos and Bayonne. The 

 same functionary is charged with shutting his 

 eyes to the traffic in contraband of war, with 

 turning a deaf ear to tho demands of the Span- 



consul for the "interment" of notorious 

 C'arli^t partisans, and with attempting to deal 

 harshly with Spanish soldiers of the national 

 armies who had been captured by the Carlists 

 and thrust across the frontier. Tho conduct 



of tho Prefect of tho Girondo is on similar 

 grounds assailed. Finally, the Marquis Vega 

 di Armijo charges the French Government 

 with tho breach of an "understanding" 

 which, though only a verbal one, was to have 

 had, as he asserts, the force of a convention 

 between the French charge d'affaires and the 

 Spanish ministry ; the former spontaneously 

 promising and the latter accepting the as- 

 surance that all tho leading Carlists, whether 

 military or civilian, found in France should be 

 sent to the Swiss or Belgian frontier, and that 

 those of less mark should be forced to refinter 

 Spain. Neither part of this engagement has, 

 according to the Spanish embassador, been 

 carried out by the French authorities. 



The French answer to this memorandum was 

 forwarded to tho Spanish embassador on De- 

 cember 13th. In this communication, couched 

 in conciliatory but firm language, the Duke De- 

 cazes confronts and discusses with precision 

 all tho allegations enumerated by the Spanish 

 embassador against the conduct of the French 

 authorities on the Pyrenees frontier, thus ac- 

 cepting the responsibility of the measures of the 

 various governments incriminated since 1869. 

 With regard to the chief of these allegations, 

 such as the entry of Don Carlos into Spain, 

 the duke finds himself able to cite the authentic 

 testimony of the Spanish authorities, and of 

 M. de la Vega' s predecessors, who have ren- 

 dered homage to the attitude of the French 

 Government and to the zeal of its agents. He 

 finds, moreover, in a speech by a foreign min- 

 ister, an emphatic reply to the accusations 

 which have been preferred. After this exam- 

 ination of the complaints put forward by the 

 Spanish embassador, the Duke Decazes ex- 

 plicitly claims for the French Government the 

 right of nominating and maintaining its agents 

 in the plenitude of its independence and re- 

 sponsibility, and he expresses surprise at any 

 indication being given by Spain on this subject. 

 He does not consent to follow the embassador 

 in examining the eventuality of measures which 

 should be taken on the frontier to insure com- 

 mon action of the military forces of the two 

 governments. He sets aside this suggestion, as 

 also the example of Portugal, which seems to 

 him opposed to it, and which he does not con- 

 sider convincing. As to the reproach that 

 France has pursued in Spanish affairs a policy 

 contrary to the liberal sentiments of the French 

 nation, the Duke Decazes replies that France 

 wishes well to Spain, and desires that it may 

 regain internal order and political security. 

 As to the French Government, while regret- 

 ting that the integrity of its conduct and the 

 loyalty of its proceedings have not hitherto 

 been better understood, he hopes that in future 

 Spain will render full justice to it. The dis- 

 patch is followed by voluminous appendices, 

 which discuss all the details of the various 

 measures taken by the Government on the 

 Pyrenees frontier during the last five years. 

 An incident, not only disagreeable but hnmil- 



