778 



SPAIN. 



ST. GOTHAED TUNNEL. 



cannon-shot fired by a Government steamer 

 upon the towns and villages of the coast. Don 

 Carlos, from his headquarters at Morentin, is- 

 sued on July 16th a manifesto to the Spanish na- 

 tion, defining the policy which, as King of Spain, 

 he would pursue, and promising especially that 

 he would reestablish the authority and the in- 

 fluence of the Catholic religion. The Gov- 

 ernment of Madrid declared, on July 31st, all 

 the provinces in a state of siege, clothed the 

 captain-generala with extraordinary powers, 

 established in all the provinces permanent mili- 

 tary commissions, and ordered the property of 

 the Carlists to be confiscated, in order to prevent 

 it from being used for continuing the war, and 

 in order to indemnify from it all persons who 

 had been injured by the war, especially the 

 families of the killed soldiers. In the mean 

 while the Carlists had obtained some remark- 

 able successes on the seat of war. On July 

 15th they even entered the town of Cuenoa, in 

 Castile, which, however, they had again to 

 evacuate on July 20th. In Catalonia, the Car- 

 list chief Saballs occupied a few places be- 

 tween Barcelona and Montserrat, and caused 

 160 captured soldiers to be shot at Olot, a fate 

 which soon after was shared by 250 other cap- 

 tives, belonging to the corps of General Nou- 

 vilas. In Navarre the Carlists took the town 

 of La Guardia, but this victory was more than 

 neutralized by a great victory which General 

 Moriones gained over them at Oteiza, southwest 

 of Pampeluna. The cruelties committed by 

 the Carlists, especially the shooting of Captain 

 Schmidt, induced the Government of Germany 

 to recognize the Republican government of 

 General Serrano, and the example of Germany 

 was almost immediately followed by Italy, Bel- 

 gium, France, and England. Only Russia de- 

 clined to take the same step. From France, 

 the Spanish Government, aided by the diplo- 

 matic influence of Germany, obtained a prom- 

 ise that the frontier would be strictly watched, 

 and due care be taken to prevent reenforce- 

 ments to be sent to the Carlists. The latter 

 captured the border -fortress of Urgel, but 

 were unable to take Puigcerda, and even suf- 

 fered, near this town, a severe defeat. The Gov- 

 ernment of Madrid, in order to make a deci- 

 sive attack upon Estella, ordered another levy 

 of 60,000 men. The commander of the North- 

 ern Army and prime-minister, Zabala, resigned 

 both positions, as he was too outspoken in fa- 

 vor of the restoration of monarchy under Al- 

 fonso, the son of Isabella, and he was succeed- 

 ed as general-in-chief by General Laserna, and 

 as prime-minister by Sagasta. 



The military operations during the last 

 months of the year were destitute of any inter- 

 est. The commander-in-chief of the Govern- 

 ment troops, Laserna, had sent General Lorn a 

 by sea to San Sebastian, in order to raise the 

 siege of Irun. Loma was successful in this 

 mission, though his success remained without 

 further results. The Carlists retired, but they 

 were not pursued. by the Government troops. 



More harm was done to the Carlist cause by 

 the dissensions among the Carlist generals. 

 General Dorregaray, in October, resigned the 

 chief command of the Carlist troops, and went 

 to France ; according to Carlist reports, in con- 

 sequence of ill-health, but, according to the Re- 

 publicans, in consequence of difficulties with 

 Don Carlos. That Cabrera, the most famous 

 of the military champions of the Carlist cause, 

 had openly fallen out with the Pretender, was 

 generally known. Reports were even rife of 

 serious mutinies in the Carlist camps, and of 

 attempts against the life of Don Carlos. Nev- 

 ertheless, the Carlists, at the end of the year 

 1874, had lost but little of their territory; and 

 although Serrano, at the beginning of Decem- 

 ber, went once more himself to the scene of 

 war, the army of the Government appeared to 

 be inactive, or, at most, to prepare very slowly 

 for another aggressive movement. 



The year closed with another coup d'etat, 

 which, though it had long been planned, sur- 

 prised the world by its sudden and unexpected 

 execution. In the last days of December two 

 battalions of General Martinez Campos pro- 

 nounced, at Murviedro, in favor of Prince Al- 

 fonso, the son of ex-Queen Isabella ; the gar- 

 rison of Madrid and the fleet followed ; soon 

 the same news was received from the Armies 

 of the North and the Centre ; and thus the 

 Spanish Republic was overthrown, and the 

 Bourbons were restored to one of the many 

 thrones from which they have been, since 

 1848, expelled. At the first news of the pro- 

 nunciamiento, the prime-minister, Sagasta, and 

 the Captain-General of Madrid, Primo de Rive- 

 ra, appeared to be desirous to put down the 

 movement. Sagasta issued an energetic mani- 

 festo against the troops, and the captain-gen- 

 eral had several prominent Alfonsists arrested, 

 among them Canovas de Castillos, who, as long 

 ago as August 22, 1873, had been authorized 

 by Alfonso to assume the government in his 

 name. But when the Armies of the North and 

 the Centre declared in favor of Alfonso, Sa- 

 gasta, Primo de Rivera, and Serrano, hast- 

 ened to recognize the new order of things, 

 and Canovas de Castillos assumed, in the name 

 of Prince Alfonso, the reins of government. 



The struggle of the Cubans for their inde- 

 pendence was not abandoned in 1874, but it 

 attracted little attention. Near the close of 

 February, Carlos Manuel Cespedes, ex-Presi- 

 dent of the Republic of, Cuba, was betrayed into 

 the hands of the Spanish authorities, by whose 

 orders he was shot. 



ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL. This great engi- 

 neering enterprise is making steady advance- 

 ment ; and it is expected that its progress 

 will be more rapid as the work approaches 

 completion. At the close of June, 1874, the 

 contractors had completed nearly one-seventh 

 of the whole distance. The tunnel is _ being 

 constructed for an international association of 

 capitalists,, known as the St. Gothard Com- 

 pany, which was founded October 10, 1871. 



