SPAIN. 



729 



Renteria and Oyarznn ; on the sooth an army 

 corps was advancing from Pamplona toward 

 the mountain- near Leiza; and in the west 

 Morionos occupied important places near To- 

 losa. 



On the 18th General Primo de Rivera had 

 made such captures as gave him a complete 

 line to the south of Estella. About the 20th 

 of February King Alfonso took the command 

 of the army in person. On the 19th the Car- 

 list stronghold at Estella, the most important 

 of their posts, surrendered unconditionally. 

 With this position was captured a large part 

 of the Carlist artillery. The Carlists were 

 very much demoralized. Numbers of them 

 fled to France, and their minor posts fell rapid- 

 ly into the hands of the royal troops. On the 

 21st of February the royalists had carried all 

 the heights near Tolosa, and the King entered 

 the town in triumph. The Pope advised Don 

 Carlos to stop fighting, now that success was 

 hopeless. Hernani next fell into the hands of 

 the Government. The Carlist forces were dis- 

 banded, and surrendered in parties at Tolosa 

 and Pamplona, February 25th. The Senate, 

 February 21st, passed a vote of thanks to the 

 array for its services, and on the "23d a Te 

 Deum was sung in the cathedral at Madrid 

 in honor of the King's entry into Tolosa. On 

 the 28th of February Don Carlos crossed the 

 frontier at Arneguy into France, having pre- 

 viously informed the French commanding offi- 

 cer at Bayonne of his intention. In his letter 

 to that officer he declared that, having been 

 conquered by adverse fortune, he had resolved 

 to abandon further struggle as useless. As 

 soon as he entered France the general com- 

 manding the department informed him that he 

 and his officers might retain their swords and 

 horses, but would have to submit themselves 

 to the orders of internment, which would be 

 communicated to them by the civil authorities. 

 At Pau Don Carlos was informed by the pre- 

 fect of the Basses-Pyrenees that he would not 

 be allowed to remain even for a short time in 

 that department, but might sojourn temporari- 

 ly in a town in the north of France. He went 

 to Boulogne without stopping at Paris, and de- 

 parted thence, March 3d, for England. While 

 in France he issued a manifesto to the Span- 

 iards, in which he said : " Desiring to stop 

 bloodshed, I forbear continuing a glorious but 

 at present fruitless struggle. Seeing the suf- 

 ferings of my volunteers, and the superiority 

 of numbers against them, it becomes necessa- 

 ry to sheathe the sword. I will never si^n a 

 compromise. My flag remains folded until the 

 moment which God shall fix as the supreme 

 hour of redemption." Since his defeat Don 

 Carlos has traveled in various countries. He 

 spent a few weeks during the summer in the 

 United States. 



The King, after the conclusion of the war, 

 made a march through the northern provinces 

 at the head of a division of the army. Re- 

 turning to Madrid, he entered the city in tri- 



umph, March 20th, amid brilliant festivities 

 and great popular rejoicings. Two days be- 

 fore this the Chamber of Deputies had voted 

 the reply to the address from the throne, in 

 which the King was styled El Rey Paciflcador. 



The elections for the new Cortes, which 

 were begun January 20th, were attended with 

 considerable excitement, but resulted in a sig- 

 nal triumph for the ministerial party, who se- 

 cured a very large majority of the Deputies. 

 Of the 406 Deputies chosen, the Opposition re- 

 turned only 63, of whom 80 were classed as 

 moderados, 30 as constitutionals, one was a 

 radical, one a cantonalist, and one (Sefior Caa- 

 telar) a moderate republican. 



The Cortes was opened, February 15th, by 

 the King in person. In his speech his Majesty 

 referred to the approaching end of the Carlist 

 rebellion, and to his intention of going to the 

 army in person, and spoke of the relations of 

 the Government to foreign powers as being 

 friendly. The representatives of Spain at the 

 Vatican were engaged in regulating pending 

 questions in a manner required by the interests 

 of the Church and the state. The financial 

 condition of the country had been much im- 

 paired. The integrity of the Cuban territory 

 would be upheld ; 32,000 troops had been sent 

 to that island since the accession of his Majes- 

 ty. The Cuban War had not prevented the 

 emancipation of 76,000 slaves. The King 

 claimed that, in view of the rapid wane of 

 the Carlist insurrection, and the growing fee- 

 bleness of the insurrection in Cuba, his short 

 but difficult reign had not been without avail 

 for the public good, and concluded with the 

 words : " The efforts of Spain to preserve her 

 place in the world show what she will accom- 

 plish when her strength is no longer wasted 

 in sterile agitations. Heaven grant a speedy 

 recompense for our painful sacrifices! " Sefior 

 Jose de Posada Nerrera was unanimously 

 chosen President of the Chamber of Deputies. 



The religious question formed the chief 

 point of discussion in the debates on the pro- 

 posed new Constitution. Article XI. estab- 

 lished religions tolerance for non-Catholic be- 

 liefs in the interior of places of worship and 

 cemeteries, but interdicted all public manifes- 

 tations, at the same time declaring the Roman 

 Catholic to be the religion of the state. The 

 article was attacked by the extremes of both 

 sides. The clerical party opposed it on the 

 principle that, in a country so wholly Catholic 

 as Spain, tolerance of other beliefs onght not 

 to be granted. The Liberals, under the lead 

 of Castelar, were dissatisfied, because it did 

 not go far enough, and establish entire reli- 

 gious freedom. On the 15th of Marcli SeOor 

 Calderon Collantes, Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs, speaking in the Cortes on this question, 

 said that the Government " trusted to the wis- 

 dom of the Pope and his affection for Spain," 

 and hoped that Providence would prevent so 

 eminently a Catholic nation from being di- 

 vorced from the common head of the faithfuL 



