FOREIGN EXTRACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 107, 22 January 1853, Page 4

FOREIGN EXTRACTS.

SPAIN.

It is a curious evidence of the march of true civilisation to find a Spanish paper in the heart of Madrid calling1 aloud against the barbarity of bull-fights! We should have as soon anticipated a protest against gambling- tables from the frequenters of the German spas. The following article from the Ileraldo not only records some of the horrors consequent upon these savage exhibitions, but denounces them as being disgraceful to a Christian and civilised country. There is hope for Spain when we find a public journalist courageous enough to enter the lists auainst the national pastime —"The Toreador Zimenez, known under the name of Cano, died last night from the effects of the wounds he had received in the last bullfight. This is the third human victim who, in the space of three months, h.-is been sacrificed in the arena of the most popular spectacle in Spain—a spectacle in which every part is equally dangerous, since the three unfortunate men who have succumbed were—one a banderillo, the other a picador, and the third an espada. If we consider that these misfortunes fell on a class which does not count more than 50 individuals throughout Spain, we find that, in that ehus, the proportion of casualties is perhaps superior to that of an army in campaign. Iv presence of these deplorable facts "we ask men of good faith if such a spectacle is compatible with Christianity—if, when we tolerate such .doings, we can, without blushing, proclaim ouv right to be considered an eniinently religious nation—if, finally, instead of being a Christian and civilised people we do not rather belong to that period of the decline of the Roman Empire when the people took the greatest pleasure in seeing men torn to pieces by wild beasts, and gladiators combating with skill, and dying with grace, in presence of an idolatrous population addicted to sensual pleasures." CUBA. The Creoles of Havana have contrived to publish a paper which they call the Voice of the Cuban People, and which is filled with denunciations of the Military Government and revolutionary appeals to the population. Three or four numbers of this sheet have been issued in a clandestine way, but it seems to have created a great excitement in Havana, and throughout Cuba, so much so, that the journals of that city have at length broken silence on the subject and been permitted, by the censorship, to publish and discuss the matter, and denounce the authors of this fresh attempt to disturb the tranquillity of the island. Many arrests have been recently made by the Government, principally among the Creoles suspected of bein«concerned, more or less, in such publications, ov or fomenting and maturing some new attempt at insurrection. The movement of the disaffected is, however, considered a weak and futile attempt against the present firm anthoritv of the island; and there seems to be little doubt but that the Government will yet succeed in discovering those persons who are engaged in the publication. The sheet appears to have been printed in old type used by the Faro Industrial a newspaper which was suppressed by tl-e Government a year ago. ; •SAN FRANCISCO. _ The Daily Herald draws the following "loomv picture oi_ the great metropolis of the Pacific Mates :—«• A city entering upon its career with a ncuer patrimony than any other of modern times, having under the Mexican law a landed property that would have enriched a State—an inheritance that would bare given us public buildings rif the richest architectural heautvwould have furnished us asylums for our sick, our sailors, and 0,, v insane— would have built public free schools in every ward— would have brought water to every door, and made fountains piay in the p \ aXn> ;uid wou](l have f(n ._ •iished iis will, public baths-won},] have creat-d 11 lire department that could have stayed all conflagrations—would have planked our streets and built our wharves—all of which resources have been squandered, and our city is not only destitute of the ornaments, necessities, and conveniences above enumerated, but h saddled with a debt of ),600,000 dollars to anticipate our revenues, and < ? iind us with taxes for twenty years to come.'