THE REVIVAL OF CARLISM IN SPAIN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 6

THE REVIVAL OF CARLISM IN SPAIN

what it means. MONCADA (Spain). D t ec. 8, 1900. “The Basque writes Solomon, and pronounces it Nebuchadnezzar,’ says tnea •witty Andalusian. Certainly he writes Carlism and pronounces it Liberty, though the chief supporters of Bon Carlos are the Ultramontanes, extreme clericals, and Legitimists; the representatives of religious fanaticism and absolutism, to which Basque traditions are entirely opposed. Visiting the scenes of the present Carlist outbreak for the ‘‘Daily Mail,” I am astounded to find how widely m North Spain the inhabitants still cling to the pretender’s cause. . . The Government is suppressing the disaffection with a promptitude unprecedented in Spanish history, but the country is facing an internal-.crisis more serious than apy since the Carlist defeat at Tolosa in ’76. The former revolution was started by the advent of Olios band of twenty in Navarra, but in two weeks the cry"cf “Dios, Patria y Rey” had called thousands t<y the banner to which their grandfathers wer e pledged in tne thirties. Had the authorities been unprepared, the present rising would have also swept like a wave through the North and East. . . The stranger first entering Spam may observe few signs of agitation. FRIGHTENED BILBAO.

The extra vigilance on the frontier is lost on him, also the shifty-eyed individuals on the trains —the easily-detected Spanish detectives. Among them may be recognised members of Weyler’s Cuban service—the men who lurked behind the confessional boxes, while Cuban women unconsciously sent husbands or brothers to their doom, or agents who drew information from children that sent fathers to languish in African penal hells. The Basque provinces are filled with disquieting rumours. Troops are scouring the country, wholesale arrests, including the Marquis de Sangarren, have been made. But for every rifle seized, thousands may be hiuden in the snowcapped ridges, and a thousand more sent from the Juntas in Fraij.ee' through the smugglers’ tracks into the Cantabrian zone for use “when God directs.”

Bilboa, the oasis of Liberalism in the Carlist country, still views the situation with apprehension. Twice besieged by Don Carlos the First, and twice relieved" by British tars under Lapidge, Ebsworth, Henry, and Wylde, who reinforced the Christianists and drove back the rebels, the city was dubbed “Villa Invicta.”

“Early in’74 the present Pretender determined to reduce the stubborn city. The country round resembles Natal, and with the strategical offensive and tactical defensive followed by the Boers he hemmed in a garrison almost equalling his force, and drove back a relieving column of 24,000 with heavy loss. General Serrano, with an Army Corps, next attempted to pierce the line of nature’s strongholds, but was forced to. retire with a loss of 3096. Finally Concher, by a brilliant counter-march, threatened the Carlist flank ,and the enemy retreated in the night. The siege cf Bilbao lasted two days longer than the investment of Ladysmith, .and both sieges present a very striking parallel. INSURGENT CATALONIA. The troops at present have the situation well in hand. Viscaya and Old Castille are now quiet, save for agitation in clerical Burgos. Navarra and Aragon, on the whole, are tranquil, though at Pamplona, despite its title, “Muy noble, muy leal, y muy heroica,” a Carlist junta has been discovered.in full operation, and there are ugly stories of bands collecting in: the Pyrrenean retreats immortalised byi Frdissart/ It is in Catalonia and Valencia,' however, -that - the* worst symptoms have appeared. The Catalans are “sui generis.” They are the soul of commerce and industry. Yet in every revolution they have taken, the lead. r : v .

The standard .of revolution was raised at Berga on November 2. Riding with the rebels was a beautiful Amazon believed to be Donna Blanca, Infanta of Portugal, the Jeanne d’Are of the" last war and a leader in the Cuenca raid, with its attendant 1 massacres and outrage. I learn now, however, that Donna Blanca is not in Spain. Before the; revolutionaries could achieve a success they were attacked by the Guardia Civil, and retreated when Colonel Churruca. and the Alphonso' ill. Regiment arrived, leaving one dead on the field. At Badalona the Carlists were routed by Civil Guards, under Sergeant Joglar, and tit Igualada Lieutenant Castane. defeated the rebels in a fight in which a cornet and. corporal were severely wounded. ■? The rout was completed by Colonel Nicolan and the Navarra Infantry. The Guardia Civil have been thanked, by the Cortes for suppressing civil war, and 1 General Linares, who was wounded in the Spanish American war, has conferred the Cross for Meritorious Conduct in the Field on Lieutenant Castane, Joglar, and the two wounded men, all of whom showed extreme pluck. CARLISM WITHOUT DON CARLOS. While the troops were busy here, revolutionists appeared at Valencia and near Alcoy, in Alicante, in which city the Society of Workmen burned alive an

unpopular mayor and his police only twenty-seven years ago. At Vails a few days ago a Carlist was tracked no* a cave in which 115 Remingtons V? re found. At Ombiana ninety-five rules and bayonets were captured, and a few prisoners with arms, including Soliva, his adjutant, and five aides, have been, taken at Igualada, Villefranca, Sitjes, an dPepus. At Manresa, Tarragona and Sarragossa officials and arms have been seized this week by the trqops. _ “The movement is Carlism . without Don Carlos,” says General Asearraga. The partisans to the cause comprise three extremes —the aristocrats, who sign for the. absolute monarchy shattered by the revolution, of 1868; the ultra clerical party, and the proletariat. The clerics are bitterly opposed to religious liberty in Spain guaranteed by Article 21 of the present Constitution. They declare that Protestantism is dissolving like a worm-eaten corpse; but to combat a worse evil, irrationalism, they would have the Church an infallable power of State. “Yes,” replies Castelar, “great was this religion of might, but the bones of tortured heretics in Quemadero la Crux protest, and mankind has learned the religion of love, under which code religious liberty is fundamental.” BEHIND THE MOVEMENT. Yet marshalled under such organisers are the races of Spain who' represent advanced 1 democracy* with their ideal of State liberty and federal control. Of the abolition of the Salic law which deprived the first Carlos of his throne or the Pretender’s vague .claim, they little reck. Under the sacred oak of Guernica, Carlos Maria de los Dolores Juan Isidro Jose Francisco d© Bourbon has sworn to. uphold their sacred “fueros,” which give the frontier States quasi autonomy. Times are hard in Spain. The disbanding of 280,000 men, "from the colonial armies has caused a slump l in the labour market. Increased taxation, which has extracted .ten million extra pesetas during the past fiscal year, the Cuban debt, and lost- colonial trade have produced an industrial crisis for which the poor demand some panacea. Thus the most advanced sections of Spain provide adherents to the cause c>f exclusive aristocrats and clerics against the statesmen who have done everything to further human liberty in Spain, and are striving to loose the trammels tied by long breech of the Laws of cause and effect.

As one rides through these districts scarred by years of civil war, bestrewn, crosses where Carlists were executed or executioneers, the reflection is forced—how frequently the agitators for liberty strangle it by their violence, the only good accruing being accomplished by the conservative elements, stirred to activity by this frenzy. The Republic of France and the Commune for example.—George Clark Musgrave.