11 JUNE 1870, Page 1

The Spanish Cortes are going to perform an unusual feat

; make a Queen Bee by Act of Parliament. All members are requested to be in their places on a day fixed for the election, and the candidate who obtains a majority out of the total number of votes, 356, will be proclaimed King. We have elsewhere endeavoured to explain the probable working of this arrangement, but may mention here that the resolve to require a clear majority of the Cortes, instead of a clear majority of those present, which was voted by 138 to 124, is considered fatal to Montpensier. His partizans resisted the pro- posal—which was made by Rojo Arias in the interest of Prim— most furiously, Topete in particular almost threatening his opponents. An election by plebiscite was proposed, but rejected, for fear the peasantry should vote for Don Carlos or Isabella. Note, in connection with the incubation of a King in Spain, the Lisbon telegram of June 7th, " S. Sampaio has left the Saldanha Cabinet, on account of his opposition to the scheme for dissolving the Cortes and instituting a dictatorship." A dictator under a King would be in a strange position, but what if the King were nominal Dictator, consenting to the revolutionary measure in hopes of a more brilliant crown ? Note, too, the split between Portugal and Italy, which is just what would happen if the Spanish Crown were going to the House of Braganza when it ought to have gone to the House of Savoy.