The ulterior consequences of the Spanish marriage question do not
seem to be taking a turn at all favourable for the position supposed to have been assumed by Lord Palmerston. Austria and the German powers, it is understood, remain passive. They will not join in any protest against the marriage of Queen Isabella or her sister, because they absolutely refuse to recognize thW Queen as rightful sovereign of Spain. This is not what France could wish; but it is almost as untoward for the British Minister as he could have feared, and is a strange upshot of his confidence in the power he petted—Austria. Her very martinet exactness, which made her seem so trustworthy, renders her useless to him at this juncture. Perhaps Austria is not sorry to allow France to busy herself in Spain, and so postpone all disputes on the Rhine. Russia is said to stand by England and the treaty of Utrecht ; certain contingent rights in the succession to Schleswig and Holstein making Russia, for the nonce, highly sensitive on the score of treaties and their maintenance generally.
