Affairs in Spain are not much better this week, but
they are 'entering on a somewhat new phase. President Castelar is at last alone and absolute, the Cortes having departed, and all Spain having been declared in a state of siege. He has obtained a loan of £4,000,000, which sets his hands partially free ; has appointed effective Generals without distinction of party, and has re-established military law. He has placed General Turon in command of Catalonia, whereupon it is reported that the soldiers have begun to behave better ; and has sent General Moriones to Tolosa, to release General Loma, who seems to have been surrounded, with his 3,000 men, by a really considerable force of Carlists. He is trying to reorganise the fleet, and has called out the reserves, some of whom, however, join the Carlists ; and he has sent his Minister of the Colonies as Dictator to Cuba, with orders to settle things there as he thinks proper. But he has not yet got together 20,000 trustworthy soldiers, still less men who can be relied on for the Highland War the Carlists understand, and till he has, his power must :remain uncertain. Note that Serrano and the old party of Order ,do not doubt him, and that Madrid is refilling.
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