MENDIZABAL appears to have succeeded in dividing the Ultra. Liberal
party in the Spanish Cortes. ISTURITZ, who was elected temporary President of the Chamber of Procuradores, was thrown out on the final ballot; and ANTONIO GONZALES, the candidate favoured by MENDIZABAL, has been elected by a majority of 75 to 58. This is a great triumph for the Minister ; who is about to complete his Cabinet by a junction, it is supposed, with ARGUELLES and CALATRAVA.
There have been some disturbances at Saragossa. Three persons belonging to the Carlist party, one of them a priest, were sentenced to transportation for treasonable conduct. The mob was provoked that they were not condemned to death; and it was therefore arranged by the authorities, that the convicts should be conveyed by a small detachment of soldiers out of the town, on the night of the 22d of March. This plan was discovered, and a seditious portion of the National Guard stationed themselves near the prison, to seize the Carlists and put them to death. The officer who was to command the escort would not let out the prisoners; but on the following morning, the prison was stormed by the rioters; who placed four new judges on the judgment-seat, and compelled them to reverse the former sentence, and order the prisoners to be strangled. At the time these accounts were despatched, the town was in a state of constant disturbance.
Nothing of importance in the way of military operations has been performed in the insurgent provinces ; but the Queen's troops are in good spirits in conseqnence of the receipt of a letter from Lord JOHN HAY, Commander of the British naval force on the coast, toCoenovs, stating that he had received instructions So sooperate with him actively for the suppression of the rebellion. A correspondent of the Courier mentions, that a man who bad been employed as a baker in the Royalist camp, had been discovered to be a Carlist spy, and that there was reason to suspoet that the sickness which had created such havoc among the troops had been caused by the mixture of poison by this man and others in their provisions. It is said that CORDOVA. had some time before expressed his suspicioa that the food issued to the British Legion was adulterated, and a secret consultation of officers had been held on the subject.
Previous page
