The tranquillity in which Queen Isabella of Spain has opened
the Cortes is by many regarded as the lull which precedes the !storm. „The circumstances by which the young but not inexpe- rienced monarch was surrounded were indeed painful in the ex- treme. Before her stood a Parliament, divided into four sections. One' composed of sincere, moderate, and practical patriots, desires that constitutional freedom shall from this moment be consolidated in Spain. But there is reason to fear that this section cannot be the majority of the Cortes. Another, treacherously true, to the Coert in. its .v*8 as well is its'prerogatives, desires that the Queen may, for the hour, temporize with the revolution in order to some coup d'etat. A third, perhaps scarcely represented there, but re- presented by Cabrera and Elio Who are arriving on the Northern frontier, desires to sweep away both Queen and constitution. A fourth, represented by Ordax y Amelia, views the royal pageant with jealousy and dislike, and is banded to assert "the sove- reignty" of the Constituent Assembly, in a Republican sense. To these factions might almost be added the Queen herself for a fifth ; and as, with her childish husband standing by her side, she 'declared that she had "thrown herself into the arms of the people," and proclaimed" a new Lela of happiness and prosperity," "with a voice that could not sound sincere, she presented one of the most ghastly " shams " of modern statecraft. And Espartero, who seems to hold the destinies of-the kingdom in his hand—who helps to secure the freedom of the popular representatives, not less nor more than the stability of the constitutional Queen upon her throne,—Espartero, trusted by all, seems to possess the sincere cooperation of no party, and to be betrayed by all. Such is the pageant that prefaces the labours of the new constituent Cortes in reestablishing the constitution of Spain.
