M. MENDIZABAL has succeeded in forming a new Spanish Ministry.
The following is a list of the members of the Chief Council, with the offices attached to each ; from which it appears that some of the appointments are only provisional.
President of the Council, and Secretary of Foreign Affairs General ALAVA.
Minister of War, ad ink-rim MARIANO QUIROS.
Minister of Finance J. A. AIENDIZAIIAL.
Minister of Marine, ad interim J. A. MENnizaisar... Minister of the Interior GIL DE LA QUADRA.
Minister of the Interior, ad interim MARTIN DE Los HEROS.
It is said that ARGUELLES was offered, but refused, an office in this Ministry ; he is pledged, however, to support MENDIZABAL, who is evidently the mainstay of the Government. The prin- ciples on which he undertook to form the Ministry, are given in an address from him to the QUEEN, of which the following is the most important passage. " A compact, strong, homogeneous, and above all, a responsible Ministry, being coristituted—a Ministry strengthened by the sympathies and support of the national representation—the Government of your Majesty will have to de- dicate simultaneously and indefatigably its exertions and cares to bring to a speedy and glorious end, without any other than national means, that fatricidal war, the shame and disgrace of the age in which we live and depressive of the will of the nation ; to settle at once, and without degrading them, those Teti- :7+04 corporations whose reform Meg themselres require in accordance with the publk interest; to commit to wise laws all the rights which emanate from and are, so to speak, the sole and steady support of the representative system ; to reanimate invigorate, or rather, to create and establish the public credit, the 'wonderful force and magic of which may be studied in prosperous and free England ; in short, to succeed in reconciling with the prerogatives of the Crown the rights and duties of the people ; for without this equilibrium, eli hope of public felicity is illusive."
From this it appears, that MEND1ZABAL wisely repudiates the flirect intervention of Foreign powers for putiing an end to the
Civil war, The measure indicated by the settlement of the reli-
gious corporations is one for the sale of Church property, with the exception of a sufficiency for the support of the present pos- sessors in a frugal manner. The property left in the hands of the monks is to be bequeathed by them to two or more persons, in order to increase the numbers of small proprietors. It is hoped that, by this operation, upwards of eight millions sterling will be procured. The appointment of the new Ministry is said to be popular in Spain. Letters from MEND' Z A.BAL received in Paris, speak of his intention to convoke the Cortes without delay ; and it is expected that several of the independent Juntas will be dis- solved,—that of the Murcia having already set the example. Al- together, affairs in Spain have assumed a better aspect.
Compared with the politicd movements in Madrid, and in the chief provinces, the war in Biscay is of little importance. There has, however, been some sharp fighting in the vicinity of Bilboa, which terminated in the repulse, with severe loss, of a body of the Queen's troops. The following account of this disaster is supplied by a correspondent of the Globe: there was plainly a want of concert in the operations of the commanders of the Royal troops.
" The divisions of Espartero and Espeleta, amounting together to about 8000 men, marched on the 11th from Bilboa, in consequence of intelligence hav- ing heels received that the earlists were in greater force in the neighbourhood of Durango than had been supposed. The two divisions had not marched above two miles when they fell in with the advanced parties of the enemy, who skirmished with them until they reached Airigorreaga, where they found the main body of the Carlists under Moreno, amounting to about eleven or twelve thousand men, strongly posted. l'nder these circumstances, Espeleta, not wishing to leave behind him so large a force, which would have been suffi- cient to blockade Bilboa had the Queen's troops continued their march to ()Mona, as was originally intended, ordered his forces to retreat, upon which they were hotly pursued by the enemy. When the noise of the tiring was heard at Bilboa, the garrison and four battalions of the English marched out to support Espeleta's troops. In consequence of the bridge over the Nervioa having been abandoned before the rear of Espartero's division, with part of the baggage, had passed, the Carlist cavalry charged them, and occasioned con- siderable loss ; but Espartero placed himself at the head of a few cavalry and recovered the bulge, and the Regiment of the English coming to his assist- ance, charged down the road and drove the Carlists back. This was the only English battalion that was seriously engaged, and it behaved very well. " Espartero was severely wounded in the arm ; and the total loss during the day, inclihiling two English killed and ten wounded, does not exceed 450 men. 1, The Carlists occupied on the 12th the same positions they held on the pre- ceding day, in this villages of St. Migel, Arrigorreaga, andBassauri, with a battalion in advance at the bridge of l'uente Nuevo. The river remains open, and as nearly 12,000 men are in Bilboa and its immediate neigbourhood, there is not the least rea-on to fear for its safety."
