NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.
THE news from Spain this week possesses considerable interest. The Constitutional party is evidently so strong, that the Queen a Government is under the necessity of conciliating it. The Madrid Gazette of the 24th of October contains several ex
cellent decrees, which had not been looked for. One proclaims a partial amnesty to the Liberal exiles; • another relates to the internal government of the country, and prescribes the adoption of a System resembling the one which prevails in France. If this sys tem is worked with vigour, it will bring about vast improvements. A third decree nominates two commissions, formed, it is said, of honourable and enlightened men, for the purpose of revising the regulations of the corn-trade; a fourth refers to the state of the Police, and defines its duties.
The new Minister, BURGOS, who succeeded Count D'OFFALIA. in the Home Department, is the author of these decrees. They
were sanctioned, however, by ZEA. BERAILTDEZ, whose supremacy in the Cabinet is still undisputed. It is supposed that the latter yields only to the necessity of the case, and will continue to trieuo, as many obstacles as possible to the progress of Constitutional opinions. These opinions, however, will advance more surely un der the modified despotism which he wishes to establish, than if the more eager and determined friends of liberty ruled the Queen's councils. The latter, it is more than probable, would proceed in cautiously, and offend the mass of the nation by precipitate at
tempts at reform. Less alarm is occasioned by the proceedings of ZEA. BERMUDEZ ; and in the meanwhile, every Liberal measure is
an inroad upon the Absolute system, and a step which, we trust, the Minister will not be able to retrace, when the peculiar circumstances which have induced him to take it shall no longer exist —when the,Carlist insurrection shall have been , put down, and the Constitutionalists have been lulled into confident security.
The ceremony of proclaiming the new Queen in the capital immediately followed the promulgation of these decrees ; and it speaks well for the state of feeling in Madrid, that they should have produced the intended effect of disposing the inhabitants to receive her with favour. No doubt, the hearty cheers and ener
getic vivas with which she was greeted, must be partly attributed tothe influence of a considerable sum of money thrown among the populace : but this is not the way in which the countenance of the more intelligent was to be procured.
The next measure of the Government was one of necessary vigour—the disarming of the Royalist Volunteers. This body consisted of cavalry and infantry, and amounted to about four thousand men, all Carlists. The tax by which they had been supported was abolished on the 24th, and on the 27th the disarmament was accomplished. The cavalry made no resistance, but quietly gave up their arms : a division of the infantry showed fight, and defended themselves in their quarters for upwards of two hours, though vigorously attacked by several .batta lions of the garrison tioops, supported by artillery. In the course of the skirmish, they wantonly fired upon the unarmed inhabitants. The "better sort of people ctowded the streets, and loudly testified their joy at the disbanding of this expensive and pernicious force.
The accounts from the Northern provinces of Spain are still unfavourable. The insurgents are in possession of the greater part of Old Castile; and though the news of their defeat by
General SAARSFIELD is confirmed, yet the advance of that officer to Vittoria has been checked, aud the insurrection seems to be spreading in all directions around him. The diligences and
Couriers from Madrid to Bayonne have been stopped, and the latter grossly maltreated by the rebels. The monks are at the
head of affairs in ViUoria and the neighbourhood : they issue PalisPorts for the "revolutionary city of Madrid," and date them " the first year of Christianity." The fatuous priest MERINO has taken the field, and has published a proclamation at Aranda, threatening to shoot all who refuse to join him,—a truly clerical proceeding Doll CARLOS is said to be still lingering on the frontier ; but his exact place of abode is not yet ascertained.
