mortally wounded. The loss on the part of the assailants was very severe, amounting to upwards of a thousand men killed and wounded. The British legion alone had between eight and nine hundred killed and wounded, including more than seventy officers, ten of whom were killed in the field. Except the confidence which it gave to the men, by fairly bringing them for the first time into contact with the enemy, this great loss did not produce any counterbalancing advantage. The enemy's works, indeed, were carried and destroyed, but a new position was immediately taken up by them not far in the rear of the former. The royalists did not even advance so far as Hernani, the garrison of which was forthwith strengthened by three fresh Carlist battalions. The duke of Wellington afterwards described, in parliament, the only effect of the operation as being to remove the blockade of St. Sebastian a mile or two farther off, and to give the inhabitants more space and security for their evening walks. On the 28th of May, a similar attack, aided by the effectual fire of the British squadron, enabled the royalists to regain possession of the small town of Passages, on the opposite side of the Urumea from St. Sebastian. The troops crossed on a bridge constructed by the British seamen. Cordova, likewise, shook off his inactivity, but only, according to custom, to do something which ended in nothing. On the 21st of May, he marched from Vittoria to assail Eguia in the same positions of Arlaban which he had attacked in March. After several successive engagements, on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, he suc

ceeded, on the last of these days in carrying the position, and established himself at Salinas, the enemy, as he said, being completely routed. But this com

pletely routed enemy attacked him on the 24th, and although he maintained his ground, after a severe engagement, he found it necessary to trust to his former positions. Leaving his army to the command of Espartero, he hastened to Madrid, where the political warfare had been going on more actively than that of the field.

He

The elections to the new Cortes had taken place without much public disturbance, and produced a chamber altogether favourable to the minister. Only one member of the majority, which had outvoted him on the electoral law, was again returned. Mendizabal laboured to complete his administration before the meeting of the Cortes, but without success. had reckoned on Isturitz, the former president of the Procuradores; a man of determined and energetic character, and supposed to be even more liberal than himself; but Isturitz declined to accept of office, although his reasons for refusing were not very distinctly explained. At the preparatory meeting of the Cortes on the 17th of March, he was elected temporary president of the Procuradores almost unanimously, only one vote being given to the other candidate, Gonzales. In the following week, when the chamber came to appoint its permanent president, after the session had been opened, he had the smallest number of votes of all the candidates, and Gonzales was elected by a large majority. This sudden change was produced by

his continued refusal to become a member of the Mendizabal ministry. People knew that he was desirous of office; they therefore ascribed his refusal to personal ambition; they inferred, that he would soon shew himself an opponent of the existing minister; and, entertaining this conviction, they could not tell into the arms of what party he might throw himself, in order to insure a triumph. It is instructive, likcwise, to remark, in reference to what happened a few months afterwards, that plots were said to have been formed to re-establish the constitution of 1812; that this was a joint-scheme of the Carlists and ultra-liberals, with the latter of whom Isturitz as yet was numbered, in order to produce confusion, in which both of them hoped to find their account, It was urged, therefore, that the only minister, who was considered capable of controlling both, ought to be strongly supported; and, that all, who were inclined to resist or displace him, should be vigorously put down. If Isturitz was not an oppositionist already, all this was sufficient to make him one.

The Queen Regent opened the session with a speech from the throne, on the 22nd of March. Her majesty informed the Cortes, that the new electoral law, for the consideration of which they had specially been convoked, would immediately be laid before them; but, that other important matters connected with the internal state of the country, would likewise be brought under their notice. She eulogised her army in the north, of which she was advised to say, that, "whenever the enemy was to be found on foot, the civil war

would soon be terniinated." The vote of confidence given by the last Cortes, had not been acted on, so as to impose any fresh burden on the state. By issuing decrees for dissolving monastic orders, and disposing of their property, public credit had been benefitted; and an assurance had been given to the creditors of the state, that the government was determined to fulfil all its obligations. Great improvements were in the course of being introduced into every branch of the financial system-all of them the result of much meditation and study. A code of penal law, and of criminal instruction had been completed; a civil code was now undergoing a last revision; and a commercial code would appear along with it.

The Proceres voted an address which echoed the speech. The address proposed by the committee of the Procuradores bore the same character, but it produced a debate of several days duration, from which it was difficult to ascertain what were the real points of difference between the parties. It was clear that there was a party, headed by Isturitz and Galiano, determined, if possible, to unseat Mendizabal; but it was far from being so clear in what respects their intended policy was to vary from his own. The minister was blamed for the continuance of the civil war, which he had long ago promised would be at an end in six months, and for the often-repeated disturbances which alarmed the interior of the kingdom. He was called on to produce the estimates of the year, although the vote of confidence had rendered that measure unnecessary; and it was insisted that the Cortes should be put in

operations of the government. No topic was more warmly discussed than the propriety of calling in the aid of a French army. Public opinion was strongly opposed to such a step, and ministers declared that they would never have recourse to it, till every effort, which Spain herself could make, should have failed. On the other hand, it was believed that the new opposition were desirous to obtain the benefit of the direct intervention of France, and were not unwilling to see the war take such a course as would render that intervention indispensable: not, indeed, that these designs proceeded from any wish to see Carlos and despotism enthroned in Madrid, but that they were the result of personal ambition, which expected that the introduction of a French army would secure the power of the Spanish politicians with whom it should have originated. No imputation could attach greater odium to a party in Spain: and the opposition began already to be ranked with the Afrancesados, or friends of France. This, again, laid them under another suspicion, still more irreconcilable with their former conduct and professions. If there were liberals in Spain, Galiano and Isturitz ranked amongst their foremost. The latter had been anxiously sought after by Mendizabal, up to the very opening of the session, to form part of his administration; and while he declined office, he had assured the minister that he would support his measures, "providing they are of a progressive nature." Nay, as the session approached, the anticipated opposition had been regarded as ultraliberal, and resolved to change

and

much more democratical; now they were accused of wishing the intervention of a French army, in order that they might use it as an instrument to prevent the establishment of liberal institutions. But, whatever might be the motives and designs of the opposition, it was lamentably weak in numbers. In the course of the discussion on the address, it ventured to divide only twice. One took place on the paragraph of the address which alluded to internal disturbances, and the ministry had a majority of 102 against 10. The other took place on an amendment moved by Isturitz, that the estimates should be laid before the Chamber, in order that the state of the finances might be known, and ministers had a majority against this amendment of 97 to 17, four members having abstained from voting. Some hasty expressions used by Isturitz, during the debate, led to a duel between him and Mendizabal, but both of them came off unhurt.

During the interval between the dissolution of the last Cortes and the convocation of the present, Mendizabal had issued certain decrees for the sale of national property, that is, of property which had been seized by sup pressing the monastic orders, and curtailing religious establishments. He considered himself entitled to do this under the vote of confidence, which authorized the government to make proper arrangements for the amelioration of public credit, but it was maintained that these decrees should be laid before the Cortes for their approval. In the lower Chamber a petition to this effect

now

was moved to be presented to the queen, signed by twenty-four members. They described the decrees as endangering the safety of the crown, by exciting agitation in the provinces, aud furnishing Don Carlos with pretences to gain adherents to his cause. At all events, they were matters of too much importance to be withdrawn from the power of the legislature which was now sitting. The short delay required for their discussion could not produce inconvenience to the government; and if the decrees were approved by the Cortes, the object of the government would be more certainly gained, for the property would sell at much higher prices, when the title of the purchaser was to rest on a legislative enactment. On the other hand, if the government refused to submit these decrees to the approbation of the Cortes, an impression would be produced that it feared they would be rejected; and so long as that fear was not removed, the property either would not find purchasers at all, or would be sold at a very low price. Mendizabal did not await the discussion of this motion; confident, probably, that the overwhelming majority, which he had gained on the address, would support his decrees, he laid them before the Procuradores, who remitted them to a select committee. But he opposed, with all his influence, a motion made in the Chamber of the Proceres to petition the queen to suspend the operation of the decrees till they should have been sanctioned by the Cortes. The minister maintained that the suspension would be injurious to public credit, as this property was a fund for the payment of debt, or

of interest on debt; and he gave the Chamber to understand that the government, which was not bound by a mere address of only one Chamber, would still follow its own course. The address, however, was carried by a large majority.

On the 25th of April, the new electoral law was presented to the Chamber of Procuradores. Its general provisions were the same as those of the former bill, although it was modified and altered in some of the details. The representation was to be provincial, each province sending a deputy for every 50,000 of its population. Cuba was to have eight members; Puerto Rico, five; and the Philippines, four. The electors, again, were to consist of such a number of persons as would be equal to 160 for every deputy whom the province was entitled to elect. The franchise was likewise given to practitioners in law and medicine of a certain number of years practice; to architects, painters, and sculptors who were royal academicians; to professors in any public institution for education, except mere masters of primary instruction and of languages; to government officers enjoying an income of 24,000 reals, (almost 2407.) if in Madrid, and half that sum if in the provinces; to all military and naval officers of the rank of captain and upwards; and to the chiefs and captains of the national guards. The qualifications of a deputy were, that he should be a Spaniard, twenty-five years of age, and an inhabitant householder, possessing an income of 6000 reals (607.) per annum, or paying 500 reals (57.) in direct taxes. Only the half of these sums was required in the

case of persons who were entitled to be electors in virtue of their profession alone. The lists of electors were to be made out by the provincial deputations, and published annually for fifteen days, from the 1st to the 15th of July. For the purposes of election, the provinces were to be divided into districts, with convenient polling places. The electors in each district were first of all to choose a president and four scrutineers from among their own number, under whose auspices the election should proceed. Each elector was then to write on a polling ticket the names of as many can didates as the province was entitled to return deputies. The result was to be certified by the president and scrutineers, and sent to the capital of the province, where the members elected were to be declared by a second general scrutiny of these district returns. In case of equality, the election was to be decided by lot.

The bill was remitted to a committee. The committee reported, and the report, which was in favour of the bill, had been agreed to by the Procuradores, without much discussion, when a change of ministers led at once to the establishment, by means of military insurrection, of a very different electoral law, and suppressed the royal statute in all its parts. We have already mentioned the general dissatisfaction which prevailed at the unsuccessful issue of the military operations; and the suspicions which were enter tained that Cordova, if not favourable to the Pretender in his heart, at least made no active and hearty use of the force with which he was entrusted to put him down. Even an advantage gained by the

British Legion on the 5th of May, in the neighbourhood of St. Sebastian, only increased the odium which attached to him; for, much more important successes, it was said, might have been gained on that occasion, if he had not wilfully kept aloof from co-operating with the auxiliary force. Quesada, the captain-general of Castile and commander of the guards, and San Roman, the inspector of the militia, were placed in the same class. Mendizabal and his colleagues, convinced that the war would not be vigorously prosecuted so long as Cordova commanded, and Quesada and San Romano had almost exclusive influence in the appointment of officers, urged the queen regent to remove them from their situations. It is impossible to believe that her majesty had any wish that Carlos should be able to drive her from her throne; but she refused to dismiss these officers; and as she persisted in that refusal, Mendizabal and his colleagues tendered their resignations on the 14th of May. Their resignations were accepted, and a new ministry was formed on the 16th, principally from among the adherents of the scanty opposition. Isturitz was president of the council, and minister for foreign affairs; Alcala Galiano was made minister of marine; the duke of Rivas became minister of the interior. The finances were given to Aguirre Solarte, the banker, and the war department to general Seoane; but the last two were named in their absence, and neither of them accepted office. The ministry of war was subsequently given to Mendez Vigo.

It was manifest that such a ministry could not continue in office in the face of a chamber