DEATH OF DON CARLOS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 564, 20 July 1909, Page 5

DEATH OF DON CARLOS.

■,':■/:. SPANISH . (Br Tcleeraph.-Presa Asaoclatlon.-Oopyrlßlrt.) ;;■ . ' (Rec, July 19, 11 p.m.) ' ■■'.■'•.: Rome, July 19. ■ '. Don Carlosj Protender to the: Spanish throne, died of apoplexy ,at Venice, aetat 61. ■"■.'•'l .'CAREER OF CARLOS. .■'■," THE FOURTH PEETENDEE OF HIS LINE. Don Carlos, coufeiu of the late'father of the present King Alfoneo XIII. of Spain, w'as head of'the Carfret faction. ; The Carlists, ilave iiiado several armed attempts to i seize the Spanish throne, the last one-,being ■ in : the 'seventies. In 1873, Don Carlos entered Spain, ;and for a long time maintained his position in .the north; of that' country, not being expelled till 1876. Since. then two other opportunities for invasion have presented themselves,, but he was found' wanting. ; ; ■■'" : Carlos, Prinre of Bourbon, known as Don Carlos, was. born at Laibaoh on March 30, ■)848, being the oldest "surviving 6on of Don Juan of Bourbon and of.th© Archduchess Maria Beatrix, daughter, of Franois IV, ' Duke of Modena; The successor of Don Carlos is Don Jaime, a son by his first wife (Princess Margaret of Bourbon) and now an officer. in 'the Russian Army. In 1891 Don Carloe married a second wife, Marie Berthe,' Princess de Rohan. ■ -.. - ; ■ '.".,'.■ . , :■'■ ■..',-• • ;■..-.■,: '■,: ' ■Golden Opportunities Lost, ; ■ who styled " himeclf Duke of .Madrid, and who was sometimes called Charles ■ y M 5? his partisans, was the fourth pretender who disputed,,th*s rjghts oftho reigning branch or the Spanish Bourbons. His .supporters in the seventies were mostly among the peasantry His. critics allege 'that very " little : of what success Was achieved' was due to the Pretender. One 'writer obsefv« : "He;,waß 'present at the battle near Estella on > June 27, 1874,'. in. which Marshal Concha was killed and the' Liberals wore repulsed, with Wes. Twice he lost' golden opportunities of'makine a rush for the capital -:' n ] 8'3., during the federal Republic," and after'Condha'S'tltath. ■■'Prom the moment'-that : his.,consin Alfonso XII (father-of the present lung) was proclaimed King-. at,: Sagunto. : at A'alencia.vm Madrid,. A and at Logrono '.',"; iL™ff ar ° f the Pr-eteader was oh the wane."' |mal y^King/AlfoUftoC: XII and his ■•■generals"' forced Don ■ the Trench'frontier.' Incidents of the Campaign.■'■ ■■.■■'- ' f • Writing of Don.Carlos and his part in those operations-, one-critic observes: "Scandal' has been very busy with his name. It asserts, for instance, that he helped to' supply Daudet i^γ™. material for "Les Ebis DnxExil. ,, It says ,. also that was in'Spain , 'during' the iJnst war,;his attention was chiefly: devoted to the cider or the Basque and to acer'.tam ladyV:al)bess. ■ Not: dissimilar, tales were told of his,brother; Don Alfonso, who appeared (one cannot say'who , commanded) in Cata.This ■■ gentleman '■ was■ accompanied by hi3_wife-a:lady of thccxiled Portuguese' house of_ Uraganza, with whom-scandal was also busy; The best it had to say of her' was that she caused a woman who had used disrospeotfiil languageVconceruxng herself to-be whipped in her chemise all. round one of . tho Catalan towns,. We hope'the'story is noftriio.. 'That sortof ; thing was done-, on both 'sides-by the .Carlists;oftfln,by troops'.iiow and then, I .by the' Kepublican volunteers eontinually; Scandal is inot to" be trusted; but it'is a fact, that,in re-' gard to, tbeso two gentlemen there, is do ovidence.oh the othor elde.,. There is'a.good den] ■oi.'deplamation: about his, Maiwty's' rights and the fine things he will do, but Bobodv ever hears of. anything he .has done.■ VY«t 'in the last honr he came to Biscay as s,flon asanarmy was organised, and remained there till;further' stay became manifestly; dangerous. During this period he. was, for all that appeared'to tho contrary, with the army as a baggage-wagon might have been-to'.use M'Clellan's excessive gibe at Grant. As imniih: may be said' about his brother, Don Alfonso, who was never takin seriously by anybody, 'i That this was not mere prejudice may be concluded from tho faot that a.very different' tone' was. taken in'epeaking of his wife, Dona Blanca. Even, those iwhn spoke most evil of her, never denied her spirit/' After his expulsion from Spain in 1876 Don Carlos became an exile and a wanderer, travelling much in the Old and New World, and raising some raandal by his mode of life. He fixed his residence for a time in England, then in Paris, fronv which he was expelled, at/the request of 'the Madrid' Government, and next in Austria, • before he took up his abode at Via,rreggio, in Italv. Like all pretenders, he never gave in,"'and his protenyons,' haughtily reasserted, often troubled the courts and, countries v:hose hospitnlity ,he' enjoyed. His great disappointment was the coldiiese, towards him of Pope Leo XIII, "and- the favour-shown by that Pontiff for Alfonso XII, and his" godson Alfonso XIII. . ' , • • His Usual Lack of Decision.. :■ . Don Carlos had two splendid chances of testing the power of hie party in Spain; but failed to profit by them: The .first was when he wae invited to , unfurl his flag on; the death of Alfonso XII, when the perplexities and uncertainties of Castilian politics reached.a climax during the first year of a long minority, under a foreign queen-regent. The second was at the close-, of the war with the United States, and after the loss of the colonies, when the discontent was so widespread that the Carlists were able to assure their prince that many Spaniards looked upon his cause as the one untried solution of the national difficulties. Don Carlos showed his usual lack of decision; he wavered between the advice ,of those who told him to unfurl his standard with a view torallv all the discontented and disappointed, and of . thorn who recommended him to wait until a grejit pronnticiarmeTito, chiefly militarv, shonld 'bV made in his 'favonr-a daydream.'founded upon the.coquetting of Genernl Weylef and. other ■nfSeers. with, the Carlist- Senators and Deputiee in Madrid. Afterwards the.pretender "continned to ask his partisans to go on organising their fnreep; for action some day. and to P ,, S H their propaganda and preparations, which was ew enough in view of the indulgence shown ■ them by all the Governments of the regoncv nnd the open favour exhibited by many of the priesthood, especially in the rural districts th* religious orders, and the" Jesuits, swarming all over the kingdom." But most writers alx. ngreed that the Carlist cause in Spain-is hope-