PROGRESS OF THE INSURRECTION IN SPAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 424, 26 November 1856, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE INSURRECTION IN SPAIN.

(From the ' Daily News,' Jnly 31st.) At length there is intelligence of considerable importance from Spain. The insurrection, so far from being nearly put down, as the Madrid : journals have for several days been pretending, is evidently spreading and assuming formidable proportions. The ' Madrid Gazette' of the 25th admits that " there are still several towns in the province of Granada in a state of insurrrection," but it professes to feel no uneasiness at the fact, which it attributes solely to the circumstance of the troops being without a leader, General Blanco having been ' most unexpectedly' taken prisoner by the insurgents at Jaen. Private letters, however, put the affair in a very different light. |It appears that at Granada the National Guard, having obtained permission from the Captain General to assemble, immediately assumed a hostile attitude. The troops sent against them "showed so much indecision," (that is the expression used by a party favourable to O'Donnell), that the Captain General found it necessary to "consent to an armistice of six days." In other words he was constrained to allow the insurrection to organise itself. The National Guards put themselves in communication with various neighbouring localities, where risings took place, and General Blanco, who had been sent by Government to supersede the ! Captain General on account of the " weakness " j shown by the latter, was taken prisoner by the brothers Merino while attempting to reach bin post. At Malaga the the troops joined the National Guards, and headed \)y the civil governor made their jtronunriamenlo against the j coup d'etat. It is, however, reported that all the officers above the rank of chefdc battalion withdrew from their men. The latest news represents Alrneri and Juan as still maintaining a hostile attitude. Letters from Barcelona, of the 20th, received a t Marseilles, state that General Zapatero held

the town with a force of about twelve thousand men, ami that the streets had " nearly" resumed their ordinary appearance. The greater part of the factory operatives had returned to their work. Many, however, had " followed the insurgents," who have left the town, and joined by the peasantry scour the country, having for their head quarters the mountains in the neighbourhood of Barcelona. This is exactly what was feared. At the date of the 26th, it was stated in Barcelona that Saragossa, having received from various quarters detachments of regular troops which had ''pronounced" against the Government, formed a stronghold of resistance. It was added that the peasants of Lower Arragon were still marching in large mmiborrs to join the insurrection at Saragossa, just as those of Catalonia rallied around Barcelona. These accounts go to corroborate the statement as to the formidable numbers of General Palcon's forces made by the ' Moniteur' a few daya ago—a statement which it has never retracted, although it has published less authentic intelligence not easily rcconcilcable with it. It is quite clear by this time that the stories of General Falcon having fled, of General Dulce having opened fire on Saragossa several days ago, and of his being in a condition to cut off the supply of provisions from the insurgent garrison, were all inventions of O'DonnoU's

party. The ' Semaphore* of Marseilles says, " The Spanish packet El Yifrcdo which left Barcelona on the morning of the 26th, lias arrived. The following is a summary of the principal news: —" Barcelona has returned to its normal condition ; most of the factories have resumed work. Sixteen thousand troops are concentrated in the town under the command of General Zapatero, Governor of Catalonia. If, however, the town is calm, the same cannot be said of the environs. The insurgents who were driven out on the 21st spread themselves over the country, raised tho peasantry, and are at this moment encamped with them in the mountains. According to letters from Saragossa, arrived at Barcelona at the moment of the departure of El Yifredo, the number of the rebels was continually increasing in consequence of the defection of some regiments in Arragon, and of the arrival of the peasants, who, as at Barcelona, made common cause with the insurgents. The Queen's troops sent from Madrid had not yet arrived.

A letter in the ' Presse ' says : —" Two days ago the Queen, obeying the suggestions of those by whom she is surrounded, frankly demanded from Marshal O'Donnell the return of her mother. The minister only replied by a respectful silence."

The Madrid correspondent of the 'Independence Beige,' in a letter dated July 24, says that he is positively informed it is the intention of the Government to regard the Constituent Cortes as defunct, and officially to proclaim their dissolution as soon as order shall have been reestablished. The Government will not think of convening a new constituent assembly to deliberate upon the future constitution* of the country, but will impose upon it either the constitution of 1837 or the constitution of 1845 ; but which of these has not yet been determined. If the constitution of 1837 be adopted, a modification of it will be made by changing the elective character of the Senate ; if the constitution of 1845 be preferred, an article will bo added to it securing the immunity of certain individuals, with a provision for completely extinguishing the liberty of the pre^s. It is said by the Paris correspondent of the ' Independence,' that Narvaez, on his way back to Paris, travelled in the same railway carriage with Olozaga, the Spanish ambassador, and that the were engaged in earnest conversation all tho way. Lord liowden, he says, is still at Paris.