A WONDERFUL REVOLUTION

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 226, 4 July 1873, Page 5

A WONDERFUL REVOLUTION

Thfl ' Argus' says .- —While the printing press has had the effect of rendering modern history voluminously diffuse in narrative, the. . electric telegraphy on the other hand, tendsto condense the records of most momentous events within the limits of ah epigram. Yes-. terday, for example, it reported to us in ttboub a dozen words an incident which is almost- - • astounding in. character. lb. is lSpre' nor less than the separation- of ehuccfifc-and state in Spain. In Spain—the birthplace- of Loyolo, . Xavier, and Torqueiriada tlia old ■ stronghold of [nquisition, and the country of which its sovereigns assumed the title- - - of " Their Most Catholie Majesties:" Sen:or Figueras, whose name is identified with this bold stroke of policy, is the President of the Council, and, virtually, President of the Republic. He is a republican of thirty years' standing, was educated for the bar, .and has made his mark in journalism as one of the v editors .of the '..Constitutional.' He was elected for the first time to the Cortes by one of the districts of "Barcelona, in 1851", and was one of the one-and-twenty representa- ... fives who voted against the monarchy on the 30th of ISiovember, 1853. Taking part in the revolutionary movements of January and June, 1866, he incurred .the animosity of JNaverez, by whose orders he was arrested and imprisoned in the following year, but was pardoned 4 and released in October,' 183 T- -A.t' : ' the election of the present-constituent Cortes, he was so popular that he was nominated in four constituencies, .'and! returned by two : — Barcelona and Torto'sa. ~-.His. distinguished colleague, Senor Emilio Castelar, describes" hiai'as a man whose rectitude of motive, nobility of soul, and integrity of life have never been impeached even by his bitterest' enemies; while, as an orator, he has perhaps only one superior in Spain. " For myself,". writes the more brilliant speaker but younger statesman, " I declare that one - of the greatest satisfactions of .my life has fight by his side, and tlie most pleasing records of rny memory are those of his combats and his triumphs." Whether the Spanish Government will be able to see its way clearto the 1 sequestration of the remaining revenues of 'the church for the-benefit of the necessitous state remains to be seen. During the : French occupation - of - Spain, Marshal. ! Souit found the silver statues of the ; twelve apostles in one of the churches. He sarcastically observed that it would be better they should be travelling about doing good than be locked up in a sacristy doinar nothing. "Accordingly, he hid them melted down, coi'ied into money, and put iafco eircul lation. Sehor Figueras is not unlikely to follow the example of Soult, and may even astonish the British holders of. Spanish bonds bj paying them a dividend some line - day. By the Concordat of 1859 the Church has received upwards of £30,000,000 in Govern;- i menb securities as an equivalent for the i properly it surrendered. Who knows but i that the sponge may be a,-o;,«lied to this liabiI lity now "that Uie creditors are siding- with ■ the Carliats agaiii3t the State ?