A DEFENCE OF THE CARLISTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 173, 21 July 1876, Page 13

A DEFENCE OF THE CARLISTS.

To the Editor of the ' London Tablet.' Sic, — I feel sure that I may reckon upon your impartiality to allow me the privilege of saying a few words in reply to the article headed, " The Crisis of the Struggle in Spain," -which appeared in the ' Tablet' of Saturday, Feb. 26. The author of that article, speaking of the Carlist rising, asserts that " from the first it was a hopeless adventure." That it might well have appeared to be so at the first I will not deny, since it is plain that the thirty-two peasants of Navarre, armed only with sticks, who, on the 3rd of May, 1872, welcomed Don Carlos at the frontier, and proclaimed him their king, did not constitute a force exactly calculated to inspire a very lively faith in the result of their enterprise. But when it is remembered that, thanks to the personal qualities of Don Carlos himself, to the skill of his generals, and to the admirable devotion of his people, this little band had within four years grown into an army of 100,000 men : that the provinces occupied by them enjoyed all the advantages of a regularly org anized administration, and possessed two military schools, several manufactories of arms, and a mint for coining money, it is difficult to- understand how a cause which made such rapid progress, and in so short a space of time realised such immense results, can fairly be described as a hopeless adventure. I venture to maintain, on the contrary, that so long as the Government of Marshal MacMahon observed a strict neutrality between the contending parties, King Charles VII. and his advisers were justified in nourishing more than & hope, almost a certainty, of ultimate success. But when the French Government applied itself in earnest to the task of stopping the Carlist supplies of provisions and ammunition at the frontier, furnishing at the same time ammunition and provisions to the Liberal troops, and when, finally, the latter were allowed to pass on French territory, and thus to surround in overwhelming numbers the gallant army which for nearly four years had held them at bay, then hope vanished indeed, and had Don Carlos continued the struggle for another day, he might have merited the reproach of causing useless bloodshed which the tone of your article implies throughout. But he did not do so. It may be said that Don Carlos ought to have foreseen what would happen, and this is, perhaps, true, but surely a young and chivalrous prince may be pardoned lor having judged others by himself, and for having believed in the solemn promise which was made to him, that under no circumstances would the Alfonsist troops be allowed to cross French territory. Had this promise been kept, Don Carlos, instead of being an exile in London, would have been now at the head of his army, not, in all probability, fighting his way to Madrid, but maintaining his position in the Northern Provinces, where he might have continued to reign as King until such time as some new revolution in. the capital should bring the whole Spanish nation to his feet.

History will certainly tell|that Don Carlos was vanquished not by Don Alfonso, but by Marshal MacMahon and his government, and history will also tell how far France had afterwards reason to bless the names of those who thus aided to rivet along the Pyrenian frontier with which Germany is surrounding her, a chain forged by German military skill, and paid for with German gold, but whose disconnected links have been united by French diplomacy! The triumph of the Alfonsist cause is the triumph of Germany and the triumph of the Eevolution. With the personal piety of the young prince who for the present occupies the throne of Spain I have nothing to do, but I would like to remind those who build up hopes upon it, that the personal piety of Queen Isabella and her mother Queen Christina, were powerless to stem the revolutionary torrent which had carried them to the summit of power. These Catholic sovereigns were compelled to take part in acts of anti-Catholic legislation which bore a strong resemblance to those proceedings which have more recently, in Italy and Germany, excited so much just indignation. The law of 1836, by which the regular ordersjwefe entirely * suppressed, and that of 1841, (not carried out in toto till 1855), by which the whole property of the secular clergy was confiscated will suffice to give the measure of the "intensely Conservative and Catholic spirit," by which your article would have us understand that the Alfonsist party is animated. But without going to the past, surely the present is eloquent enough, and the howl of exultation which is now raised by the whole of the revolutionary . and anti-Christian Press throughout the world, from the ' Times* in all its glory down to the lowest mouthpiece of the Revolution in Brussels or Geneva, is a sufficient proof that in the defeat of Don Carlos the Church has received another heavy blow, and the Beyolution achieved another triumph. There is nothing surprising in this general jubilation, but I must with all deference, and in all courtesy, ask you to allow me to say that as a Catholic Englishman I am intensely astonished and deeply deplore that such a chorus should be swelled by the voice of the leading organ of the English Catholics. I cannot but trust that the attitude taken up by your paper is the result of a misapprehension, and that when His Majesty King Carlos Til. again unfurls, as he one day will, his flag inscribed with the words " Dios, Patria y Rey," the ' Tablet' will be found on his side, mindful that it 3 own motto is " Pro Ecclesia Dei, pro Rege et Patria." — I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant. Paris, 7th March, 1876. St. Asapk.