Transcription
Madrid Tuesday Morn’g Nov 21st. 1843
My dear Papa :
I received yesterday a long letter from Carroll / Livingston to announce the receipt of a letter of thanks from you. / which he says is so much more than his attentions to me deserved / that he shall leave me to answer it for hi, _ he accuses me of being / the author of this much ado about nothing; and can only account / for it by on the supposition that I am very much of a somebody at / home _ I shall begin to be of his opinion, and to think myself / of some importance _ in my absence at least.
That Ministerial crisis has now lasted more than / a week and the entanglement increases daily _ The Queen has been / declared of age _ which signifies in other words the rule of the parties / and cliques which surround her; and the mockery of such a decla: / :ration appears already in the intrigues and shuffling among the / notabilities who aspire to direct the government : The day following / the one in which she swore to observe the constitution; the Lopes / Cabinet presented her a paper setting forth the many excellent reasons / which indeed them to retire and requesting her to accept their resigns: / :tions _ M. Olozaga then has an interview at which the Queen tells / requests him to form a Ministry at the same time expressing (accor / :ding to her lesson) her entire confidence in the persons now then in office / in and her wish to retain them, if they could be induced to remain _ /
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This is succeeded by two or three days of negotiations between Olozaga and / the Ministry, in which the latter appear to be playing fast and loose _ one / day the Majority announcing that they would remain under certain conditions / the next day positively declaring that under any circumstances they would not / retain their posts _ As I said before, Olozaga wished to avoid the necessity of / forming a gov’t at this junction, and when pushed to the wall be the moderados / who fear and suspect him, attempted to form a junction with Cortina his rival, / and [^ to] induce him to share the responsibility and risk, To this Cortina has refused / peremptorily to consent; and his position at present seems to be that of opposition / to any possible arrangement : at the same time drawing to himself the discontented / of all parties, and making a formidable party of Ultras, democrats, + Exaltados _ / Moderate men begin to despair of the situation, as the evidences of discord / selfishness, and the absence of any thing like public spirit ??ew unfold them : / are unfolded : The Moderados I believe [^ are] beginning to regret the part they took / in pulling down Espartero, to whom they would have naturally succeeded at / the expiration of the Minority, and who tho a “progressista”, acted as a check / upon the violent and extravagant men of that and other parties _ Yesterday / two new causes of difficulty were created by the Ministeria of the Interior, / who has ordered the reorganization of the National Militia within then days / which had been disarmed and abolished in July last; and has decreed / that the elections for the municipalities shall take place under a law which / extends very much the right of suffrage and by her opposition to it _ was / the cause of Christina’s downfall in 1840. _ The first measure secures to / the Ayacuchos (Espartero’s friends) and to the parties opposed to the Moderados / generally, arms and [^ military] organization; the second gives them the command of / the municipal authority, which has been always important in Spain and / plays a prominent party in revolutions and political disturbances _ To / counterbalance these the Moderados count upon the army and _ as they say _ the / mass of the Nation is not truly represented in the popular branch of / the legislature _ the first is certainly a most unsafe reliance and the last /
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May well be doubted if under the present extended suffrage, it is not / supported by the political views of the representative of the people _ among / the moderados there are suggestions of coup d’etat’ doing away with the Cortes; / and Constitution; and allowing the Crown to rule without any of these imped: / :iments. Should the attempt be made, it will bring on a dreadful struggle.
I am fast confirming myself in the opinion, that as a rantion the / Spaniards are incapable of constitutional government, and that the “Rey Neto”, the. / absolute King _ is best adapted to their extraordinary character.
To day the foreign gentlemen, chefs de mission only _ dine / with her Majesty in honor of her Majority. As it is my first dinner with / royalty and I have heard wonders of the Magnificence of the apartment, pla / [teau?], and service generally I am very curious to see the show _ To my especial [page torn] / comfort we are not required to appear in harness, so that one can make [page torn - obser?] / vacations at one's case, as well as enjoy the old Spanish wines _ if they have [page torn] / escaped the many revolutions _ Nov 23d _ Mr. Olozaga was appointed on the 21 [page torn] Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Council, ) I have rec’d this morn’g the / official note form him announcing it _ and yet nothing further has been doen and / matters are at a stand-still : It appears that between the jealousies of some and / the distrust of others the cannot complete his cabinet and the mischievous orders / of the expiring ministry are thus allowed to continue in full force :
The news from Catalonia is not much more encouraging _ Amettler / the leader of the Insurgents, made some days since a convention with Gen’l Prim by / which he was to ?leave march at once from Girona to Figueras, and the castle of / San Fernando, which was also by the treaty to be delivered up in five days. _ / After arriving reaching the fortress, with 4 or 5 thousand men sweeping up all the castle, / and provisions on his way Amettler complaining of some infraction on Prim’s / part, of the stipulations, refuses to execute the treaty and deliver up the fort, and / commences a fire which was continued up to the last accounts _ The effect of / this operation has been therefore to move the main body of insurgents from an / almost indefensible city _ whose walls defences were weakened recently by an inun: / dation _ to one of the strongest fortresses in Spain, fortified by Vaubon and which has / always required either an overpowering force, or a blockade to reduce it _ about /
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The same time a truce was entered into at Barcelona which it was supposed would / terminate in a capitulation _ at the last intelligence the truce had been broken off; the / firing recommenced; and the citadel and principal square _ where the last stand was to / be made _ had been undermined by the rebels with the intention, when all was last of / destroying themselves amind the ruins of the city! _
Saturday Ev’g Nov 25 _ Barcelona has surrendered on the most favorable terms / to the insurgents and M. Olozaga has succeeded in forming a ministry so that the political / stay seems a little clearer.
I have no news yet from Mr. Irving and begin to fear has has had a relapse _ he / wrote on the 10h intimating that he would be on his way before this time _ Mr. Bresson is / expected in 5 or 6 days and an attaché of the french legation has been despatched to the / [pontén?] to meet him _
They are still trying to destroy Narvaéz _ a week since a Sargeant / was discovered who had been six days in his house employed to poison him with corrosive sublimate / having been hired for the sum of $3000 _ and two nights ago I saw Narvaez at the Opera, / with his escort of dragoons drawn up in part of the theatre _ during the performance an / old woman gave notice that three men with blunderbusses were lying in wait in the Plaza de / Bilbao; a square just beyond our house _ they escaped however before the dragoons could / overtake them _ These wretches will succeed at last.
I send a thousand kisses to Mama + the girls and wait with impatience for the / letters from Nevis by the next steamer _ Your affectionate son A. H.
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[ADDRESS]
Steamer
4th Dec
12
James A Hamilton Esq.
Nevis
Westchester County
New York
U. S.
[POSTMARK]
NEW YORK
DEC
21
[RED WAX SEAL]Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
