If a war in Spain were like a war in
any other European country, we should again consider the Queen's throne safe, and the cause of the Carlists desperate ; for the last accounts represent the insurgents as retreating before the Royal forces in all directions, in great distress, defeated in every skirmish, disheartened, muti- nous, and utterly disorganized. To find refuge in the mountains of the North, is again the aim and hope of Don CARLOS: such is the result of the march on Madrid, from which, destruction to to the established Government was predicted by some, and feared by others. It would seem as if nothing short of a threatened attack on the capital could rouse the Queen's generals to exer- tion, but that upon a show of vigour the rebels retreat. The contest is carried on in a see-saw-
" Now master up, now miss—
and nobody can prophesy from week to week which cause will pre- ponderate. The mass of the people in Spain must care little about both : the chief interest is to bo found on the Stuck Ex- chat.ge of London and the Bourse of Paris. An attempt was made on the 3d instant, by a portion of the garrison of San Sebastian, commanded by an officer named QUASNAYAR, to effect the release of about 9,000 prisoners of war confined at the little town of Marquina. The troops embarked at nightfall on board of two British steamers, and were landed some leagues on the coast to the westward, whence they were to march in the interior to Marquina : however, the larger division did not arrive till daybreak, two hours after the appointed time; the alarm was given, and the garrison at Marquina hurried off the prisoners to a place of safety. The Queen's troops then re• treated, and consoled themselves with the pillage of three small fishing-towns on the coast.
