NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Queen Regent of SPAIN has published a manifesto, which has caused no slight 'disappointment to her supporters of the Liberal party. It is plain that she yields, for the present at least, to the influence of ZEA BERMUDEZ, to whom the authorship of the document is with good season- attributed. The Queen is made to say— • I experience the liveliest satisfaction in considering that it is a duty for me to preserve whole and entire that royal authority which has been confided to me. I will maintain most religiously the form and fundamental laws of the monarchy, 3vithout admitting dangerous innovations, however respectable they may appear in their origin; -for we have already unfortunately experienced their disastrous effects. The best .form•of government for a country is that to which it is accustomed. A stable and compact power, founded upon ancient laws, rendered respectable by custom, consecrated by ages of duration, is the most powerful instrument for increasing the welfare of nations; which never tan be done when the supreme authority is Weakened—when the ideas, the customs, and the established institutions are attacked—when the existing in- terests are disturbed for the purpose of creating new ones, and giving rise to fresh exigencies—when the different classes of society are put in array one against the other, and satiety is thrown into confusion. I will transmit the sceptre of Spairt to the Qseen, to whom the laws allot it, without any diminu- tion of its power..-in a word, such Is the laws have made it."
There is no Mistaking this language ; it is such,as ',despots always think it prudent to use; and if the real intentions of the Regent are deSTeloped in-it, Spain has gained little by the death .of FERDINAND. One of the very,first acts of the new Government with to batii:sh. CoUnt FistntiDA ik.,k*A, a leader among the Liberals, for six years. It.teinains to be seen whether the Regent tan Maintain the difficult Position she has assumed against the active hostility of Don CARLOS and the Priesthood, now that she has deprived • herself of the aid which the Constitutional party would have so gladly afforded her. No certain intelligence has been received of the movements of Don CiaLos. CORDOVA, the Spanish Minister to Don MIGUEL, sent word to Lord WILLIAM RUSSELL, that he had left Abrantes, and entered -the Spanish territory. The wily diplomatist affected to believe that this was the most speedy mode of conveying the intelligence' to Madrid; but he is supposed to have been actuated by a wish to give Don CARLOS the start by two or three days, while he claimed credit with. his employers for unusual anxiety to give them the earliest inforroatn. It is now certain that bon CARLOS has been proclaimed King in the Biseayan provinces. The Marquis DE VALDESPINA, a man distinguished for.his bigotry and devotion to the Pretender, entered Bilboa at the head'of a considerable body of the Priesthood and peasantry, who assembled from the neighbouring country. He is now said to be at the head of several thousand' fanatics. The Liberals have been roughly treated by them ;•upwards of three hundred haVe been imprisoned, and others obliged te fly ; contri- butions in money and provisions are levied upon them without mercy by the insurgents. It is also stated, that at Vittoria the Carlist flag has been hoisted, and the feeble garrison expelled. General CAsT.Aomos, the commander of the Government troops, marched towards Bilboa, in the hope of quelling the revolt; but found the insurgents too powerful for him, and retreated. It does not appear. that the revolt has extended beyond the Basque provinces ; though, Navarre and part of Catalonia are con- sidered to be insurrectionary districts, and Old Castile- Estre- madura by no means well-affected to the new Government. Va- lentia, Andalusia; La Mancha, Murcia, and all the provinces along the coast of the Mediterranean,' are decidedly opposed to the claims of Don CARLOS, and contain large bodies of Liberajs. A not int., probablCreaimi has been 'given for the promptituAe.stith which- the Biscayans embraced the cause -of:C%si,os. They are: in pisa. session of peculiar privileges—m.)3104i iftemption• front the p* - " EDITION.] 977 ment of certain taxes—which, under the government of the Cortes, they were deprived of, and would be again were the Liberal party to gain the ascendancy. It is clear that the other provinces can have no common feeling with them in this matter, and that in- ducements of a different kind must be offered them to join the re- volt. Madrid, according to the last accounts, remained perfectly tranquil, and there seemed to be a disposition to give the new Go- vernrnent a fair trial.
The French Ministry had despatched letters to M. DE RAYNEVAL at Madrid, formally accrediting him as Ambassador to the Spanish Court.
