(Guernsey Star—June 12, 1873)

Affairs in Spain have at last culminated in a crisis ; the recent Revolution has been consummated by a change in the form of government altogether unprecedented in the politics of modern Europe. Yesterday morning the Cortes, by an almost unanimous vote, proclaimed the Federal Republic. Only two Deputies, in a house of 212 members, voted against this revival of all the ancient divisions. In Madrid the proclamation of the new order of things has been received with enthusiasm, and from what is known of the popular feeling in the other great towns there is every reason to believe that the vote of the Cortes will obtain the cordial assent of the urban population. In the rural districts it is more difficult to ascertain wha the people really desire. The Spanish peasantry very possibly do not understand in any precise sense what the politicians in Madrid mean by a Federal Republic ; but they have a traditional affection for the ancient rights of Provincial self-government, which the centralised despotism of the Hapsburg and Bourbon dynasties superseded. In fact, those how have watched the current of Spanish politics since the deposition of Queen Isabella II., however much they may have desired the success of the Monarchial experiment so loyally tested by Kind Amadeo, have recognised in the Federal Republic the natural end of the disintegration of political forces in Spain

A series of revolutions had fatally weakened the authority alike of the Crown and of the Cortes. “Militarism” was predominant long before the fall of Queen Isabella. The ancient traditions of allegiance either to the person of the Monarch or the institution of Monarchy was effete. Serrano and Topete had an easy task in overthrowing a Throne which Spain had come to regard with a scornful and sceptical indifference. The same popular apathy allowed Prim to found a Constitutional Kingdom for the Italian Prince. But it was build upon the sands. The whole edifice of the new Monarchy slid from its treacherous foundations, and the Spaniards, with characteristic composure, permitted Señor Castelar and his Republican friends to initiate another experiment. A Centralised Republic after the French fashion has proved still more incapable of attracting the loyalty and affection of Spain than the Bourbons or the Savoyard. A Federal Republic remains alone to be tried, and though there is no example in the history of modern Europe of a nation once welded into a true political unity deliberately relaxing its bonds, an exceptional policy may possibly suit the peculiar temperament and the singular circumstances of the Spaniards. Spain was united under an absolute Government not by a natural attraction or by urgent necessities of alliance ; her union was never genuine and perfect like that of the Provinces, Duchies, and Counties which were gradually wrought together into France. The Hapsburg Kings crushed out the local liberties of every Province. The Bourbons worked the machine of Government no less rigorously, and the Army overawed the clamour of the Provincial populations for their cherished privileges. Yet, in spite of all this immense reserver of power, the Empire of Philip II. was not handed down intact to his later successors. Portugal, which the policy of Madrid had hoped to force into a Spanish mould, and to reduce to the same condition as Catalonia or Valencia, successfully asserted her independence. In other parts of the Peninsula, and especially among the mountains of the North, the same result, if fortune had favoured the Basques, might have been attained. The zeal with which the men of the Northern Provinces have sustained for two generations the cause of the elder and the younger Don Carlos is as much a manifestation of Provincial patriotism as of clerical bigotry. The Carlists of Navarre and Biscay care as little for the hereditary right of the elder branch of the Bourbons as the Highlander in 1715 and 1745 cared for the hereditary right of the exiled Stuarts. The Basques want their fueros and detest the predominance of Madrid, and they despair of obtaining what they desire from any Central Government, Monarchical or Republican. They hope to exact good terms from a King of their own crowning, as the Clans of the Highlands hoped to win the recognition of their claims from the Pretenders for whom they fought. But a Federal Republic gives at once to the Northern Provinces by the essential law of its existence all that the disaffected could hope to obtain and much more than there would be any likelihood of their obtaining from the restored Bourbons. It is not unreasonable, then, to suppose that the Carlist insurrection will not long survive the proclamation of the Federal Republic, which will deprive it of the fuel that has hitherto fed its flames.

The vote of the Cortes yesterday was foreshadowed by the recent elections. The Federals were apparently the only party that had courage, earnestness, and political faith. The timidity of the old Monarchical parties left the field open to the Federals, whose only formidable rivals were the extreme and uncompromising Socialists, the Intransigentes, the Spanish interpreters of the ideas professed by the Commune of Paris. If the Federals were balked in their attempt to establish a Republican Government, the immediate profit would be to the Intransigentes, and on one can wish to see the supreme power pass int the hand so of men who denounce Republicans like Castelar and Figueras as culpably moderate. The nomination of Señor Margall as President of the Council of Ministers is regarded in Madrid as a check to the party of disorder, and the majority of nearly three to one who voted for the new Cabinet represents a fairly secure foundation for a Government with a strong and popular policy. The change, if it bear the fruit anticipated from it, has come not an hour too soon. In the North the army is profoundly demoralised, and a mutiny of the soldiery, who raised the cry for a Federal Republic has compelled the retirement of Gen. Velarde, the Commander-in-chief. In the South the troops and the mob of the towns have come into collision, and blood has been shed at Grenada. Señor Figueras lately President of the Republican Ministry, in formally surrending to the Cortes his power as chief of the executive, pointed to this most anxious position of affairs as an additional reason for despatch in effecting the constitutional changes in favour of which the nation, or, at least that part of the nation which has any opinion on the subject, has declared itself. We cannot hope that the proclamation of the Federal Republic will restore discipline to the army or reconcile the soldiers with the populace. But it will at least substitute united and decided action at the seat of Government for the shifty and perplexed policy which has hitherto prevailed.

There is nothing preposterous in the idea of a Federal Government. In the United States it has been sharply tried, but has survived even the ordeal of civil war, and appears to be now more vigorous than ever. In our own North American Colonies, it has been established with the approbation of the Mother Country, and it may hereafter find favour in Australia. Switzerland is a more ancient example of Federal Government, and hardly any European nation is more secure against the dangers of revolution. No political change can transform Spaniards into Swiss, but there is certainly not less hope of orderly progress in Spain under a Confederation than under centralised institutions. The prospect is not a hopeful one, but is at least as hopeful as any other revolution in Spanish affairs could give us. Federal institutions, like every other form of Government, may be worked will or ill. In Spain it is only too probable they may be worked mischievously, factiously, and corruptly ; and they may fail disastrously. But the Federal Republic has one advantage that none of its competitors can claim,—it enlists at once in its favour the only sentiment of loyalty in the hearts of the Spanish people, the love of their municipal institutions and Provincial independence.