Savoy, two princes there were who were well known to desire it, and who were seeking to accomplish the object of their ambition in different ways. One was Don Enrique de Bourbon, brother of Queen Isabella's husband; the other was the Duke de Montpensier, husband of the ex-queen's sister. Don Enrique indeed possessed a great enthusiasm for Republican doctrines, either because he really desired rather the substance than the name of the kingly dignity, or because he saw that the Republican party would be useful as a stepping-stone. And from the platform of Republicanism he fulminated in very coarse and offensive language against the ambition and double-dealing of Montpensier. The consequence was, that, to the surprise of all who knew Montpensier's peaceful and cautious habits, the Orleanist prince challenged Enrique to mortal duel. The rivals met at Alcorcon, near Madrid, on the 12th of March, and at the third shot Enrique fell dead. Montpensier surrendered himself, and was tried a few weeks afterwards by a court martial, which sentenced him to the not very severe penalty of one month's banishment from Madrid, and the payment of 6000 dollars to the family of his victim.

The Spanish Government, under the Regency of Serrano, seems to have held its way rather by the equilibrium of many contending parties than by real internal harmony. Still, in Marshal Prim it possessed a virtual leader of very considerable prudence and tact, and he proved himself able to carry in the Cortes those measures which he considered necessary for the financial and military administration of the country. Disturbances, indeed, broke out at Barcelona, in April, on account of the conscription, and the Carlists gave trouble in Navarre and Biscay; but the Government forces kept them effectually in check. Prim never allowed the nation to think that he and his colleagues considered themselves more than a provisional Government, and the king question was started afresh whenever an opportunity occurred, or whenever the Opposition looked threatening.

Early in May two candidates were formally before the Cortes: old Marshal Espartero and the Duke de Montpensier, who, having expiated his recent homicide by a month's rustication, had returned to Madrid. Espartero was a very old man, near upon eighty, and was childless. He refused at first to be put in nomination, but the Club of the Progressistas had set its heart on the candidature of the old hero of their party, and he was eventually persuaded to "sacrifice himself," as he said, "for the good of his country." Marshal Prim himself wished for neither of these candidates, but would have preferred to see the present Regent, Serrano, invested with the full powers, if not with the name, of king. His suggestion, however, did not meet with much support, and when the Cortes came to a decision that any candidate, to be successful, must command an absolute majority in the Assembly, viz., 179 votes, instead of the agreement of one-fourth of the members, as at first proposed, it became evident that neither Montpensier nor Espartero

would be carried. And so the great king-question stood over for another month. Meanwhile Prim assured the Assembly that he did not despair of finding an eligible candidate; that he would never consent to the restoration of the Bourbons; and owned that his own favourite vision of the future was the federal union of Spain and Portugal under one head. This brings us to the so-called "Iberian question," and to a short notice of the course of events in Portugal.

The old Marshal Duke de Saldanha, a statesman not less aged than Espartero, a veteran in all the turbulences of ministerial warfare, and a noted upsetter of Cabinets, marched up to the Ayuda Palace at Lisbon, on the 19th of May, at the head of a military force, displaced the troops opposed to him, insisted on a personal interview with the King, and obtained from him the dismissal of the Prime Minister, the Marquis de Loulé, and the appointment of himself, Saldanha, in his place, with the charge of forming a new Cabinet. For the rest, this strange coup d'état passed off quietly. Portugal accepted the old Marshal's rule without remonstrance. But the hopes of the Iberian party, whose aim was the union of Spain and Portugal under one Government, were unduly exalted. They found soon that the country was not disposed to back a policy which might seem to be dictated by Spanish influence, and Saldanha, on assuming office, had to declare that he would not work for the union, but would maintain Portuguese independence. Prim had to make a similar declaration in the Spanish Cortes. The union, which he had so recently avowed to be an object of his wishes, he now announced would only be brought about by the mutual inclination of the two nations, never by violent means; and he most emphatically repudiated having had any hand in the recent occurrences in Portugal. The unsettled state of Spain itself during the prolonged interinidad was certainly an argument in favour of the Portuguese opponents of Iberianism.

Early in June Espartero withdrew his candidature, alleging his age and the division of parties as sufficient reasons, even if he should succeed in gaining a majority of the Cortes. Neither the cause of Serrano nor that of Montpensier made any way.

On the 25th of the month, the ex-Queen Isabella signed a document of abdication, at her hotel in Paris, in favour of her son, the Prince of Asturias. The document had been submitted beforehand to the Emperor Napoleon and the Spanish Ambassador.

This made little practical difference to the course of events in Spain. Not so the next announcement of a candidate, which was the spark destined to fire a mighty conflagration beyond the boundaries of the Peninsula.

The following communication from Madrid was received at the ⚫ beginning of July, by the Imperial Government at Paris :-" Our city is in a state of great agitation, and events of vital importance are expected to occur ere long. If my information is correct-and I firmly believe that it is confidential agents, expressly accredited

by Marshal Prim, have secretly quitted Madrid for Bonn in Prussia, and have offered the Spanish Crown to Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and the Prince accepts the offer with the greatest eagerness. This act of Marshal Prim's has greatly surprised his friends, who are holding meetings to concert measures for averting, if possible, this disastrous catastrophe. We Spaniards, of all shades of opinion, cannot forget that the Prince of Hohenzollern is grandson of a princess belonging to a family which is execrated in Spain as having caused torrents of the purest Castilian blood to be shed. He is by the maternal side descended from that Murat who bombarded Madrid during the War of Independence, which filled every Spanish household, with mourning, from San Roque to Irun, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean. No wonder that the name of Murat should be execrated throughout the length and breadth of Spain. A Hohenzollern Murat will never be accepted by the Spanish as their king; but the opinion is entertained in the highest diplomatic circles that should by any fatality—which God forefend!a Hohenzollern be thrust upon the throne, our unhappy country would be isolated as regards the Great European Powers; order and tranquillity would be overthrown; and commerce would be reduced to a mere shadow of what it is at present." It will be noticed how the first expression of Spanish dissent to Prince Leopold's candidature, was on account of his French, not his Prussian family antecedents. What followed upon the announcement of this candidature belongs mostly to other portions of our history. Marshal Prim's new choice would probably, at its re-assembling, have been rejected by the Cortes, who were not in the humour of favouring the Marshal's policy; but the pride of the nation was roused by the angry menaces of the French Foreign Minister, the Duc de Gramont; and preparations were made for active military resistance. All necessity for war, however, was removed by the following despatch to Marshal Prim from Antony, Prince of HohenzollernSigmaringen, father of Leopold, renouncing the disputed honour for

his son:

"In consideration of the difficulties which seem likely to beset the candidature of my son Leopold for the Spanish throne, and of the unfortunate condition of things which recent events have brought about for the Spanish people, by placing it in the necessity of consulting only its own sense of independence; in the conviction also, that, under such circumstances, its voice cannot be expressed with the impartiality and freedom, on which my son had reckoned when he accepted the candidature, I, in his name, now withdraw that candidature."

Having thus, unintentionally, set Europe on fire, Spain was left to pursue her way for the rest of the year undisturbed by any obligations to French or Prussian partisanship. Carlist risings troubled Navarre and Catalonia in August and September. The Republican party obtained some temporary exaltation in the Cortes by, the news of the Paris Revolution of September 4th, and sent a congratulatory

address to the French Provisional Government. But we must pass over the ground rapidly till the third week in October, when it was officially announced that the Crown of Spain had been offered to Amadeus, Duke d'Aosta, second son of the King of Italy, and had by that prince been accepted, conditionally on the acquiescence of foreign powers and due election by the Cortes. On the part of foreign powers no objection was made. The national parties inside and outside the Cortes raised their several voices in opposition, but with no important effect; and in the formal vote of November 16th, the Prince was elected by an excess of eighteen voices over the required majority. The numbers stood thus:-For the Duke d'Aosta, 191; for a Federal Republic, 60; for a Unitarian Republic, 3; for the Duke de Montpensier, 27; for Espartero, 8; for the Prince of the Asturias, 2; for the Duchess de Montpensier, 1. After this formal expression of the national will, things went on quietly, and Marshal Prim occupied himself in making preparations for the reception of the new Sovereign, whose opening career it was to be his business to inaugurate, and for whose safe guidance it seemed as though his tried tact and knowledge of Spanish character and Spanish parties was in the highest degree needful. But a most unexpected tragedy closed the year. On the evening of Wednesday, the 28th of December, as the Marshal was proceeding from the Ministry of War to the Cortes, shots were fired at his carriage, in the Calle de Alcala, by which both he and his adjutant were wounded. The assassins, who fired from two cabs, made their escape. At first it was thought that Prim's wounds, which were in the arm, were not dangerous, and that he would recover; but, after the amputation of a finger, inflammation set in, and he expired on the night of the 30th. He retained his consciousness to the last. When made aware of the rapid approach of death, he bade his friends adieu with composure. For the safety of the new King, whose arrival at Madrid was expected only a day or two after, he expressed much anxiety. The Cortes, when it met on Saturday, the 31st, declared that Prim had deserved well of his country. It was voted that his name should be inscribed in the Hall of the Cortes, and his family placed under the protection of the nation. At the same time a vote of absolute confidence in the Government was passed. No traces were found of the plot which had had such direful effect.

On the same day that Prim died, King Amadeus I. landed at Cartagena, and received the sad intelligence from Marshal Topete, who at once became President of the Council, in the place of the deceased Minister.

CHAPTER VI.

EUROPEAN STATES.-Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and Roumania.

NORTH AMERICA.-United States-Measures in Congress-Fenian Raid-New Elections-Relations to European War-President's Message. ASIA.-China-Tientsin Massacre.

SOUTH AMERICA.-Paraguay-Defeat and Death of Lopez.

RUSSIA, SWEDEN, DENMARK, BELGIUM, HOLLAND, SWITZERLAND, GREECE, TURKEY.

There was nothing in the affairs of RUSSIA during the early part of this year to call for attention in a general survey like the present. We must notice, however, the growing disaffection in the Baltic provinces, where the prevailing German element of the population was being systematically repressed by the Government in favour of the Panslavist or "Russification" policy: thereby evoking not only local discontent, but a dangerous expression of sympathy from the newspaper press of Germany. The meeting of the Emperor Alexander with the King of Prussia at Ems on the 2nd and 3rd of June gave rise to a little speculation, and was supposed by some to have reference to the possible assumption by the latter of the imperial title in Germany. When the contest between France and Prussia broke out in July, the attitude of the neutral Powers of course became a subject of deep interest: not least that of Russia. That Russia was occupied with the thought of improving her own position in the Black Sea, even before the commencement of that contest, is proved by an article which appeared in the Moscow Gazette about the 8th of July, and which was commented upon at the time by the English press; though in the rapid accumulation of more important events, it was allowed to drop out of sight.

Before the end of July, the intended position of the Russian Government in respect to the war was thus announced: "The Imperial Russian Government has made all possible endeavours to avert the outbreak of war. Unfortunately, the rapidity with which the warlike resolutions were taken rendered our efforts for the maintenance of peace abortive. The Emperor is resolved to observe neutrality so long as Russia's interests are not affected by the eventualities of the campaign. The Russian Government undertakes to support every endeavour to circumscribe the operations and diminish the duration of the war."

As events went on, rumours were rife that this position of neutrality was about to be abandoned in behalf of France: that Russia was resolved to prevent any alienation of French territory: that in conjunction with England and Austria she was about to propose