Since the death of General Concha and the repulse of the forces of the
government in their movement on Estella, there has been cessation of active
operations in that direction. A part of the army continued, at last advices,
to occupy Tafalla, but with headquarters retired to Lo-groño. Meanwhile the
Carlists seem disposed to take the offensive, not only in the north but more
especially in the east.
Early in the month the Carlists, under the command of Don Alfonso de Este,
brother of the pretender, made an attack on Teruel, capital of the province
of Teruel in Lower Aragon, situated due east of Madrid and about two-thirds
the distance between that city and the Mediterranean. Failing in this, the
Carlists then advanced into New Castile and laid siege to the city of
Cuenca.
This city is the capital of the province of Cuenca, one of the six provinces
into which the former kingdom of New Castile is now divided. It is about
eighty miles from Madrid, on a straight line to the city of Valencia.
After being cannonaded for several days, and suffering great loss in the
destruction of buildings by fire and otherwise, Cuenca surrendered to Don
Alfonso on the 15th. Thus much, and no more, is known by official
information.
Reports are current that Don Alfonso abandoned the city after pillaging it
and levying heavy contributions.
Strange as it may seem, notwithstanding that Cuenca is so near to Madrid, no
direct and certain information of the surrender on Wednesday, the 15th,
reached here until the evening of Saturday, the 18th. Nay, on the 18th
General Soria Santa Cruz, who had been dispatched in all haste for the
relief of Cuenca, informed the government that Cuenca still held out, and
that he expected to reach the place in season to meet and repel the forces,
of the Carlists.
This event has produced profound impression here, and has tended to hasten,
at least, the execution of measures which have been meditated for some time
past by the government, and which have now been adopted in the hope of thus
terminating the civil war which is devouring the resources of Spain.
Accordingly, on the date of the 18th, we have a series of decrees, with
prefatory exposition of motives, as follows, namely:
You will note in these decrees the distinct and unequivocal condemnation of
the shooting of prisoners, and the rate of indemnity per head to be awarded
to the heirs of all such prisoners so executed.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Five decrees of July 18, 1874, enacting extraordinary measures for the suppression of
the Car-list rebellion.
1. Decree declaring the peninsula and adjacent islands in a
state of siege.
preamble.
Señor President: The government of the
nation, animated by the most elevated sentiments, has made great
efforts to bring back to the fulfillment of their duties the rebels
who aspire to raise upon the blood-stained soil of their country
institutions condemned by reason and by history.
In vain has the generosity of the liberal parties repeatedly
stretched the mantle of pardon over those who continually take
advantage of our misfortunes. Partisans of a régime which hampers
the flight of intellect, which burdens the dignity of man, which
dries up the pure sources of progress, and which confines the
nations within the narrow limits of a baleful fanaticism, they have
never been able to understand the motives of our conduct,
attributing it perhaps to our weakness.
Craving a victory denied to them by public sentiment and by the
progress of the century in which we live, they spare nothing,
however reprehensible, in order to succeed in their perverse
designs. Means of communication, monuments raised by piety and art,
the offices of the state, the provinces, and the towns, public
capital, private interests, and even the sanctity of the domestic
hearth, all these are seen to be trampled upon by their spirit of
destruction, and day by day the country sees with sorrow, and the
surrounding nations see with horror, the disappearance among the
flames, without benefit to their plans of combat, of a part of that
which had cost so much perseverance-and toil.
In such a state of profound perturbation, speedy and efficacious
governmental measures are rendered necessary.
Circumstances imperiously demand that the ministry be inspired with a
sentiment of concordtoward all the men and all the parties who
sincerely love liberty and the good of the community, and the
present crisis calls with urgency for the concentration of every
element of government, so that, by giving unity to the action of
power, it may reach every part with rapidity and energy.
With a general effort, and by restoring to the principle of authority
its lost strength, we shall succeed in re-establishing moral order,
so profoundly perturbed, and saving society and the nation from
dissolution and ruin.
Resting upon these considerations, we submit for the approbation of
your excellency the following draught of a decree.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
The president ad interim of the council of ministers and
minister of the interior.
PRAXEDES MATEO
SAGASTA.
(Signed by the remaining members of the cabinet.)
decree.
Taking into account the reasons set forth by the council of
ministers, I hereby decree the following:
- Article I. All the provinces of
the peninsula and adjacent islands are declared in state of
siege.
- Art. II. The captains-general of
the provinces shall assume and exercise during the state of
siege the extraordinary faculties which, in such a state,
are laid down for them in the general army
ordinances.
- Art. III. In all the provinces
permanent military commissions shall he organized to take
cognizance, in council of war, of all crimes of conspiracy,
rebellion, sedition, and whatever may tend to aid the rebels
or to disturb public order.
- Art. IV. The government will in
due time give account of this decree to the Cortes.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
(Countersigned by all the ministers.)
2. Decree confiscating Carlist property and providing for indemnity
for families of prisoners shot by Carlists.
preamble.
Señor President: A measure of self-defense,
which, in circumstances analogous to ours, has been forced upon all
civilized nations, is the principal object of the decree which we
have the honor to submit to the approbation of your excellency.
The Spanish nation, which is making so many and such great sacrifices
to end the disastrous war against the Carlists, cannot allow the
wealth of its enemies, which until now has been under the protection
of the laws under the same conditions as that of peaceable citizens,
should serve as a powerful instrument to prolong and extend a
struggle which perturbs the onward movement of public prosperity,
which decimates the flower of Spanish youth, and which dishonors us
in the eyes of Europe.
The measure also includes an act of justice in the indemnification
which is to be obtained from the property of the rebels in favor of
those who have been willfully outraged by the rebels in their
persons or property.
It is, moreover, necessary, seeing that we cannot prevent this savage
warfare which Carl ism seeks to inaugurate, and which carries with
it the baleful train of hostages, reprisals, and shooting of
defenseless persons—a warfare which, in self-respect, we do not wage
and will never wage, whatever may be the provocation to which we are
subjected—to endeavor at least to restrain it, so far as our means
will permit, within less inhuman bounds, casting upon the important
personages of the Carlist party the legal responsibility attaching
to the outrages they may commit, because they are morally
responsible therefor, who have placed arms in the hands of
fanaticism and ignorance wherewith to wound their country.
Resting upon such foundations, we submit to your excellency the
following draught of a decree.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
(Signed by all the members of the
cabinet.)
decree.
In consideration of the reasons laid before me by the council of
ministers, I hereby decree the following:
- Article I. The government is
authorized to embargo the property of the persons who are shown
to be incorporated with the rebel forces or who may be serving
the Carlist cause. The object of this measure is: 1. To prevent
the products of the property so embargoed from being applied to
the sustenance and propagation of the war. 2. To indemnify
injured parties for all the damage caused to them by acts which
are not the necessary consequence of war.
- Art. II. The heirs of general
officers, (jefes,) line officers, (oficiales,) soldiers, and volunteers, who
may be shot after having surrendered or being made prisoners,
shall be indemnified from the revenues of the aforesaid
embargoed property, or that which may be embargoed thereafter,
and by means of an extraordinary tax to bear exclusively upon
the Carlists.
- Art. III. The amount of indemnity to
which the foregoing article refers shall be regulated in the
following form:
- To the next of kin of a general officer so shot, the sum of
100,000 pesetas; to those of line officers, 50,000 pesetas; and
to those of soldiers and volunteers, 25,000 pesetas.
- Art. IV. No validity will be
recognized in any transfer of ownership in Carlist property
effected after the publication of this decree.
- Art. V. The ministers of grace and
justice and of finance are hereby charged with preparing the
regulations and orders for the fulfillment of this
decree.
- Art. VI. The government will give
account to the Cortes of the use and application it may make of
the preceding enactments.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
(Countersigned by all the ministers.)
[Page 896]
3. Decree closing all societies and associations not organized
according to law.
decree.
In view of the gravity of the present circumstances, and the reasons
set forth hy the council of ministers, I hereby decree the
following:
Sole Article. The governors shall proceed
to the immediate dissolution of all societies, whatever may be their
class, condition, or object, which are not organized under
authorization of the government, excepting those of credit, of
public works, and others spoken of in the decree law of 1869.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
The president ad interim of
the council of ministers and minister of the
interior.
PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.
4. Decree prohibiting the publication of other war news than that
printed in the Gazette.
decree.
In consideration of the present state of the country, I hereby decree
the following:
Sole Article. The periodical press shall
publish no other intelligence of the Carlist insurrection than that
inserted in the “Gaceta de Madrid.”
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
The president ad interim of the council of ministers and
minister of the interior.
PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.
5. Decree calling out 125,000 additional troops between 22 and 35
years of age.
preamble.
Señor President: The civil war which now so
profoundly perturbs the country, drenching our fields with blood and
consuming our public fortune, is not only a direful calamity, but
also a great ignominy. Neither the honor of Spain nor the most
sacred interests so gravely compromised can permit of the
prolongation of this struggle, that ruins us and humiliates us
before the civilized world. It is imperative to stifle it at once;
it is necessary to extirpate without delay this cancer, that
threatens to devour us; it is indispensable to make a supreme effort
which, although for the time may be sensibly felt, will obviate
other efforts in the future greater than this, perhaps, but
assuredly not so efficacious. For each day whereby the end of this
fratricidal war is brought nearer greatly increased advantages will
accrue, in sparing precious blood, enormous costs, and painful
sacrifices. The government, knowing the noble loftiness and the
solid base of patriotism that enrich the liberal Spanish people,
would fail in its duty if, through weak deliberation or
faint-hearted hesitancy, it did not make use of those fecund
sentiments.
An act of intense vigor and energetic virility is needed: public
opinion demands it, and the government does not hesitate to perform
it. It has, therefore, the honor to propose to your excellency the
creation and summoning to arms of 125,000 troops of the
extraordinary reserve, which will permit of sending to the field the
whole of our present army—enough to annihilate in a short time the
insurgent hosts. With that force, whose active service shall be
local, and at most within the limits of each of the military
districts, aided by the national militia, an institution no less
useful and important, but within a more passive and sedentary
sphere, public order may be deemed completely assured, as well as
the defense of our towns and the support of the respective bases of
the armies in the field.
In view of all these reasons, the council of ministers has the honor
to submit, for the approval of your excellency, the accompanying
decree.
Madrid, July 18,
1874.
(Signed by all the members of the
cabinet.)
decree.
In view of the considerations set forth by the council of ministers,
I hereby decree:
Article I. Eighty battalions of the
extraordinary reserve are created in the territory of the peninsula
and Balearic Islands, which is divided for that purpose into eighty
districts of approximatively equal population, in each one of which
shall be formed a battalion in conformity to the annexed table, A,
and to the forces which respectively result from the recruiting in
each district.
* * * * * *
Article VIII. There are called to the
service of the extraordinary reserve 125,000
[Page 897]
men, from those who, on the day of the
publication of the present decree, may be unmarried or widowers
without children, and who have not served in the army or navy, who
have not been redeemed, substituted, or excepted on account of
physical disability in previous conscriptions, and who, on the 30th
day of June last, shall have completed twenty-two years and not have
completed thirty-five.
* * * * * * *
Art. XV. There shall be admitted in the
extraordinary reserve volunteers who may be discharged from the army
without unfavorable notes in their discharge papers, and who do not
exceed thirty-five years of age, paying to them a premium of 1,000
pesetas, and giving them preferential option to the places of
corporals and sergeants if they possess the necessary qualifications
therefor.
Art. XVI. The duration of the service of
the men who enter the extraordinary reserve in virtue of this call,
as well as of the volunteers, shall be for the term of the war, and
six months more, if the government deems this extension
necessary.
* * * * * * *
Madrid, July eighteenth,
eighteen hundred and seventy-four.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
(Countersigned by all the ministers.)
