STATE OF THE CONTINENT.
War still continued in Spain. At the close of the last year the troops of the queen had succeeded in the relief of Bilboa, an event which had the effect of giving rise to dissensions among the Carlists. After this event, many weeks were spent by the Christino commanders in concerting a combined movement upon the Carlist lines in Guipuscoa. An attack was made upon them by General Evans on the 15th of March. His forces were collected at Loyola, the right of the line being composed of Spaniards, and the left of the British legion, which amounted to between four and five thousand men. The attack was at first successful: the Carlists, having maintained a furious fire, after a five hours’ conflict abandoned their last defence, and fell back to Hernani. On the following day, however, matters took a different turn: while the victorious troops were preparing to descend upon Hernani, on a sudden solid masses of infantry appeared behind the town, under the command of Don Sebastian. These troops consisted of ten fresh battalions; and their charge was so impetuous, that the British legion and the Spanish troops were obliged to give way. From this time the army of Don Carlos gained courage, and province after province was invaded by his guerilla chiefs. Still no decisive event favoured his design upon the Spanish throne. In one grand point he, however, succeeded, that of annihilating or dispersing the British legion. Unsupported by the people for whom they fought, many of them were slain in various engagements of desultory warfare; and at length those who remained laid clown their arms, and the British auxiliary legion ceased to exist. Before this event General Evans had returned to England, disheartened by the want of co-operation in the Spanish generals. But the year closed, and the Carlists and Christinos were still arrayed in arms against each other. People of the same nation and the same blood were seeking each other’s destruction with a deadly animosity.
In Portugal, also, there were strifes and divisions, and rumours of intended insurrections. In that country, moreover, the British who had defended the cause of the queen were ill treated. The unpopularity of the English increased daily, and the ambition and selfishness of Great Britain were the constant themes of the popular press. So odious were our countrymen that the English admiral in the Tagus thought it necessary to issue the following general order to his captains:—“The unsettled state of the country, and the differences known lately to have existed between her most faithful majesty and her present ministers, as well as the difficult position in which his royal highness Prince Ferdinand is placed with regard to the Portuguese people, and the great suspicion with which all foreigners he brought here into his service are viewed, renders it necessary that the utmost caution, should be observed by the English residing in Portugal with respect to private interviews either with her most faithful majesty or her august consort, that neither the government nor the people may have a pretext for entertaining any undue impressions of the intentions of England. It is therefore my most positive orders that you do not yourself call at the palace, nor permit any officer to do so without my previous sanction.” The British ambassador sought, though in vain, to obtain justice for the officers and soldiers who had been in Don Pedro’s service, and whose claims upon the Portuguese government remained unliquidated. A royal order appeared, indeed, informing “the foreigners lately in the service of her most faithful majesty,” that if they were dissatisfied with the decision of the commissioners to whom their claims stood referred, “the law was open to them.” This was most unsatisfactory, as the Portuguese courts of law are notorious for corruption. The privileges of the British, indeed, ceased to be respected in Portugal, and their claims were set aside. They were restrained from carrying on retail trades, which they had hitherto done by virtue of early treaties, and as they were entitled to do by law. At the same time, disputes were constantly taking place on the Tagus between the crews of British vessels and the custom-house officers.