The Madisonian

From the National Intelligencer.

SPANISH AFFAIRS.

With the uninterrupted punctuality of the Cunard line of steamers, the Hibernia arrived at Boston on Thursday evening, in a passage of thirteen days from Liverpool. The chief particulars of the news brought by her will be found in another column.

By this arrival we have received four very interesting letters from our European Correspondent, one of which shall appear in our next. The most important feature of the foreign news being what concerns the affairs of Spain, we anticipate the publication of our Correspondent's letters by extracting the following passage from the latest of them, which bears date July the 31st:

"Since the date of the letter in which I mentioned Mr. Irving, the American Minister at Madrid, we have recent and direct intelligence of him. He had so far recovered from the malady with which he was confined for several weeks as to be able to pass days abroad on his feet and in his carriage, observing the popular excitement and the preparations for defence. He felt not the least apprehension for himself; indeed, even the British ladies looked to his hotel for refuge in case of an assault from the troops at the gates. The cry without was 'Death to the English ayacuchos!' as it had been on the former revolution, 'Death to the Frenchified-Spaniards!' The young Queen and her sister would gladly have put themselves under the shelter of the American Legation, rather than remain exposed in the palace as a prize to the victors in a desperate street affray.

My informant mentions that the only American whom he knew to be in Madrid, and often with Mr. Irving, was Mr. Sumner, of Boston, a gentleman distinguished for personal merit and extensive travel. Mr. Hamilton, of the Legation, was absent in the Pyrenees. Among the reflecting and best-instructed of the foreigners at Madrid but one opinion prevailed: Espartero was deemed the only leader who could achieve any stability of government and national coherence; his popularity was, however, so far undermined by false charges, adapted to reigning prejudices in the different divisions of the kingdom and the municipalities, and the subalterns in the army so subject to corrupt influences, that, if he could have triumphed over the insurrection, he would have experienced insuperable difficulty for any regular or tranquil administration of affairs. This struggle was considered the beginning of a new series of conflicts, not merely for power in the Royal Government, but for ascendency in the antagonist provinces, cities, and even villages, and among the military forces, split into political and personal parties, and driven in different directions by numberless secret societies."