Meanwhile other troops had been advancing from Pamplona and from Tafalla, under command of Generals Eschagüe and Martinez Campos, to unite with General Concha on the eastern side of Estella.

All these points, together with the lines of movement before and after that day, will be perceived upon inspection of the map of the theater of war herewith inclosed.

After engagement with artillery, occupying most of the day of the 27th, a column of attack was ordered to assail the enemy's trenches at a point between Murillo and Estella, called Monte Muru, which is not designated on the map.

No details of what then happened are yet made public here; but the subsequent incidents show that the attacking battalions must have been repulsed with great loss relatively to their numbers.

Thereupon a supporting column was ordered up to continue the attack, but the troops refused or hesitated to advance as ordered. On this General Concha rode to the front to address and exhort the troops, and, in the act of doing this, received a musket shot in or near the breast, which produced immediate death.

As to what immediately followed, all we know with certainty is, that the troops of the government then retired in order, it would seem, and carrying with them their train, and retreating upon Orteiza, pursued to that point by the Carlists; and at the present moment they are posted at Larraga, Berbinzana, Miranda de Arga, Olite, and Tafalla, the bulk of the army being now, it is said, at Tafalla.

General Concha's body was conveyed as soon as possible to Tafalla, from which information came to Madrid by telegraph early on the afternoon of the 28th, (Sunday.)

A meeting of the cabinet was immediately called at the ministry of war, and President Serrano, who had gone to La Granja the day before, was summoned back to Madrid, where he arrived in the course of the evening; and it was arranged that the minister of war himselt, Captain-General Zavala, should take the place of General Concha in command as general-in-chief of the forces in the field, General Cotoner being appoinied ad interim minister of war.

The death of General Concha has produced extraordinary emotion in Madrid, with universal expressions of sorrow and respect here and in other parts of Spain. It seems to be admitted on all hands that he was the ablest among the veteran generals of Spain. He was poor, having no resources but his pay. He leaves one child, a daughter, the wife of the Marqués de Sardoal, at present chief alcalde of Madrid.

Yesterday and to-day every disposable soldier has been hurried off to the seat of war, including many superior officers, and among the rest General Moriones, who acquired reputation in a previous, thongh unsuccessful, campaign against the Carlists in the same region of country.

It does not appear that the losses sustained by the troops of the gor ernment were absolutely large, not exceeding, perhaps, fifteen hundred men in killed and wounded; but the repulse, the retreat, and the death of General Concha, have contributed to produce a deep impression at Madrid.

Intense indignation toward the Carlists is felt here on account of a recent proclamation issued by the commander-in-chief of the Carlist forces, Dorregaray, in response of expressed purpose of General Concha to waste the country, and in which Dorregaray announces intention hereafter to give no quarter; in the spirit of which declaration it is said that he caused to be killed such of the wounded as were left behind by the retreat of the forces of the government.

2. As to the political situation :

The minister of hacienda, Mr. Camacho, has been occupied ever since his appointment in examination of the state of the public finances and in devising ways and means for the service of the government. The result of his labors appears in an official report and in various decrees published in the "Gaceta" of the 28th. Exhibiting, as Mr. Camacho's report does, continual diminution of revenue and continual increase of expenditure, it was unfortunate that it should appear on the morning of the day when knowledge arrived of the death of General Concha; for, although Mr. Camacho has but obeyed the dictates of duty in stating frankly the condition of the finances and in suggesting the necessary measure of imposition of new taxes, still the information given by him, and the remedies proposed, necessarily serve to augment the public dis couragement, and to occasion a fall of the funds to the lowest point they have yet reached, more especially in view of the loud complaints of the English company who control the Spanish foreign debt, and who consider one of the measures proposed by Mr. Camacho as a violation of a contract heretofore made, not long ago, by the Spanish government for securing the payment of overdue coupons by means of certain securities held by or belonging to the government.

This last matter seems likely to be taken up by the British government in behalf of the bondholders; and, whether it be so or not, it cannot fail to be highly prejudicial to the credit of the Spanish government in England.

I have, &c.,

No. 565.

C. CUSHING.

No. 48.]

Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.

UNITED STATES LEGATION, Madrid, July 2, 1874. (Received July 23.) SIR: The funeral ceremonies in honor of General Concha occurred today, the body being taken from the church of San José, in the calle de Alcadá, (the parish church of the deceased,) and conveyed in procession of superior military and civil authorities of the nation, district, and city, with accompaniment of troops of all arms, by the calle de Alcadá, the Puerta del Sol, the Carrera de San Geronimo, and the Paseos, to the church of Atocha, where the final services were performed.

Particulars of the late military movements before Estella have now arrived.

General Concha's death took place substantially under circumstances as stated in my dispatch No. 47, with this material difference only, that the shot of which he died entered the body on the left side, under the shoulder-blade, and came out through the right breast.

Reflection on the subject, with all the details before me, satisfies me that the failure of this attack on the defenses of Estella was not due exclusively, if in any great degree, to the death of General Concha.

The troops of the government were spread over a long line of at least twelve kilometers, in three separate divisions, and of course the enemy, operating from the center of this semi-circle, possessed advantages of defense superior to the means of attack in the hands of General Concha.

The transportation of the latter seems to have been inadequate to the exigency; for the troops reached their destined positions so far in advance of the coming up of the train, that a long delay was necessary before they could be put in motion, and after all with but half rations. Meanwhile, this delay in the advance enabled the Carlists to see clearly what was the intended point of attack, and gave them time to mass at that point a body of troops apparently superior in numbers to those which could be brought up for the assault. In addition to this the attacking forces operated under the extreme disadvantage of the occurrence of rain-storms, which converted the field of movement into deep mud, so as physically to impede as well as morally to dishearten the assailing columns, which nevertheless made the assault with undeuiable gallantry and courage, so as in effect to have carried several exterior lines of intrenchment, and then to have yielded at last only to superior numbers. In effect, the circumstances on this occasion of the attempt to carry Monte Muru, and the result, are strikingly similar to those which occurred in the attempt of General Serrano to carry the intrenchments of San Pedro Abanto last March. It is manifest that thus far the forces brought into the field by the government are utterly inadequate to combat successfully the Carlists, operating, as the latter do, not only in the Basque provinces and Navarre with constant assistance from France, but also in the secondary ranges of mountains trav ersing Aragon, Catalonia, and a large part of Valencia.

And yet it is difficult to see how the government is to obtain the additional hundred thousand men, which it ought to have in order to bring the war to a speedy conclusion. The present sum total, according to the best attainable estimates, is two hundred thousand men.

All the troops of reserve now being collected in depot or sent forward are youths of the age of nineteen, mozos, (boys,) as they are expressively called in the military language of the country. I have had the opportunity of seeing many thousands of these recruits here, who are in appearance intelligent and spirited, yet are much more slender in frame than regular troops of the same class in the United States.

I do not hear of any troops being sent forward to Cuba, where the captain-general seems to be left to such resources of men or money as he may be able to get together in the island.

According to the latest official estimates here the number of troops sent from the peninsula to Cuba, from the year 1869 down to the pres ent day, is 82,500, of which number 36,412 have succumbed in the field or from disease, leaving only a nominal force of say 46,000, (many of whom must be invalids,) for present service of the government. In addition to which it deserves to be noted that a large number of muskets purchased by the last captain-general for use in Cuba have been withdrawn and ordered home for use in the peninsula.

It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, great discouragement should prevail in official circles here, to say nothing of more or less uncertainty respecting the purposes and actions of political parties throughout the country; with the great question rising above all others, whether or not, at some unexpected moment, the troops may not pronounce!—for it is no exaggeration to say that the political fortunes of Spain at all times during the present generation, and never more so than at the present time, are mainly dependent on the will of the army. I have, &c.,

C. CUSHING.

No. 63.]

No. 566.

Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.

UNITED STATES LEGATION,

Madrid, July 20, 1874. (Received August 12.) SIR: Occurrences of the last week present many points of general importance, and some of special interest to the United States.

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 Logroño. 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:

1. Decree declaring in state of siege all the provinces of the peninsula and the adjacent islands.

2. Decree

(a.) Authorizing the government to embargo the property of all persons who are shown to be incorporated with the rebel forces or who shall serve the Carlist cause.

(b.) Indemnifying all persons prejudiced by acts not the necessary effect of war.

(c.) Indemnifying the heirs of officers or soldiers shot after being made prisoners, at the rate of 100,000 pesetas, ($20,000,) for a general; 50,000 pesetas, ($10,000,) for other officers of less rank, and 25,000 pesetas, ($5,000,) for common soldiers.

3. Decree dissolving all societies of whatever class, condition, or object not authorized by the government.

4. Decree forbidding newspapers to publish any news of the civil war other than those inserted in the "Gaceta de Madrid."

5. A decree calling into service eighty battalions of extraordinary reserve, equivalent to a nominal force of 125,000 men.

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.

In addition to these decrees we have a bando of the captain-general of New Castile, which defines with precision the effects of the estado de sitio, such as we may suppose will be issued by other captains-general. I inclose herewith translation of these expositions and decrees.

I have, &c.,

C. CUSHING.

[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 contines 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 suc ceed 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 anthority 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.