SINGULAR RIOT IN MADRID—­CHANGES IN THE FRENCH MINISTRY—­INSURRECTIONS IN THE PROVINCES.

TO THE HON.  H.S.  CONWAY.

PARIS, April 8, 1766.

I sent you a few lines by the post yesterday with the first accounts of the insurrections at Madrid.[1] I have since seen Stahremberg, the imperial minister,[2] who has had a courier from thence; and if Lord Rochford has not sent one, you will not be sorry to know more particulars.  The mob disarmed the Invalids; stopped all coaches, to prevent Squillaci’s[3] flight; and meeting the Duke de Medina Celi, forced him and the Duke d’Arcos to carry their demands to the King.  His most frightened Majesty granted them directly; on which his highness the people despatched a monk with their demands in writing, couched in four articles:  the diminution of the gabel on bread and oil; the revocation of the ordonnance on hats and cloaks; the banishment of Squillaci; and the abolition of some other tax, I don’t know what.  The King signed all; yet was still forced to appear in a balcony, and promise to observe what he had granted.  Squillaci was sent with an escort to Carthagena, to embark for Naples, and the first commissioner of the treasury appointed to succeed him; which does not look much like observation of the conditions.  Some say Ensenada is recalled, and that Grimaldi is in no good odour with the people.  If the latter and Squillaci are dismissed, we get rid of two enemies.

[Footnote 1:  The Spanish Government had taken on itself to regulate dress, and to introduce French fashions into Madrid—­an innovation so offensive to Spanish pride, that it gave rise to a formidable insurrection, of which the populace took advantage to demand the removal of some obnoxious taxes.]

[Footnote 2:  Prince Stahremberg was the imperial ambassador at Madrid.]

[Footnote 3:  Signor Squillaci, an Italian, was the Spanish Prime Minister.]

The tumult ceased on the grant of the demands; but the King retiring that night to Aranjuez, the insurrection was renewed the next morning, on pretence that this flight was a breach of the capitulation.  The people seized the gates of the capital, and permitted nobody to go out.  In this state were things when the courier came away.  The ordonnance against going in disguise looks as if some suspicions had been conceived; and yet their confidence was so great as not to have two thousand guards in the town.  The pitiful behaviour of the Court makes one think that the Italians were frightened, and that the Spanish part of the ministry were not sorry it took that turn.  As I suppose there is no great city in Spain which has not at least a bigger bundle of grievances than the capital, one shall not wonder if the pusillanimous behaviour of the King encourages them to redress themselves too.