SPAIN AND TANGIBR, .

A FAMILY-PARTY have been for some years trorelling on the Continent ; and, through one or other of their number, have kept up a constant cor- respondence with a " very near relative " at lime ; not only writing an account of their doings and observations, but entering freely into critical comparisons both as regards nature and art, besides speculating on reli- gion, politics, and national character. During a part of their tour they traversed Spain from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, thence making a trip to Tangier : and the letters relating to this part of the journey have been selected and arranged for publication by the person to whom they were addressed, and (as he states in an apologetical paragraph for inaccuracies of composition,) without the writer's knowledge. This seems a free and easy mode of proceeding; but it is probably the truth. At all events, the letters bear evident marks of having been written in the first instance rather for a private than the public eye: which, with some drawback of weaknesses, gives them the advantage of much freshness. It requires strength of character, and probably prac- tice in the ars seribendi, to endow personal matters with breadth and generality. In these pages there is a good deal of that minute detail and expression of individual fieling which„produce weakness of composi- tion: the reader does not wholly enter into the feeling of the subject, be- cause he is not the person addressed, and is ignorant of the various " an-

tecedents " that produce a personal sympathy. On the other hand, we obtain more nature, and perhaps more truth. Conclusions are pre- sented in their original formation; we have the writer's opinion with- out the trimmings and modifications that many are disposed to make who are young in addressing the awful public. As a straw shows which way the wind sets, the condemnation of the far-famed Spanish mantilla may indicate what we mean.

MANTILLA AT MADRID.

On dress occasions, the ladies of the upper ranks already despise the mantilla; ambitioning nothing so much as a fashionable French bonnet, which, to speak plain truth, is a prettier thing. "Tell it not in Ascalon, name it not in Gath," but the black mantilla (not to speak of the black dress almost universally worn here) seems to me rather a slovenly and lugubrious habiliment. It is, I think, far from possessing indeed, nameless grace with which poets and romancers have invested it; unless, Indeed, when on the head of youth, beauty, and elegance: and what is there that does not look graceful there? I assure you, on a fat, middle- aged, dowdyish individual, it is anything but advantageous; and, dignified as may be the carriage and elastic the gait of the young dames, the more advanced seem to me to be fatter and more dowdyish than that unfortunate portion of the human race are elsewhere. Must I also acknowledge, that I have hitherto looked in vain beneath this same mantilla for the brilliant beauty which has lighted up, we are told, so many inflammable hearts? It is a thankless task to pull down these high flights: what a pity we cannot make beautifying-glasses of our eyes !

The difference of dress might have struck me more bad I come straight from England, where every washerwoman wears her bonnet, and where a sash is as unheard-of as the blunderbusses and long knives which here properly belong to said sash; but having within the year been in Ireland, where bonnets are rare among the poor—and, more recently still, in the South of France, where the natty coloured handkerchiefs and red belts are constantly before one's eyes—the altera- tion seems trifling. I have indeed an uneasy presentiment upon me, that in this instance, as in so many others, the marvellous will ooze away as we come to know all about it.

The Spanish journey of our travellers embraced Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Malaga, Granada, the provinces of Murcia and Valencia, and Bar- celona. Wherever they were or whatever they saw of the people, the result is the same, and most unfavourable to the Spanish character and prospects. Backwardness in roads, public conveyances, and inns, is a stale theme, and may seem a vulgar test of a nation's character; yet when we find these in the condition they were two or three centuries ago, the inference is conclusive as to the progress of the people amid surround- ing advancement. But when new things deteriorate from inattention to wear and tear, and even ancestral works get worse from the same cause, the conclusion is inevitable as to the positive character of the Spaniards, as well as to their degeneracy. In point of writing, the story of the troubles that befell the party in the diligence on the journey from Madrid to Seville is somewhat wiredrawn; but as a picture of Spanish laziness and carelessness it is complete. Here again is a picture of the roads between a sea-port like Malaga and a town like Granada. The writer wonders that roads so bad could ever have been intended for wheel-conveyances. Most probably they never were. They are doubt- less the old roads, formed before whe61-carriages were in use in modern Europe, and never altered, perhaps never repaired.

"The fourth and last of the sources of discomfort before alluded to, during our journey to Granada—and unquestionably the greatest and most enduring—was the state of the road itself. You would never imagine that anything so bad could be intended to be travelled by wheeled conveyances. The road from Madrid to Seville, though we went it in such dreadful weather, was excellent compared to parts of this. As long as we were on the high mountains, where the rock of which these were composed furnished a sound hard material, and where steep declivities carried away the water, there was not much reason to complain; but as we advanced, oar route became in parts almost impassable. Large rugged stones lay in our way; and, owing to currents from the hills, the road was quently crossed by deep channels, out of which, when once fairly in them, it sometimes seemed impossible we should ever rise again. Even rivers had to be traversed—some of them full of water, some of little else than stones; and steep banks bad to be climbed and descended, where a capsize appeared almost inevi- table. Then, in some places the road disappeared entirely, as in that from Madrid to Toledo; the coach being driven in whatever direction promised the fairest chance of a safe passage. " It is curious that, as we approached Granada, this state of things, instead of mending, became worse. At all events, though we had in the plain fewer sudden inequalities to overcome, we had at the same time less road than ever; all ap-

pearance of anything ieyond mule-tracks ceasing for several miles before we reached the planted part of the Vega. " The consequence of this melancholy degree of neglect, of course, is, that in bad weather all the approaches to Granada are absolutely impassable, excepting for those who walk or ride. What a fact to have to state of one of the principal capitals, and the most beautifully situated, in Spain ! of the town possessing the most delightful and healthy climate, and one of the most fertile surrounding tracts in the whole kingdom ! In the rainy seasons, and during the winter, Granada may be said to be all but isolated from the rest of the world!" .

Inns are as bad as roads. Except on sonic of the main lines—and they are not always an exception—the question " What can I have to eat ? " is answered by the unsatisfactory fact, " Whatever you have brought with you." Trade of all kind is as backward, tried by the same obvious teats ; so is literature, the Spaniards seeming to be depend- ent on translations ; so is music. The writer, though not apparently very deeply versed in the latter subject, made some inquiries after national productions, but without success ; and this is one of the explanations.

" One obstacle in a collector's way may probably be the fact, that there is but little printed music to be had here at all; the slovenly habit of the country being, commonly, to sell it in manuscript: and as there is little or no stock, either of the one kind or the other, kept in the shops, it is exceedingly difficult to procure music to try, unless you can tell the name of the pieces you wish—manifestly an impossibility to the stranger in search of that of which he us yet knows no- thing. If you order any particular piece, the chance is you cannot get it till it has been copied expressly for you. You are therefore at the mercy of the copiers, who constitute a regular trade hem: you must pay so much a page, and wait their time."

Entertainments depend so much upon social habit that little perhaps can be inferred from them; yet every one eats a dinner that can get one. "Turkey contains no bells, and yet men dine." Even in the inner parts of Asia strangers are invited to a repast; the Celestials• bestow a meal on "the outer barbarians"; and the Polynesians instinctively feasted their first discoverers. In Spain the exception proves the rule. One

Spaniard has given one dinner. "A dinner-party," writes the tourist from the capital, "not having a public object, and including both sexes, has not, except in one solitary instance, been given by a Spaniard of note during all the time we have as yet been in Madrid ; at least, not to the knowledge of any of the very few English who are here. An entertain- ment of this kind on a very grand scale was recently given by the Duque de Osuna, one of the few really wealthy and unembarrassed grandees, and a man who is ambitions of doing every thing in the best English style." * * * "Nay, I have it from unquestionable authority, that until the aforesaid effort of the Duque's, no dinner-entertainment had been given by a Spaniard even to the English Minister-Plenipotentiary and his circle, since their residence here." Even the Duke's "ambition" seems to be satiated, as if he "had reached the work—the all that mortal can," and might now repose upon his laurels.

The cause of this national infliction would seem to be a want of the wherewithal by which dinners are supplied. The greater part of the grandees are overwhelmed in debts and pecuniary difficulties; they have portioned off apartments in their mansions to attendants in lien of the arrears, and vegetate in some wretched corner of their own palaces, save when they go abroad in state. The stewards seem the only thriving persons in the community. The Spaniard is too proud to work, but he is not ashamed to beg; and hence the bulk of the community, instead of rousing their energies and abating their dignities, turn solicitors for public employment ; which is at once the cause of revolutions, and of their success when they survive a certain point. Gentlemen who have no interest, or no patience, take to the road. This character applies in its full effulgence to the Spaniard proper : the Basque Provinces possess more energy; the Murcians and Valencians really do work—are "more occu- pied and active, and more comfortable, in consequence, than in other parts of Spain," though by no means pleasant people to live among. "I am sorry to say, that with all the apparent industry and greater comfort of the people in this district, they are, if we credit the account given of them here, far from being. proportionably better conducted. On the contrary, it is asserted that the Marmara and the Valencians are less to be depended on than any of the Spaniards; that they have little or no command over their passions; and that more deeds of violence are done in these provinces than in any others. Possibly, however, the thicker population in the fertile districts may not have been taken into consideration by the speakers. Perhaps, too, the 'crimes alluded to may usually be the effects of temporary excitement rather than of deliberate vice. Or, if not, how is it that we could travel from Cartagena to Marcia, and from Murcia to Alicant, (as we subsequently did,) in an open tartan, with a single driver, without any other protection?—that afterwards we could go from Alicant to Valencia in a public conveyance without guards?—and that, in neither case, did the least danger appear to be apprehended for us by those to whom we spoke; while in other parts of Spain, so much was said about the risk of travelling, un- less in large parties, with escorts, &c.? It is true, the real cause of this difference may merely be, that as the principal high-roads offer greater prospect of booty in the *4 of carriages, they are therefore more infested by robbers; while on roads comparatively little travelled by vehicles, prey being scarce, the hawks are few. Or perhaps rather, the thicker native population here—the greater number of villages, and thence of passers-by on foot or horseback, as compared with the un- cultivated or mountainous tracts—may render the brigand trade less safe and practicable in these parts."

Their violence probably arises from judicial corruption and their South- ern blood. We rather suspect the absence of thieves is owing to the greater industry of the people. In a very backward community, the knights of the road are not unpopular ; as they mostly plunder strangers, their own community having little or nothing to steal. Among an indus- trious population, where every one has something to lose and safe tran- sit is absolutely necessary for the exercise of industry, banditti are cried down, however polite or picturesque. The Highland reiver or Border thief might pass as a gentleman some centuries ago; but the Scotch agriculturists would look with a very evil eye on such gentry now-a-days.

One of the worst symptoms in Spain, according to our author, is the apathy, or rather the depression—the disbelief of the people in all possible improvement, which to some extent will work out its own evil fulfil- ment. Here is one of our author's instances of the latter; with which we must close, though many passages of a lighter or more descriptive character are at hand.

" Whatever change for the better, however, has taken place, or may now be iii progress, on this or other Points, the Spaniards themselves seem to have no faith in such. The same despair of improvement appears to reign here which we have noticed with pain elsewhere. A few days ago, the dreadful state of the approaches to Granada and of other roads in Spain was the subject of conversation between us and some Spaniards; all deploring the numberless evils consequent on this condition of the highways and on the restrictions on trade, both of-which com- bine to deprive the inhabitants of these and other fertile districts of the means of

sale for their crops, &c. * was expressing the hope that these t would improve in time, and that the natural advantages of the country wo

be rendered available. Never, never!' was the reply: never in Spain. If any district here were even to be colonized by English—though for a time such a district would of coarse improve—ere long the English would have become Spaniards, the Spaniards would not have adopted English habits, and the state of things would be the same as ever.' The external influence, the Spaniards seem to think, would be too strong for any enterprise, any energy: the colonists would first be astonished, perhaps amused; then irritated; then discouraged, disgusted; and at last they would give up the unavailing effort, and follow with the stream. Such is the tone of remark we have heard in all quarters.

" The humbler, the middle, and the upper classes, all appear impressed with the same idea. I remember our once entering a shoemaker's shop in the Zacatin, and his favouring us while there with his opinions on the state of his country. One of his expressions was strong and striking. he said, wants a governor with a hand of iron and the heart of a tiger ': adding, that ' if English, French, or even Moors governed Spain, she might improve; but never under Spaniards.' He said if he were younger, he would leave the country altogether; and that he wished his daughters might marry foreigners, and be taken out of it."