SPAIN REVISITED.

COMMEND us to the author of A Year in Spain for a master in the craft of pleasant bookmaking. Duthie three weeks in London and a week at Brighton, he contriveS to accumulate materials for two amusing and readable volumes. A couple of months enables him to perform a similar feat as regards Spain ; or, if his last book has scarcely so much lightness as the American in England, it compensates fer that advantage by the greater novelty and variety of its subjects, and by the absence of that bad taste and disposition to caricature which were so visible in his English deecripticars,—unless our intimate acquaintance with matters in England enables us more readily to detect his tnaking-up.

The cause of our author's abrupt termination of his English tour, at the close of IS33, was a proposal on the part of the American Ambassador for him to convey some despatches to Madrid. The 19th of January 1834 found him at Bayonne; mak- ing inquiries as to the best mode of, prosecuting the journey through the disturbed districts ; which terminated in his putting himself under the guidance of a muleteer. This trusty fellow con- veyed him safely across the Pyrenees to Pamplona, and as com- fortably as mountain paths and winter weather would permit. At Pamplona our diplomatic messenger intrusted himself and his despatches to a carter known to the Carlists; with whom he walked to Zaragoza, or rode on the top of the loaded cart ; faring as his con- ductor, and mingling with such companions as chance threw in his way. From Zaragoza, the slow, lumbering, heavy-laden Spanish diligence conveyed him to Madrid ; where he sojourned some four or five weeks, visiting the theatres, bull-fights, prisons, hospitals, and all the other sights, and gleaning political anecdotes of the late King and his relic. After exhausting the obvious points

of the capital, the tourist returned by a diffent route. A galera, or stage-wagon, took him to Salamanca; whose curiosities he ela- borately describes. He travelled thence by mules to Valladolid; rode on to Burgos in the diligence; reached Vittoria in the mail ; and traversed the latter part of his journey by his old conveyance of the galera, under the protection of a master who, like most other public transporters in Spain, was all things to all men, being a Cellist with Carlists and a Christino with Christinos.

A journey performed so rapidly and in such circumstances, could yield no opportunities for searching inquiries, or the collec-

tion of recondite information, even were the author capable—

which he is not—of instituting the one or collecting the other. The traveller, however, has made the most of his time, and done as much perhaps as could have been done in so short a period.

Spain Revisited is exactly what it was intended to be—a minute narrative of a journey in a half-civilized, half-romantic land, from

the perusal of which a majority of readers will have as full an im- pression of the tour as if they had made it themselves. The author elaborately describes his adventures by the way, the charac- ters he met, the stories they told him, the confessions they made, the opinions they broached, and the costume in which they ap- peared. He notes when and where they halted, what they had to eat, the sort of maidens by whom they were attended, and the kind of bed into which he was put. Churches and preachers, public amusements, and civil and military edifices, are sketched with spirit; the manners of the people are cleverly hit off; as well as their modes of living; the pictures they form when collected into groups, and the occupations they pursue, are painted with vivacity; and the scenery through which the writer passed is de- scribed with effect. The want of a more stirring interest imparts a degree of tedium to the volumes if read continuously ; and the minuteness of detail already alluded to gives something of a com- monplace character to many parts, where the subject was scarcely 'worth the pains bestowed upon it. But these defects were inse- parable from the very essence of the book.

The nature of the land in which the journey was made must not be forgotten by the reader; lbr circumstances which would be trite or trivial in almost any other country, are fresh, curious, or interesting in Spain. Whilst every other European nation has been more or less advancing, Spain has been standing still. Her peasants, her modes of travelling, her wayfarers, her inns and their hangers-on, are much the same as when a journey was so full of in- cidents as to furnish a favourite theme for novelists. The different provinces vary as much in costume and character as they did ere Spain was united under a single monarch. It is only on a few leading roads that the diligence has superseded the ancient mode of travel- hug by a petty caravan of mules; but it proceeds slowly, and with the expectation of robbers in every spot which is convenient for an ambuscade; whilst the snail-like progress, the character of the people, and the necessity of meeting socially at meals, familiarize the passengers, and facilitate adventures, of which our more rapid mode of travelling and reserved temperament forbid even the con- ception. In short, if we strike out the gay and gallant hidalgos, now reduced to beggary, a Spanish journey in its common inci- dents and subordinate characters still faithfully reflects the scenes of Don Quixote and Gil Bias; and the daily stages from one town to another possess a kind of romantic interest which could not be imparted to them in any other country. Considering the length and fulness of the volumes, Spain Re- visited adds little to our stock of information upon the condition 'of the•country, the state of parties, and the feelings of the people; and, from the haste in which it was collected, what it does give cannot be relied on very implicitly. Our author agrees with Mr. HENNINGSEN in considering the numerical majority to be in favour of CARLOS ; but does not venture, like him, to fix the exact propor- lions, although his means of ascertaining them were more extensive. He also entertains pretty much the same opinions as the Carlist volunteer with respect to the present supporters of the Govern- ment, although he seems to depreciate them less as Liberals than us Spaniards. With the campaigner, however, he differs entirely as to the causes of the insurrection ; representing it as solely springing from the love of the Biscayans and Navarrese for their ancient privileges. For the executive administration of govern- ment in Spain he expresses the most supreme contempt; and justly, if what he says be true. According to him, the corrup- tion of every Spanish oflicial is as bad as when the Duke of' Lerma and Gil Bias went snacks in the sale of court favours.. For personal liberty there is not the slightest protection against the ruling power, be it Absolutist or Liberal : there is practically no security for life against individual caprice, cupidity, or revengk. The utmost trouble that an assassination generally entails upon an assassin, is change of place. Robbery, either with or without murder, is seldom inquired into by the officers of justice, unless as a means of acquiring money ; and the criminals usually escape, unless their deed has been of such an atrocious nature as to excite the peasants spontaneously to rise in pursuit. And, as a legitimate consequence, the prisons are crowded with victims,. the stations with galley-slaves, the towns with thieves and beg- gars, and the roads with robbers. After all that can be said about Spain Revisited, quotations will furnish the best idea of the character of its style, and the variety, number, and nature of its subjects. We therefore take a quantity of passages, without regard to their order. The first is curious, as showing how a genuine American is affected by the slightest contact with a privileged person, however worthless the individual may be.

THE OCEEN AT THE PLAY.

At the appointed hour, the clatter of many hoofs in the street, and soon after the clang of sabres and halberds falling on the marble pavement of the stair- way and galleries, and shouts of' Lung live Christina!" mingling with the stern orders of the military officers, announced the arrival of the Queen. All rose to receive her, and she present,ly entered, accompanied by Don Francisco and Don Sebastian, with her two sisters, their wives. As she advanced up the passage to her seat, she was received with enthusiastic vivas and waving of fans, which she returned with a rare grace, and a captivating smile of recognition directed to those whom she distinguished. Her height is good, and she is ex- tremely: well-formed, though inclining to become large. She was dressed with great simplicity and good taste, in black, with jet ornaments, and a panache in her hair, which was dressed ti la Chinoise. Though her nose was somewhat larger than is necessary, and, withal, slightly raraussee; yet the style of her face was decidedly good, and the effect of the whole, enhanced by a sweet air of amiability and goodness of heart, was quite captivating. She did not take her seat on the species of throne, surmounted by a canopy, which was placed at one side, but on the front rank of benches, which happened to be only two im• mediately in advance of that on which I was sitting. The three Princesses were attended by their chamberlains, among whom I noticed particularly one, on whose arm hung the Queen's pelisse of velvet and costly furs, and who was a very noble-looking man, with a classical cast of countenance and a pale com- plexion, contrasting strongly with his black and nicely-defined moustache, and a full dark eye, which, while it reposed languidly within its lid, seemed capable of lighting up and kindling with excitement and fire. His plain dress of black, with no other ornament than the gold key which designated his office, corre- sponded with the simplicity and striking character of his whole person. Os inquiry, I was told that his name was Munoz ; whom it was impossible not to look on as a most happy fellow, to hold an ()thee of the kind about the person of so charming a lady. When the curtain rose there was a variety of music, singing, and a play, in which the pupils acted, with the aid of the tragedian La Torre, from the theatre of the Principe. Though the acting was the best I had seen in Madrid, I WAS not sufficiently interested in it not to find a much greater pleasure in looking at the Queen. Her head was finely shaped, with a couple of little ears fitting nicely and tightly on either side,—the first pair, in- deed, that ever struck nie as having any beauty ; then her neck was so swan- like and faultless, and it so gradually and naturally spread out and expanded into such a noble foundation, increasing at each instant in beauty and eharms,. until it disapeated vexatiously beneath the dress which concealed it ; but, above all, when she turned her head, as she did from time to time, to notice and salute the ladies about her, her countenance so lit up with smiles and became radiant with sweetness and amiability, that I could not keep from feeling to- wards her a degree of reverence and enthusiastic admiration, which was less a homage to her grandeur and proud condition as a Queen, than to her exceed- ing loveliness as a woman.

A MADRID LIBERAL.

Don Valentine, who had been collecting news in the Gate of the Sun, now so much more abundant than in former times, soon after returned. He was wholly unchanged ;—the same tall, gaunt, bony, skin-dried, colourless individual, I furl ever known him. Even death itself, which could not render him more hideous, would have had no power to change him. The same brown caps, too, covered his ungracious form ; when he unrolled it, however, instead of the little coat whose tails economy had reduced to the shorteft dimensions that decency admitted, a black frock of more fashionable appearance was discovered. When I complimented him on his dandyism, he told me, as I was glad to hear, that though the lottery still frowned upon him, his affairs were in a better condition, and that his family was much more comfortable. He was still as inveterate a hunter as ever, and as thorough a patriot ; as an evidence of which he showed me a belt with a box containing twelve cartridges, which he had prepared for the day on which the curates and friars were to receive the reward of their iniquities. He had already been twice in the street with his gun hidden under his cloak, but the time for retribution had not yet arrived.

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A TAILOR.

It was easy to conceive that he should be also of that way of thinking, and of the party which may be called national in Navarre. He thought, indeed, that it would be better for Spain that Carlos should he King. Carlos was food of the army, and would have a very large one ; this army must of course be clothed, and hence abundant employment for the tailors, and plentiful circulation of money throughout the provinces. "What is the reason," said he, "that France is so rich and powerful ? Because she has a large army to consume the

produce of the country, and keep the people employed." Such was the political economy of the brother-in-law of Ramon, the carman ; aml it ie that of more than nine Spaniards in ten, who cannot lay claim to half so much quickness and ingenuity as the worthy tailor. It was very curious, too, to hear bun discuss the relative claims of different countries to be esteemed civilized. He contended that England was the first country in the world. I ventured, for the sake of hearing what he had to say, to suggest a doubt whether France might not be placed before her. "Look at an English coat, or an English hat, or a knife, a scissors, or a razor," said be, " and tell me whether England be not the greatest nation? " He accounted very sensibly for the popularity of the insur- rection in Navarre, and gave, among other reasons, the enhanced value of all the necessaries of life,—bread, wine, oil, and others, which are the chief pru.. ductiuns of the country.

PROS AND CONS OF A DILIGENCE: DINNER.

The burden of the conversation during our meal was sustained chiefly by our exile. Ile wait a man of genius, whose speeches had been chat acterized by great eloquence in the Cortes, and who was also not without reputation as a poet. I dwelt with pleasure on his words, and, by the force of sympathy, par- ticipated in the delight with which he was returning to his native lamb Ile found every thing improved by ten years of absence. We were travelling in a diligence better than any he had seen in France; and stub an inn as that of which we were then enjoying the hospitality, and such a supper as we had just eaten, he had never before seen in his own country. The face of things seemed to him everywhere improved ; and indeed he was prepared to look on every thing with a favouring eye, as Ito recounted the days of his exile. In England aione had lie been hospitably teceived ; in liberal France he found himself scarcely tolerated : watched, annoyed about his passport, and pestered by the police, he had been glad to escape ; in the Austilan dominions his condition 'became worse ; he had entered the Pope's territories on the faith of a passport from a nuncio, and was rudely imprisoned, and conducted by soldiers to the frontier : nothing but the memory of his wife here saved him from the crime of suicide; in Sicily he was still persecuted ; and it was only in Malta that he again found protection and friendship under the British flag. The memory of these wrongs and this kindness seemed to dwell in his bosom with Spanish con- stancy. his wife had joined him at Malta, and they had paved several years together there, until two years before, when she had returned to watch i the progiess of events and sue for his pardon, and was now waiting his return, in company with a mother, from whom he had been so much longer separated. The conversation in which I had joined led me, naturally enough, and with- out any impertinence, to express the very great dread I had lest the present Government should not be able to sustain itself, and lest by positing matters pre• maturely the counter-revolution should drive Spain back to a worse condition than she had been in for the last tinv years. I argued that the people generally in Spain were under the influence of the clergy, and that they were taught by them to cling to their ancient institutions and hold all innovation in horror ; and that no government could sustain itself in Spain or anywhere which was not in harmony with the wants and wishes of the majority. This brought down the ire of the whole party, who attacked me tooth and nail for advocating a despotic government in other countries, while I was myself the citizen of a republic. It was in vain that I told them that I was devoted to the institutions of my own country, because they were the only ones suited to it, not less than because I esteemed them abstractedly the beet, for the sante reasons that I had serious misgivings, founded on the complete failure of the late Constitutional Government, as to the working of a liberal system in Spain. I professed my belief, that if a country had a defective government, it was because it preferred it, and was not yet fitted to live peaceably under a better one—insisting that peace was the first want of nations as of individuals, and the greatest essential of happiness; that no country could be happy without it ; and that liberty had never been known to advance itself in civil war, but rather in times of profound peace and national prosperity.

SPANISH SCENERY AND TRAVELLING.

Nothing can be more monotonous than the ordinary character of Spanish scenery, especially throughout the great central plateau which is embraced by the two Castiles. As we now journeyed onward, the country before us spread it- self out in one vast naked plain, uniformly level, to all appearance, yet proving to be broken at intervals by an occasional barranca, of which the first intimation usually consisted in a sudden descent into it. The surface of the country, oc- casionally green with the young corn, was more commonly covered with the dry stubble of some departed wheat crop, or lay entirely fallow. Not a tree was anywhere to be seen ; and the glittering sun, shining without intervention of cloud or haze through an atmosphere unaccustomed to their influences, was reflected from the bare soil with a heat which was unpleasant in February ; and which, in connexion with the glare and dust, combined to make the shelter of the wagon acceptable. One object, however, presented itself to qualify the pervading monotony,—the mountains of Guadarrama, which bounded the western horizon, and which, as if to contradict the summer-like indications of the weather around us, were everywhere covered with snow.

Towards noon we began to get among the first swells of the mountains, and our road was gradually on the ascent, the country being rugged, stony, destitute of cultivation, and in a half-chaotic state. During leagues we encountered no water, or any habitation where it might be procured. Occasionally a flock of sheep might be seen browsing among the cliffs, under the care of a wild-looking shepherd, attired, like his flock, in skins ; our prayers for water, proffered to these genii of the wilds, were invariably answered by a shrug of the shoulders, and a laconic " no hay;" and the wine of the galera, which increased the thirst it was meant to slake, was our only refreshment. Thrice happy were we, therefore, to reach the yenta, where the mules were to munch their customary barley, and we our puchero. It was quite a new building, very long, and open at both ends in the direction of the road, so that travellers might drive in at one end, and, when ready to pursue their journey, pass on without turn or angle. One side of this vast caravansary was assigned to the mules and asses, the other to their masters; the two being simply- separated by the carriage-way, filled with loaded carts and wagons, the whole receiving the shelter of the same roof. Dinner was soon prepared, consisting of egg-soup, with bread, oil, saffron, and pepper in it, a stewed hare, and boiled fish at the last, followed by the customary raisins and almonds, being served by two young women in very full petticoats and with long waists : one of them was a little pockmarked, but she had very fine eyes and teeth, which gave great animation to her countenance, its she took part in the usual joust of words carried on at meal-time between muleteers and Maritorneses, and in which the passengers occasionally partook, consisting of compliments and their rejoinders, racy speeches, and playing upon words, in which the women sustained their part admirably, evincing the supe- rior sprightliness of the female intellect, in usually carrying off the victory. Having finished our dinner and recompensed the lively terving-women for their attendance and consumption of wit, under the general demand for pins, we crawled into the galera, and trundled out of the yenta by the Guadarrama door.

CIGAR.MAKING.

The fragments being colleeted, every Spaniard of the party fell to making a paper cigar. This is a most interesting study to the cosmopolite and the philanthropist. How does the true Spaniard embody his whole soul in the in- temtiog operation! The picking of the tobacco with knife or thumb-nail, the rolling it between the hands to reduce it to powder, the tearing of the paper, and then the pious cats with which each particle of the precious weed is emptied into it, and the rare art, known only to the initiated, and in which the Spaniard alone can ever hope to excel, of rolling it firmly, yet not too firmly, together—all constitutes a picture which may seem absurd to those who have not seen it, but which the Spanish traveller will join me in remembering as most curious. This is indeed one of the few subjects which in Spain the civilization of the nineteenth century has enlightened. Hence the invention of a paper free from noxious principles, invented expressly for the cigarillo; bound, moreover, in books, with leaves of the pi oper size, to be torn out as re- quired, and embellished on the outside with gay devices.

A liOG MARKET.

The hogs were most ingeniously kept together, anti prevented from blending with passing herds by being arranged in a circle, of which their tails formed the circumference, while their heads were ranged together, gazing upon a single fettered hog, probably the most unruly of the herd, who lay most uncomfort- ably, as an example, in the centre. They gazed at their persecuted brother with more pitying sympathy in their countenances than I believed the swinish physiognomy to be susceptible of; while ever and anon the half-savage swine- herds, iudely dressed in garments of skin, cotified by energetic blows from their lung poles to any delinquent subject who was disposed to back out, that the ex- periment might not be innocent.

Each swinish circle was surrounded by its group of cheapeners, malevolent and slanderous individuals, who were not even:superior to the calumniation of a pig ; pronouncing, in their anxiety to drive a bargain injurious to the swine- herd and advantageous to themselves, a most apoplectic-looking pig to be poor and starveling. At length a round-bellied citizen, having concluded i bargain which he pronounced most onerous, proceeded to take possession of the animal which he had maligned. The swineherd separated the purchased animal front

his brethren very ingeniously, by taking its two hind-legs in his hand, then turning his back upon it and walking tat' as with a wheel-barrow,—the hog being obliged to DIHVe its fore-legs, out of respect for its nose. I had often seen a bog contended with, but never mastered before. The Spaniards, indeed, have esa wonderful sagacity about animals, syllich they manage with iufinite ad- dress.

SPANISH BEHAVIOUR AT DINNER.

Though the frequenters of the ordinary were either merchants, advocates, or officers, and consequently noblemen, yet they were almost universally inattentive to many of the commonest and most established axioms of good-breeding as practised in other countries. This is chiefly owing to the circumstance that in Spain every man is accustomed to eat habitually his own miserable dinner in his own house, owing to the total absence of hospitality and dinner-giving habits among an impoverished people, whom religious and political despotism have rendered suspicious. Their ignorance of polite usage, and their want of ease at table, is not, however, owing to motlesty or bashfulness; these being ex- clusively English and American qualities, unknown among other nations. Moreover, the better order of Spaniards, living by government employ inents and other idle ways, being very generally poor, and accustomed to a starveling kind of existence, when they occasionally find themselves seated at a well-tilled board, eat very voraciously. hence it is that a gentleman at all fastidious about his dinner-table associations, will, on many accounts, find himself more at home among a party of grave, dignified, and courteous muleteers, so superior in their bearing to the same classes in other countries, than he would have done at the ordinary of the Valladolid inn, among this noisy crew of uucompromiz- ing, yet themselves somewhat less than half civilized reformers.

Our American friend furnishes little information as to the fighting capabilities of the belligerents ; for although he traversed the seat of war both going and returning, his grand object was to avoid a contest in which he had no concern. What little he gives is second-hand; and in this he somewhat differs from HER- N1NGSEN as regards the valour of the Carlists.

BATTLE OF ESPILETA.

The conversation of this young man was very interesting. He had been present at the battle which took place at Espileta on the 29th of December, about a fortnight before, and described its stirring scenes with wonderful vivid- ness. He had gone to the spot to offer his services to Zumalacarregui, to clothe the battalions of Navarre under his comment!, and happened to be still near when the battle commenced. The Queen's troops amounted to three thousand, and the Carlists to seven thousand ; these had the advantage of a strong position on the side of a mountain, and a higher elevation to retreat to, and they there- fore awaited the attack impatiently. Brandy hail been plentifully distributed to them, and they rent the air with songs which the priests had prepared for them. They would have given up their position to assail the Queen's troops, had they not been restrained by their chief. The Queen's troops came boldly on, charg- ing up hill, their way being obstructed by stones that were rolled down upon them. The contact was terrible; twice were the Queen's troops repulsed; but discipline at last prevailed ; the insurgents were obliged to give way, covered, however, from pursuit, by the nature of the ground. The next morning he rode over the scene of battle; the bodies of the killed were all stripped. He was horror-stricken at the sight; and his mule, trembling, snorting, and starting away, compelled Lion to turn back.

A CARLIST EXPLOIT.

Ere long we shrove into Quintanapalla; in whose inn the escort of horsemen appointed to protect the mail from that place to Burgos had been captured by Carlists a few nights before. They were supping joyously in the kitchen, when suddenly a party of Carlists pounced upon them, placing the muzzle of a mus- ket to the breast of each, and calling on them to surrender or die. Having se- lected the former alternative, they were bound with their arms behind them, and carried to the mountains, where they were stripped of their uniform, and dismissed the following morning, with a manta or striped blanket to cover their nakedness, and a pistareen for each of the privates and two for a corporal. Thus the Carlists were able to mount and accoutre six well-appointed horse- men, dressed, moreover, in a costume which might enable them to pass at plea- sure for followers of the Queen. The vengeance taken by the liberal sub-dele- gate in Burgos fur this skilful aggression was very chtnacteristic, and not less base. The miserable village of Quintanapalla was mulcted in the sum of forty thousand reels, because the robbery had been committed in it; and the inn- keeper was in prison, in consequence of the soldiers swearing, in order to cover their own disgrace, that the robbers were concealed in his house. The postilion seemed reasonably enough to think the case a very bard one, inasmuch as, according to his information, if every article in the place, to the shirts of the peasants, with the exception of the land, which belonged to a nobleman in Burgos, were confiscated and sold, there would not be wherewithal to meet the amount of the contribution. As for the robbers themselves, no attempt was made to pursue them ; and those soldiers remained unpunished, who, hav- ing gone forth from their barracks armed and well mounted, now skulked back in their skins with nothing besides a pistareen and a blanket.