SPAIN.

AFTER Italy, Spain is unquestionably the most interesting country in Europe. Its history is a wonder-a marvel; there is no territory in Christendom so fertile in romantic associations. Its annals carry us far into the recesses of the past; and prominent among its records is the fact, that it has twice been the debateable ground between Europe and Africa. Rome and Carthage contended for empire on its soil; and when the Saracens made their chivalrous effort for the possession of Christian Europe, Spain was one of the advanced positions on which they seized.

of the world. But the country is still said to be able guishable from the common houses in the streets,
to furnish subsistence for 78,000,000 of human except by their large dimensious. The palaces of
beings-so that it is not to the poverty of the soil we the grandees that contain either statues or pictures

must attribute the decrease in its numerical power. of
War and bad government have been the curses of
Spain for ages; but what good could be expected of
a country burthened with half a million of nobles
and a hundred and fifty thousand priests and nuns?
The wonder should be that the nationality held to-
gether for a single year.

The capital of this deeply-interesting country, like
St. Petersburg, owes its origin to political conside-
rations and the caprice of the sovereign. Madrid
stands on several low hills in the midst of an im-
mense plain, bounded on the side of Old Castile by
Its authentic history commences with its consoli- the mountains of Guadarama; on every other side it
dation into a Roman province, under the first impe- seems to have no other boundary than the horizon.
rial Cæsar. This was for a long time adopted by The population is about 250,000. There is this to
Spanish writers as their historic era, being thirty-be said in favor of the site: it is nearly in the centre
five years earlier than that which is generally as- of Spain, and the air is pure, but the climate is vari-
signed to the birth of the Saviour. In Arragon this able and far from genial-the cold of winter being
continued to be in use till the year 1358, in Castile severe, and the summer heat overwhelming. By
twenty-five years later, and in Portugal so late as going only thirty or forty miles southward, many
1415. The earliest known division of Spain was advantageous and beautiful situations might have
into Citerior and Ulterior-Hither and Further-been chosen; but it would seem that the royal
Spain in reference to the Iberian chain; but soon founder had determined to fix his capital on a spot
after this we find it divided by Roman writers into which no Roman, Gothic, or Moorish sovereign had
three provinces-Lusitania, Hispania Boetica, and thought worthy of occupying, till Philip II. removed
Hispania Tarraconesis. Under the latter Roman his court to this place. Madrid was only an obscure
emperors some alterations were made in this divi- town in a naked and sterile district, destitute alike
sion, and it was afterwards totally obliterated by the of trees and verdure. It belonged to the archbishops
desolating invasion of the country by the northern of Toledo, and as if in contempt of the noble river
nations. The modern division of Spain results which washes the ancient capital, Madrid is built on
from the formation of distinct and independent king- the banks of the Manzanares—one of its tributaries
doms and principalities on the expulsion of the-which in summer is a mere rivulet, creeping
Moors, between the middle of the eighth century through a wide bed of sand. Overlooking the de-
and the end of the fifteenth. The Asturian mon- fects of the situation, Madrid may be admitted to be
archy was the germ of the Spanish greatness. The a very fine city. The houses are lofty and built of
small province which it comprised was at one time stone; the streets are well paved and clean, and the
the only portion of the country unconquered by the public edifices, not being blackened with smoke,
Moors. At length, towards the close of the fif- look as if they were newly erected
teenth century, by the marriage of Ferdinand, fifth
King of Arragon, with Isabella of Castile, the
crowns of Asturian, Leon, Castile, Arragon, and
Granada were united.

The handsomest buildings are the palaces and churches. The principal of the former is the Palacio Real-the residence of Queen Isabella. We give an engraving of the exterior of this imposing The discovery of America soon followed, and edifice, and, to describe it, we must enter into a few Spain in one generation became the greatest coun-historical details. try in Europe. Situated between two seas which spread its commerce into every port, it collected on either hand, in the time of its maritime greatness, the wealth of both the Indies; while, on the only side on which it is accessible to foreign invasion, the Pyrenees-present a formidable, though it has not proved an insuperable barrier.

value, are few in number.

The old palace was burnt down to the ground in 1734; and Philip Juvara was commissioned by Philip V. to give a plan for rebuilding it in the most splendid manner. The model he made is still in existence, but was rejected on acoount of the immensity of the size and the greatness of the expense, as well as of the want of sufficient room to place it, the king being determined, on account of the air, to have it rebuilt on the exact spot where the old one had stood. Juvara dying before he could prepare a second design, his disciple Sacchetti produced that which has been carried into execution. It is all of white stone, each of the fronts being 470 feet in length by 100 in height. This pile towers over all the country, where nothing intercepts the view for many miles. The entrances and ground floor appear more like those of some mighty fortress, than of the peaceful habitation of some powerful monarch, a hundred leagues removed from his frontiers. The range of large glazed arches round the inner court resembles the inside of a manufactory. This is the more unpardonable, as they had at no great distance, in the Alcazar of Toledo, as elegant a colonnade as the nicest critic could desire. The beautiful circular court of Granada might have suggested noble ideas to the architect; but at that time, perhaps, the very existence of such a thing was a secret at Madrid.

But the interior is gorgeous. The ceilings ara, chef d'œuvres of Mengs, Corrado, and Tiepolo. The richest marbles are employed with great taste in forming the cornices and socles of the rooms, and the frames of the doors and windows. What enhances the value of these marbles is the circumstance of their being all produced in the quarries of Spain.

At the bottom of the palace yard is an old building called the Armeria, containing a curious assortment of antique arms and weapons. No notable house has its fire-grates half so bright as these coats of mail. They show those of all the heroes that dignify the annals of Spain: those of St. Ferdinand, of Ferdinand the Catholic, his wife Isabella, Charles V., the great Captain Gonsalo, the King of Grenada, and many others. Some suits are embossed with great nicety. The temper of the sword blades is quite wonderful; you may lap them round your waist like a girdle.

The first king that made any long abode in Madrid, was Henry IV. Before his reign, it was but an insignificant place, with a small castle for the convenience of the princess who came to hunt the boar in the environs, which were then as woody as they are now naked. Its situation on a hill over- The present occupant of the Palacio Real (which looking many leagues of country, open on every side we engrave) is Maria Isabella, a sovereign who first The greatest longitudinal length of the Spanish to a wholesome circulation of air, and abundance of saw the light on the 10th of October, 1830, and who peninsula, from Cape Finisterre to Cape Creus, is good water, induced the Emperor Charles V. to ascended the throne of Spain on the 29th of Sep650 miles; its breadth, from Cape Ortegal to Gib-build an ample palace here, which he intended to tember, 1833. Of the war waged in her behalf, in raltar, 550 miles. Exclusive of Portugal, its super- make his chief residence, as he thought the climate which England assisted, we will not detail any parficial extent may be stated in round numbers at best adapted to his constitution. The sovereign ticulars. All that we would venture to say is, that 176,500 square miles. No European country, ex- being once fixed at Madrid, the nobility soon aban-abundance of valuable life was sacrificed in placing cept Switzerland, is so mountainous. doned their hereditary castles and houses in other on the throne of one of the largest kingdoms of As to the population, it was, according to the last cities, to follow the court. They were under thé Europe, a child, who-although now only a girl in census, 12,000,000-of whom it was declared that necessity of settling in the houses they found ready years-has become a scandal and a reproach to the one-twentieth were nobles, 300,000 were domestic built, and for that reason, added to the supine indif- whole of Christendom. Her shameless conductservants, and 150,000 priests and nuns. Under the ference that seized the Spaniards during the last which can only be paralleled by a reference to some Romans, the total number of inhabitants was two-thirds of the seventeenth century, and nearly of the female wantons who have swayed the desti40,000,000: so that, as regards people, Spain has half of this, most of the great families still continue nies of Russia-has plunged the country in the wofully degenerated since the days of the conquerors to inhabit vast ranges of ugly fabrics, not distin-horrors of another revolution; and this time the