Foreign Notices : — Spain. 331 



capital and Bayonne has been entirely remade, and is now equal to most in 

 Europe. The branch from Burgos to Valladolid might be supposed to be 

 made by M'Adam. Another branch to Santander is now open, after very 

 great exertion. There is a tolerable road from Vittoria to Bilboa, with a 

 branch from that city directly to the great line of Madrid ; another shorter 

 line is also constructing, and there is a communication with Castro, a small 

 town on the coast, between Bilboa and Santander. A coast-road, or longi- 

 tudinal line, to connect the northern provinces, is entirely wanting. At 

 present the lines are all lateral, leading only from the interior to points on the 

 shore ; and the numerous estuaries and rivers form strong impediments to the 

 construction of better communications in countries so poor and thinly peopled, 

 and at present almost without commerce. From Tolosa, on the great road 

 to Madrid, there is a communication with Pamplona, Zaragoza, and Barcelona 

 by diligences and canal, making the line of the Ebro complete. The new road 

 from Vittoria to Pamplona, which has been made at a vast and unnecessary 

 expense, from the profuse manner in which the metal is laid on, is at length 

 nearly completed, and was expected to open for carriages in the autumn of 

 1832. It was finally opened in the spring of 1833= The road which connects 

 Barcelona and Madrid, by Zaragoza, is open, and some details only are wanting 

 to complete it. This is become the favourite communication of the metro- 

 polis with the Catalan capital, and is very much frequented. The roads in 

 Catalonia are excellent, and are extending wherever the policy of the military 

 authorities has permitted it; for there are districts where there appear to be 

 reasons for preventing, as much as possible, an invading army from having 

 facilities to penetrate. The roads in Valencia are tolerable, but, in the vicinity 

 of the capital, are very much injured by the habits of the peasantry in taking 

 off the surface for manure or compost. The new line to connect that city 

 with Madrid, by the shortest and best line of Cuenca, instead of proceeding 

 by La Mancha and the Puerto de Almanza, is slowly proceeding to com- 

 pletion. A road is partly made to connect Xativa, on the plain of Valencia, 

 with Alcoy, Alicante, and Murcia, but was, when I passed it, suspended, from 

 a difficulty about passing through some place ; and the government have since 

 offered a premium for the best plan of a new line by the coast. The road 

 from Murcia to Granada is practicable for carriages, but with difficulty in the 

 rainy season, and requires a great deal of improvement. Granada is the 

 centre of an important part of the kingdom, which has hitherto been left in 

 the greatest neglect, the steps which were taken in the times of Charles 111. 

 and IV, to improve it not having been followed up. At present it participates 

 in the general move, and in a few years will be as accessible as most other 

 parts. The line to Madrid, through Jaen, is complete, with the exception of 

 a few miles from the latter part to Baylen, where it meets the great road of 

 Andalusia. It does the highest honour to the engineers, and is as well made 

 as any road in Europe. Ventas and posadas are still wanted, and escorts will 

 be very useful when the diligences begin to circulate. The constructor of 

 this road, and of that from Burgos to Valladolid, which equal the best roads 

 in the world, is an officer of engineers, who is at present superintendent of the 

 canal of Castile, whose talents promise to make him of the greatest use to his 

 country. A contract has recently been made, I think by Remisa, to complete 

 this road, and those which connect Granada with Motril, the nearest point on 

 the coast, and Malaga, the route to which is hardly practicable for carriages dur- 

 ing the rainy season. A road ought to be made from Velez, along the coast, to 

 Motril, as also from Velez to Granada. Malaga has only two carriage outlets at 

 present ; a magnificent road by Antequera, which is the direct Madrid communi- 

 cation, through Ecija; and that to Granada, which is Carried through Colmenar. 

 A line is imperiously called for from Malaga, to communicate with Cadiz, 

 Seville, and Lower Andalusia, through Ronda, the whole of which valuable 

 country is hardly accessible. Jealousy of the plaza, as Gibraltar is emphati- 

 cally termed in that part of the country, as the fortress par excellence, may 

 have occasioned there having been no steps taken to open this district. The 



