T RAV

86 TRAVELS IN EUROPE.affected in this respect, with regard to humidity, sinee the cutting clownof the woods; and asimilar resûlt hasattended the process in the WestIndia Islands. This :aridity is the bane of the Peninsula. Renee it 'ellsues that the fine wheatofthis country, ~the intrinsic quality whereofis superior to any the world cau bring in competition with it, shedsoften, from want ofhands to gather it in, though this process is here ofthe most summary kind. How different the present state of thingsfrom what they were in thedays of the Mahommedans, whoinhagitedthese tracts! These provinces, sotorpidno\vast()produce; for entireand successive days' journeys;llought but thistles; where no humanhabitation cornes witbinken,esave thatwhere the traveller i5 to makehis mid-day and evening haIt, have, on the slopes of every hiU,terl'acesfor the plough. Every valley,was once tanked up for the purposeofirrigation, or the use of the herd,-indelible marks of reproach to succeedinggeneratiolls, or at least to those by whom,theyhavebeengoverned*.Darocca , isa town out of the usual route. Itconsists of a few streets,of clue w'idth, hutnot regularly built. It i8 environed\vith walIs, butIlOt regularly fortified. Its exterior is destitute of suburbor improvement;its air and climate thin and pure beyond imagination. Hannonyprevailshere; at Ieast, recitative and catgutresound incessantly, froInsun-set to sun-rise ;t'atller more than the traveller wishes for.The division of Spain into provinces, which Gught to concern no onegut the geographer, is made the subject of embarrassment to internaIintercourse, by prohibitions, confusions of duties, and the like absurd-k The Spaniards do not like that the desiderata of their country should be made matter of; dis­(1ussion. They ShOllld, however, reeolleet that no people cau take greater Iibertiesin this way thantheir frieuds and allies, the Fl'en..-h, hllV~ done.