T RAV

74 TRAVELS IN EUROPE.their taste in an the variety of idea it possessed, which truTy was novê'f'ygreatstore.Sacred architecture does not seem, however, to have beenthe predominating one. OfaH the powers whieh have ruled this country,the Romans have left the most stable remains. Indeed thèirarchitècture.had a solidity of principle in it, as weIl as oflllatter and workmanship,which almost bade defiance ta time, unaided by manualviolence. Greececolonized the coasts of Spain.Carthageexhausted itspopulation byconscriptions, or other means, for her ,vars. Rome, whichsucceeded,.imported the grandeur and trueprinciples;asî\rabià tHdsubsequehdythe elegancies and high finishing of architecture. Hence the countrycan boast such perfection in allvarietles.It is extraordinary that thistown should have sa little attracted the attention of EngIish travellers,,,,ho, from cJassical education probably, appear most indined ofany taadvert to tbis branch of observation.It is now a considerabletown,but in the time of the Romans must ha.ve been mucnmore so..As forinstance, the circus here could contain, it is said, ail the presentinha'"bitants (the human inhabitants) of Estremadura, wlm are+calcmlated attwo hundred thousand.This is ,one precÏous instance, among many, ofthe effects of the Merino system ; and snchit must appear, when weknow that the tracthere subject to it is an a.rea of two hundred milesby a hundred and sixtY; an area, too, ofexuberant fertility. wm Governmentnever see how much it benoves tbem. tocrush this tendencyto shepherd l'nIe?Every description of Romanarchitectnrepresents itself here forstudy and admiration.That the art ofpdintingglas$!shonld ha.veheenlost i8 n"ot extraordinary, as the demand for it was}Jot ofeveJ'Y day ~tnat of constructing good masonry, it migllthavebeen supposed, onceattained, could never after have gone întoabeyance.but.An admirablespe.cimen of Roman science, in the departrnent ofbridge..btiilding, is