9271 IMPROVEMENTS IN WESTMINSTER. Commissioners, that in the erection of any [From the Report of a Select Committee of prevent the conversion of apartments in such the Hon. House of Commons on the Im-buildings into private dwellings, to the ex cf Westminster. provement be printed 29th June, 1808.] Ordered to The Select Committee, of the Hon. House of Commons, to whom was referred the improvement of the access to Westminster Hall and the two houses of parliament," have reported, that as the present Exchequer office, from the decayed state of that building, must be pulled down within a few years; the first point that attracted their attention was, the most proper site for rebuilding that office. They are of opinion, that it should not be rebuilt upon its present site, and that no new building should be there erected. And they further think, the improvement which would be effected by leaving a space to the Eastward of New Palace Yard without building, would be more complete, if the whole was thrown open from the entrance into the Speaker's Court, to the Steps of Westminster Bridge. They recommend, that the space from that Bridge to the Speaker's Court be left free from building, that an embankment be made next the river, and that the space be planted with rows of trees. As this mode of improvement would be the most ornamental, and would be particularly advantageous to the general effect in entering London over Westminster Bridge. The most important point to keep in view, in reference to the situation of the Exchequer office, being vicinity to the Treasury, they are of opinion, that the most eligible spot for such a building, would be that between the Treasury passage and the Part of this end of Downing-street. space formerly occupied by the Tennis Court is now vacant, and on the remainde stand the offices of privy council, of committee of Trade, and of Board of Control: these buildings are very old and much out of repair, and the space is amply sufficient for the Exchequer office, the privy council office, and Committee of Trade, to include also in the former a Room for the meeting of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, and a Repository for their books that the houses on the and accounts: North of Downing street should be pulled down, that the Street should be widened, and that one front of the new building should form the North side of that street. They find that the place where the papers belonging to the Office of Crown Lands are deposited, is secure, from fire, and in every They respect well adapted to its purpose. approve entirely the recommendation of the treme hazard of the important Public Muniments for which the building may be intended as a repository; and they are of opinion, that an enquiry should be made into the expediency of appropriating some of the Houses in Somerset-Place, now used as private dwellings (as such houses become vacant) to the reception of the State Papers, of those belonging to the Office of Surveyor of Woods and Forests, and of any other Public Muniments, which may not now be kept in places of sufficient security. They recommend that the ground to be purchased to the East and West of the new Sessions House, in the Broad Sanctuary, be appropriated to private dwellings and apartments, adapted to the residence of persons who may have occasion to attend the Houses of Parliament, or the Courts of Westminster Hall; that it be let on leases for that purpose subject to such suitable plans and elevations as may be approved by the commissioners appointed under the 46th of His majesty ; and the committee not approving of any of the plans which have been submitted to them, recommend to the commissioners to direct plans to be prepared, and to invite a competition of the architects, by offering Premiums for the most eligible plans and Elevations for buildings to be erected on this ground, as well as for the new Exchequer office; and they also recommend, that in proposing to the architects to submit such plans, it be signified to them, that they are not called upon to follow the general style and elevation according to which the buildcommittee being of ings in the front of the house of lords have been executed, the opinion that such plans and elevations are not calculated for buildings to be erected in the vicinity of Westminster Abbey and Hall. They do not think it would be adviseable to make any partial changes in the general appearance of St. Margaret's Church. They agree with the suggestion of the commissioners, respecting the exclusion of burials in future from the Church-yard, provision being made accordingly with the consent of the parish. No buildings to be erected,should project beyond the line drawn in the plan of the Surveyor general of crown lands, from the Banquet ting house at Whitehall to the North transept of Westminster Abbey. They are induced to offer this opinion, because the widening King-street appears desirable, if it can be effected with small expence. Compare Panorama, Vol. I. p. 634, Vol. II. p. 1077, and Vol. IV. p. 711. VIEW S OF SPAIN, Taken in the Year 1805. No. III. Circumstances of a political nature have induced us to depart from the order of subjects marked out for these papers. As the road from Bayonne to the interior of Spain is likely to become of great importance in consequence of events, and to be a frequent subject of public conversation, we have been desirous of bringing our readers acquainted with it, as early as possible. It will be recollected that Bayonne, where Bonaparte now holds his residence, where the Kings of Spain resigned their crown, and where the Spanish nobility have been partly tricked and partly forced into the representation of their nation, is the last considerable city in the South of France, on approaching the Pyrenean mountains; and may be estimated at about five and twenty miles north of the boundary described in the following paper, from whence our traveller's account commences. mortalized. I also observed the ruins of the I was always partial to military affairs, and therefore asked for a well informed guide, who could shew me the position the Spanish They troops occupied on that occasion. brought me an old custom house officer, who had served under Don Ventura. I conversed with him, and having found him tolerably capable, I took him with me. He led me back on the road which I had travelled to Yrun, and pointed out to me a line of batteries, the forms of which were still visible. "On that height," said my Cicerone," was the battery of Sau Carlos.' I went up there, and found a long range of hills, where batteries had been erected, having full command over the Bidassoa. That river flows in a narrow bed, much confined between two chains of mountains, that form the western extremity of the Pyreneans. That battery of San CarThe banks of the river Bidassoa, the ex-los, whence I was making my observations, tremities of the Pyreneans, the center of that was the signal point for the left wing of the chain of mountains, which extends from East army. In this same battery," said my to West a space of eighty leagues, form the guide, "the general's wife used to take her threeentrances into Spain. Six minutes are suf-Station previous to an engagement: she had ENTRANCE INTO SPAIN. ficient to cross the abovenamed river, which, on the West, separates the French province of Bearn from the Spanish province of Biscay. Three hours are enough to perform the journey from Boulon to Jonquieras. It requires a whole day to go from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Salientes and Jaca. You cross the Pyreneans over a road that is totally impracticable during seven months of the year, and during the re⚫maining five is open only to the mules that carry the commercial exchanges. That last is the passage which some former travellers have chosen to adopt. Strongly prejudiced against the country I was going to visit I passed the river Bidassoa. They shewed me the Isle of Pheasants, celebrated in consequence of the conferences which preceded the Treaty of the Pyreneans. But, what remains of that palace erected for the accommodation of illustrious personages? what remains of the arrangements they there combined, and of the great political events they there prepared?Pastures on which flocks feed, and where shepherds ramble, unconscious that they tread the ground which sovereigns, and celebrated ministers have imVOL. IV. [Lit. Pan. August 1808.] a telescope brought to her by means of which her eye could follow her husband, who exposed himself to the fire like a private soldier. The noise of twelve twenty-four pounders, that were fixed here and there (pointing to the various places); the bombs, that often killed some of our people; nothing could disturb her; she still held her telescope steady. Ah! she was a good lady! she gave us plenty of sigars, and went to the infirmary to visit the wounded.-What courage! what force of mind! That woman loved her husband; exposed herself to the perils of combats :-and for what motive? Ambition? She could have none. Celebrity? She did not wish to obtain any. She might see the destroying bullet rob her of the man she held dear; but then she would have been free from all further uneasiness, and her soul, perpetually hanging between fear and happiness, was torn by those two sentiments which distracted it in endless guide, I crossed again the Bidassoa, to visit the first line; those which I had just examined were the second. I climbed up the opposite mountain, named after Louis XIV. Here were some vestiges of a battery. I saw a village in ruins on any right hand; the church was much decayed. I questioned my guide who informed me, that, that village had been destroyed by the Spaniards, who dislodged the French and established themselves there. "The following day," added my veteran, "the French attacked them again, but failed, against the courage of our countrymen, who had entrenched themselves in the church, and now fired from its battlements. After that time we continued masters of that position and placed a battery there, which we called Casa fuerte, [the strong house] and which was commanded by the Marquis of La Romana, nephew of General Caro."-After I had explored those two lines which had once been defended by three hundred pieces of cannon, I asked my guide how the French had succeeded to take possession of them, without meeting with much resistance?"Caro was recalled," said he, with tears in his eyes, "and a week after his departure the French forced the position of Vera, on the right of the army, some few leagues from hence. Yrun was turned, and we were forced to retire, leaving our cannon and ammunition in the enemy's power." I returned to my inn, musing on the influence which a single man obtains sometimes in the fate of empires. On his discordant passions, the variations of his temper, and his share of health, depend the lives of thousands. Lord Chesterfield is convinced that a light supper, sound sleep, a cool and pleasant morning have often made a hero of him who perhaps had proved but a poltroon after an indigestion, a sleepless night, and a rainy morning. What attention therefore ought a sovereign to display in the choice of persons to whom he entrusts official charges, and the interests of his people! Absorbed in my meditations I did not perceive that I had entered the town of Yrun, until my guide bid me turn to the left to enter the inn. I found, at the door, the horses I had bespoken to proceed to St. Sebastian, a seaport town four leagues distant from Yrun. Near St. Sebastian is the Passage port, a store house belonging to the company of the Caraccas. I was much surprized to find very fine roads in a country which had been described to me as remaining without those first signs of civilization; but I learned that the Count of Florida Blanca was the first Spanish minister who directed seriously the improvements of the high roads; he opened communications from the most distant points of the kingdom with the capital, and a few years proved sufficient to establish a complete intercourse with all parts of Spain: and we now meet on the public roads with inns built at the expence of the government in places distant from all habita tions, marked with that grandeur and magnificence which the Spaniard displays in every public monument. The direct communication from Madrid to Paris lies through Biscay and Bayonne. Previous to the French revolution, there were diligences, and other public conveyances, established similar to those in France. The war destroyed these useful establishments, and notwithstanding a nine years peace, they have not been as yet revived. As to the entrance into Spain by Salientes and Jaca, which is situated in the center of the Pyrenean mountains, you must reach Saragossa before you arrive at the high road leading from Madrid into Navarre. It is true, that whichever way you enter Spain, you have travelled a thousand leagues when you have once passed the limits between that kingdom and France: no resemblance whatever appears; every thing offers a contrast ; manners, customs, language, all afford matter of astonishment to the traveller whom no graduality has prepared for the change. More indulgent than former travellers, who attribute that contrast to the backwardness of civilization, I think the cause of it may be discovered in that national spirit which has hitherto been preserved by the Spaniards. Diametrically opposite to the French, the Spaniard of the present day is the same as the Spaniard under the reign of Charles the Fifth. The same customs, the same manners. Far from feeling or indulging pride in being the ape of Europe, he aims at being himself, still, and presenting and transmitting the habits of his ancestors to his own descendants. The customs, even, have undergone but very slight alterations; the chiefs of the nation, such as judges, alcades, and corregidors, retain the same dresses as marked their offices in the kingdoms of Castile, Leon and Arragon, before their reunion under one crown. The Andalusians, the Valencians, the Catalonians, the Navarrese have each their particular dress; they value and honour it, it reminds them of the valour and glory of their ancestors. The young men, I mean those who are called curatajos [petits maîtres], while they cut their coats according to the fashions they procure from Paris, still contrive to adapt them to the Spanish taste. Those Frenchified fashions, which have overrun the greater part of Europe, have made but little progress in Spain, and notwithstanding the numbers of Frenchmen who have flocked into this country since the peace of 1795, no alteration can be perceived, except in the dress. You may meet a few subscribers to the Paris Journal des Modes at Madrid, I own, but they are in very small numbers. SARAGOSSA. It is strange that travellers should not have spoken of the canal intended to join the [The eastern communication with France is through the kingdom of Valencia and Cata-Ocean with the Mediterranean, on the center lonia, by Rousilion. in its proper place.] This will be described FROM ST. SEBASTIAN TO SARAGOSSA. From St. Sebastian I proceeded towards Pampeluna, in order, from that city, to reach Saragossa and Madrid. I went through the delightful village of Ernani, and halted at Tolosa. The French armies had followed the same road. The windows of the inn where I put up, opened on the High Street. I was told of an engagement which had taken place between the light troops of the French outposts, and those of the Spanish rear protecting the retreat of their army: on that occasion the Spanish cavalry main tained its reputation. On quitting Tolosa I left the road of Pancorbo, that bulwark of Castile on my right hand, and turning to the left, followed that of Pampeluna. The next day I reached that city, which is built on the summit of a hill that overlooks the plain I came through. The fortifications appeared to me to be in good repair, and competent to stand a siege. The citadel might hold out a long time, although the city were in the enemy's power. It serves as a state prison, and at the time I visited it, the Chevalier d'Urquijo had taken the place of the Count of Florida Blanca, who had been set at liberty and ordered to retire to his estate. To the Chevalier d'Urquijo was attributed the introduction of the epidemical fever which caused such devastation in the southern provinces of Spain. A governor returning from the Havannah on board a ship infected by the yellow fever, was put on strict quarantine on his arrival at Cadiz. He wrote to the minister, who was his patron, and with the answer came an order to permit the governor and his attendants to land. In a few days afterwards the fever manifested itself in the city of Cadiz ; and the number of the inhabitants of Andalusia who paid with their lives the forfeit of the Chevalier Urquijo's arbitrary consent is estimated at eighty thousand. After two years detention, His Catholic Majesty granted the ex-minister permission to leave his prison, and allowed him to retire to Bilboa, his native place. At the time of the rebellion last winter, he was again remanded to a place of confinement. From Pampeluna I proceeded to Saragossa, through Tudella, a town celebrated for its hot baths. The situation of this place amidst a wood of olive trees, is extremely pleasant, The Ebro bathes its walls. of which stands Saragossa, destined one day It is to become the storehouse of both seas. true, that this work, begun under the auspices, and after the plans of Don Ramon Pignatelli, proceeds but very slowly, at present; but Saragossa already enjoys the benefits arising from the enterprise, by communications opened with Tudella, and irrigations which the canal supplies. The death of Don Ramon Pignatelli has too much retarded the completion of a work so likely to prove beneficial to Spain. The level of the Ebro serves, from its source near St. Andero to its mouth at Tortosa, to fix that of the canal, which is to be partly supplied by the waters of that river. The playhouse of Saragossa was destroyed. by fire many years ago, and it is owing to the avarice of the inhabitants, and not to their superstition, as has been falsely asserted, that it has not been rebuilt. The priests and monks, far from discouraging it, would be foremost to wish it to be reestablished; for, in Spain, as well as in Italy, the regular and secular clergy may visit the playhouse. Attempts have been made to cast ridicule on the devotion of the inhabitants of Saragossa and Arragon. Their unqualified faith in the protection of their patroness, the Virgin called Our Lady of the Pillar, is blind. At the time they were invaded by the French, the Arragonians intended to carry this image to meet the Republican armies, expecting she would stop their progress. This is superstition; one cannot deny it: but what efforts would not those faithful people have made to preserve their patroness, on whose help they relied with so much confidence! and, after all, which is preferable, a superstition likely to keep the people within the bounds of that. submission and respect for the laws which are so desirable for the good of society, or that immorality reduced to principles, and preached in every temple and public place in France during the year 1793, when the severe and sarcastic traveller M. de Langle bowed down his head before the Goddess of Reason!* At some little distance from the city stands a convent of Bernardine monks, where every day at twelve o'clock hundreds of poor people come to receive a nutritious soup, which one of the religious distributes among them. In many instances this Goddess of Reason was the most depraved prostitute that could be found, provided she was pretty. We have before mentioned that the officiating priestess of St. André des Arts at Paris was cook-maid to Momoro the printer. The custom of giving soup to the poor is of | nance in conversation, and the jealousy ancient date, and prevails very generally which renders them suspicious and vindicthroughout all monastic orders, in Spain. At tive, from the African Berebs. From the Goths, the time of the scarcity in 1802, I counted and their ancestors, they derived frankness, as many as three hundred indigent persons at probity, and courage, virtues which were the gates of the Capuchin convents of Barce- their own. The Romans, and the Goths lona. The unfortunate peasant whom a also, gave them the enthusiasm of patriotism, sudden storm has deprived of his yearly hope the love of great things, and superstition. by blasting the prospect of his harvest, the wretched cripple who cannot even earn a scanty livelihood, know that they can daily receive the blessing of a substantial food from the hands of the servants of the Lord, who will not even require the slightest gratitude in return; for charity depends on no recompence on earth. The Bishop of Siguenza enjoys two hundred thousand livres a year, and feeds all the poor in his neighbourhood. At noon the court yard of his palace is filled with applicauts for his bounty. That of philosophers may be filled also, but with creditors, victims, or objects destined to gratify their brutal passions. The ladies of Saragossa are said to be favourably disposed towards their admirers. FROM SARAGOSSA TO MADRID. To travel from the capital of Arragon to that of Castile which is also that of Spain, I took a carriage called in Spanish caleza or volante. This sort of vehicle is open both in front and at the sides, so that the traveller *does not lose a drop of rain or a grain of dust; it is fastened both before and behind to a - wooden bar that goes across the shafts, and is dragged by a mule, or a horse. The driver or calizero walks commonly behind the carriage, and when tired, sits down across the -shafts. In dangerous passages, or in the towns tand villages, he is obliged under a penalty to walk by the side of his mule, or to drive with the reins in his hand. The mountains on the confines of Arragon and Castile are covered with rich and odoriferous pastures that fatten a considerable number of sheep, the wool of which is afterwards manufactured into excellent cloths. MANNERS AND CHARACTER OF THE SPANISH (From M. Peyron's Essays on Spain.) Spain was by turns inhabited and conquered by different nations; and with the chain of the conquerors received a part of their character. The reigning taste of the Spaniards for certain spectacles, as tournaments, and the tiltings of the Maestranza; the love of pontpous titles; an endless list of names; their gallantry, and their great respect for the fair sex these and the language of metaphor and hyperbole they received from the Moors. They inherited gravity of counte In general the Spaniard is patient and religious; he is full of penetration, but slow in deciding; he has great discretion and sobriety, and his hatred against drunkenness takes date from the highest antiquity. Strabo tells us of a man who threw himself into a fire because some one had called him a drunkard. Quidam ad ebrios vocatus in rogum se injecit. He is faithful, open, charitable, and friendly he has his vices, and where is the man that is without them? Man is composed of vices and virtues, and a nation is an assemblage of men. When therefore, in any nation, the virtues and social qualities overbalance the vices inseparable from constitution, climate and character, that nation is justly deserving of our warmest esteem. : I can truly say, that except a supineness which has hitherto been less the effect of cliinate than of causes which perhaps will which the effects are seldom seen; a national soon have an end; a spirit of vengeance, of pride, which well directed, might produce the most beneficial effects; and a consummate ignorance, proceeding from a want of a proper education, and which has its source in that tribunal erected to the shame of philosophy and human understanding, I have seen in the Spaniards nothing but virtues. Their patience in the wars of Italy and Portugal was matter of astonishment to the French, and, at the siege of Gibraltar, to every nation in Europe. The Spaniards were whole days without bread, water, or beds, and not the least murmur was heard in their camp: there was not the smallest symptom of mutiny, but always the most strict obedience. His national vanity, a prejudice much in favour of a government which knows how to turn it to advantage, is carried to an excessive degree. There is not a Spaniard who does not think his country the first in the world. The people have a proverb which says, Donde esta Madrid calle el mundo, where Madrid is, let the world be silent." One of their authors has written a book which has for its title, Solo Madrid es corte, Madrid only is the Court." A preacher, in a sermon on the temptation of Christ, told his audience, that the devil, according to holy writ, took the Saviour to the top of a high mountain whence all the kingdoms of the earth were discovered; he shewed him, added he, France, England, and Italy; but happily for the Son of God, Spain was hidden |