The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-26 00:00:00

SPAIN.

TO THE EDITOR' OF THE SUN.
Sin,—lf it be true that Vie sight of a good man struggling
through difficulties is replete with the intensest interest, it
will not be denied that the spectacle of an entire nation
burning to extirpate for ever from its soil the roots of op-
pression and fanaticism, is one calculated to fix the attention
and admiration of an enlightened world. SPAIN, whose
name we cannot pronounce without calling into action a
thousand soul-stirring emotions ; SPAIN—" lordly Spain !
renowned, romantic land !"—presents us at the present mo-
ment with that spectacle, so glorious and so noble. The
spirit which roused the Spaniards of old, in the middle of
the sixteenth century, against the Estroeost CH AELES V.,
under the gallant, the unconquered PADILLA, is again awake ;
the Nobles, who at that time kept aloof from the people,
and blindly linked themselves with the framers of the Inqui-
sition, the savage executioners of their country's dearest and
most devoted sons, now swell the joyous Paean of liberte,
and the mighty ocean of regeneration rolls steadily on.
Tyranny, thank Heaven !
" Wields not, as of old, her thirsty lance,
Nor shakes her crimson plumage in the skies ;"
But to the chivalrous ardour that dwells in every Spanish
bosom is added an enthusiastic desire for civil and religious
freedom. The sun of Liberty—" QU2E SERA TA MEN RE-.
srEsen"--flings at. length his majestic rays over the beau-
tiful vallieS of this fair clime, and to the careless cry of
" VIVA EL R EY," has succeeded the spontaneous hearty
she-at of VIVA LA NACION ! What have not the lovers of
slavery to fear when they see this stronghold of their ve-
nerated goddess so fiercely invaded—when they see the
light of civilization piercing through the iron bars of thou-
sands of convents—when they behold swarms of friars
hunted from their hives, and hear- the war-song of liberty
animating every generous breast from BISCAY to GRANADA
SrAIN no longer slumbers unheeded, but energetically de-
mands a place among the nations of Europe. Proud of
having so quickly obeyed the call of the " three glorious
days," she thunders (unwelcome visitor !) at the Cabinet of
the Tuillerics, and sickens at her cold reception. Yet who
have crossed the Pyrenees to pay respectful homage to
Louts PHILLIPPE ? The valiant defenders of principles
to whose ascendancy he himself owes his sceptre—the -
daring descendants of those men who were crushed by the
intrisnes of CU:DIN AL -ZIMENES, and who appease the
bleeding manes of their ancestors, by allying- themselves to
a cause Of which THEY will never he the base betrayers
nsr the dark assassins.
. To imagine that one of the most fertile countries of the
glo.'c could always remain in the hands of a lazy priesthood,
was a supposition too gross to be entertained by any re-
flecting man. But years of misrule, the terrors of the in-
quisition, the phantoms of superstition had frezen up the
free channels of the mind, and, bowing it down to the
ground, suffered it to be shackled without opposition.
llenee difficulties innumerable encircled the fond idea of
freedom ; the black spot of infamy corrupting whatever it
touched, spread itself every where, and the soul darkened
and crusted over with the base clay of Bigotry, lead well
nigh lost its natural dignity. Even now, with a MENDI-
Z ABAL at the helm, it were folly to think that showers of
blessings fall all at once on the land. Time effected
the conquest., time also must work out the emancipation
of the human mind. But what we may securely congra-
tulate ourselves upon, is the_ certainty that nothing can
effectually stop the march of freedom—no, not ell the
bayonets,' barked by the gold of despots or the wit of Je-
suits. If the Carlists were victorious to-morrow, they
could not extinguish the eternal fire burning in the sacred
temple of Liberty. It is watched over by the Vestal Vir-
giiis, Innocence and Truth, and were it blown out by the
unhallowed breath of Tyranny, it would be lighted up agein
by the beams of the sun of Knowledge.
SeatN, then, is safe beyond a doubt, ant', she owes a debt
to her high-minded Prime Minister, that can be repaid only
by a ready obedience to his wishes. Unity and decision
are all she requires to ensure a speedy success. With
these qualities she will triumph over her enemies, and plant
upon the battlements of her proud cities the flag of free-
dom which shall wave " victorious to the gale," and defy
all the armies that absolutism can command. Education,
in the mean time, must strengthen what the sword achieves ;
it must create a general metamorphosis, and, touching in-
dolence with its magic wand, transtOrm it to activity. The
arts and sciences must be encouraged, and employment
given to the poor ; bitter feelings must be erased, and
minor considerations give place to the wants and wishes of
the nation. But the ruling men of SPAIN understand what
path they ought to pursue ; they know whence has sprung
the greater portion of their country's misfortunes, and are
prepared, regardless of party clamours, to adopt the reme-
dies which their judgment and conscience pronounce the
most efficacious.

MUM.

TURNPIKE ROADS AND RAILWAYS•

When the imperfections of any old system, and its want
of adaptation to an end proposed, are, by reflection, or the
progress of science, made manifest, the wonderment is, how
I.uch a system could so long have been in use ? Thus is it,
in the present dly, in respect to Turnpike Roads. The
Liverpool and Manchester railway, in particular, has taken
the film from the public eye ; and every body now wonders
how the barbarous system of travelling on loose gravel could
have been endured, while blocks of granite, or bars of iron,
were in existence! In short, when one reflects that a turn-
pike road is nothing better than a mill for grinding stones
to powder, it might almost be supposed that England never
produced a philosopher, or a truly scientific genius, till the
day when the first rail of the Liverpaol and Manc!iester
railway was laid down. To dig gravel out of the earth, or
blast stones out of a rock ; to break and sift them, when so
procured ; to cart them to, and spread them upon, a turn-
pike road; there to be ground to amt ; to scrape up the
dust when become mud ; and, lastly, to cart it away, thus
making room for another layer of loose gravel to undergo
the setae deArnetive and expensive proceis—was truly to
raise the question, whether there was a man of science in
the country ? Almost twenty years ago, Mr. Thomas
Parkin energetically called the attention of the Govern-
Ment to the subject ; but his Majesty's Tory Ministers wer3
then too much occupied about the glories to be achieved by
the " Holy Alliance," to permit road-makiu to engage any
part of their attention. Their solicitude was to contrive
means to chain down " the disaffected spirits in Europe,"
and not to travel from London to Manchester in four or
five hours, and at a third of the present expense. To equa-
lize the Value of property all through the kingdom, was less
an object of their anibition than to endeavour to make all
men uniform in their love of tyranny. In flict, Holy Al-
liance schemes and road schemes were incompatible with
each other ; and so science succumbed to
_politics ; but,
happily, We have now the dawn of a new light ; and hi a
few years this country (at least in respect to the facility of
communication, the existence whereof is the strongest proof
of civilization), will be placed upon the pinnacle of scientific
glory.. We shall no longer have a national stone-grindira-7
machine, nor cultivate-fields for heaats of burden to eat the
produce of them, and this is " a consummation devsutly to
be wished."
Railways are; undoubtedly, the most ph losophical
means of transport yet known, or probably, that can be
devised. Their great cost, however, is a bar to their con-
struction, except between places where the traffic is immense.
Tram ways, l•
ike that in the Commercial-rood, of which
Mr. Parkin was the projector, stand next in importance ;
and may be made where the traffic will not justify the ceu-
struction of railways, especially as Mr. Parkin has receetlY
discovered, in a vitrified stone, a substitute for gTanite,
which, for tram-ways is much more suitable, while it is
equally durable and much less expensive. Its proPeTtici
haYe been fully ascertained ba a trial of more than fear
months, at the entrance of Mr. West's Stone Whaif, near
the bottom of Old Gravel-lane, Wapping. rato.-i""
.aaa..,afJa J.,06 ioa.a
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