The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-29
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, APRIL 90, 1858.

Among the items in our last foreign exchanges,
we notice the announcement that the great railway
between Madrid and Alicante, in Spain, had been
opened TO the public throughout its whole length,
and that the 10th of May, the birthday of the
King-Consort, had been appointed for its formal
Inauguration. We do not profess to be very IA
miliar with the topography of the Peninsula,
but glance at the map informs us that the
distance between Madrid and Alicante, in a
direct line, is between two hundred and two
hundred and fifty miles, by Colton's scale, and
that the route, thus opened to transportation and
travel, passes in south-easterly direction, from
the centre of Spain to the Mediterranean, travers-
ing the heart of New CASTLE, one of the finest grain
growing countries in the world, and furnishing an
outlet to other agricultural districts of proverbial
fertility, lying nearer to the sea- The region
which 1t penetrates is very mountainous in many
parts, and presents difficulties and Instructions
throughout of no ordinary character The success
with which these have been surmounted, by the
labors of not more than ten years-a period which
would be regarded even in America, as triumph
antly brief for the consummaton of so gigantic an
enterprise-would seem to indicate that the good
people of the Peninsula have been occupying them
selves in something better than bull-fghts and
changes of ministry which we are in the habit of
believing to be their principal pursuits.
In connection with the line thus finished. a
branch-road to the ancient port of Valencia further
up the Mediterranean coast, is announced as verg-
ing rapidly towards completion. Indeed the move
ment in favor of railway INSTRUMENTATION seems
to have enlisted both the people and their rulers so
actively, that many important avenues from the
interior to the Atlantic and the French frontier as
well as between the cities of the interior ITSELF are
already, as the press informs u.s. in the course of
extensive and advanced construction. We may
believe these things, now, to be somewhat more
than speculation and hattering promise in view of
the substantial evidence of national energy and
resource furnished by the completion of the great
work which has particularly attracted our atten-
ton. From Alicante to Marseilles, a line of steam
ers will regularly ply by means of which, in union
with the railways at both ends of the route, the
journey from Paris to the Spanish capital may be
performed in less than three days. Such facilities
must of course turn into this channel, largely
increased proportion of European travel-over and
above the extraordinary stimulus which they must
afford to agricultural and commercial industry
Upon the consequences of this to the Peninsula,
which has hitherto langushed so painfully under
the evil of national isolation, we have not space to
dwell, nor indeed would the subject interest our
readers. But still it may be worth the while of
commercial and public men to know that one of
the most magnificent fields of cereal production on
the earth is on the point Of being opened, for the
first time, to the of foreign trade and that
country which we have regarded as doomed to
political weakness and retrogradaion, is already
beginning to develope, with vigor and resource,
and persistent purpose, its Astounding territorial
wealth.
National, however, as railways seem to us, in
this land of practical and eager enterprise, and
welcome harbingers as they may be, of civilization
and freedom, everywhere, we can hardly realize
the fact of their existence in the romantic country
through which we are chronicling their progress
That the putting of locomotives should startle the
kingly echoes of old Toledo, or the sound of the
steamwhistle break the lonely silence which broods
over the plains of La Mancha it seems impossible
for us to reconcile with the things which ought to
be. Can there be railway stations in Valencia OF
the Cid? Has the language of the Gods appropri-
ale words LOT CONGRATULATIONS and ''cOW-catcll-
ers?' Our curiosity is of the keenest, to know
whether railways, if such there be in Spain, are
really railways like ours. Have they companies,
and presidents, and directors, to log-roll and
watch over them? Do they, perchance, furnish
the 'leading specuatve?' 'Bulls'' there are in
Spain, we know are there railroad CLEARS also
Have they construction accounts" and ''expense
accounts, " and 'sinkng funds and ''proft and
loss" as we, have; and do men grow mystifed
over such things, as we do, till they know not
whether construction Sinks or sinking constructs
or profit is not loss, after all? Do 81 anish rail-
ways affect, with us, the capillary secretons
of high functionaries who look after them, so that
Corregidors and Alcaldes grow prematurely gray
in financial travail concerning them? Have they
'gentlemanly conductors and popular brakes
men" who are never to blame, though engines
leap over open draw-bridges and go gambolling
down precipices and hunting out the bottoms O
rivers?
We confess our anxiety to be better informed a:
to these interesting points of comparative railroad
science, and should the scientific mind be allowed
accidental respite this week from supper, W.
shall probably avail ourselves of the opportunities
which the season affords, to prosecute suitable in
quiries ON the subject