the granting of concessions passed, even the wives coming in for handsome presents and “considerations,” without which events had a knack of not moving; and when the army of Empleados became Cesantes, this work, of course, began all over again.  The railway engineers form a separate body, the country being mapped out into arbitrary divisions, each under the charge of one engineer-in-chief, with a large body of assistants.

The telegraph system of Spain has now for many years been in a good condition.  The construction of the lines dates from about 1862, when only five miles were in operation.  There is now probably not a village in the whole country that does not possess its telegraph office, and in all the important towns this is kept open all night.  A peseta for twenty words, including the address, is the uniform charge, every additional word being ten centimos.  The telegraphs were established by the Government, and are under its control.  All railway lines of public service, and those which receive a subvention, must provide two wires for Government use.  Telephones are now in use in all large centres, and electric lighting and traction are far more widely used than in England.

CHAPTER XI

THE ARMY AND NAVY

It is not necessary to say to anyone who has the smallest acquaintance with history that Spaniards are naturally brave and patriotic.  The early history of the Peninsula is one of valour in battle, whether by land or sea.  The standard of Castile has been borne by her sons triumphantly over the surface of the globe.  Few of us now remember that Johnson wrote of the Spain of his day: 

    Has Heaven reserved, in pity to the poor,
    No pathless waste, no undiscovered shore,
    No secret island on the trackless main,
    No peaceful desert, yet unclaimed by Spain?

In the old days when Drake undertook to “singe the King of Spain’s beard,” and carried out his threat, our sailors and those of Philip II., some time “King of England,” as the Spaniards still insist on calling him, met often in mortal combat, and learned to recognise and honour in each other the same dogged fighting-power, the same discipline and quiet courage.  The picture of the Spaniards standing bareheaded in token of reverence and admiration of a worthy foe, as some small English ships went down with all their crew rather than surrender, in those old days of strife, touches a chord which still vibrates in memory of battles fought and won together by Englishmen and Spaniards under the Iron Duke.  True, some battered and torn English flags hang as trophies in the armoury of Madrid, but one likes to remember that in the only battle where our colours were lost, the Spanish troops were commanded by an Englishman, James Stuart, Duke of Berwick, the direct ancestor of the present Duque de Berwick y Alva, and the English by one of French birth.  In every case where foreign foes have invaded Spain, sooner or later they have been driven out. Santiago! y Cierra Espana! was the war-cry which roused every child of Spain to close his beloved country to alien domination.