Considerable improvements have been recently made on the roads of this province, which have greatly facili tated the transportation of goods between the different districts. Sonic of these roads are broad and lianclsome, but almost universally incommoded with (lust. They are sometimes planted with trees on each side, and are frequently intersected by rivers, over which are several Nvel I constructed and magnificent bridges. Many of the cross roads, however, are still scarcely passable, being rough, narrow, and often dangerous.
Though New Castile is the residence of the court, and comprises within itself every thing calculated to produce opulence and splendour, a fertile soil and a salubrious climate, yet its general characteristics are poverty and ignorance. Industry, science, and the liberal arts, are confined entirely to the capital, where they flourish un der the influence and protection of the sovereign. But the traveller has scarcely left the city, when he finds himself transported, as it were, to a different region. The luxury, wealth, and activity of Madrid emit not one ray beyond its walls, to cheer the poverty and sloth with which it is surrounded. While the capital is fostered by the hand of power, the province is left to languish in indigence and obscurity. The means of instruction are denied to the majority of the inhabitants, and but nig gardly supplied to others. The universities of Toledo, Alcala de Henarez, and Siguenza, arc (excepting those of the capital) the only public institutions in the province for the advancement of literature. The mechanical arts are equally neglected; and there is scarcely a native of New Castile who is distinguished as an artisan. Those of the capital arc either foreigners or Catalonians ; and among the literati are to be found fewer Castilians than the natives of other provinces. It is not, however, the want of capacity which renders the Castilian inferior in these respects to the other inhabitants of the peninsula, but rather a native indolence arising from habit, and the want of sufficient encouragements to exertion. He still retains the prejudices of his warlike ancestors, who, de voted entirely to the exercise of arms, looked upon agri culture and the arts as ignoble and inferior objects; and though the arts of peace have been long established in many of the other provinces of the kingdom, the preju dices of the Castilian has been perpetuated by indolence and the scarcity of instruction " With superior capa cities for reflection," says Laborde, " the Castilian thinks much, but demonstrates little, and acts less; he is rather slow in yielding his confidence, but when he trusts at all, it is with his whole heart and soul ; he is neither prompt in enterprize, nor disposed to acquire the regu lar habits of industry. There arc perhaps not many ac
tive occupations he is likely to pursue with success; his aptitudes are to science, particularly to such abstruser branches as are connected with speculation and research ; his conceptions are strong and vigorous; his judgment solid ; his imagination vivid and vivacious ; he devotes himself completely to the objects of his pursuit, hut he is seldom capable of embracing more than one at the same moment; his genius only requires culture and en couragement; but he possesses not the power to obtain knowledge, and the government fails to afford hint the means of instruction."--" The New Castilian," says the same author, « possesses qualities of genuine excellence ; he is honourable and humane, sober and temperate, and revolts from every species of falsehood and duplicity. In his temper he is more docile than the native of Old Castile, who pertinaciously retains the inflexibility of his ancestors, whilst the other readily assimilates with the character of the neighbouring provinces. In gene ral, the observer may trace in hint a complexional re-, semblance to the country he approximates ; he is most civilized in the environs of Madrid ; most useful in the borders of Andalusia ; most active and industrious on the confines of Valencia ; most arrogant and rude on the frontiers of Arragon and the Sierra de Cuenza; most in dolent in the neighbourhood of Estremadura; whilst ge nerosity, nobleness, and benevolence, are the bolds which unite him to Old Castile. In particular, we should se lect for praise the inhabitants of Alcaria, distinguished. by their frankness and simplicity, their cheerful lore of labour, their social affections, and ready hospitality." The steady loyalty, the decorous gravity of deportment, the cautiong prudence, and the fortitude ill adversity, ‘vhich have distinguished his forefathers for many centu ries, still distinguish the Castilian of the present day. 'Ile frequent revolts in Catalonia lead hini to character ize the Catalonian as a rebel, and to cherish against him a deep-rooted hatred; while the sentiment is repaid On the part of the Catalonian with contempt. On the pro menade, while others are walking backwards and for wards, the Castilian takes his scat on one or the benches, and never rises but to return home.