Spain, again, is a land of _dehesas y despoblados_: in these wild
unpeopled wastes, next to travellers, commerce and cash are what is
scarce, while even Madrid, the capital, is without industry or
resources, and poorer than many of our provincial cities. The Spaniard,
a creature of routine and foe to innovations, is not a moveable or
locomotive; local, and a parochial fixture by nature, he hates moving
like a Turk, and has a particular horror of being hurried; long,
therefore, here has an ambling mule answered all the purposes of
transporting man and his goods. Who again is to do the work even if
England will pay the wages? The native, next to disliking regular
sustained labour himself, abhors seeing the foreigner toiling even in
his service, and wasting his gold and sinews in the thankless task. The
villagers, as they always have done, will rise against the stranger and
heretic who comes to “suck the wealth of Spain.” Supposing, however, by
the aid of Santiago and Brunel, that the work were possible and were
completed, how is it to be secured against the fierce action of the sun,
and the fiercer violence of popular ignorance? The first cholera that
visits Spain will be set down as a passenger per rail by the
dispossessed muleteer, who now performs the functions of steam and rail.
He constitutes one of the most numerous and finest classes in Spain, and
is the legitimate channel of the semi-Oriental caravan system. He will
never permit the bread to be taken out of his mouth by this Lutheran
locomotive: deprived of means of earning his livelihood, he, like the
smuggler, will take to the road in another line, and both will become
either robbers or patriots. Many, long, and lonely are the leagues which
separate town from town in the wide deserts of thinly-peopled Spain, nor
will any preventive service be sufficient to guard the rail against the
_guerrilla_ warfare that may then be waged. A handful of opponents in
any cistus-overgrown waste, may at any time, in five minutes, break up
the road, stop the train, stick the stoker, and burn the engines in
their own fire, particularly smashing the luggage-train. What, again,
has ever been the recompense which the foreigner has met with from Spain
but breach of promise and ingratitude? He will be used, as in the East,
until the native thinks that he has mastered his arts, and then he will
be abused, cast out, and trodden under foot; and who then will keep up
and repair the costly artificial undertaking?--certainly not the
Spaniard, on whose pericranium the bumps of operative skill and
mechanical construction have yet to be developed.
[Sidenote: BENEFITS OF RAILROADS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account