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 on