nja. It is a Gothic room, containing two rows of
pillars, supporting a groined ceiling. It is used for numerous
assemblies, elections, and sometimes for the carnival balls. The ancient
Cathedral of La Seu is a gothic edifice, of great beauty internally; but
the natives are still prouder of the more modern church called Nuestra
Senora del Pilar,--an immense building in the Italian style, erected for
the accommodation of a statue of the Virgin found on the spot, standing
on a pillar. This image is the object of peculiar veneration.

After leaving Saragoza you are soon in the Basque provinces. The first
considerable town is Tudela in Navarre; and here we were strongly
impressed with the unbusinesslike nature of the Spaniard. This people,
thoroughly good-natured and indefatigable in rendering a service, when
the necessity arises for application to occupations of daily routine
appear to exercise less intelligence than some other nations. It is
probably owing to this cause that at Madrid the anterooms of the Foreign
Office, situated in the palace, are, at four in the afternoon, the scene
of much novelty and animation. In a town measuring no more than a mile
and a half in each direction, the inexperienced stranger usually puts
off to the last day of his stay the business of procuring his passport,
and he is taken by surprise on finding it to be the most busy day of
all. Little did he expect that the four or five _visas_ will not be
obtained in less than forty-eight hours: and he pays for his place in
the diligence or mail (always paid in advance) several days before. It
is consequently worth while to attend in person at the Secretary of
State's office, in search of one's passport, in order to witness the
scene.

The hour for the delivery of these inevitable documents, coincides with
the shutting up for the day of all the embassies: so that those which
require the subsequent _visa_ of an ambassador, have to wait twenty-four
hours. Hence the victims of official indifference, finding themselves
disappointed of their departure, and minus the value of a place in the
mail, give vent to their dissatisfaction in a variety of languages,
forming a singular contrast to the phlegmatic and _impassible_ porters
and ushers, accustomed to the daily repetition of similar scenes. Some,
rendered unjust by adversity, loudly accuse the government of complicity
with the hotel-keepers. I saw a Frenchman whose case was cruel. His
passport had been p