The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-03-22

The recent suggestion Of Senior Gas.
tellar in the Spanish Cortes that Spain
ought 10 have Gibraltar, will strike the
world as eminently rational, There i
no reason why any foreign Power
should be allowed 10 own this little An
dalusian promontory, which il as much
part Of Spain AS Madrid itself II on
" remains then for the Spaniards 10
take what rightfully belongs 70
them. No Power in Europe would
dispute their title to the rock il they
once recovered its possession. There Is
only one hindrance To the Spanish re-
taxing Gibraltar, and that Is, that il Is
impregnable. Three of its sides are 50
steep and PERCEPTIONS rs a. TO be wholly
inaccessible, and the fourth side, sop-
ing down to the water, is protected by
about 1000 pieces Of artillery. The
Moors were finally expelled from the
fortress by the Spaniards in 1862, and
the latter then greatly strengthened il,
and supposed they had made it i'm
pregnable, but 1t was captured by
few British sailors, under Sir George
Rock. in 1704, and the most desperate
and most persevering efforts have been
unavailing to retake II. In 1913 it was
confirmed 10 Great Britain by the treaty
of Utrecht. The Spaniards attacked il
with a large force in 1927, and in 1879
the assault was renewed By combined
French and Spanish fleet. This latter
siege lasted three years. BY June all
communication between the rock and
the mainland was cut off, and in the
following month the fortress was com
pletely blockaded. The besiegers
brought TO bear all the resources Of
war by land and sea, and their
operations were directed by the ablest
French and Spanish engineers; pow
erful fleet anchored in the bay, and for
three weeks an incessant bombardment
was kept up from eight mortars and 200
pieces Of battering cannon. The garr-
son made sortie on November "a, 1881,
and destroyed the enemy's works, but
the allies soon reconstructed them and
brought 1000 pieces of artillery To play
against the fortress, an army Of 10000
men the meanwhile beseiging ii by land,
while forty-seven ships Of the line and
a great number Of smaller vessels men,
aced ii by sea. Admiral Rodney sue
ceeded in throwing relief into the fort
by defeating the French fleet, the gar
rison were greatly encouraged. and,
by discharging red-hot shot, silenced
the enemies enormous floating batteries
and burned many of their ships. Nine
Of the batteries were set on fire. About
four hundred Of the crews were saved
by the exertions Of the British, but the
rest all persisted by the flames. explo-
sions or drowning. soon aftcrward the
beseiged were reinforced, but they had
only lost sixteen men through
out the attack. These little
excerpts from history are very
10 Spain IN her aspir-
atoms to recover Gibraltar. As she has
been nine years putting down the insur-
rection in Cuba she might, perhaps,
manage to recover this fortress in nine
ty years; for there i no knowing what
may have happened to England BY that
time 10 weaken her Taking all things
into consideration, however, perhaps 4
would be best for Spain 10 wait until
the ninety years had passed before be-
ginning operations. BY that time she
may have recovered from the exertions
Df putting down the instruction on
Cuba. -- Washington Post.