The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-03-14
The Spaniards and Gibraltar.

The recent suggestion of Senior Cas-
tellar in the Spanish Cortes that Spain
ought to have Gibraltar, will strike the
world as eminently rational. There is
no reason why any foreign Power
should be allowed to own this little An
dalusian promontory, which is as much
part of Spain as Madrid itself. 1t on
ly remains then for the Spaniards to
take what rightfully belongs to
them. No Power in Europe would
dispute their title to the rock if they
once recovered its possession. There is
only one hindrance to the Spanish re-
taking Gibraltar, and that is, that it is
, impregnable. Three of its sides are so
steep and PERCEPTIONS as as to be wholly
inaccessible, and the fourth side, slop-
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 it,
and supposed they had made it i'm
pregnable, but it was captured by a
few British sailors, under Sir George
Rock, in 17O4, and the most desperate
and most persevering efforts have been
unavailing to retake it. In 1713 it was
confirmed to Great Britain by the treaty
of Utrecht. The Spaniards attacked it
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 garri-
son made a sortie on November p, 1871,
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 it by land,
while forty-seven ship of the line and
a great number of smaller vessels men
aced it 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 afterward the
beseiged were reinforced, but they had
only lost sixteen men through
out the attack. These little
excerpts from history are very
to Spain in her aspir-
ations 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 is no knowing what /
may have happened to England by that
time to weaken her. Taking all things
into consideration, however, perhaps it /.
would be best for Spain to wait until
the ninety years had passed before be-
ginning operations. By that time she .
may have recovered from the exertions .
Of putting down the instruction on .
Cu6a.-WaSh iRgtOn Post