The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-17

A century ago, when even voyage from the northern shores of the Medi- terranean to the African shores had a few hazards attached to it, Mahon as halfway house was very valuable. Here an attacking fleet might lie snug ly In wait for the enemy's ships, and as a base of operations the little island would serve well. But steam power has cut the comb of these M diterrane- an insuar ports, where they are not precious as stages in the long voyages from continent to continent. Minorca stands we'll across the direct route be- tween Marseilles and Algiers. But what good is that when the whole trip is done in less than r-and-twenty hours? Otherwise the island is out of every one's way. She is not fit to serve as a coaling station. She is but twenty-eight miles long by ten miles broad. Of mineral wealth she has none,, and her only export of size is shoe-leather. And yet she is fortified to the very hit!
 Spain would have done far better to spend La Mola's money in colonial har- Dor works or extra guns, if not in bat tle-ships. Las Palmas, in Grand Cana ry, though not naturally so defensible as Port Mahon, would better repay the expenditure; and to the layman 1t ap- pears that even Corunna deserves more attention than it has received from the Spanish war office.
 The truth is, perhaps, that Spain here, as in other matters, sacrifices to her past, without due respect to the present or regard for the future. It is like spending a million pounds on a very elaborate safe to protect jewels themselves worth less than million pounds. Besides, it is so clear to the rest of Europe that the earth-hunger of modern times Is of a much more raven ous kind among the nations than it formerly was. The Mediterranean has got releeated to the background among waterways; it is the nobest pond upon the earth, and it is very desirable to have one or other bijou estates in it; but that is all The colonial fortunes of the powers of Europe are what these powers now look to. and with these the Mediterranean has little to do nowa- days, since Algeria and north asst Afri- ca are appropriated, and Turkey de- clines to decompose and be partition d. Who wants little Minorca for coloniz- ing purposes, seeing that-thanks mainly to Brigadier Kane or General Wade-she is already a network of white, dusty roads. with her two hun dred and sixty square miles of suffi- ciently flat land well settled up and cultivated?
 Not that we would slight in any way this the most British of all the Medi- terranean islands after Malta. No part of Spain has so excellent a char acter for thrift cleanliness and hones- ty. It is enough to stir a philosophical antiquary to his very soul to discern in Mahon, the capital, the touching to- kens of our ancient abitation-streets of three-storied red brick houses, like those in Soho, with horizontal sashes, window-shuttors, and even knockers to some of the doors How suitable for the warm, southern climate, and in what conspicuous contrast with the low, glowing white houses that proceed from the Minorcan instinct-with thick walls, bright green paint here and there, and roomy doors, without knock CTS, that are open all day, save when the sun burns upon them If you re- quest donkey-boy to guide you to the tombs, or the harbor, or farther a1eld, to the "talayots'' of the interior-his name may be Johnny Moreno" or "Alphonso Smith," piquant enough in either case to set you ''sneiring" at his ancestry with on inouisitiyeness that may not be as productive of results as you shall expect-you hear quaint snatches or scraps of English in the grass-grown streets mingled with the insular dialect, and you see such blue eyes to Minorcan heads here and there as might be traceable directly to Kent or Caithness. The tradition, moreover. still holds in this rather unpicturesque but quite homely little island trat the English rule was very good for the peo- pie, and that the English not only made very amiable husbands and were kind fathers, but also scattered much money about the land A sufficiently creditable tradition, too! And on this latter count one may at least excuse the local manufa cturers of she'll boxes, ' pincushions, etc.--eXact fac-similes of those at Margate ard ABlackpool-if they rely rather on the travelling Bri- tons generosity than his common sense | when they appraise these goods for , m.-Household Words