The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-11-03

tar was captured by Great
ICL Britain. and it has re-
GGH e9II mained in her possession
from that day to this. Among the
many possessions scattered all over the
globe that are comprised in the Brit
ish Empire to-day there is none that
the nation holds with greater tenacity
for reasons both OF sentiment and of
material interest and none that it
would lose with more poignant shame
and sorrow that the redoubtable strong
held We took from Spain at the begin
ming Of the reign of Queen Anne.
The fact that throughout the eight
centh century. when so many con-
quests III both hem.SpiereS changed
hands backward and forward in sue
cesslve wars and under successive
treaties, Gibraltar. remained perma-
.nently in the keeping Of England.
might seem to prove that British Senti-
ment with regard to it was from the
first the same rs it is to-day. But this
is far from having been the case. For
although at the end Of 200 years of
our possession of the fortress, at
time when the imperial instinct Of
Englishmen has become more con-
sciously developed and more deeply in
grained than ever before, and at the
same time more intelligently apprecia-
tive Of the true meaning Of sea power
and alive to the strategical require
ments of its maintenance, the retention
of the key Of the Mediterranean has
become an essential article of our po.
lticai creed. it was considerable
time before the immense value Of the
acquisition was fully rallied by Brit
ish statesmen.
1t seems strange enough to us to re-
member that King George I. and his
Ministers were ready to give up Gil
braltar merely to secure Spain's ac-
quiescence in the arrangement by
which the Quadruple Alliance was
anxious to make some pettifogging
notifications in the shuttle Of terri
tories effected by the treaty of Utrecht,
brt it is still more extraordinary that
so clear-sighted, patriotic and high
spirited an empire builder as Lord
Chatham himself should have made a
similar offer as an inducement to
Spain to help us to recover Minorca-
and This, moreover, at time when the
fortress has been in our hands for
more than half century and its vital
Importance to our growing maritime
supremacy had already been abun-
dainty proved in the naval wars of the
period. Happily the Spaniafds were
as blind as ourselves to the supreme
Importance Of the position command
ing the road from the Atlantic to the
Mediterranean.
The truth is, as readers OF Mahan
do not need to be reminded, that the
Importance OF sea power and the ma
ture Of the foundations on which 1T is
based were very imperfectly grasped
even by England in the seventeenth
and tue first half Of the eighteenth CEN
tury and scarcely at all by any other
European power. Occasionally at in
tcrgals some statesmen like Colbert
in France. or Alberoni in Spain. had
more than an inkling Of the truth,
but no nation except England made
deliberate and sustained efforts with 4
view tC maritime development. Even
England "a so rather by instinct than
10y insight
OF this blindness to the true prin-
c;ples Of maritime policy the taking of
Gibraltar and its history during the
following three-quarters Of a century
afford a striking illustration. Just as
toe vast importance of it's acquisition
was at the time underrated both by
England and Spain, so its actual cap
tura by the former was an afterthousht
and Gt may almost be said all aGci-
dent. 1t became British possession in
<he FIRST instance because at time
wien we happened to be at war with
onc Of the rival claimants to the Span
ish throne our admiral in the Medit-
teTanean happened to have no parti-
criar objective in view. and. having
failed in his only enterprise Of that
year. was unwilling to return home
with a fine feet that had done nothing
foc the honor of the flag. So he thought
he might as we'll make an attack on
Gibraltar as do anything else. New.
ertheless. his action has to be rcck-
onad among the notable deeds that
won the empire" and one that on its
bi-centennary deserves to be held in
remembrance. Hi,
Gr;i.oG Lion ctcsks.