The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1883.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LX, Issue 7050, 3 October 1883, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1883.

Tie Gladstone Ministry’s foreign policy is said to be one of retreat. Though this accusation can hardly be held true of a Cabinet which has occupied Egypt, retained Cyprus, annexed part of the Gold Coast, and which still continues to interfere in Znluland, Conservatives do not hesitate to make it. They point to the abandonment of Afghanistan, and the retrocession of the Transvaal, and ask whether such things could have happened under their own regime. Where truth is not handy, and the past does not supply them with something at which to point, they have recourse to invention and the boundless possibilities of the future. Like the undergraduate, of whom it was written that “ When fact* were weak, Hie native cheek Brought him serenely through,”

the Conservative party militant does not stick at g ness work. The latest effort of their imagination is that Mr Gladstone and Earl Derby mean to hand over Gibraltar to Spain* and that they mean to do so for two reasons. First, because Spain would like it; second, because Gibraltar is of no use to England, or, at least, is to be made of no use. The Spaniards, it is said, are going to reduce its valne as a fortress to zero, by erecting huge forts on the other side of Algecirao Bay. Oar readers may be reminded that the rook of Gibraltar forms the east side of this Bay, and that modern guns placed on (he west side could easily command the water, w^re'English shipping is wont . natal critics say that these Spaniibifbrls (which, by the J mf,''-arei, 'nl erected) could tikbe of wm*. Bfld,,m9reoverLowd.»ofc’' ! be, takep ly assault, or evem vednpedj ibyanythix g

loss than a blockading army. It io to bo regretted that one or two London newspapers, among them the Spectator, have gone no far as to entertain tho notion that Gibraltar, an being nnder tho ciroumßtanoba useless, might possibly bo exchanged with advantage for (hmta. Ceuta, they nay, though Spanish property, does not lie on Spanish soil, and its possession by England would not wound tho sensitiveness of Spanish patriotism. To this tho reply tempting, that Spanish patriotism having survived tho Gibraltar wound for just ono hundred and eighty years, might continue to do so for a little time longer.

It would doubtless please tho Spaniards greatly if we were to hand them over what is yet ono of the strongest fortresses in tho world, for nothing, or oven sell it to them for a million or two, or exchange it for the, as yot, unascertained value of Ocuta. On tho same principle it would please tho Moors greatly if in another generation we were to proceed to renounce Ceuta in turn, out of consideration for tho tender susceptibilities of the Emperor of Morocco. The Gladstone Government has declined to please France by leaving Egypt alone, and is perfectly incapable of such folly as to dream of surrendering Gibraltar to please Spain, a country which nobody has any particular object in courting. To propose to give up Old Gib. to the Spaniards would be about as insane as for Mr Gladstone to offer to sell tho Tower of London to P. T. Barnuni on the ground that the old place is expensive, and quite useless as a fortress. After summing up the advantages of holding Gibraltar, the Spectator is good enough to remark that allusion to “ prestige ” has been omitted, “ since, in this connection, * prestige ’ has little real meaning, and cannot be construed into a military factor.” We very much doubt whether, if the Algeoiras forts (to be erected) were to attempt to bully Gibraltar, the Spanish officers in command would not feel that British military “ prestige ” was a very important factor indeed in influencing tho spirit of their garrison. Critics may prove the invincibility of these forts on paper, but if British pluck is still something more than a tradition, it would disprove that invincibility in war time, though possibly at fearful cost. Meantime, it is to be regretted that London journals should be so fond of writing as though national feeling were one of the abstract propositions, and seem to forget that a place hallowed by Elliott’s famous defence, by British courage and British blood, most have wound itself round every English heart with ties not easily to be snapped.