STRENGTH OF GIBRALTAR.

West Coast Times, Issue 2740, 12 January 1878, Page 4

STRENGTH OF GIBRALTAR.

Gibraltar, for more than one hundred and seventy years has beei. in a condition to defy any attack from any quarter. It is a mass of solid grey marble, connected with the southern extremity of Spanish Andalusia by a narrow peninsula, which iB entirely commanded by the fortress. The rock -ai; its highest point, 1439 feet above the sea level — is completely honey com bea with batteries— bomb proofs— and every species of defensive conti ivance. Cannon of the lamest c.il bre frown along its face, steep escarps bar pathn u;> the almost perpendicular use ut, imni> use cipttrns and magazine* furnisn obutnin.it su.iplies oi water and ammunition, and there is always a stock of provisions sumeiem to la-t three years. The ordinary garrison consists ol about 5000 infancy, IOOj artillery, and a picked corps of engiiieua; nn-! in a case of emergency there are accommodations for dmihle this for:o. The last and memorable Biege Gibraltar began in June, 1779, and ended in February. 1783 Tuc combined armies au-l fleets of France and Spain pounded the .mpregnable walls for three years and eight months, and then gave up the hopeless tas«. The British lost 333 killed, 536 from disease, 48 from desertion, and the wounded numbered 1008 The casualties on the other side are not known. Sinc^ t.cn there hus been no attempt to rob Knjjland of her priceless possession ; a possession, by the way, ol which she robbed Spain. The present strengthening of Gibraltar means that England does not intend to bo " caught napping," and that the Government does not know how soon this matchiesß citadel may be needed as a base of active operations in the Mediterranean and the further East. Louis XIV. threatened to turß the "tidelesß sea" into a "French lake;" Alexander, if he had the opportunity, would gladly make it a Russian lake ; but as long as < ngland holds Gibraltar — the key of the western door — the Mediterranean is, to all intents and purposes, an English lake.