notes to Burnet. Onslow, in stating that | ralty Board, because of his Tory votes in Rooke was a man of fashion, and fitter for the Commons, when his Majesty replied: a Court than any of his profession, yet "Sir George has served me faithfully at allowed that he was very able and of sea, and I will never displace him for actgreat_courage in his profession. It is ing as he thinks most for the service of true Rooke was charged with want of his country in the House of Commons." vigor, but, to our thinking, unjustly. He That the immense value of Gibraltar was burned sixteen ships before La Hogue, not better appreciated a century and a and Lord Dartmouth, in his comments on half ago, is partly owing to the fact, that Burnet, asks: "Was it for burning six- it was at that period a source of profuse teen ships, or the winds not serving, that and ill-regulated expense. Lord Bolingthe Admiral was so much in fault? for the broke, in a dispatch to Lord Portmore, Bishop has specified nothing else to sup- the Governor, of March 29th, 1712, comport a party lie, that he would willingly plains "that at Gibraltar things have have pass for a truth because he hated been in the utmost confusion, and under the man." The truth is, as Captain Sayer the loosest management." states, that Sir G. Rooke belonging to the Tory party, and having sat in Parliament as a Tory member, a spirit of rivalry at once sprang up between the partisans of Marlborough and the friends of Rooke; the Whigs taking care to extol the services of Marlborough, while the claims of the Admiral were sneered at and disparaged. Party spirit in that day—such was the hight to which political prejudice and fanaticism were carried-obliterated all sense of justice. The House of Commons congratulated the Crown on the battle of Malaga, but the Lords remained obstinately silent. The Commons, determined to carry the point, moved another address praying the Sovereign to reward the troops and seamen who had so greatly distinguished themselves. A collision between the Houses at this juncture seemed imminent. But at the critical juncture Rooke, with a magnanimity which proved the greatness of his character, appeased the clamor by resigning all his appointments, and retiring into a private station. Burnet's calumnies recoiled on his own head. In a debate in the Lords, the Duke of Argyle, who had sat in the House with the Bishop, said: "With regard to what he says against Admiral Rooke, I know I have heard it from those who were present; the greatest part of it is a downright lie. The Bishop, it was well known, was no friend to that Admiral, and therefore he easily gave credit to every malicious story he heard against him." How different was the conduct of King William from that of Burnet! The King was pressed to remove Rooke from his seat at the Admi For the capture of Gibraltar, one of the greatest services ever rendered to a maratime nation, Sir G. Rooke received no reward. He survived his unjust treatment only a few years, and died in 1708, in his fifty-eighth year. But if England did not justly value the prize she had won, it must be conceded the Spaniards fully appreciated their loss; and in attempting to recover the place the twelfth siege occurred. During the progress of this siege a surprise was attempted. A goatherd, a native of Gibraltar, who was intimately acquainted with the passes of the rock, made known to the Marquis Villadarias, the Spanish commander, the possibility of reaching the summit by a pathway little known, and termed the Senda del Pastor. Five hundred men were se lected for this forlorn hope, and having taken the sacrament, marched from the advanced trenches round the eastern side. Following the goatherd, they crept up the precipitous track, and reached St. Michael's Cave, where they secreted themselves till morning. Before daybreak they advanced to the signal-station, where they massacred the guard, and succeeded in pulling up, by the assistance of ropes and ladders, many of the party who had been left behind. The garrison was now alarmed, and a regiment of Grenadiers, climbing a steep and stormy ascent, lost many men before they could close with torians, English and foreign, do full justice to It is satisfactory to think that all naval hisRooke. Burchett and Kennett, as well as Campbell and Lediard, speak of him with high praise; and De Quincy, in his Histoire Militaire, speaks of his distinguished courage and science, fully adFor a fuller account of the services of Rooke, mitted in the Dutch Gazettes. See also Lamberti, see Lediard's Naval History, Claude du Bosc's Militom. iii, and Quincy, Hist. Milit. de Louis XIV. tary History, and Molyneux's Conjunct Expedition. See note at the end of this article. he session of the town and castle, together the Spaniards, who, with an inaccessible | headed by the Epoca, has raised the cry + Mahon's England, vol. i. p. 458. VOL. LVIII.-NO. 1 Scarcely had the Treaty of Utrecht reestablished peace, before Spain, led on by Alberoni, alarmed all Europe by the magnitude of her warlike preparations. Every effort was made to induce her King to join the Quadruple Alliance, but in vain. It was resolved, therefore, once more to try, by way of inducement, the bait of the restoration of Gibraltar, the only condition involved being the accession of Philip to the Quadruple Alliance. But the King indignantly refused the proposal. Reverses in Sicily, however, and the failure of the schemes for the invasion of England, precipitated the downfall of Alberoni, and Philip now accepted the Alliance. Having thus complied with the desire of the Allies, the first act of the Spanish King was to demand the restoration of the rockfortress. But the English Ministry, threatened with the indignation of the people, decided on sounding the temper of the Parliament. No sooner was the real nature of the question understood, than the proposition was met with a universal outburst of indignation. The Houses met on the seventeenth of January, 1727. In his speech his Majesty said that he had' received information that the placing the Pretender upon the throne was one of the articles of the secret negotiation of Vienna; "and if the time shall evince," said the King, "that the giving up the trade of this nation to one power, and Gibraltar and Mahon to another, is made the price and reward of imposing on. this kingdom a Popish Pretender, what an indignation must this raise in the breast. of every Prorestant Briton!" The speech further intimated, that the Spanish Minister insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar, and announced that his Catholic Majesty was making preparations to attack 8 and besiege the fort. The indignation of both Houses was aroused, and in the Lords an address was voted, asserting that the fortress indisputably belonged to Great Britain by solemn treaties, and pledging the House to defend the right to Gibraltar and Minorca, "which are of the greatest importance to the preservation of the commerce and naval strength of Great Britain." A war between Spain and England now became inevitable, and an army for the siege of Gibraltar was soon organized by Spain. Philip had been convinced that the fortress might easily have been taken; but Villadarias, a brave and experienced soldier, who had been defeated before its walls in 1705, did not share his Sovereign's views, and refused to accept the conduct of the expedition. The command, therefore, devolved on Las Torres, who had run before Peterborough at Valencia,* and who boasted that in six weeks he would plant the standard of Spain on the rock, and drive the heretics into the sea. This was the thirteenth siege of Gibraltar, and preparations were made on a gigantic scale. For fourteen day seven hundred shot per hour were thrown into the fort ress, and ninety-two guns and seventytwo mortars were in constant play. But by the end of May the guns of the garrison had gained a complete ascendency over the besiegers. One hundred guns were in play, and countless mortars occupied commanding positions on the hights. On the third of June, 1727, this mass of ordnance opened on the Spanish batteries; and so crushing was the fire, that not a single gun replied. So overpowering was the fire of the besieged, that when a suspension of hostilities was agreed to preparatory to a peace, it was found the garrison had strengthened their position. The events of this siege, in which the Spaniards lost seven thousand men, established the fact that, on the land-side at least, Gibraltar was impregnable. In 1757, disputes which had long prevailed between the courts of France and Spain resulted in open hostility. Even subsequent to the outbreak of hostilities, Spain had evinced no desire to involve herself in the impending strife. It was the desire of both belligerents to secure the promise of her alliance. France had craftily proposed to the Spanish Cabinet to seize upon *Mahon's England. Minorca, and to offer it, together with the promise of cooperation in the reduction of Gibraltar, in exchange of the ratification of a treaty with Spain. It was at this period that Byng, who sailed from England in April, 1756, left Minorca to its fate. Unable to hold out against an overwhelming force, the garrison of Minorca, after repelling the enemy's assault, agreed to capitulate on honorable terms; and the troops, having been allowed to embark, were conveyed to Gibraltar. The loss of Minorca was followed by an outburst of uncontrollable indignation, the Ministry were driven from power, and Byng, sacrificed to popular fury, was shot by order of a court-martial. It was at this period when France was luring Spain into a confederacy against England by the promise of a restoration of Gibraltar, that Pitt succeeded to office. The great Minister resolved, by one bold stroke, to secure the friendship of Spain and to bind her in an alliance against France. With the consent of all his colleagues, in a secret dispatch dated twenty-third of August, 1757, he authorized Sir Benjamin Keene to offer to Spain the cession of Gibraltar on condition that she would enter into an alliance against the French. The dispatch, remarkable for its pregnancy, is said to have cost Pitt three days' labor. It is difficult to understand how a statesman of his lofty mental stature could have been induced to entertain the notion of surrendering the great fortress. But it should be remembered that the great Commoner attached the mightiest importance to the prevention of the alliance between Spain and France, and that he also looked for a full equivalent for the rockfortress at the hands of Spain. But not even the discomfiture of the alliance between the two Crowns, nor any equivalent in the power of the Spanish Crown to bestow, could have justified the English Minister in proposing the surrender of the key of the Straits, and the most commanding position in the Mediterranean. It is true that the expenses of the fortress were then enormous and constantly increasing, that the maladministration of the local Government was monstrous, and a continnal source of complaint; it was true also that the representations of Lord Tyranley, the Governor, led Pitt to underrate the value of the place; and the great orator must have been scandalized at the plundering and perquisites of Governors, provisioned the garrison; yet General which made their aggregate emoluments Eliott, who had foreseen the coming storm, twenty thousand pounds per annum.* chiefly depended on his own efforts, and But the abuses incident to the administra- prepared for an event which he had long tion of the rock were corrigible, and might contemplated. The garrison when the have been corrected; whereas the loss of war broke out was composed of ten regithe fortress, if once surrendered or lost, ments, including the artillery and engicould never have been repaired. Pitt, neers, giving a total of five thousand three however, soon became convinced of his hundred and eighty-two officers and men; error. In 1779 he pronounced Gibraltar whereas Spain attacked the rock with all "situated in the very continent of Spain, her naval and military resources. A Spanthe best proof of our naval power, and the ish squadron appeared in the bay. Rodonly solid check on that of the house of ney attacked it, and only one transport Bourbon." Twice within a century Spain escaped. This advantage was quickly folhad attempted the recovery of the fortress, lowed by another. A few days afterward and on each occasion she had been com- a Spanish squadron was discovered near pelled to retire with humiliation and de- Cape St. Vincent, and after a severe confeat. Believing that the moment had now flict, was defeated. The unfavorable disarrived when she might be more fortu- position of Morocco, and the vigilance of nate, the Court of Madrid allied herself to Spanish armed vessels, however, deprived France in 1779, and declared war against the garrison of supplies of provender from England. Two years before this period, the African coast, and they were reduced a remarkable man, a more remarkable sol- to the sorest straits, when they were again dier, had been made Governor of the rock. relieved by a fleet under Admirals Darby, This was George Augustus Eliott, who Digby, and Ross. Unable to force the was the youngest of the nine sons of Sir garrison to capitulate by blockade, the Gilbert Eliott, of Sleath, in the county of Spaniards now resolved on a supreme efRoxburgh. Born in 1718, Eliott had been fort. Works were carried on with re'early sent to the University of Leyden, newed vigor, batteries were supplied with where he became a proficient in languages. guns of the heaviest metal, and two hunSubsequently he studied with assiduity dred pieces of battering-cannon, and eighty and success at the School of Engineers at mortars, poured an incessant shower of La Fere. Having attained the rank of Lieu- shot and shell into the place for the space tenant-Colonel, he accompanied George of three weeks. The most eminent engiII. to Germany as aide-de-camp in 1743, neers of France and Spain were brought and was wounded at the battle of Dettin- to superintend the approaches of the begen. He distinguished himself in the siegers; but on the night of the twentyseven years' war under the Duke of Cum- seventh of November, 1781, General Ross, berland, and was considered a man of at the head of two thousand picked men, great military talents, energy, and perse- marched out of the garrison for the purverance, qualities that were fully tested in pose of destroying the batteries, and in a the memorable siege with which his name few minutes drove from them the astoundis forever associated. ed Spaniards. The guns and mortars were spiked, the magazines were blown up, the storehouses were fired, together with every part of the batteries. Thus, in somewhat less than two hours, the gigantic works which the enemy had raised at an expense of two millions sterling were annihilated. Spanish pride, no less than a sense of national interest, now induced his Catholic Majesty and his Ministers to direct the whole forces and resources of the monarchy upon the rock. The Chevalier d'Arcon, a famous French engineer, who had been attached to the army of Marshal Broglie, was summoned to St. Roque. He had invented what he called "batteries, flottantes, insubmersibles, et in Eliott, on assuming the command, soon discovered defects in the fortifications, and that the garrison was inadequate to perform even the duties necessary in a time of peace. The Governor declared it would be impossible to withstand a siege with the inefficient resources at his disposal; and he sent home Colonel Green, of the Engineers, to explain to Ministers how matters stood, and wrote pressingly to the Government. His remonstrances were scarcely heeded. Though the Cabinet had tardily and inadequately reinforced and General O'Hara was in the receipt of £7000 per annum for wine-licenses alone. combustibles, révetues d'une forte cuirasse | forward his invincible batteries; and on the en bois de coté de l'ennemi," and which morning of the thirteenth they were put in must have somewhat resembled similar motion. Buenventura de Moreno, a distinbatteries which the Emperor of the French guished Spanish officer who commanded them, proclaims as his own special invention. brought them to the requisite position; and no sooner was this accomplished than the most Ten of these batteries, supposed to be in- dreadful firing commenced. The batteries on vulnerable, were launched. Their bottoms sea and on land opened at the same instant, were of thick timber, their sides of wood and poured into the garrison an incessant and cork, and they were supplied with shower of shot, while the British returned the sloping roofs. Each of them carried from fire with that celerity and skill which the ten to twenty-eight guns, manned by a in the morning till noon this firing was congreatness of the occasion demanded. From ten picked crew. They were supported by tinued without the smallest intermission. About gunboats and armed vessels. A thousand two, Moreno's battering-ship was seen to emit pieces of artillery and twelve thousand of smoke as if burning. About midnight the efthe best troops of France were joined to fects of the red-hot shot which the garrison had those of Spain, and numerous volunteers used became conspicuous; the battery belongof the highest rank-such as the Counting to the Admiral was discovered to be on d'Artois, afterward Charles X., and the Duke de Bourbon-appeared on the staff. The direction of the operations was intrusted to the Duke of Crillon, who had distinguished himself in the reduction of Minorca. Colonel Drinkwater, who witnessed the siege, and who has described it with graphic minuteness, says: "That the Spaniards meant, previous to their final efforts, to strike a terror through their opponents by displaying an armament more powerful than had ever been brought against any fortress. Forty-seven sail of the line, including three inferior two-deckers, ten battering ships, deemed perfect in design, and esteemed invincible, carrying two hundred and twelve guns, innumerable frigates, xebeques, bombketches, cutters, gun and mortar-boats, and smaller craft for disembarking men, were assembled in the bay. On the land-side were most stupendous batteries and works, mounting two hundred pieces of heavy ordnance, managed by an army of near forty thousand men, commanded by a victorious general, and animated by the immediate presence of two princes of the blood-royal of France. In their certainty of success, however, the enemy seemed to have entirely overlooked the nature of that force which was opposed to them; for though the garrison scarcely consisted of seven thousand effective men, including the Marine Brigade, they forgot that they were now veterans in the service, and had been long habituated to the efforts of artillery. On the ninth of September, 1782, an attack was made by the Spaniards upon the land-side, where a battery of sixty-four guns was opened; but the fire was so warmly returned, that the Spaniards were driven from their works. At the same time several of the ships attacked Europa Point, but their success was not greater. Two of the largest vessels were so damaged as to be obliged to repair to Algeziras Bay for the purpose of refitting. Crillon now resolved to send fire, and in a short time the other eight were seen successively to be in flames, and made hundred men were saved by the exertions of signals of distress. Of their crews only four the British. The rest were either consumed in the flames, torn in pieces by the explosions, or drowned in their attempts to escape. Thus were the sanguine expectations of the Spaniards completely disappointed, and the invincible batteries in one day totally annihilated." During the siege the most common necessaries of life were exorbitantly dear. Bad ship-biscuit full of worms was sold at one shilling a pound; flour, not in much better condition, at the same price; old dried peas at one shilling and four pence; salt, half dirt, the sweepings of ships' bottoms and storehouses, at eight pence; old salt butter at two shilling and sixpence; and English farthing candles at sixpence apiece. much higher prices. Turkeys sold at Fresh provisions commanded three pounds twelve shillings; suckingpigs at two pounds two shillings; and one pound one shilling was refused for a calf's pluck. The effect of the red-hot shot, recommended by General Boyd to be used against the Spanish works, exceeded the most sanguine expectations. The damage done was extensive, and for a time irreparable. An immense amount of ammunition was expended on both sides. Three hundred and twenty of the enemy's cannon were in play throughout the day, and to these were opposed only ninety-six guns from the rock. Upward of eight thousand shot and seven hundred and sixteen barrels of gunpowder were fired away by the garrison. The siege had lasted for three years, seven months, and twelve days; and for the elaborate magnitude of the attack, and above all |