Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/603

Rh GIBI-LALTAR occupied by the Grand Parade and the Alameda Gardens, laid out by General Don in 1814 ; and beyond these are t.he old convict establishment, the dockyard, and the new- mole parade. Further south, at Rosia, is the naval hospital, erected in 1771. G-ibraltar has been a free port since the year 1705,—a distinction which it owes in part to the refusal of the emperor of Morocco to allow the export of materials for the fortifications unless his subjects obtained full liberty of trade. In the early part‘ of the present century the commercial activity of the little colony was remarkably great. While the average value per annum of British manufactures ex- ported to the rest of Spain during the ten years from 1831 to 1840 was less than £385,000, the corresponding average for Gibraltar was more than £486,000; a11d in the year 1840 the ratio of Spain and Gibraltar was £404,252 to £1,111,176. Since that date there has been comparatively little advance,——the average annual value of all the British and colonial. produce and manufactures for the ten years from 1868 to 1877 being £1,074,785. Besides the legiti- mate trade fostered by the demands of the garrison and the neighbouring cities of Spain, Gibraltar has long had a large contraband traflic especially in tobacco and Manchester goods. Mainly carried on by Spaniards, it continued to thrive in spite of the exertions of the Spanish authorities, an-_l is now kept down mainly by the action of British otlicials. About 1200 tons of tobacco are sold annually in the Jews’ Market,‘ no fewer than eleven houses import upwards of 1000 tons annually ; and its manufacture _and manipulation give employment, it is said, to about 1550 persons. Fully two—thirds of the tobacco comes from Calcutta and other Indian ports. “ Wool, grain, and wax from Morocco, fruit, wine, oil, and other produce from Spain, are sent to Gibraltar for transhipment to England, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, America, ports in the Mediterranean, India, and China.” As a port of call, the Bay of Gibraltar has recently increased in im- portance. Upwards of 5000 vessels enter the port an- nually, and of these more than half are propelled by steam. The average annual tonnage of the ships that entered between 1871 and 1875 was 2,069,508; and of this no less than 1,594,174 was British. Quarantine was estab- lished in 1830. By the shipping act of 1868 the governor was empowered to remove from the register any vessel guilty of a violation of the Spanish revenue laws discreditable to the British ﬂag. In 1865 a duty was imposed on wines and spirits. Great commotion was caused among the mer- cantile population of Gibraltar in 1871 by a proposed custozns ordinance, framed for the suppression of the smug- gling. One of its chief provisions was that no tobacco should be exported or imported in vessels of less than 100 tons burden or in packets of less than 80 lb. The population of Gibraltar in 1840 was 15,554, of whom 11,313 were British subjects and 4241 aliens; and by 1850 it had increased to 15,823, with 3641 aliens. In 1860 the civil population, including foreigners visiting the garrison, amounted to 17,647 ; but the number of resident inhabitants was only 15,467. According to returns for 1872 the total population was 18,695 (8969 males and 9726 females), the aliens numbering 2241 and the military 6521. The death—rate of the civil population varies from 25 to 31 per thousand, but it is almost always exceeded by the birth—rate. During the ﬁve years 1871-1875 the average number of births per annum was 5924, and of deaths 5332. Besides the natives, who themselves are of various origin, there are always in the town considerable numbers of Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians, as well as stray re- presentatives of almost every nationalityengaged in the trade of the Mediterranean. Though by the treaty of Utrecht it was specially bargained by Spain that “ no leave shall be 585 given under any pretence whatever either to Jews or Moors to reside or have their dwelling in the town of Gibraltar,” the native Jews by 1844 numbered no fewer than 1385. The greater part of the population is Roman Catholic, but full religious liberty is of course enjoyed. The church of the Holy Trinity was constituted to be a cathedral and bishop’s see of the Church of England in 1843. The Wesleyans and the Presbyterians have places of worship. St Andrew’s, the new Presbyterian church, was built by the Free Church of Scotland in 1854. A proposal for concomitant endowment of “ church bodies for the Anglican and Roman Catholic communities” with the annual sum of £500 was made by the governor in 187.6, but it was not sanctioned by parliament. An annual grant to this amount is made to both bodies, but the Govermnent no longer keeps the cathedral in repair. The Roman Catholic bishop of Antinoe is vicar apostolic of Gibraltar. Gibraltar was long an ill—managed and expensive colony ; but its expenditure is now sometimes even less than its revenue. During the ﬁve years from 1871 to 1875 the average expenditure, increased by several unusual items, was £43,988 ; and the average income was £42,464. For 1877 the expenditure was £41,585, or £1739 more than the iucome. The chief sources of the revenue are the port and quarantine dues, the excise on the consumption of wines and spirits, and the ground and house rents,—the three departments yielding respectively on the average from 1c71 to 1875 £11,011, £11,512, and £6,206. It is worthy of note that the ground and house rentals have in- creased from £5629 in 1871 to £7078 in 1875. Among the heavier items of outlay are the governor’s salary, which amounts to £5000 per annum, and the judicial a11d ecclesi- astical expenses, which were, on an average from 1871 to 1875, respectively £3909 and £1061. The total cost of the military establishment was, on the average of four years from 1869 to 1873, £315,454,—of which £250,340 was the average cost of the regular troops, £1610 for the jails, and £19,293 for the barracks. The convict establishment was abolished in 1875. At that date it contained 238 prisoners, who were managed on the associated system _; and grievous complaints were made of the difﬁculty of maintaining satisfactory discipline. _Hz'story.—Gibraltar was known to the Greek and Roman geo- graphers as C-alpe or Alybe, the two names being probably corruptions of the same local (perhaps Phcenician) word. The eminence on the African coast near Ceuta which bears the modern English name ol Apes’ Hill was then designated Abyla ; and Calpe and Abyla, at least according to an ancient and widely current interpretation, formed the renowned Pillars of Hercules (Hereulis eolumnae, 'HpaxAe'ous a-n”7Aar) which for centuries were the limits of enterprise to the seafaring peoples of the Mediterranean world. The strate ric importance of the rock appears to have been first discovered by t e Moors, who, when they crossed over from Africa in the 8th century, selected it as the site of a fortress. From their leader Tarik ibn Zeyad it was called Gebel Tarik or T arik's Hill; and, though the name had a competitor in Gebel at Futah or Hill of the Entrance, it gradually gained aeceptanee,and stillremains sufficientlyrecognizable in the cor- rupted form of the present day. The first siege of the rock was in 1309, when it was taken by Alonzo Perez de Guzman for Ferdinand IV. of Spain, who, in order to attract inhabitants to the spot, offered an asylum to swindlers, thieves, and murderers, and promised to levy no taxes on the import or export of goods. The attack of Ismail ben Ferez in 1315 (241 siege) was frustrated ; but in 1333 Vaseo Pacz (IV Meira, having allowed the fortiﬁcations and garrison to decay, was obliged to capitulatc to Mahomet IV. (3d siege). A1phonso’s attempts to recover possession (4th siege) were futile, though pertinacious and heroic, and he was obliged to content himself with a tribute for the rock from Abdul Melek of Granada ; but after his successful attack on Algeciras in 1344 he was encouraged to try his fortune again at Gil-I altar. In 1349 he invested the rock, but the siege (5th siege) was brought to an untimely close by his death from the plague in F ebrnary 1350. The next or 6th siege resulted simply in the transfefellce Of the coveted position from the hands of the king of Morocco to those of Yussef 111. of Granada; and the 7th, undertaken by the Spanish count of Niebla, Enrico de Guzman, proved fatal to the lnesieger and his forces. In 1462, however, success attended the ell'orts of Alonzo IL-74