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Show WOULD HAVE MEANT MUCH England Offered to Trade Gibraltar for Florida, but the Deal Was Not Made.' Ynu know thrit for everlasting stability sta-bility and stubborn resistance there Is nothing in the world like Oibraltor. Pid yon ever hear of a curious little bargain, which was never consummated, consummat-ed, but In which that great rock ut the mouth of the Mediterranean floured flo-ured us purt of the price? It had to do with an Important part of our country, and yet It Is seldom men-lioned men-lioned in any of our histories, says ii writer In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The impregnable fortress was fought over by the Spaniards and the Moors for two centuries, and It came in for rhe keen interest of Oliver Cromwell, who thundered at the British the fact chat If they ever hoped to become the dominating sea power of the world rhey must control the Mediterranean from Gibraltar. This great necessity was never lost sight of, but a suitable suit-able pretext did not arise until the war of the Spanish succession, when England and France were at each other's throat for the mastery of Europe. Eu-rope. Under Admiral Sir George Brooks the British fleet made an unexpected attack on the Spanish defenses and captured Oibrnltnr In 1704. Presently the English sickened of their bargain. That was long before the digging of the Suez canal by the Frenc and the Egyptians, nnd the cost of maintaining maintain-ing the rocky fortress appeared to be out of all proportion to its worth. When Spain was approached by Napoleons, Napo-leons, for the purchase of Florida, as a blow at England from the western theater the-ater of the Anglo-French war, England Eng-land offered to trade Gibraltar for Florida. Had the trade taken place, England would not have become the mistress of the sea. |