The importance of Gibraltar will increase tenfold in the event of a _steam war_, as every thing will then depend upon the vicinity of the contending parties to their _coal depôts_.
But, besides the advantage Gibraltar gives Great Britain, by the command of the entrance of the Mediterranean, it affords a secure port at which her ships can refit, reprovision, &c. without incurring the expense and loss of time attendant on a long voyage to England. And, with respect to the expense of its maintenance, the benefit accruing to the nation at large by the disposal of her manufactured and other produce to an immense amount, far more than counterbalances the cost of the few thousand troops required for its defence, and which troops may also be looked upon as a kind of support to our advanced posts, Malta, Corfu, &c.
To furnish a proof of the value of Gibraltar to Great Britain, as a market, it will be only necessary to state, that of British manufactured _cotton_ goods alone the "barren little rock" takes annually to the value of nearly half a million sterling;--an amount very nearly equal to that which is exported from the mother country to _all_ her North American colonies--whilst the kingdom of Portugal (_favouring_ us in return for benefits conferred) takes of the same articles to the amount only of £800,000; and all the other ports of Spain together, but to the value of £13,000.
Now though the government gains but a trifling increase of revenue by the vast amount of goods exported to Gibraltar, yet the _good_ that is effected by thus keeping our manufacturers at work may certainly be put down as benefiting the country at a cheap rate, when the cost is but of a few thousand troops;--the civil servants, &c., being paid out of the crown revenues of the place itself.
On one point, I admit our government appears to be in error; namely, in making Gibraltar "a free port to _every_ flag;" by which "other nations enjoy the benefit of the establishment, without paying any portion of the expense:"[23] and it is more particularly to be blamed, for opening it to the produce of the _United States of America_, which, unlike France, Tuscany, Sardinia, and Austria, give our commerce no reciprocating advantage, and whose _tobacco_, imported in immense quantities, pays as aforesaid no portion of the expense of the establishment, but is the article of all others that occasions Spain to watch the transit trade of Gibraltar with such excessive jealousy.