Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from England and France in the Mediterranean: 1660-1830
In all probability England would have played but a small part in the Eastern Question, as it is understood to-day, if it had not been for Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is not to be expected that Continental students of the history of England will accept any such conclusion. Seeing Gibraltar (which is, geographically speaking, Spanish ground) in English hands, they cannot but conclude that the "key of the Mediterranean" was grasped with some intention of inaugurating a policy which appears to have developed so continuously and so portentously in the course of the last two hundred years. But the listless attitude implied by Lord Tyrawley's remark to Henry Fox (August 26, 1756) - "I do not see that we do ourselves much good, or anybody else any hurt, by our being in possession of it" - thoroughly characteristic as it is of all the dealings of England with the Rock of Gibraltar, does not appear to bear out this view. The six attempts to shake off the incubus render such a view untenable.
It is the same with Malta. Seeing England in possession of a fortress which is (geographically speaking) Italian ground, it is impossible to avoid ascribing the anomaly to ruthless acquisitiveness on the part of England.
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