Since the Great Siege no attempt has been made to wrest the Rock from our firm British grasp; nor are we likely to surrender it, holding it as we do in the interests of Europe. Its military importance may be less than it was in the days before steam became one of the instruments of war; but still it is one of the keys of the Mediterranean, which we cannot afford to see in the hands of any other Power. We do not hold it selfishly, being concerned, not to shut up the Mediterranean, but to keep it free for the commerce of every nation. Moreover, it is a symbol of power which we cannot relinquish without disgrace. * * * * * In the later annals of Gibraltar the chief event is the mutiny of the garrison, under the governorship of the Duke of Kent, the father of the Queen. The young prince, when he entered on a military career, was sent to Hanover to learn the duties of his profession, and there he acquired that scrupulous regard for the smallest externals and that “pipe-clayed pedantry” which, before the days of Moltke, were the vice of the German army. Afterwards he was sent to Geneva, where he soon fell into debt, owing to the meagre allowance which he received from his royal father. Returning to England, in the hope that George III. would assist, he was ordered to start in twenty-four hours for Gibraltar, with the rank and position of colonel of the 7th Fusiliers. His rigid disciplinarian habits here made him unpopular with the common soldiers, who, however, at that time contained a large percentage of desperate and dissolute characters; but by the officers of the garrison he was as much esteemed on account of his excellent qualities as he was respected on account of his rank.