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one particular branch of the subject, he has endeavoured to collect facts himself, and in his account of “Abdel-Kader and his Capital," though too short, has brought forward much curious matter concerning the Emir and his dominions. We shall have occasion to quote from him by-and-by, and shall avail ourselves of his researches, after making due allowance for his national feeling as an enemy of the chief to whom his little work relates.

The history of the conquest of Algiers will have more attention paid to it in future times than it has as yet obtained for that event, however trifling the immediate pretext of it was, will bring about either the formation of a new and independent European power in Africa, or will end in the driving out of the present invaders, and will thus act in a mortal manner on the existence and prosperity of the French nation. Far from proving an easy conquest or a peaceable possession, the attempt to keep Algeria under her dominion, has caused France an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, without as yet producing any but the most insignificant results in a politico-economical sense; and it still forces her to a perpetual exertion of military strength, favourable neither to her own domestic tranquillity nor her public honour. It is not our intention to revert to the circumstances attendant on the overthrow of the Dey, but rather to point out some remarkable features of the present state of things in Algeria, and to show the influence they are producing, or may produce, on France, and Europe in general.

There is a great deal of acute observation to be met with in the Report of Professor Blanqui on Algiers and Constantina, read by him to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences at Paris, in the summer of 1839. The professor is well known in the French literary and scientific world, as a writer on subjects of political economy, as an industrious collector of facts, and as a shrewd commentator on what he observes. He .was sent out to Algeria, in the spring of the year just mentioned, by the academy of which he is a member, in order to examine into the social condition of the French colonists, and to

ascertain what was the cause why, with such an extent of country as the French then possessed, and in such a state of security as the treaty of the Tafna was supposed to have gained for them, the affairs of the colony (as it was prematurely called) went on so badly; and why it was that, so far from yielding any return for the vast sums of money it annually cost, the deficit occasioned by the item of "Algiers," in the budget of the minister of war, was perpetually on the increase. M. Blanqui accordingly proceeded to Algiers, and afterwards to Constantina; but he did not visit Oran nor the western part of the French possessions; he made only a very brief stay in Africa, having possibly the same unaccountable dislike, with all his countrymen, to quit Paris and La Belle France, and, after a few weeks, came home again to report progress. He drew up a series of five elaborate papers, in which the number of facts adduced was certainly large compared with the short time in which he had to collect them, if, indeed, he did collect them all on the spot; and, arranging these facts with no small talent and impartiality, he read to the academy a startling, heavy, unexpected exposé of the numerous faults committed on the other side of the Mediterranean, not so much by the military authorities and the troops, as by the civil and judicial authorities, and still more by the middle and lower classes of residents. He condemned loudly the faulty administration of the laws relating to property; the indiscreet manner in which the natives were dealt with; and the profligate way in which the outcasts coming from all countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and huddled together in Algiers as a common asylum, usually conducted themselves. This report had been preceded by a most scandalous trial, in which the conduct of General Bugeaud, now governorgeneral of Algeria, was not less stigmatized than that of Major-general the Marquis de Brossard, who was prosecuted for military mal-practices. That trial had exposed to the public an organized system of bribery and corruption on the part of the highest autho rities in Algeria, at which, even a French public blushed; and, joined to the disclosures of M. Blanqui, produced a disheartening effect, as in

deed was inevitable, on the minds of most of the deputies then assembled in their annual session. While, however, the professor was in the course of his readings before the academy, the expedition of Marshal Valée and the Duke of Orleans from Constantina to Algiers by the Iron Gates, the formidable pass of the Biban, took place, and was instantly followed by the general irruption of the Arabs, and the proclamation of a holy war. Since then, no further colonial progress has been made in the French possessions. The French have seized on several towns along the coast and in the interior, retaining some and burning others; but they have practically lost all their agricultural territory in the provinces of Algiers and Oran, and the war has since kept them pent up within their walls with little or no intermission. There is, therefore, little or no published information on the internal organization of the French possessions subsequent to this report; and we recommend whoever is interested in the study of colonial administration, to refer to it in the columns of the Moniteur for 1839.

It appears that the attempts to cultivate the territory round Algiers, when allowed by the Arabs to go on uninterruptedly, have been injudiciously directed; little or no attention has been paid to the practice of the inhabitants; the geographical conditions of the district were not carefully studied, and the most disastrous failures of the best intended schemes ensued. Algiers is situated on the northern slope of some high ground much broken up by deep ravines, of considerable fertility and great picturesque beauty. This is called the Sahel, and at a remote geological epoch may have formed an island, or else a peninsula, a good many leagues in advance of the lowest chain of the lesser Atlas. Behind the Sahel stretches in a semicircular form, from the town of Koleah on the west to the mouth of the river Haradj on the east, near Cape Matifou, a wide plain, level in most parts, and in others gently undulated, at only a small elevation above the level of the sea, and covered with the most varied and luxuriant vegetation. This is called the Metidja, and immediately behind it in every direction rise the barren flanks of the Lesser Atlas, cutting off the

line of vegetation, which is only renewed on the banks of rivers flowing far inland, and constituting that formidable mountain barrier, which has checked the progress, for a shorter or a longer period, of all nations aspiring to the conquest of northern Africa. The Metidja has never been drained, and it is covered with stagnant pools, marshes, and small sluggish streams, which, under the influence of an Afri. can sun, produce a vegetation such as is found in an Indian jungle, with all the attendant scourges of the most malignant fevers and pestilential diseases. It was into the Metidja, as M. Blanqui informs us, that the French settlers threw themselves, with the most thoughtless impatience, the moment they obtained leave from government, and in that deadly region carried on an uncertain struggle with the climate and the inhabitants. The few Arabs who were settled on it, never renounced their right of possession, but, on the contrary, kept up a continual system of predatory warfare, in which they were almost always successful. The French agriculturists were confined to the walls of their farms, and with difficulty collected the produce of their land; troops could not be spared in sufficient numbers to protect them, nor could the government risk the lives of their men in such an unhealthy service. The crops, too, were badly chosen,-cotton, pepper, and other tropical plants were tried, but failed; and with the exception of the cattle, sheep, and game, which the swampy plain nourished in abundance, little return had been obtained by the owners of property in the Metidja, when the Arabs came to put an end to their possession, by burning and destroying every thing within their reach. The Sahel has been more profitably occupied and cultivated; the system of the Turkish owner has been more closely adhered to, and it still retains the villas and country seats which the wealthier inhabitants of Algiers have always had in it.

The town of Algiers, since the driving out of the Turks, had been daily assuming a more and more European appearance. The wealthier and older Moorish families, or at least the heads of them, had emigrated,-some to the interior to join the hostile tribes, others to Tunis and Tripoli, and some to the Levant. The Jews had come

to be the most influential of the native inhabitants, and their habits reconciling them to the change of masters, they soon formed, with the French, Maltese, Italian, and Spanish traders and adventurers, who flocked thither, an industrious but highly immoral population. M. Blanqui states, that the system of petty dealing and underhand nefarious practices carried on in Algiers itself, is beyond all belief; he stigmatizes it as an immense wineshop. In 1833, the consumption of French wine in Algiers was, he informs us, valued at 1,200,000 francs; in 1836, at 3,000,000 francs; in 1837, at nearly 4,000,000 francs; in 1838, at 5,320,000 francs; and for 1839, was estimated at more than 6,500,000 francs. The population of Algiers," M. Blanqui adds, " has only doubled since 1833, but the consumption of wine has been quintupled!"

The

conduct of the French settlers and the other inhabitants in the social relations of the sexes, appears to have been profligate in the extreme, the polygamous arrangements of the Oriental Harem being universally adopted, while the mysterious secrecy of that system degenerated into a system of open and unlimited concubinage. The consequence of all this has been, that, what with the thoughtless habits of the soldiery, the unprincipled conduct of the Levantine adventurers, the rapaciousness of the Jews, and the careless laissez faire of the French inhabitants, Algiers has for some years past become a sink of infamy. This, added to the galling recollections of the conquest, has not tended to conciliate the stern fanaticism of Abd-el- Kader and his Arab followers. The local trade of Algiers, as being the seat of government, and the principal port of the coast, has always been flourishing, and has much increased since the French occupation. In 1838, as we learn from M. Blanqui, the exports of wax amounted to 122,715 francs; whereas the first six months of 1839 gave an increase of 100,000 francs in that article alone. In 1838, leather was exported for 746,000 francs; but during the first half of 1839, this arti

cle was increased to 1,396,427 francs. The trade in wool had become eight times as great as the year before; and during 1839, (the first half year,) the exports of leeches amounted to more than 3,000,000 of francs. This was all previous to the breaking out of the Arab war, which has, of course, diminished the trade very considerably, and in some cases reduced it to nothing. Rents in the town had risen enormously up to 1839, and we believe, are still higher now than then :-M. Blanqui states, that a restaurateur, on a first-floor, paid 9000 francs a-year for his locale; and that a common dirty tobacco-shop was rented at 2500 francs, or just £100 a-year. The general aspect of the town is one of extreme bustle and activity, more so than any place south of Naples; and the unusually picturesque appearance of the town and its inhabitants, half European half Moorish, is well known to produce a striking effect on the visiter.

Oran on the west, and Bona on the east, though possessed of great capabilities for commerce, and their surrounding districts for agriculture, have never had these capabilities developed. The former place has lost its importance since it has been in the hands of its present masters; and the latter, which was rising into importance as the chief port for the trade of Constantina and the province, has been checked in its growth by the revival of Stora and the ancient Rusicada. Bugia, La Calle, and Schersch, still remain embryo settlements; and at the present day, as in former times, Algiers is the heart and centre of the whole. The western province of Oran is more generally fertile than that of Algiers; the mountains are not so high, the plains less pestiferous, the rivers more considerable, and communications with the interior more easy. Maskarab, too, extends a long series of well-cultivated valleys, especially along the river Mina; and the district of the Greris is famous, throughout that part of Africa, as a general store-house and a perpetual market. The French have obtained no footing here; the detached

Near

The French inhabitants of Algiers, of all classes, properly so called, do not amount to more than a third of the total number, about 30,000; the Maltese, and other British subjects, found there, are between 6000 and 7000.

† Algeria is said to be capable, if properly cultivated, of supplying tobacco, which grows there with extraordinary luxuriance, for the half of Europe.

camps have some cultivated spots under the range of their guns, but the yatagan of the Arab has successfully defended the rest; so that the French invader is still as great a stranger as on the first day of his landing. The province of Constantina, less fertile perhaps than that of Oran, is more so than that of Algiers, (the Metidja excepted ;) but from various circumstances, and principally from its having been better administered, is more entirely in the possession of the French than either of the other two. Abd-elKader's authority is only partially recognized there by some of the less considerable tribes, and he has never made it the theatre of his operations. The native chiefs have been treated with tolerable equity and mildness by the military governors of Constantina; all civil adventurers have been carefully kept out; the immorality of Algiers has not been propagated there, and the consequence is, that nearly all the tribes have made their submission, agreeing to accept French protection for the payment of a moderate tribute. The French have a much more sure footing in the eastern than in the western portion of their African possessions.

Soon after the new conquest, Algeria became tolerably tranquil, and when the ferment of trumpery patriotism began to subside in France after the Revolution of 1830, the French rushed into Algiers as to an El Dorado, and the so-called colonists did their best to dispossess the former owners of the soil by fair means or by foul. The clumsy machinery of French law was transported into a climate where it could never become thoroughly naturalized; and the thirteen or fourteen codes, of which the French boast as masterpieces of legislation, were soon brought into force, nominally, if not in reality, throughout the subjugated districts. Swarms of lawyers and pettifoggers went over there, and a soi-disant per fect system of French society was set agoing as best it might. There is not much difficulty in comprehending what a sudden shock this must have given to the feelings and prejudices of the inhabitants, nor what an additional element of hostility it must have at all times proved. Mussulmans are generally much attached to the associations of place, and with difficulty are made to leave

the homes of their childhood; but to be turned out by a crew of mauvais sujets from all parts of the Mediterranean,-by men who, a few years before, would never have dared to venture their necks within a day's sail of the mole of Algiers, must have been the crowning point of their misfortunes. The new authorities of Algiers took all opportunities of pronouncing confiscations of the property of natives, and of appropriating it to themselves, or distributing it among the favoured adventurers, civil or military, who were influentially recommended. In one case, that of the town of Blidah, on the southern side of the Metidja, the inhabitants having retired in considerable numbers on the approach of the French, all their property in houses and lands was declared confiscated, and a sale of them took place at Algiers. This town, the population of which had once been 15,000, and which was one of the most flourishing in the regency, suffered much by a shock of earthquake; and, soon after the French occupation, became reduced to 4000 inhabitants, which is about its actual population. The environs were celebrated for their beautiful gardens and groves of secular orange trees, upon which all the art of the inhabitants had been spent, and where, by means of an extensive system of irrigation, perpetual shade and verdure were maintained. Blidah is now nearly in ruins, the poor inhabitants who remain, small traders and labourers, are perishing from want and famine-the streets are blocked up with fallen habitations-the gardens are all neglected-most of the orange groves have been cut down by the French soldiery for firewood-the water-courses are neglected-and the streams are now only wasting torrents. The aspect of the place is desolate in the extreme, and all civilization is utterly put an end to in it; yet the anxiety of the French residents at Algiers to obtain property in this place had been at one time so great, that all the confiscated lands were sold long before any but the soldiers had visited the spot, and their owners did not see the ruins of their gardens for some years after they had completed their purchases. Similar things have taken place at Bona, Bugia, Oran, Constantina, and recently at Medeah, Milionah, and Maskarah: all the in

the hospital within a few hours after she landed. The papers of that town described at the time the distress of these poor people to have been of the most heart-rending description ;-the father taking leave of his daughter for ever, and plunging with his son into the most dreadful sink of human depravity ever known to exist; some of the family, who, though not condemned, had accompanied them from Africa over to Europe, preparing to go back; the mother torn away from her infant, and then dying as she did,-all this may be conceived, but cannot be described! And after all, the parties might be morally not so guilty as the tenor of a code of laws, to them unknown, had made them; or they might have been acting only in a spirit of just retaliation against their foreign spoilers: in no case could the ends of justice have been served by thus judging people according to laws which were not those of their own tribes, and by inflicting a penalty totally disproportioned to the offence committed. Several more Arabs have since been condemned to the hulks, and brought over to France, upon very questionable grounds of criminality. The other case is a much more recent one

habitants of the three latter towns have fled, and every thing has been confiscated. The French do not hold an inch of open ground without having to fire a shot for it every day; and all they do is to seize on the towns, and endeavour to utilize what they do not burn or destroy. The feelings of hatred thus engendered against them, and the total absence of all attempts at conciliation, must have produced a degree of hostility in the law. ful owners of the land, which will not be eradicated perhaps for centuries. There is another point in which the French have behaved with considerable cruelty-without taking into account the different standard of morals from their own which must exist in tribes half civilized, half nomadic; they have at once applied to the natives all the penalties of their severe penal code, and the unfair mode of procedure commonly observed in their criminal courts. The Arab standard of equity and law can hardly, under any supposition, be the same as that of the French; and of French law they must, of course, be almost totally ignorant: it is therefore not a humane mode of acting, to try native offenders by European codes, and subject them to European punishments, totally disproportioned to the relative degree of culpability. Two remarkable cases, to exemplify this, may be quoted. Some years ago, an aged Arab, his son, and one of his daughters, were convicted of theft at an outpost of the French possessions; they were arrested, tried at Algiers, and condemned-the father for life, the children for fixed periods, to hard labour in the convicts' hulks at Toulon. Now, when it is considered in how low a state of morality, as understood among civilized nations, a wild Arab family must be brought up-when it is reflected that the Arab was a man who had been driven out of his native territory by hated invaders, and that these same invaders were now forming themselves into judges, and sentencing him to the most horrible of all European punishments, the humanity, and even the justice of such a proceeding, may very well be questioned. The poor Arab family was brought over to Toulon; the young woman, who was far advanced in pregnancy, was torn away from her husband, and was brought to bed in

that of Ben-Aissa, formerly governor of Constantina under Achmet Bey, and who defended the city bravely against Marshal Valée. He was a tyrant in the real Oriental style, it is true, and had behaved cruelly in his day of power; he had possessed, at the time, the right of coining money, and had abused it; but this was com mon to most of the governors in that province, and was known and tolerated both by the Arabs and Turks. Lately, and after having made his submission to the French, he made a fresh issue of coin for the use of some mountain tribes, and it appears that the coin was not very good. This, in a civilized state, was, no doubt, a case of fraud; but in Africa, where the fraud was known, where the coin would pass for just what it was worth, and no more; and where it could not come into circulation among the French, it was an undue stretch of judicial power to try him for false coining, under not the Arab, but the French law. Tried, however, he was, found guilty, and condemned to the pillory and to the hulks for life. He underwent the pillory, and has since been brought

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