[56] Taking the average according to the population for England to be financially in as flourishing a condition as Algiers at the time of its capture, the Treasury (not the Bank) should contain £50,000,000.
[57] “L’Angleterre n’avait elle pas échoué devant Alger peu d’années avant notre succès.”—La France en Afrique—Published under the auspices of M. Guizot.
[58] Avowed by the Duc de Rovigo, at once Minister of War and Commander of the expedition, in the letter he published after the fall of Charles X.
[59] His sister could not speak Latin, and he was ashamed of her Breber tongue.
[60] “Some of our contemporaries have described in vivid language, the danger to the balance of power, of the French possessions extended along the northern coast of Africa in such a manner as to give France the command of that important part of the shores of the Mediterranean; but we hope that the alarm which exists on this subject will not cause the advantages which the civilized world might reap from the Algerine expedition to be altogether abandoned. It will be a common disgrace to Christendom, if the splendid expedition which has now sailed for Africa is obliged, after giving a temporary check to the insolence of the pirates, to leave that quarter of the world to barbarism, because the powers of Europe are all envious of the prosperity of one another. * * * If the French expedition succeeds, the formation of establishments on the coast of Africa under the guarantee of the great Powers, to which all Europeans should have a right to resort, but with such privileges secured to France as would repay her the expense of the conquest, might not be impossible. At any rate, we are convinced that the present French government, whatever its defects may be, is not grasping or dishonest, and that a just arrangement for securing to Europe collectively the benefit of the civilization of the north of Africa, if not rendered impracticable by the jealousies of other governments, will not be obstructed by the ambition of France.
“We confess that, considering the length of time, &c., we had rather see such a colony established in Africa, without any precaution on the part of the other European Powers, than to see Algiers, if once conquered, again abandoned to its barbarous rulers.”—Globe, May 20th, 1830.
[61] This idea has presented itself within the last few years, and prompted our present precautionary measures.
[62] The Allies remitted to France 100,000,000 as the price of the removal of Talleyrand from the Foreign Office, he having been the originator of the Quadruple Treaty, secret but defensive, of England, France, Austria, and Sweden, against the two aggressive and military governments of the North. Napoleon, on his return from Elba, found the treaty and sent it to St. Petersburg. Genz subsequently published it. It is the epitome of Europe in the 19th century.
CHAPTER VII.
CEUTA.—BOMBARDMENT OF TANGIER.
Turning the corner of a street, I saw a Moor walking familiarly along, as if he were quite at home. I was just as much surprised as if I had seen a wolf sauntering in the midst of a sheep-fold, or a sheep in the midst of a flock of wolves. I saluted him, and he replied in pure Castilian. I found it was the Imaum of a community of—I suppose I must call them—Saracens, who having been settled at Oran when it was under the Spanish government had, on the abandonment of that place, fifty-two years ago, been transferred to Ceuta. He proposed to me to come in the evening and take tea with his wife and daughters. He conducted me into a meson corral, that is, a court or enclosure, which may be described either as the centre of one house or as a court common to several. This was the quarter of the Moors, who amounted to five families. They have all a small pension from the government, and the men are in the military service. He led me into his own house, which was a strange mixture of Africa and Europe, but orderly and clean to fastidiousness. The women were in Spanish dresses, with head and neck bare.