of the most respectable London journals in reference to the Algerine expedition, except the similar tone, which journals of the same political class are prone to employ in speaking of the United States.

The simple truth is, that England has imbibed a strange idea, that no power is ever to extend its possessions excepting herself. From the moment the expedition to Algiers began to be talked of, the English periodicals displayed a fidgety anxiety on the subject, that would have been ludicrous, but for the unfair spirit, and false principles and views, which it betrayed. Every obstacle to the success of the war, all the storms of the African coast,the impracticable nature of the country, the amazing strength of the city of Algiers, with dark forebodings as to the fate of the forlorn Frenchmen, who were about to leave their homes to perish amid the deserts of Barbary, such were the constant topics of the English newspapers. And of course, they said, France would not presume to think of making a permanent conquest; she would not dare without the approbation of England; and England would never consent that her rival should make any territorial acquisitions. Perhaps, if Charles X had continued in power, he might not have presumed or dared to enjoy the advantages, which a righteous cause and the fortunes of war had placed in his hands. But times are now changed; and France, probably, would no more hear to any remonstrances of England on the subject of Algiers, than if King William should propose to reclaim all that Henry of Monmouth gained, or his son lost, in the heart of France itself. England manifested the same weakness or nervous irritability in regard to our acquisition of the Floridas; but we have abided the murmurings of her journalists, with as little

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scathe as they have inflicted on the French in regard to Algiers.*

We, as Americans, can easily see that not only France herself is to derive advantage from her retaining possession of the whole territory of the Regency, and colonizing it as a French settlement, but Northern Africa may hail it as the dawn of her restoration to the advantages of civilization, and the world in general have a right to view it as an auspicious event. It may excite the commercial jealousy of England, who is not particularly unwilling to have the monopoly of all foreign markets, and the exclusive privilege of establishing colonies, factories, and military posts along the coasts of Europe and Asia, Africa and America. But for that very consideration it is important to us and to all other commercial nations that France should extend her commerce and strengthen her marine, in order that England may never again recover that overwhelming maritime ascendancy, which, previous to the last war, encouraged her to such extraordinary abuse of power in the oppression of neutral nations. those, who remember the nautical history of England for the last forty years, and who have observed the great increase and prosperous condition of the French military marine at the present

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*The Foreign Quarterly Review! speaks of this point in terms of commendable candor. If,' says that journal, 'the colonial aggrandisement of one nation were to be held as furnishing others with any just ground of complaint or interposition, in what situation would Great Britain be placed by the recognition of such a doctrine? Having added empire to empire and kingdom to kingdom, until a hundred and fifty millions of men have submitted to her sway in different quarters of the globe, is it for this country to maintain that colonial aggrandisement affords any just title to one nation for complaining or of interfering with the affairs of another ?Fr. Q. Rev. v. ix, p. 174.

time, this will appear to be no unimportant aspect of the subject. And the advantage, which all mankind are to derive from the seas being forever cleared of the lawless Barbary cruisers, is too evident to require illustration or proof.

But as to Africa, so long given up to the dominion of roving savages, for what better are the wild Arabs? so long known to us only as the officina servorum for all nations, so long debarred of the blessings of Christianity and of its handmaiden civilization, what may not Africa reasonably expect from the establishment of an extensive French colony upon her Mediterranean shore? She may look, in the first place, to see the renovation of a portion of the agricultural wealth, the population, and the commerce of ancient Mauritania. And when the Numidians have been tamed by the authority of France, the interior of Africa will become accessible to the researches of intelligence and the progress of improvement. Hitherto the exertions of beneficence have been directed to the western shores of Africa; and those exertions have been imperfectly successful under the burning skies of the line, along a shore fatal to Europeans, by reason of the qual ities of its climate, and among hostile tribes brutified by the effects of the slave trade. A broad cordon of malignant influences, drawn out along this unhappy coast, has obstructed the efforts of humanity. But place a European people in Barbary, and circumstances change. France will have the power, from this vantage ground, to push the innumerable benefits of European refinement into the heart of Africa. She will have the power, and should have the inclination, to do all this; but whether she has the inclination or not, if she retains Algiers, the mere indirect influence of her presence cannot fail to be serviceable. Consid

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erations, therefore, of the highest nature, exhort her by all means to make good her footing in Algiers, even if it were not for her own great and immediate advantage.

And judging according to all the ordinary rules of human action, it is not to be presumed that France will voluntarily relinquish her hold on a conquest fairly acquired, and which it is for the general good of mankind she should retain, when the strongest inducements of her own individual interest are in unison with every thing but the hypocondriacal apprehensions of England. Here is a rich and fertile territory, within three days' sail of Marseilles, fitted to produce all those vegatable treasures, which render the West Indies such a mine of wealth. France has been gradually stripped of one colony after another, until a few settlements in America are nearly all she retains. England has robbed her of her colonial possessions in the Indian seas, and of the Canadas. She was compelled to sell Louisiana to us as the only means of rescuing it from a like fate. Hayti slipped off her authority during one of the fever fits of the Revolution. In Algiers she may found a colony calculated in some measure to indemnify her for her manifold losses of this description. And the arrangements begun by General Bourmont, and continued by his successors, General Clausel and the Duc de Rovigo, all point to the permanent possession of the country. The Dey was conveyed to Italy in a French ship, and the Turkish troops were also removed; the tributary chiefs and local governors formerly subject to the Dey were notified that the French had assumed the entire authority of their late master; and courts of justice, with all the other incidents of regular government, were established in due form, analagous to the practice of the British in

Hindostan. General Clausel having discovered a refractory disposition in the Bey of Titery, a valuable dependency of Algiers situated in the interior of the country at the foot of Mount Atlas, very speedily brought the Turk to reason by despatching against him a body of French troops, who took possession of his capital, and sent him prisoner to France. Everything, in fine, has indicated the intention of the government to consult the wishes of the whole nation, in the disposition to be made of their new conquest in Africa.

CHAPTER III.

Consequences of the Fall of Algiers.-Ministerial Arrangements.-State of Parties.-The Ordinances.-Their Effect. -Protest of Journalists.-State of the Question.--Protest of the Deputies.-Police Arrangements.

Intelligence of the capture of Algiers was conveyed to Toulon in about sixty hours by a steamboat, and thence by the line of telegraphs to Paris, where it arrived on the 9th of July. The King immediately ordered Te Deum to be celebrated throughout France, and he himself attended the service in the cathedral church of Notre Dame. A kind of vertiginous madness appears to have seized on the King, the Dauphin, and the Ministers, from that hour. Elated with extravagant feelings of triumph, they deemed themselves sure of the same easy victory over the people, that they had achieved over the flying Bedouins of the desert. An absurd confidence in the support of the army, an almost insane audacity of