238 SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MINISTRY. coërcion bills are bound to be prepared with some- ALL the world is interested in the probable change of ministry in England. The weakness, incapacity, and insincerity of the whigs has been Some have accounted for Sir Robert Peel's perso often demonstrated, that our only hope of good from them, is as instruments in the hands of Sirtinacity by the presumption that he chooses the Robert Peel. Whether in office or out, this emi- Coercion-bill as the measure upon which to go out nent English reformer will probably control, if he of office." We cannot see a shadow of probability "choice" on the part of Peel, but many against do not even direct, the course of public affairs. It in such a conjecture-not a motive for such a it. It would be palpably impolitic for him to rewere desirable that he should direct, with full tire with even the appearance of attempting a power, the progress of the necessary changes. His and eminent ability, amount to great-measure hostile to Ireland. His Coercion-bill was vast sense, ness. We copy from the Spectator of 13 June. only part, and we think the bad part, of a scheme The Corn-bill is Sir Robert Peel's special mission; to carry that he returned to office; to that he gave precedence in the work of the session;proach him with imitating the whigs in consenting that bill the protectionists obstructed by every to retain office on sufferance. All these persons expedient; and thus they delayed the Coercion- forget his explicit declaration, that he would rebill which stood behind. They would have had main in office until the fate of the Corn-bill should Sir Robert prove his "earnestness" by pushing be settled, and that being placed in a minority on forward the Irish measure, no doubt, because that another measure should not make him abandon his would have effected their object of stopping the Corn-bill. The Corn-bill, however, is urged forward; and so they take their revenge on the other bill-and on Peel. The revenge only seems to succeed. Peel will not be beaten. Throughout this trying struggle, but most especially in the latter stages, his command of temper has been wonderful. It is a wise self-control. It not only saves those exasperations of which one of his best colleagues is so recklessly lavish, but is a severe test of his capacity It lays in a stock for commanding circumstances. of popularity proportionate to the intensity of the present annoyance; attests his personal sacrifices, and the sincerity with which he obeys the dictates of conscience and patriotic policy; and it proves his power to conquer obstacles-even the obstacles that he might suffer from his own naturally imperious temper. The Coercion-bill cannot pass. Why then should There may be several the minister persevere? reasons, but one is evident enough to give it up would be to relinquish the government of Ireland, before the fulness of time for resigning the official seals. Other ministers, who have not been recently placed in a state of antagonism with Irish agitators, may abstain from urging such a measure; but Sir Robert Peel cannot abandon it now. main enterprise. It is nearly achieved. Respecting his intentions we know nothing; but our belief is, that when his peculiar mission is accomplished he will lay down the power which he retains solely for the accomplishment of that mission; and will then leave the government of Ireland, with the rest, to that better management which the whigs seem to think they can extemporize. PEEL OUT OF OFFICE. TRIUMPHANT revenge for the country party! still more triumph for the place-hunters expectant, and all the enemies whatsoever of Robert Peel! The Corn Bill is safe-even the venerable John Gladstone declares it to be virtually carried-but its author is sacrificed. The corn-laws are abolished, but so is Peel. No doubt, some of the more politic tories look beyond, and, not withdrawing all their trust in the ablest man on their side of the house, hope better things of him in opposition than in office: they think that he will return to the old position which he sustained in the decade ending with 1841, controlling the whigswhen he revised all that they did, exercised a veto, frustrated so many of their projects, and allowed a minimum to be done upon sufferance. In that way a" Reform Ministry" was converted into a great obstruction to reform; and the tories would gladly see a return of that day. Liberals used to prescribe continued endurance of the whigs to keep out the tories: the tories have learned that the whigs may serve the purpose of keeping out Peel; while they expect that Peel, out of office, will revert to his old policy of nullifying whig measures. Nor do those who are to succeed him altogether relish the task before them of governing Ireland. They begin to anticipate reproaches, by affecting that Peel hands over the country in a worse state than he found it. Nonsense: he found sedition, and sedition is quelled. The existing social disorder is the old perpetual disease. They say that Who has one? "Don't you wish you may get it?" The he has "no policy" for Ireland. what policy has yet been enunciated by any? It is phrase is not classical, but the question is apt. If indeed the first time that a bill for the coercion of you are squeamish you may take it in the poetic Ireland will have been refused by the British parlia-form-"The wish was father to the thought.' ment; which is an important fact, and may prove The speculators make a grievous omission; they to be the first premonitory sign of some better pol-forget what has happened since Sir Robert Peel The bill is was last in opposition. icy to be yet evolved. We hope so. part of the old repertoire of Irish legislation, and means very little had it been enacted, it would have made no substantial difference in the state of the country-it is but a shadow of the past; but its omission is an innovation, and means much as the sign of a new spirit. Those, however, who refuse Once in office, the whigs can only hold it on the tenure of reform-they must be a reforming ministry. They can only exist on the strength of outdoing the minister who has outdone them. Many things which were not expected of the neophyte will be demanded of the professing veterans, as arrears long over due. They, therefore, cannot | is growing old-fashioned; and-most fatal characrepeat the old passive policy of mere occupancy teristic of all!-unsuccessful. It is unlikely that for fear of worse. the tories should gain at the next general election, or even hold their ground. On the contrary, we incline to think that in many places, liberals and Peel-conservatives will coalesce to return their respective candidates in pairs; a kind of vote-splitting which will, for the first time, not neutralize but strengthen the representation of many places for all questions of present importance. So far, then, as Sir Robert Peel's section of the house is concerned, the next election, however brought about, is likely to augment his strength. Under these totally new circumstances, his polHe will Nor can Sir Robert Peel take up his old ground. It was, perhaps, a sense of this which made him hint, two or three months back, that in going out of office he should not necessarily go into "opposition." His position as a statesman is quite altered. Before, he was the ablest man of a party-the party resisting that advancement which the whigs professed to desire. It was the administrative and legislative incapacity of the whigs which provoked his chief hostility: to the principles of their policy he at more than one remarkable juncture signified his adhesion. But he was the principal antagonist icy out of office must be totally new. of the whigs, and out of all measure the ablest; again perhaps exercise a controlling power over as such, their enemies chose him for leader. In the whigs in office; but a control in the sense of office, with matured intellect and experience, he compelling them to advance real measures, not has seen the necessity of carrying out in deeds that shams "for rejection," and of making those measpolicy which before lurked in parenthetical admis-ures practical-good-real steps forward. And sions; and he has passed the severest commentary that he will be well able to do. He will in all on his predecessors by doing more in their policy likelihood be the leader of a party sufficiently nuthan they did themselves. From being the leader merous and influential to hold the balance between of a clique he has become the leader of a nation. whigs and tories; sufficiently tried in practical He has undertaken the function of representing reforms to assay those put forth by the whigs; the national mind; and thus reflecting the popular and sufficiently in earnest, should the whigs faldisposition, he is as popular as the looking-glass. ter, to take the work out of their hands. Were there a national poll for the office of prime minister, the man returned would be Robert Peel. There must be something rotten in the thing called DISTINGUISHED PUFFERS.-People are very natParty which can force from office the very man urally surprised at the zeal and amiability manifestwhom the country would choose, at the very heighted by several nobles of the land in coming forward of his popularity and power. But though ejected to testify to the merits of quacks, chemists, and from office, he will not be ejected from power. corn-cutters. Old Warren, of blacking celebrity, His own abilities are as great as ever. His inhe- used to avow that he kept a poet. George Robins rent strength was never so free, never so perfectly is believed to have for some time retained the at his own command; since he is quite emanci- services of a novelist, who, by his magic descrippated from party trammels. In that respect his tions, turned patches of grass into paddocks. But position is without precedent. His alliances are in the present day it would seem that puffing has broken; he takes up new ground, without obliga- become more ambitious; and no advertising estabtions, without restraints, except the necessities in-lishment can be considered complete without a volved in his newly-acquired popularity. nobleman. As to the corn-cutters, they have on He goes out of office attended by his chosen band their side so many members of the peerage, that of conservatives, properly so called-the picked they could carry the corn question of themmen of the party which he formed, which has been selves, while the proprietor of some pill or ointdissolved, and which has now deposited its essen-ment has got so completely into the good graces tial element around the nucleus that he furnishes of the Earl of Aldborough, that his lordship seems in his own person. Those men are not mere ser- to pass his time in taking pills, and writing puffs vile followers, swearing by Peel as an idol: they about them for the newspapers. are, like himself, men brought up among tories, who have undergone the same process of deliberate conversion that has altered him: they are so many lesser Peels-a class of whom he is the type, and therefore the leader. These men include among their number the most able, intelligent, and influential of those who now sit on the right hand of the speaker: nor are their mere numbers contemptible. As the aristocracy have latterly devoted themselves a good deal to this branch of utility, we think an advertisement like the following would be productive of much good to the proprietors of quack medicines : WANTED, by the proprietor of a new pill, an earl who is willing to be cured of every disease, and to notify the fact of his restoration to health in the public newspapers. A gouty marquis will be liberally treated with; and dukes with corns or bunions may enter into an arrangement, either by the week, month, or season. There is a vacancy for a consumptive countess; or any lady of title having three or four daughters who are willing to take pulmonic wafers, and sign testimonials, may hear of a desirable offer. Persons signing the tes timonials without taking the wafers, will be allowed the price of the latter in soap, or any other fancy article of perfumery. There is sometimes a talk of "an appeal to the people." By what channel? how do you reach "the people" in order to make the appeal? Not through the constituencies, surely; for they represent the people imperfectly. But even that limited appeal, and even too if made by the whigs, would not seem likely to alter the classification of parties very materially. There would now be three parties joining issue in the appeal-the whigs, the tories, and the proper conservatives; the two latter being separated into distinct parties by the N. B.-No Irish earl need apply, as no person tory desertion of Peel. The election might per- of this description will on any account be treated haps somewhat increase the numbers of the whigs, with. A few barristers wanted for the new voice being in office. Spite against Peel would onst lozenges, and an engagement is open to any magissome few of his adherents in favor of tories. But trate who is willing to recommend the portable on the whole, toryism is manifestly declining; it luncheon in his official capacity.-Punch. 240 ALGERIA. [Mr. Walsh's Letter to the National Intelligencer.] PARIS, June 12, 1846. "It was at the moment of this critical resolution that the deplorable catastrophe took place. The deira did not feel itself strong enough to guard the prisoners, and was unwilling to set them at liberty; it therefore put them to death." 66 Count Pelet de la Lozere, a moderate, sensible peer, severely blamed the government for refusing as much gento pursue a negotiation with Abd-el-Kader. Mr. Guizot contended that there was erosity and humanity practised by Marshal Bugeaud and the army as was compatible with the nature of the war and its objects." He continued "Marshal Bugeaud says what he thinks thus: with a truly military roughness-avec une rudesse vraiment militaire; but he is always patriotic, humane, equitable, generous; he has rendered great services by his perseverance, skill, and courage; I acknowledge again that he sometimes expresses his sentiments and the core of his ideas rather crudely, blurtingly." This eulogium resembled that which Mr. Guizot pronounced in the other chamber on Narvaez, the Spanish hero of the sabre. Some peers intimated that Bugeaud's bulletins and razzias seemed to be forgotten; and they went back to the excesses of the French troops in Spain as one of the causes of the miscarriage of Napoleon's invasion. In the chamber of deputies, yesterday afternoon, the minister was summoned anew to explain why he had not entertained the Emir's proposition for "he believed that Marshal Bugeaud was an exchange: he gave an explanation of identical purport: convinced of the inutility of listening to the overtures, and he, Mr. Guizot, implicitly adopted that opinion." This adoption he proclaimed, because he had been charged with the design of casting the blame of the catastrophe on Bugeaud. The But it is not easy to admit organ of Mr. Thiers repeats the accusation of perfidy to the marshal. that either believed the Arab overture a feint-a scheme merely to impress the tribes with the notion that their chief was treating on equal terms with the French Sultan. It was natural, every As Ireland is "the great difficulty" of the British government, the enterprise in Africa is that of the French, and of all the French political parties. But Hibernia is an integral portion of the British home empire; cannot be abandoned; may not be conquered; will not quail or crouch. The difficulty must prove in the end less manageable, more dangerous, for England, than the case of Algeria for France. Of the latter, let me write in some detail. It has deeply occupied and sorely puzzled the chambers since the beginning of the month. The legitimists cry for perseverance, because the reduction of Algiers was affected under the Bourbons; the radicals, relishing war and conquest wheresoever, do the same; the other divisions of the opposition would not-with the exception of a few bold, frank, and independent members-absolutely recoil, but they entertain a variety and contrariety of plans of occupation, warfare, and internal administration of affairs; the king has his family field and his personal policy in Algeria; the cabinet subscribe to his feelings and views; and, besides, the French stake in that region has become so considerable that it seems necessary or inevitable to play the game out desperately on the broadest scale. No one can define Algeria; not yet conquest-not colony-not an organized community; the government is supposed to wish for a viceroyalty; on the other hand, it is said, "there must not be a viceroyalty; only a second France, organized, governed, administered like In the chamber of peers, the first, our own. on the 3d instant, the massacre of the three hundred French prisoners (not yet ascertained) was the subject of a call on the minister of foreign affairs. It had transpired that Abd-el-Kader had offered to negotiate for an exchange, there being a multitude of Arab prisoners in France. Mr. Guizot answered: "If the government did not accept these over-way politic, for Abd-el-Kader to wish to release tures it was because they concealed a snare, as the Emir wanted to have proposals made to him by France for the purpose of having the advantage of rejecting them. Such had been the firm conviction of Marshal Bugeaud, and such was the recommendation he had transmitted to government. 'This is not serious,' said he,' the intention is to deceive the Arab tribes.' The government would have been altogether unreasonable to desire to impose its wishes on M. Bugeaud, and all the principal officers, on the spot. But the noble peer was quite wrong in supposing that therefore nothing was done. The government did in fact employ all the means in its power to come to their aid. An attempt was made to surprise the deira, but it failed; and a negotiation was opened with the Emperor of Morocco on the subject. The government said to him, French prisoners are in your territory; this cannot be permitted; get them Once before prisoners had been given back to us.' restored in that way. The negotiations were going on actively of late, and other means of a secret character were employed." The deira is the head-quarters-the personal camp-of the Emir. The camp conceived alarm when it learned that the emperor might act against it; it resolved, from necessity, to break up and disperse; and Mr. Guizot, without adverting to French precedents, added: some hundreds of his old followers, by ridding Some of the Paris journals have not hestitated to inquire whether there be not extenuation or, indeed, warrant, for the assumed orders of Abd-el Kader, in the French razzias and butcheries; and they have even translated the articles in the affirnative of several of the London organs. The fol"We do not wish to be considered as for one lowing paragraph of the Chronicle is of the number: moment justifying or even palliating the conduct of Abd-el-Kader; but it may well be asked if the and that the lie was reported confidently on the French themselves are not in some measure to minister. In the chamber of deputies, on the 8th blame? Were they not the first to begin a war instant, the question of Algeria-for which thirof extermination? Does Abd-el-Kader do any-teen or fourteen speakers were inscribed at the thing now but follow the example which he re- desk of the secretaries-was regularly and solceived from his Christian conquerors? It is im- emnly undertaken. The minister of war opened possible not to recur on such an occasion to the it in an elaborate exposition, couleur de rose, for dreadful tragedy acted in the same country last the present and the future, though differently tinged year. The conduct of Colonel Pelissier, who in the past. He argued that there could be no smothered the eight hundred wretched Arabs in limitation to the enterprise of conquest; results the caves of Dahra, was probably not more justi- sanctioned the system of war hitherto practised. fied by necessity than that of Abd-el-Kader is now. The Emir could not now fix himself anywhere; he Indeed, it is possible that a stronger case of urgent could only appear in some place or other, and then necessity could be made out in favor of the Arab vanish. The tribes saw that he was a fugitive; chief than in that of the French colonel; for it ap- those of the west, who had emigrated, were returnpears Abd-el-Kader was under the necessity of ing submissively. "If," continued the minister, breaking up his deira, and, as he could not carry you intimate surprise that he still exists, I can his prisoners along with him, he was obliged either answer that it is very easy for an intelligent, dauntto destroy them or set them at liberty; whereas less chief, who has a part of the population on his Colonel Pelissier, who was pressed by no imme- side, to elude or outstrip all pursuit for a certain diate danger, could have forced the whole of his period. I took part, for six years, in our war in victims to surrender by two days' blockade. We, Spain with Mina, and in a province not larger however, can do nothing but condemn the conduct than one of our departments. Never were we of both parties; but, as the French government able, with twenty or twenty-five thousand troops, has, with the approbation of the nation, rewarded the best of Europe, I do not say to seize and hold Colonel Pelissier by advancing him to the rank of him, but even to overtake and fight him; and what general, we cannot see how they can now attach may seem more extraordinary, he had infantry much blame to the Emir, or consider the affair as alone, and constantly moved in the plains. Ere anything but the natural consequence of the sys- long Abd-el-Kader will cease to be a formidable tem of war in which they are engaged." enemy; he cannot finally prevail or escape." A nondescript Paris paper, the Courrier Francaise, of no ordinary shrewdness and candor in most of its editorial columns, cited the strictures of the London Globe, which fall heavily on the French, and then said: 66 66 cut off; thirty or forty of our soldiers might have perished. For my part, however respectful and sincere my sympathies with philanthropy, viewed in the highest and broadest aspect, the love of human kind, the love of the greatest number, I still say, I frankly acknowledge that the lives of thirty or forty French soldiers will always be for me more precious than that of the enemies of France, were they five hundred-were they even Arabs." A new deputy, a conservative, Mr. Abraham Dubois, entered, with abundant oratorical and party preparation, into a vindication of the scheme of the most comprehensive dominion and destructive hostilities. He essayed to exculpate entirely "It is painful to us to have to quote such a the stifling and combustion of the Arabs in the judgment, but is there not some truth in the re- grottoes. When, at Austerlitz, Napoleon caused, marks of the English journalist? Are we not by a storm of bullets, the ice of the lake to give guilty of having over excited, by the abominable way, on which twelve thousand Russians were flyaffair of the grotto of the Dahra, the ferocious in- ing after defeat, all of whom were quickly drowned, stincts of our savage adversaries? Have not we, what voice, what philanthropic cry was then a civilized people, given to our barbarian adversa- raised? What history has taxed the conqueror of ries the example of barbarianism? We suffocated Austerlitz with barbarity? The French column an entire tribe, composed of one thousand individ-in Algeria could not leave the Arabs behind them uals, and, in return, three hundred of our prisoners in the grottoes; their rear would have been harare butchered. When will cease this odious sys-assed; the sick and the laggards would have been tem, which produces such reprisals? When will the chiefs of our army of Africa comprehend that their mission is to subdue the population of that country, and not to sweep it from the face of the earth? We know that these systematic butcheries are deeply repugnant to our army. It is repugnant to our soldiers to have to perform the functions of executioners. This sanguinary system is the system of one man. Are we wrong, then, in demanding his recall? Are we wrong in demanding that the command of our army in Africa shall be taken This strain did not seem acceptable to the Chamfrom a man who is a dishonor to our civilization? ber, though, yesterday afternoon, Mr. Mauguin, France has lost men enough and millions enough of the opposition held this language: "Gentlein Africa by the fault of M. Bugeaud, without risk-men, an English sailor, when mutilated by Spaning there the loss of her reputation for generosity ish cruisers, exclaimed, 'I leave my soul to God, and humanity." and my revenge to my country.' No time was In his speech of yesterday afternoon Mr. Guizot lost for vengeance: war followed-a war proobserved: "I have seen, I think, in the newspa-foundly politic and judicious, if you look to its repers somewhere, that one of our generals in mote results. Well, in our case, here, it is not Africa had asked for forces (to attack the deira) one soul-one revenge-we have to deal with; which were refused him. That is not true. We three hundred souls have been bequeathed to God examined, I repeat, whether it were not possible to deliver the unfortunate prisoners by force." The Courrier this morning mentions that Mr. Guizot saw the statement in its page; that General Lamoriciere had asked four hundred horse to enable him to make the attempt; this could be proved, three hundred revenges are bequeathed to the country." The memory of the ears of Captain Jenkins had no better effect on the Chamber. Mr. Abraham Dubois was rebuked by his sucessor in the tribune; the latter cited as an instance of kindred obduracy the language of a recent disserta tion or inquiry. "By what signs do we discover that a particular race is doomed to destruction by a decree of Providence?" The author's theory is, that there is a constant substitution of races, with constant improvement. All the inferior were disappearing before the superior; the Mexicans, Caraibs, Red Skins; so the Arabs and Moors, like the American Indians, had their sentence of gradual supplantation and extinction; this was the true harmony and progress of the rational creation. Real philanthropy would teach the extermination of savage or irreclaimable races; the stagnant waters must be drawn off the marsh, to introduce the living and the productive. able to dispense with daily human exertion: without real government, there was nothing good; Algeria was the weightiest of French concerns; yet it was surrendered to chance. The ministerial press in Paris assailed Bugeaud and his plans; the marshal's press in Algeria retaliated on the cabinet; personal interests had on both sides supreme and constant sway. He could not help inferring that Marshal Bugeaud was kept abroad to save the ministry from the mischief he might do them at home; hence the panegyrics in the chambers, and the fanciful pictures of Algerian prosperity exhibited by the head of the war department. M. de Givré, a master of his subject, illustrating Mr. de Tocqueville followed with a comprehen- the rapacity and improvidence of the civil adminissive and able discourse in favor of colonization and tration in Algeria, related these circumstances. civil government, and against the Bugeaud dicta- There existed a great number of religious (Mostorship and devastation. This strikes me as, on lem) foundations with considerable endowments the whole, his best parliamentary effort. It seems of domain; the proceeds of which, by the express the most poignant, practical, and complete; abound- direction of the donors, were to be applied to works ing in material facts and cogent in all forms of rea- of piety or charity. The French authorities took soning. He especially exposed the arbitrary and possession and diverted the whole to their personal anarchical character of the domestic government expenses. This was shocking enough to Arab reof the entire territory, the ignorance of the home ligious sentiment. Later, all the property of the administration respecting the real transactions foundations-the whole of the establishments-was there, and the constant discordance between the confiscated, and roundly, unceremoniously merged Algerian authorities and functionaries, civil and in the French public domain. The natives, whemilitary, and the cabinet and the department of ther friendly or hostile, were alike the prey of all war in Paris. During the five years Marshal Bu- sorts of knavery, design, and spoliation, in which the geaud had passed in Algeria, he spent only two in public functionaries and agents shared. A mighty the capital, Algiers: in his absence, confusion, African Company was organized in Paris, and expeculation, oppression reigned without obstacle or pected to contract for Algeria, by means of influstint. The marshal wanted no civil administra- ence in the chambers and ministerial bureaus. It tion, no merely civil settlements; he acted accord- was a scheme of jobbing and rapine. Mr. de Giing to his own views, indifferent to those of the vré deemed the main question entirely maritime ministry or chambers. It was computed that the and Mediterranean; he rejoiced in the enlargeEuropean colonists were a hundred thousand. In ment and defences of the port of Algiers; in the fact, there was no agricultural population. Of the event of a war with Great Britain he would not few villages erected, half the inhabitants were fear for the African coast; steam and the multiplidead, the other half in extreme wretchedness.cation of secondary foreign navies in the MediterAbout the one hundred thousand soldiers, "with ranean would place France in equal circumstances. their wants and passions," you found, of course, all sorts of adventurers, traffickers, and settlers. These made no settlement-proved nothing. He (Mr. de T.) felt shame for his country when he read the publications of the Swiss colonization societies, warning their people against emigration to Algeria, where they would find only misery or death. "Go rather to the wildest parts of North America, to the almost barbarous communities of the south." For the truth of these statements he could vouch from personal observation; he appealed to the like knowledge and candor of several deputies, recent observers of the same scenes. The idea of a juxtaposition of European settlers and Arab tribes under the common sway and legislation of France, was utterly chimerical; the more they became acquainted with the aborigines or natives the clearer this truth. The race was distinct from all on whom the British and the Dutch had and were acting in the east; a hundred thousand perfect troops as pioneers of European civilization -an unprecedented case-might seem a decisive advantage; but for that even, the essential indestructible traits of the Arab would prove more than a match. In France, a certain number of rich and powerful families regarded Algeria as the Bastile was viewed by the noblesse and court before the revolution; they contrived to get their intractable or dissolute young men sent to Algeria with public functions. He desired a special department or ministry for that region; there was no institution whatever, with such inherent efficacy, as to be "If England should go to Algiers, why, we can go to London; there is now a bridge between Calais and Dover; we can command two hundred and fifty leagues of African coast. The British maintain their consul-general at Algiers, and without your exequatur; he is a diplomatic as well as a commercial functionary; you are not recognized; in the British official almanacs the old denomination of the Barbary Powers is retained. Algeria is not designated under the head' France,' as are the dependencies of all the other powers under that of each. We understand, and we must be prepared. Algeria is our only field: Asia is divided between England and Russia; America shuts us out; you may protest, but you cannot prevail; conquest in Europe is out of the question. Providence has allotted to us Africa on the Mediterranean." One of the manliest and strongest addresses I have in memory is that of M. de Tracy, son of the celebrated political metaphysician. He laid bare, in all its deformity and hopelessness, the Algerian enterprise. He had been connected, from the outset, with the question in the chamber and the committees. After him, and Lamartine, the next day, every Frenchman might have exclaimed, "Now we have only to examine how we can extricate ourselves from this awful scrape." M. de Tracy would not admit the sort of fatality which some pleaded-as the British do for the extension of their empire in India—that necessitated acquiescence in the constantly progressive sacrifices |