11 OCTOBER 1884, Page 3

The French Government is not making our mistake in Tunis.

Having received from Lord Salisbury a "free hand "in the Prin- cipality, she has made herself completely responsible for its administration. The fiction of a Mahommedan Administration is kept up, and all orders ran in the Bey's name ; but the In- ternational Financial Commission has been abolished, and the control of the Treasury handed over to the French Commissioner. M. Grevy has, at the same time, appointed " Controllers " for each Department, who are, in feet, Ministers, and who, it is officially announced, will be "permanently supervised" by the French Government itself. The Capitulations have been given up, as the Courts are now French, and Tunis is, in fact, governed as a French province. That may not be best for Tunis, but it is government by a responsible and civilised Power, and must be infinitely better for the people than government by an absolute Prince, obeying the irresponsible will of a French Consul-General.