The meaning of this verdict is clear. The jury believed
that the expedition was made for " financial, " that is, " corrupt," motives, and that M. Rochefort, even if in error as to details, had acted rightly in exposing the transaction. Substantially they gave a just verdict. Nobody doubts that individual greed prompted the expedition, as it did the expedition to Mexico and the French interference in Egypt—a scandal of which we shall yet hear more ; and if M. Roustan's own hands were clean—as seems probable, from the evidence as to his poverty—he should not have patronised agents so hope- lessly corrupt. It is clear, after the verdict, that M. Roustan cannot go back to Tunis; and we trust M. Gambetta will take the opportunity to make a clean sweep of the Residency and its entourage, and appoint some Minister Resident wholly unconnected with recent intrigues, and uninfluenced by the quarrel with Italy, which is in part at the bottom of the affair. Papers were produced in court, and were to have been read, but were not read, which will, it is stated, be pub- lished, and will show that in 1879 the passionate hostility be- tween Italy and France produced by M. Roustan's conduct brought the two countries to the verge of war.
