' The French and Spaniards are rather disturbed by the
news from Morocco. It is evident that the insurgents are winning in all directions, and it is reported from Fez that as a last remedy the Sultan has been dethroned and his brother raised to the throne, the object of the change being to soothe the religious suspicions of the fanatical party. This statement is probably false ; but if any of the different parties defeats the Sultan there will be a recrudescence of fanaticism, which may easily become a movement against foreigners generally. The French, therefore, are accumulating troops upon the frontier, while the Spaniards are trying to conciliate the Pretender by allowing him to collect all the Customs he can reach. So much depends upon the movements of tribes of whom little is known, except that they are armed and hungry for the plunder of the towns, that informants are bewildered ; but there can be little doubt that for the time anarchy is uppermost, and Mequinez, in particular, has been "pillaged." Till the capital revolts all prediction is guess-work, for the Government may buy some of the tribes; but appearances are in favour of a revolution, in which a new Sultan, if not a new dynasty, will ascend the throne. Our direct interest in the matter is confined to Tangier ; but that of Spain is acute, all Spaniards regarding Morocco as their heritage ; while the French have not only to defend, but, if they can, to expand, Algeria. They hope to reign from the Atlantic to Tripoli, if not farther to the East.
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