• BOOKS.
TUNIS, PAST AND PRESENT.* .
THERE was ample room for a good book about Tunis, and there can be no doubt that Mr. Broadley was the man to write it. Not only was he the Correspondent of the Times during the late war, but he had facilities for personal observation which do not always fall to the lot even of- Times' correspondents ; and he had also access to the archives of the British Consulate at Tunis, from which he has been able to gather much trustworthy material for that portion of his task which dealt with events occurring previously to his residence in the country. For these two handsome, well illustrated, and carefully-written volumes, we render Mr. Broadley the thanks he so well deserves ; and even such complaints as we have to make may possibly be, to some extent, unreasonable, as the sum and substance of them simply is that in this account of Tunis we have rather too much of a good thing. The author's principal object has, of course, been, as he says, "to tell the story of recent events in Tunis "- that is, of the events of which he was an actual spectator—and for this purpose it was clearly necessary to give some record of the diplomatic wrangles, lasting during many years, which led up to these events. But for Mr. Broadley's purpose, it surely was not necessary to traverse twelve centuries, and begin his record A.D. 670, in which. year Okba Ben Naft5 el Febri founded the city of Kairwtin. We do not doubt that an adequate history of Tunis would be full of interest and value, but for such a history Mr. Broadley had not space, as it would probably have filled the whole of his two volumes ; and we are . provided instead with what may be called a Liebig's extract of history,—a mere record of events, the relations and the signifi- cance of which are alike unexplained. As a condensed state- ment of facts of the kind valued by the compilers of examination papers, some of Mr. Broadley's earlier. pages are admirable ; but by the general reader whose assimilative power is only of the average order they will be found terribly indigestible, and if he have not acquired the happy knack of "skipping," • Tunis, Past and Present, with a Narrative of the French Conquest of the Ttegenoy. By A. 31. Broadley. Edinburgh sad London: William Blackwood Alld Sons. he is only too likely to be thoroughly wearied, before reaching the chapters in which the treatment gains fullness and interest.
It is at the ninth chapter of the first volume, which treats of Tunis between 1800 and 1837, that serious and careful perusal becomes necessary for a full comprehension of the antecedents and significance of "the last Punic War." In the year 1830, a treaty between France and Tunis was executed, the most im- portant clause in which was the cession to France of a con- spicuous spot on the sit4of the Carthaginian citadel avowedly for the erection of a memorial chapel in honour of Louis IX., afterwards, however, fortified and made a strong military posi- tion. In this year the published annals of the Regency cease, and Mr. Broadley finds in the voluminous records of the British Consulate-General the materials for the history of the most interesting period with which his narrative deals. As it will be impossible to follow in detail the story of the tortuous diplomacy which preceded the downfall of the Regency, we quote the few sentences in which Mr. Broadley summarises the main features of the story. He writes :— "The situation between 1830 and 1880 can be summed up in a few words. France had already begun to cast a longing eye on the Regency. The Beys of Tunis knew it, and in the recesses of their hearts hated France and Frenchmen accordingly. At the same time, they dreaded complete absorption in the Ottoman Empire, but clung with childish affection to the quasi-independence of their vassalship. England, perfectly aware of the maritime and strategic importance of the country, constantly held the balance between the Porte and France, and time after time prevented by prompt diplomatic action the much-dreaded extinction of the Tunisian Regency. At last, a. time came when Prince Bismarck said to M. Waddington at Berlin, 'Why do you not go to Carthage ?' France was not long in taking the hint, and as the old veto of England was wanting, Carthage was taken, and Tunis was absorbed in Algeria. The tale of this taking is the immediate subject of this book; the diplomacy which post- poned that taking for fifty years is the essential feature of Tunisian history during the past half-century."
There is no doubt that this is a broadly truthful view of the period, but a severely literal critic might object that the taking in question was not postponed by any diplomacy at all ; that, on the contrary, France really had the game in her own hands from the first ; and that, to change the figure, she was only waiting until the fruit should be ripe, to shake it down from the tree. The story of the pretext which served as a justification, or rather excuse, for the final act of annexation is a curiously exact modern duplicate of the fable of the wolf and the lamb, in which, diligent students' of .sop will remember, the lamb was made responsible for the alleged offences of some unknown relatives. The Tunisian representatives of these relatives were the Khamirs, an Arab tribe inhabiting the neighbourhood of the frontier of Tunis and Algeria. The frontier itself is well defined by a line of hills run- ning southward from Tabarca, and the Arabs on the eastern slope of the range were subjects of the Bey of Tunis, while those on the western side owed allegiance to the French Republic. "Arabs will be Arabs," would be a good Oriental equivalent for our English saying, "Boys will be boys," and it is certain that these frontier tribes were not eminently respectable. " really cannot say," wrote M. Panariello, an impartial witness, "which of the two gives the most trouble. ' The Algerian Arabs are generally the thieves, and the Tunisian the receivers ; they remain good friends as long as they are robbing third parties, and only quarrel when it comes to a division of the spoil." The next sentence is, however, the most significant. "These border squabbles," continues M. Panariello, "have occurred over and over again any time these thirty years, and nobody cared about them, until it was convenient to do so." Indeed, as Mr. Broadley suggests, though the Tunisian Arabs had doubtless been sometimes the aggressors, there were scores of recorded cases in which the Algerians had wantonly violated Tunisian territory, and yet "the Bey of Tunis never thought of invading Algeria for the protection of his frontier, any more than France could justify the occupation of Belgium by a case of cattle- lifting having occasioned loss to some French subjects on the confines of that kingdom."
France, however, determined to utilise the Khamfrs, and M. Roustan went to work in a most business-like way, his first act being to "set in motion a purely legendary coterie styling itself the French colony. Before the outbreak of' hostilities, there were not more than a score of French residents of position and respectability in Tunis ; and yet throughout all the recent events, the utterances of half-a-dozen individuals, headed by the deputy or representative, have been treated in Europe as if they ex- pressed the wishes, ideas, and political feelings of some large and influential body of men, having a peculiar knowledge of the diffieulties of the situation, and the largest, if not the only stake in the future of the country." Towards the end of March, 1881, these Tunisian prototypes of the three tailors of Tooley Street presented M. Roustan with a silver cup and an address. In most cases of this kind, the complimentary document is a mere accompaniment to the gift; but in this case the gift was clearly a mere pretext for the document, which was nothing but a sweeping indictment of the conduct of the Bey, with regard to the supposed misdeeds of the frontier tribes. The accusations contained in this manifesto were promptly and conclusively answered by the Bey, in a letter addressed to M. Roustan; but just then, events seemed to range themselves on the side of the French diplomatist. On March 30th, some dis- turbance of the usual kind, though of what precise nature has never been known, occurred on the borders of Khamir- land ; and while M. Roustan was setting his wits to work to see what way this disturbance could best be utilised, it happened that Colonel Flatters fell a victim to a real massacre, far away in the Sahara. It was a fortunate coincidence.
Nothing could be easier to manage than that the two events should be hopelessly confused; and news from Tunis was so skilfully manipulated, that even in the best informed English newspapers Colonel Flatters and the Khanairs were bracketed
together under the common head of "Horrible Outrages," and Europe was persuaded that the honour of France and the safety of her subjects demanded some kind of interference in Tunis. The French Government at once decided to chastise the KhamIrs on Tunisian soil; but, though. Tunis was to be invaded by a French army, M. Saint Hilaire assured. the representatives of foreign Powers at Paris that "the independence of the Bey and the integrity of his territory were not in any way threatened," —a statement which, being made with a full knowledge of the
fact that M. Roustan had already tried to frighten the Bey into the acceptance of a Protectorate, reflects little credit on M. Saint Hilaire's diplomatic honesty.
France had, of course, long since made up her mind to "go to Carthage," and the endeavours of the Bey to put off the evil day were manifestly hopeless from the first. As soon as he heard of the Khamir disturbances, he took measures for their suppression; but there was really little to suppress, and the tribes were not merely willing, but even eager to declare their submission to the Bey's authority. In a letter addressed to M.. Roustan, dated April 9th, the Bey wrote :—
"In the affair now engaging oar attention, we have, hitherto seen only petty incidents customary with border tribes, and frequently belonging to the same state. Immediately on learning the existence of troubles in the direction of our frontiers, we hastened to send to the spot a commissioner, accompanied by a troop of horse. From the reports addressed to us by that delegate, we became certain that tranquillity prevails in that direction, and that those tribes are uneasy rather as to their own safety, owing to the military movements•on French territory, of which they fancy themselves the object. However this may be, the troops we have just sent, and who will soon be followed by others, are more than sufficient to maintain permanent order and tranquillity."
This was an absolutely accurate description of the situation ; but when the lamb argues with the wolf, other factors than those of pure logic enter into the discussion, and before the end of May the French occupation had become an accOmplished fact.
The story of the events which preceded that occupation is,
perhaps, of greater interest than the other portions of Mr. Broadley's work, and certainly contains the greatest amount of new information. The account of the war, to which nearly the whole of the second volume is devoted, seems to us unnecessarily elaborate ;• but the description of the holy city of Kairwttn, with its sacred shrine, which Mr. Broadlety was the first European to visit, is exceedingly interesting. The work, as a whole, is a valuable contribution to recent history, though we cannot but
think that it would have gained by being compressed into a single volume.
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