An extraordinary official project was brought forward on Thursday in
the French Chamber. The French do not settle in Algeria fast enough, and the Government accordingly desires to settle there some 25,000 vine-growers, who have been ruined by the phylloxera. To effect this purpose, it asks for 50,000,000f., and proposes to take away a quantity of land from Arab pro- prietors, and give it to French settlers, either without compen- sation, or with a very low one. M. Term an, the Governor of Algeria, specially stated in the debate that no Arab would be "entirely expropriated," and that the value of the land remain- ing to each proprietor would be so enhanced that he would gain, not lose by the scheme. M. Picard, too, who resisted the Bill, based his argument on the necessity of respecting Arab pro- perty, which he clearly believed was being taken away. If it is remembered that the Algerians own and value their estates just as Englishmen do, that they detest the near neigh- bourhood of the colonists, and that their agriculture is quite as good as that of Frenchmen on a new soil, the nature of this pro- posal will be understood. And then the French are shocked because their Arab subjects break into rebellion, whenever they nee a chance I
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