[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIn,—The Spectator of March
10th reached my bedside, here on a Moroccan beach, when my temperature registered some- thing well over 100, and fever was very materially affecting my mental outlook. Possibly this, my parlous condition, tinged with its morbidness your article headed "The Cloud in North Africa." Be that as it may, the clinical thermometer certifies to-day that I am a normal, if a somewhat thread- paper, person; my eyes (free, I assure you, from feverish hallucination) inform me that, so far as unadorned fact be concerned, no single cloudlet obscures the flawless azure which roofs this particular portion of North Africa ; my reason, recollection, and judgment (new purged, mark you, by Nature's chief laundryman) combine in urging me pub- licly to question, by your courtesy, the applicability of your article and its deductions to one considerable slice, at all events, of Mahommedan Africa,—Morocco. That The Senoussi is something of a power in Tunis, or, more cer- tainly, in the Hinterland of Tunis, I have no wish to deny, though I think it were easy to exaggerate in writing of his "sphere of influence" there. But, speaking broadly, the only point in your article from which I desire to express emphatic dissent is the suggestion, clearly con- veyed, that the worshipful gentleman's sway is a thing felt and responded to throughout Northern Africa; in El Maghrib, the Shareef-ruled West, as well as in Zouave- patrolled Algeria. (French overlording is to a Moslem as a tin-kettle bound to its tail to a harassed cur.) The Senoussi has been heard of in Morocco. Oh yes; par- ticularly among well-posted Europeans here. The same might have been said of the Mandi ; whilst, natheless, there was small cause at any time to fear that his disciples would put all Northern Africa "in flame," whatever he might do in the Soudan. " The destruction of the Mandi has, it is believed, at once irritated and relieved him, while bringing a large accession of force to his standard by the extinction of all religious authority in Africa other than his own." That, from a truth-seeker's point of view, is the weakest sentence in your very interesting article. "All religious authority in Africa other than his own "! What becomes of Mahommed's lineal descendant, 'Abd el 'Aziz IV., who by Allah's grace occupies the Shareefian throne at Marrakeesh city P What of the Wazzani Shareefs, who at present use French pro- tection, whose last ruling head married an Englishwoman, and who now, as a clan, dominate entirely one countryside and draw tribute from the whole of North Africa? The Shareefs of Tafilet, Tlemcen, and the Sus ; the warriors of Sheshawan and er-Riff,—these and the many hard-fighting tribes of the foot-hills of the Atlas reek little, believe me, of any Senoussi or Mandi, and never will (here is my point) until, unless, one of these inspired gentry can march victorious with his following from Algiers to Cape Juby, laying waste a five-hundred-mile-wide belt as he goes. Then, and not till then, the survivors in Morocco would en- roll themselves under The Senoussi's banners. In Algiers and Tunis the natives have their Gallic conquerors to reckon with, to rebel against. In Morocco, so far, that is not the case. And the name of the purely Moorish and fanatical leaders of religion in this nominally independent realm of 'Abd el 'Aziz, it is legion. The most pushing and live in- fluence in Morocco just now is French ; the most important event of the near future is next month's Spanish mission to the Sultan, the ultimate upshot of which (if the Sultan's advisers chance to be liberally inclined at the time) might
even spell European war, and war in which Britain, to guard her Mediterranean interests, would have to oppose two first- rate Powers in affiance. Through the medium of Mr. C. Arthur Pearson's forthcoming new paper, I trust to be able to give your readers and others more definite information on these matters next month. Meantime, The Senoussi,—he may be worth a little thought and scheming in Paris, but for us who be British, I think not.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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