Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 399, January 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The hoary-headed hero of Isly is not the man to make the exertion,
or set the example. At the beginning of 1847, rumours of a projected
inroad amongst the Kabyles caused uneasiness and dissatisfaction
in Algeria, when such a movement was highly unpopular, as likely
to lead to a long and expensive war. The "Commission of Credits,"
a board appointed by the French Chamber for the particular
investigation and regulation of Algerine affairs, applied to the
minister of war to know if the rumours were well founded. The
minister confessed they were; adding, however, that the expedition
would be quite peaceable; but at the same time laying before the
commission letters from Bugeaud, "expressing regret that force of
arms was not to be resorted to more than was absolutely necessary,
the submission of the aborigines being never certain _until powder
had spoken_." The marshal evidently "felt like fighting." The
Commission protested; the minister rebuked them, bidding them mind
their credits, and not meddle with the royal prerogative. Thus
unjustly snubbed--for they certainly were minding their credits,
by opposing increase of expenditure--the Commission were mute, one
of the members merely observing, by way of a last shot, that it
was easier to refuse to listen than to reply satisfactorily. In
France, public opinion, the Chamber of Deputies, and Marshal Soult,
had, on various occasions, declared against attacking the Kabyles.
"Nevertheless, a proclamation was issued by Marshal Bugeaud to
the inhabitants of the Kabylie, to warn them that the French army
was upon the point of entering their territory, 'to cleanse it of
those adventurers who there preached the war against France.' The
proclamation then went on to state, that the marshal had no desire
to fight with them, or to devastate their property; but that, if
there were amongst them any who wished for war, they would find
him ready to accept it." If a hard-favoured stranger, armed with a
horsewhip, walked uninvited into M. Bugeaud's private residence,
loudly proclaiming he would thrash nobody unless provoked, the
marshal would be likely to resist the intrusion. The Kabyles,
doubtless, thought his advance into their territory an equally
unjustifiable proceeding. As to the pretext of "the adventurers who
preached war," it was unfounded and ridiculous. Such propagandists
have never been listened to in Kabylia. "The voice of the Emir
Abd-el-Kader himself," says the Colonist, "would not obtain a
hearing. Did he not go in person, in 1839, when preparing to break
his treaty of peace with us, and preach the holy war? Did he not
traverse the valley of the Souman, from one end to the other,
to recruit combatants? And what did he obtain from the Kabyles?
Hospitality for a few days, coupled with the formal invitation to
evacuate the country as soon as possible. Did he succeed better
when he lately again tried to raise Kabylia against us?" Mr Borrer
confirms this. Marshal Bugeaud himself had said in the Chamber of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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