* * * * * The next letter, and many others following it, from M. Barthelemy St.-Hilaire, refer to the action of France in regard to Tunis, as to which there was a strong feeling in England both then and since. France, it may be admitted, had grievances; whether she would have taken the steps she did for their settlement if the English Government had been stronger in its foreign policy may very well be doubted. For many years, almost since the first establishment of the French in Algeria, there had been differences between France and Tunis, over which the French pretended a protectorate which neither Tunis nor Constantinople would allow. There had been also many commercial difficulties--some honest, some dishonest; but what led to the acute stage which these difficulties and differences assumed in 1881 was the purchase, in 1880, by the Societe Marseillaise, for 100,000 L, of a large tract of land known as the Enfida--subject, it had been stipulated, 'to the provisions of the local law.' But the purchase was no sooner publicly declared than its legality was disputed; a Maltese--therefore an English subject--named Levy claiming that by the local law he had a right of pre-emption and was prepared to buy. This right the French Government denied, and alleged that the intending purchasers were really Italians--private or official--Levy being only a man of straw put forward to strengthen their case by the English name. Lord Granville, the then Foreign Secretary, instructed the English Consul at Tunis that it was an affair of Tunis law, and that he was not to interfere beyond seeing that the English subject got what the law entitled him to. The French Government, however--of which M. St.-Hilaire was the exponent--refused to be bound by Tunis law, and on May 1st landed 10,000 soldiers, and took military possession of Tunis, disclaiming all idea of being at war with Tunis, but being obliged--they said--to defend and maintain their just rights. They were neither going to annex Tunis nor to rebuild Carthage. * * * * * _From M. B. St.-Hilaire_