In 1751 Admiral Keppel and Consul-General Gordon signed a fresh convention with the Bey on behalf of George II., but the Bey rejected our proposals for the cession of Tabarca. During the civil war which ensued between the sons of Ali Pacha in the following year, the whole city was given up to pillage, and the French Consul and merchants were obliged to defend their _fonduck_ or residence against the attacks of the populace during several days. The internal dissensions culminated in the death of Ali Pacha and his son in the month of August 1756, and in the subsequent accession of Muhamed Bey, the eldest son of Heussein Ben Ali, who entered Tunis at the head of an Algerian army. On the 2d September the French Consulate was pillaged by the allies of the new Bey, and M. De Sulauze, the Consul, and his subordinates escaped with difficulty over the terraces of the houses to the British Consulate. Muhamed was succeeded in 1759 by his brother Ali. The British frigate “Windsor” arrived at Goletta in 1762 with an envoy to announce the accession of George III., but the mission nearly ended in an open rupture; Mr. Cleveland declined to kiss the Bey’s hand, and objected to his suite having to leave their shoes at the entrance of the audience chamber. The dispute terminated in a compromise. The Bey excused Mr. Cleveland from the former ceremony, on condition that he brought a number of officers to duly perform it, and obviated all difficulty as to the shoes by receiving the English Mission in a kiosque adjoining the palace. An exchange of presents, as well as a ratification of former conventions, took place. In 1764 M. De Saizieu, the newly appointed French agent, achieved a notable diplomatic success.[28] Venetian and French ships-of-war arrived almost simultaneously at Goletta. The Bey intended to treat both alike, but M. De Saizieu succeeded in forcing the Venetian captain to be content with a salute of seven guns, to kiss the Bey’s hand and to take off his shoes, whereas the French commander got two guns more and was absolved from all kind of humiliating ceremonial. But this satisfactory state of affairs did not last long, and in 1770 France was once more at war with the Bey of Tunis. The immediate cause of hostilities was a refusal on the part of the Bey to liberate Corsican slaves on that island becoming a French possession. An Arab historian, El Haj Hamouda Ben Abd el Aziz, has left in his “Kitab-el-bacha” a graphic account of the circumstances which attended this expedition.[29] The Knights of St. John sent two of their ships to assist the French fleet. Bizerta, Susa, and Porto-Farina had been already bombarded, when a Turkish envoy happened to arrive at Goletta in order to procure the services of a Tunisian contingent to assist the Sultan in his struggle with Russia. “The Turkish agent,” says M. Rousseau, “sought the commander of the French squadron, and did not endeavour to conceal the fact that this war would greatly displease the