Here all published annals of the Regency cease, but the voluminous records of the British Consulate-General afford an easy means of continuing them. The period I am about to speak of is undoubtedly one of the most interesting epochs in its history, and I regret I am able only to refer briefly to the most important events. The situation between 1830 and 1880 can be summed up in a few words. France had already begun to cast a longing eye on the Regency. The Beys of Tunis knew it, and in the recesses of their heart hated France and Frenchmen accordingly. At the same time they dreaded complete absorption in the Ottoman Empire, but clung with childish affection to the quasi-independence of their vassalship. England, perfectly aware of the maritime and strategic importance of the country, constantly held the balance between the Porte and France, and time after time prevented by prompt diplomatic action the much-dreaded extinction of the Tunisian Regency. At last a time came when Prince Bismarck said to M. Waddington at Berlin, “Why do you not go to Carthage?” France was not long in taking the hint; and as the old veto of England was wanting, Carthage was taken and Tunis absorbed in Algeria. The tale of this taking is the immediate subject of this book; the diplomacy which postponed that taking for fifty years is the essential feature of Tunisian history during the past half-century. As a study of political tactics, I have found it so interesting, that I regret being able to devote only a few pages to it. In 1831 the Chargé d’Affaires, M. Lesseps, in the name of France, offered to intrust to the Bey’s brothers the Beylical governments of Constantine and Oran. His proposition was gladly accepted, and a large tribute agreed to. Tunisian troops had been already despatched to Oran when the news arrived that the French Government had repudiated the arrangement. A temporary arrangement was afterwards suggested, but the Bey rejected it and claimed a large sum he alleged having given to M. Lesseps to “bind the bargain.” Two years later, Sir Thomas Reade (British Consul-General from 1824) supported a complaint of his Sardinian colleague that the Bey had caused sixty of his Italian servants to receive each 150 strokes of the bastinado for “delaying the preparation of his supper.”