which was actually put into the collection plate and the sum which the General had received, to abruptly inform him that his services were no longer required. MM. Villet and Leblant were unromantic enough to give a more uncharitable and matter-of-fact version of this untoward accident during the Roustan-Rochefort trial, but all historians must agree that its immediate result was to deprive the Bey of the benefit of M. Musalli’s exertions. Within a year of M. Roustan’s arrival, M. Musalli again began to climb the ladder of Tunisian statesmanship, and a new palace soon quickly rose by the side of the one which had been sold under the pressure of the calamities of 1870-71. In May 1866 the Bey transferred a concession he had granted, for a railway along the Medjerdah valley to a French company styling itself the Société des Batignolles. For a while the undertaking seemed to hang fire, but it was suddenly announced that by a law promulgated on the 25th March 1877, the French Government had agreed to guarantee a profit of six per cent. on the total outlay. So unusual a proceeding naturally awakened the suspicions of the Bey, and General Rustem was sent to Constantinople to confer with the Sultan on the political outlook. Then came strained relations between Russia and Turkey, and the beginning of the movement now called Panislamism. One of the Senoussia brotherhood was sent by Abdul Hamid to invite the co-operation of the Sultan of Morocco, in a general union for the defence of Islam, and a scheme was propounded for strengthening the position of Tunis by adding Tripoli to the Regency, and raising the Bey to the position of Khedive. Before anything could be definitely settled, the Turco-Russian war actually broke out. By an extraordinary infatuation Italy joined France in an attempt to persuade the Bey to cast to the winds the firman of 1871. Even while contradicting a report that Italian troops were being assembled at Naples with a view to a possible descent on Tunis, the Italian Consul-General did not conceal from the Bey that unless he was very prudent, Italy might be compelled to “assert her rights over the Regency.”