On the morning of New Year’s Day the French residents as usual paid their official visit to M. Roustan, who addressed them in the following words:— GENTLEMEN,—I am deeply touched by the expressions of sympathy I have received since yesterday from the French colony, and which you have just renewed. For my part, gentlemen, I was very anxious to see you at the commencement of this year, and to speak to you once again, as I have been in the habit of doing for the last seven years. Each of these seven years which we have spent together has marked a stage in the progress of French policy in Tunis by an increase of our influence in this country. On each of these anniversaries I came before you, you will remember, and spoke to you of the ground already got over, and of what yet remained to be traversed; and I continued my way, strong in your confidence and support, which I am happy to declare have never failed me in decisive hours and moments of crises. Indeed, crises have not been wanting; they have followed each step of our progress. Every step forwards has been greeted by an outcry against the policy which gave, or restored, something to France. I wish to recall to your minds the dates of these attacks; they are those of our successes. They commenced after the concession of the railway, were repeated after its junction with Algeria, were renewed later on, after the concession of the 14th August 1880, and were had recourse to after the success of numerous other French enterprises. You have not forgotten the character of that malevolent policy. After this seventh year, which has marked the last stage, and which has led us to a result which is more complete than we claimed or even desired, I expected that those attacks would be renewed with redoubled vigour. Strong in my own conscience, sure of the support of Government and of yours, I prepared to meet them with the same contempt as on former occasions, without any idea of refusing our adversaries that sad consolation for so many disappointed hopes. But what I was not prepared for, what I could not foresee, was that, at that moment, our foreign adversaries would be joined by adversaries at home, who, more relentless, and, above all, more disloyal than the former, would unblushingly employ calumnies which foreigners in the heat of anger and in the midst of disappointments had shrunk from using. The trial has been severe; you know the result. It has not shaken the confidence which the Government of the Republic had placed in me, neither has it shaken yours, of which I have just received such precious testimony. That is why, surmounting very legitimate repugnance, I have returned to resume my place among you. I am come back, first, as the honest man who has the right and perhaps the duty to present himself again before honest people. I am come back also because my return is a sign of the firm intention of Government to maintain the result