attained, because my name, by an honour dearly purchased, has become synonymous with the continuation of the French work in Tunisia. Gentlemen, you will permit me to speak of my good name. You are aware that calumnies of all sorts have been employed to damage it; but before you, who have seen me at work during seven years, before you who judge me with full knowledge of the circumstances, I have the right to reassert that this good name has been placed by me sufficiently high to be out of the reach of all the filth that is flung at it. It is necessary that Frenchmen here and elsewhere should know that the agents of the Republic will not abandon the care of the interests of their fellow-countrymen, but will do their duty whatever it may cost them; in a word, that they will have the courage to surmount all their disgust and disregard all calumnies so long as they find themselves surrounded by worthy people like you, who encourage them, and find behind them a just and strong Government which supports them. This extraordinary manifesto at once made M. Gambetta’s fatal mistake apparent to all the world; M. Roustan considered his return a purely personal triumph, and both he and his friends acted accordingly. Not a care was bestowed to the increasingly pressing difficulties of the situation; not an attempt was made to smooth down those international asperities which became every day more frequent, nobody thought of anything else but the best way of paying off old debts as regards M. Roustan’s real or fancied enemies. The news which reached Tunis on the afternoon of the 1st January, that no sooner was General Logerot’s back turned, than the Ouerghama and Ouerdna tribes had again revolted, and that a flying column consisting of 2000 infantry, one battery of artillery, and two squadrons of cavalry, had been sent against them, was almost overlooked amongst the matters of more local interest which now occupied the Residency. Madame Musalli’s brother challenged the lawyer Pelletier to mortal combat; the French Consular Court solemnly disbarred him. Taib Bey’s medical adviser prudently put the Mediterranean between himself and M. Roustan, and Taib Bey himself was selected for signal vengeance. As early as the 5th January his arrest was asked for. His brother hesitated, and to please the French issued a notice that any one talking about the possible arrival of Turkish troops would be punished with the bastinado. The troubles in the south still continued. Ali Ben Hlifa now (January 9) sent a letter to the _Jowaib_ by way of Tripoli in which he stated that thirteen of the Tunisian tribes would take the field in the spring, viz.: the Nefet, Zlass, Mitelit, Sondasen, Ouled Said, Ouled Ayar, Ouled Yacoob, Ouerghama, Ouerdna, and Beni Zid, and that as he could count on 170,000 fighting men, all he wanted from his friends abroad was arms. A sort of visible paralysis seemed now to fall over the French plans in Tunis; nobody appeared to know what would come