“If the French were to take forcible possession of the regency, other nations might protest, and Mussulmans might massacre and plunder. The seizure could be made and the country held. Difficulties would, however, naturally arise in regulating many complicated affairs while encountering the hatred of Mussulmans and the ill-will of Europeans. In view of all the facts in this case France decides to await the progress of events. Her experience in Algeria and in Mexico probably serves as a warning. Her legitimate influence as a powerful neighbour of the Bey is great, and she has but to persist in the maintenance of apparently friendly relations, and seize every petty occasion to assert her presumed authority, to secure present advantages and a final triumph. “I am, then, persuaded that this country will at length come under the acknowledged protection and control of France, if not with the consent and approbation of other nations, probably without violent opposition. Such at least is the manifest tendency of affairs at the present time, notwithstanding a species of statecraft employed to produce a counter result. The malady is too deeply seated to be overcome by empirics in the name of diplomacy. The Gallic eagle, already scenting the prey, prepares to clutch it, despite the lion’s growl and all the shrieks and howls that may be raised as he enjoys his repast.” W. _A Foreign Diplomatist’s Note on Tunis._ The following _mémoire_ was sent to Lord De la Warr by a foreign diplomatist last May. It affords very valuable aid to the serious study of the Tunisian Question, if the reader has not already made up his mind, that political conventions and diplomatic assurances are not altogether subservient to the doctrine of expediency:— “The jesuitical language employed by certain portions of the Russian and Austrian Press on the subject of the aggressive policy of France in the Mediterranean is the more remarkable, and at the same time the more immoral, because it was precisely the diplomatists of Austria and Russia who, at the Congress of Vienna, extorted from the representatives of France a declaration guaranteeing the integrity and independence of the Regency of Tunis. It is superfluous to point out now that the present policy of France, who seems to have entirely deserted the path of peace and honour, menaces the great and vital interests of England, commercially in Europe, and politically in the East. Very patent facts oblige British statesmen now-a-days to remember the traditions of George Canning, who by an energetic policy saved the prestige of his country and the interests of modern civilisation; then, as now, menaced by the struggle for supremacy carried on by a restless Power which is trying by all possible means to subject nations and races to the despotism of a so-called universal Republic.