“‘The régime changes,’ says George Canning, speaking of France, ‘but the hereditary character of the French people never alters.’ The French are Chauvinists now as they were under Henry IV., Louis XIV., Charles X., Louis Philippe, and the Napoleons, who, to blind the English, invented as it suited them that now exploded fiction, ‘L’Empire c’est la paix.’ Let us glance for a moment at Protocol XIII. ‘of the Conference held at Vienna, April 26th, 1855.’ “Prince Gortschakoff: ‘A territorial stipulation being once guaranteed, should we not extend it to the most distant points, _as, for instance, in the case of Tunis_, and make a _casus belli_ of all attacks on the outlying portions of the Empire?’ “M. Drouyn de Lhuys: ‘I would point out that France not only promises to respect the independence and integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but has engaged to cause the principle to be respected by others; as far as I am concerned, _I see no difficulty in extending to that country (Tunis) the operation of the Treaty_ I am ready to subscribe.’ “The Baron de Bourquenet: ‘I am of entirely the same opinion as M. Drouyn de Lhuys.’ “This Protocol was communicated by Her Majesty’s Government to the Houses of Parliament on the 10th May 1855. It bears the signatures of the Plenipotentiaries of France, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and the Baron de Bourquenet, as well as those of M. le Comte Buol Schauenstein, Baron Prokesch-Osten, Lord Westmorland, M. de Titoff, Prince Gortschakoff, Aali Pasha, and Aarif Effendi. “By this international convention it is evident that France actually confirmed the obligations which she had already entered into by her adhesion to the Treaty of London in 1841—obligations which, in the eyes of every honest man in Europe, were solemnly ratified afterwards at Paris and Berlin. “It results, therefore, that the admission of Sir Charles Dilke, as to the recognition by Europe of the Tunisian Firman of 1871, is actually based on great international engagements; but it merely confirmed a state of things existing _ab antiquo_. Is there any record of a Bey of Tunis _not_ being invested by the Sultan? Did the Sultan obtain from his Tunisian vassal a contingent of 15,000 men during the war of 1854?